THE SPARK THAT STARTED THE FIRE

24 Jan 14
Kandahar, AFG

The title of this post could just as appropriately have been “The First Story Behind All These Stories”.  How did someone who grew up in Hixson, TN, and lived their entire life in landlocked locations (Chattanooga, TN; Atlanta, GA; Ft. Rucker, AL; Knoxville, TN) come to the point of buying a sailboat and cruising the Caribbean and beyond? 

Let’s go back 18 or 19 years…..in the spring of 1995 I was selected, i.e., “forced” to go to the AH-1 Cobra Qualification, Instructor Pilot, and Instructor Pilot NVG (Night Vision Goggle) Instructor Pilot courses.  Back to back to back.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I loved getting the chance to go to the WATTS in Marana, AZ (Tucson) for about 2 months in the springtime.  Spring is the most beautiful time in the desert; but, for several reasons, I just didn’t want to go.  It really didn’t matter, I went anyway.  I was my job.   J

In Army aviation, most of the time a “schoolhouse” (Ft. Rucker;  Ft. Indiantown Gap, PA;  WAATS at Marana, AZ) Instructor Pilot was teaching/flying students, he was assigned two of them.  They were “stick buddies” (they took turns at the “stick” or controls opposite the IP).  One would fly for a period (an hour or two) then the other guy would fly the next period.   As it turns out, my stick buddy, from the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, was named Jerry Lee.  A great guy.  Couldn’t ask for a better stick buddy.  

He was a little older than I was, lived in Western Pennsylvania, and LOVED sailing.  He lived near Pittsburg so I don’t think he sailed a lot, but he had learned as a kid and loved it.  He and his family had taken a couple sailing vacations in the Caribbean and he said his whole family enjoyed it more than any other vacations they had taken.  All he talked about was sailing…all he read about was sailing….more specifically, about cruising.  His retirement goal was to circumnavigate the globe on a catamaran.  He had 15 or 20 Cruising World Magazines with him and he was constantly reading about other people cruising the Caribbean and the Pacific on their live-aboard sailboats.  

He was SO fascinated with his dream in life that it was somewhat contagious.  It was only after a couple of weeks that I found myself curious about this “lifestyle” of sailboat cruising.  I started browsing through the magazines to satisfy my curiosity and to cure my boredom (you get sick of studying emergency procedures, aircraft limitations, visual illusions, monocular cues, aerodynamics, aeromedical, etc., etc., after a while). 

It didn’t take long for me to become intrigued by the logs and stories of those cruisers in Cruising World Magazine.  It was a fascinating lifestyle to someone who had always loved the sun and warm weather, and always enjoyed the vacations to Panama City Beach as a kid.  Sailing was a means to an end.  Travel, tropical weather, beaches, snorkeling, fishing, etc., these were the things I could relate to, and had already enjoyed to some extent. 

The more I read, the more interested I became in Jerry’s goal.  We talked a lot about it; it was so real to him he could taste it.  It was still 15 to 20 years away, but it had him hooked.  Hooked bad.  But, this was good for me.  It gave me a chance to pick his brain, learn a little about the dynamics of sailing, and he gave me a few pieces of valuable advice.  He told me to research and learn as much as I could about sailing on the internet; read all the cruising logs and articles about cruising that I could, and to take a vacation to the BVI (British Virgin Islands) chartering a bareboat sailboat.  Bareboat, for my non-nautical friends, means without a crew or skipper.  They rent you the boat for a week or so, and you are the skipper and those with you are the crew. 

So, that’s what I ultimately did.  After a year of internet research, learning everything I could about sailing, we chartered a catamaran and had the time of our lives.  LOVED IT.  HOOKED FOR LIFE.  After that, we went almost every year……. for 10 days, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, and then, the last year we chartered, we went for a whole month. 

Being a pilot helped tremendously in understanding the fundamentals of sailing; being familiar with a compass, time-distance-headings, dead reckoning, aerodynamics (a sail is an airfoil) , operating navigation equipment, etc., gave me a head start.  But, any reasonably intelligent person with a real desire, even without pilot experience, can learn…..if they really want to.  There are lots of stories of people with no sailing experience, becoming interested, learning to sail (or teaching themselves), and buying a boat with the ultimate goal of cruising.

Jerry Lee was the spark that started the cruising fire within me.  We lost touch years ago…..the last time I tried to contact him was 7 years or so ago, and he was deployed to Kosovo.  I need to try to find him and talk…..who knows, maybe he is on that catamaran circumnavigating as I write this.  I hope so.  He deserves it.        

PLANS CHANGE

5 Jan 2014
Somewhere over the Persian Gulf

On the way back from home, over Afghanistan....it looks MUCH better covered in snow.

Well, I am sitting at 38,000 feet over the Persian Gulf on my way back to Kandahar, Afghanistan.  I haven’t slept in 40+ hours and my back is killing me……yes, “I would like a little WHINE to go with my cheese.” LOL.

