Live and Learn!

Day 5 June 30, 2011 Pt. Washington, Long Island

Matt has spent the last five days trying to teach these "old dogs" new tricks. Here are some of things we've learned:

*Lou - Matt made Lou practice using paper charts to navigate into Pt. Washington. It was a bit of a struggle to give up the computer navigation system, but he got the hang of it. He also worked on analysing the methods of a project before beginning it. He's really good at boat organization.

*Donna - Matt showed her all the interesting things in the Eldridge Tide Book. The information was interesting, but the tide charts are still a mystery! He also got her to realize that there is a difference between a 2009 and a 2011 Waterway Guide Book. :-( We couldn't find the marina from the '09 book.

*Matt - The old folks are slow; their hearing is GONE; and bad things happen when the rigging tape is missing.

*One thing both Lou and I have noticed is that when Matt sees something that needs to be fixed, he fixes it........RIGHT NOW! That's not our system.......notice that it needs to be fixed, write it down and lose the note, search for supplies, think about it, think about it some more, get around to fixing it.

One thing (among many) that Matt pointed out to us was that we should bring the dinghy up close to the transom when getting ready to do docking/mooring tactics so that the lines don't get caught in the prop. Great idea that we had never considered. So, he drew in the dinghy and discovered that there was no rigging tape on the backstay. The cotter pin punctured a hole in the front of the dinghy. It was a fixable problem (we carry patching kits with us) and he put the rigging tape where it needed to go.

We've had some great sails with Matt After we left the Connecticut River we went to Milford, CT. It was just as cute as it was two years ago. Our next stop was to Northport, Long Island. We dinghied into twn with our pump on board for a walk-about. The boys found the Happy Hour spots, and I got a pedicure. What luxury. Today we're in Pt. Washington to wait out the Fourth of July activities. Matt will be leaving us and Mike and Marlene Cosgrove will be arriving.