It has been a while since I made a blog entry….a lot has happened since then.  I had to take emergency leave and go home from Afghanistan to be with my Dad.  I won’t go into all the details, but he is 88 years old and he has had two major stomach surgeries within a week.  I was blessed to be able to spend some time with him, and he did leave the hospital a couple of days ago (the day after I left to go back to AFG).  He needs to gain a bunch of weight and regain his strength in a big way.  Pray with me for his recovery. 

Since this is a sailing blog (even though we aren’t, technically, sailing yet), I will get back to sailing stuff.  Our original plan was for me to come back to the States in February (on a full 30-day break) and take a trip up to Cleveland, see the boat, and sign the acceptance papers.  That ain’t gonna happen now.  The trip to Cleveland part, that is.  I used up half of my earned leave on this trip, so another trip in Feb is out.  I called the broker and told him the situation, and, that based on the survey and Dahleen’s visit to see the boat, we would go ahead and sign the papers now.  SO, having done that, all we lack is paying the balance of the money and closing in mid-May. 

Well, that is not all we lack….I should say that is all we lack until the boat is ours.  We have much to do in June after taking possession.  In the last blog post, I mentioned some of the things that we needed/wanted to do to the boat to make a ‘cruiser’ out of it.  I am currently trying to prioritize those things.....the things we must do before we sail away from Cleveland in June for the Chesapeake, and the things we will be able to do on the yard in Deltaville, VA in November when I get back, and finally the things we will do in Georgetown, SC next December/January timeframe. 

What follows is NOT an all inclusive list and is subject to change, but it is the current plan:

CLEVELAND, OH:

Bimini frame and canvas…..made and installed

Fresh water tanks……thoroughly cleaned and filled

Fuel filter polishing/system installed and fuel polished

Engine raw water pump impellor replaced

Anchor chain (300’) installed

Anchors switched out….our 66# Rocna put on board

Rebuild the outboard carburetor (doing that now in Kandahar)

Put dinghy and outboard on the boat

DELTAVILLE, VA:

Address gelcoat crack in rudder

Sand and redo bottom paint

Install thru-hulls and seacocks for genset and h2o-maker

Tune the standing rigging

GEORGETOWN, SC:

Install genset

Install watermaker

Install radar

Install solar panels

Install wind generator

Install SSB radio

POINTS SOUTH:

Everything else

Anyone who has ever owned a cruising yacht knows that “everything” NEVER gets completed.  But, that’s OK….we know that one of the definitions of cruising is “sailboat maintenance in exotic places”.  Are Cleveland, Deltaville, and Georgetown exotic places?????  I am confused. 

 

  

WOW! SO MUCH TO DO

16 Dec 13
Kandahar, AFG

This warm, sunny weather sure looks inviting.

Wow!  My brain is smoking.  I have been thinking about and planning a schedule for boat maintenance and the installation of all the additional equipment that we will be adding when we take possession in June.  Sometimes it can get mind-boggling…….in addition to being expensive.

Here is a list of things we need/want to install or have installed before we being serious cruising:

bimini top                                                s/s marine grill

diesel marine generator*                        watermaker*

mast mounted radar transmitter              single side band radio*

fax modem for ssb radio                         solar panels atop bimini*

wind generator*                                      false flrs in bilge for storage

additional 110-vlt outlets                         additional 12-vlt outlets

wifi booster/antenna/router                     mattress support/vent

Keeping in mind the above items are just the installations we need to do….this doesn’t count the maintenance things that we have to/need to do prior to pushing off.  *A there are several of the above installations that will take a week to do, so the list is a fairly time consuming one.  (EVERYTHING takes much longer to accomplish than you think it will, especially on a boat……if you think 3 days, add twice that to it.)

I am not by nature a patient person (Dahleen, my wife, can vouch for that).  I WANT to get everything done as quickly (and perfectly) as possible, so we can begin the real adventure of the Bahamas, the Caribbean, and beyond.  We had kinda planned on leaving the Gulf and East Coast of the U.S. for the latter years of our cruising journey when we might need to be closer to home and not able to be doing the off-shore stuff any longer.  So, with that in mind, I had a tentative plan to get as much done as quickly as possible and go to the Bahamas around the first of the year (2015).  After looking at the mounting list of things to do, and after Dahleen pointed out that we don’t really have a deadline, I think we will “go when we get done”.  

We will have the bimini installed in Cleveland before we take the boat to the Chesapeake in June…..we really need it for this 3 plus week-long trip.  Also in June, while enroute to the Chesapeake, I can install the grill and hook up the extra propane tank……and maybe even install the cable and mount for the radar while the mast is down going across the Erie Canal.  I can also replace all the mast mounted lights (anchor light, all around light, deck lights, etc.) with LEDs. 

Once we get to the Chesapeake and put the boat on the hard (out of the water, sitting in a boatyard), I will take care of all the preliminary hole drilling, thru-hull installations, seacock installations, water filter mounting, running hoses, etc., for the genset and the watermaker.  I also have a minor repair to make to the gelcoat on the rudder, and we have to do a complete “bottom job” to get the boat ready for its’ new saltwater environment.  After about a month, we should be ready to launch (splash) from the yard and proceed south to warmer weather….probably to Georgetown or Charleston, SC.  If our friends on Wombat of Sydney are going to be in G’town for the winter, we will go there; if not, we will go to Charleston.  Charleston City Marina is much nicer with lots of things to do and great places to eat, but it’s also more expensive than the Georgetown Marina.  Another positive thing about Charleston vs. Georgetown is……Charleston Harbor is much closer to the ocean than is Georgetown.  It takes us about an hour or more of motoring (up the Pee Dee River?) from the ocean inlet to get to Georgetown vs. about 20 minutes of sailing right into Charleston Harbor.  So, Mike and Lynn are the keys to us choosing Georgetown vs. Charleston.  J

In South Carolina, the plan is to bring the genset and watermaker over from the house in TN and install them there.  We also plan to install the SSB, the solar panels, and the wind generator there.  Mike is a whiz on all things mechanical and he has all these systems on his boat, so I will utilize his expertise if possible.  I am guessing it will take us another month, if all things go as planned.  Once we are through here we will do some family visiting and shove off for Florida.

I think we will spend a week, or so, in the Melbourne area visiting with Dahleen’s parents, and also a friend of mine (Scott) from Afghanistan.  We will continue to move southward, probably going back to the Biscayne Bay/Coconut Grove area for a week, and then either cross to the Bahamas, or travel thru the Keys.

We will have to discuss plans beyond that.  I don’t think we are going to get to spend as much time in the Bahamas (if we even get there) as we want to.  The last time we were there we stayed for 4 months and felt we were rushed.  If that is the case again this time, we may just come back to the East Coast and cruise the Chesapeake and New England states for the summer and try to be back in the Bahamas in late November. 

It’s a lot to think about……and I am sure the “plan” will change multiple times, but so what?  As Dahleen would say, “We have no deadline, right?”

LIVING A LIFE LESS ORDINARY

8 Dec 13
Kandahar, Afghanistan

I think those are reserved for Dahleen and me.

While looking ahead to the next chapter in our lives, I started thinking about how un-ordinary it is for folks to desert their lives on land and live full-time on a boat cruising about the tropics.  While there are more people doing it than you would imagine, it is still definitely the exception, rather than the "norm". 

As I thought about the future, I also reflected on my past....it too is a little un-ordinary.  

• ·      Army commission as a LT at age 25; 
• ·      Army flight school at age 27.5; 
• ·      Flew thousands of hours before retiring with 25 years service; 
• ·      Started a second career as a general contractor;  (I enjoyed it a lot and was more successful than I should have been....timing is everything.);  
• ·      Learned to scuba dive at age 46; 
• ·      Bought a 42' sailboat at age 50 with VERY little sailing experience; 
• ·      Took off across the Atlantic (Gulf Stream) to the Bahamas for 6 months after basically never having sailed out of Charleston Harbor before;
• ·      Started missing flying after, basically, 9 years of not flying and became an EMS pilot flying one of the most fun aircraft in the world (Bell 407); 
• ·      Bought 3 Harleys at age 53 having never ridden a motorcycle before;
• ·      Bought a motorhome and traveled all over the country as a float plot flying EMS;
• ·      Went to Afghanistan at age 56 flying a Huey gunship, working with some really "special" people;
• ·      Just recently bought the next cruising boat, and now counting the days till we push away from the dock to....

LIVE THE LIFE LESS ORDINARY.

P.S.  Almost all of the above un-ordinary events were shared with my wife, Dahleen, who is as adventurous as I am, if not more so.  

                               

                                           

ON A TRUCK, OR ON THE BOTTOM?

4 Dec 13
Kandahar, Afghanistan

Wishing we were back here.

Well, we hit a little snag…nothing major, but…

The estimate for ground transporting the boat was $1500 - $2000, while the QUOTE was $3700 plus loading and unloading charges on both ends (about $5k total).  The worst part is that the transport company quoted us based on a pick up ‘at their convenience’….. meaning, when they have a truck empty in the Cleveland area.  There is no telling when that will be.  The fact that I wanted to be there when the boat is loaded/unloaded makes this a NO-GO.

So, I have spent the last couple of days trying to route plan sailing/motoring from Cleveland (Lake Erie) to Buffalo, NY; then across the Erie Canal to the Hudson; then down the Hudson to New York City Harbor; then offshore in the Atlantic to the Chesapeake, and up to Deltaville, VA.  The best I can estimate is 21 days (+/-) of travel, a couple of days for un-stepping and stepping the mast, a couple of prep days on the front end, and a couple of days on the back end, plus….throw in 3 days for waiting on weather (which is very optimistic).  That makes it 30 days, which will be impossible to do on my 30-day break in June since I really only get about 27 days in the U.S. 

I am going to request a couple of extra weeks off (without pay) to get this done.  It remains to be seen if the company will grant it.  They have for others in the past, but times, “they are a changing”.  This will probably mess up my plans for leaving AFG mid-July ...... if I do get the extra two weeks off, I will be obligated to finish my contract out.  Looking at the big picture, the extra two weeks to move the boat and staying here 3 months longer would be the best thing.  I can still leave AFG mid-October/first-Nov and we can make it to the Bahamas around the first of the year.

We will see what transpires.  Stay tuned……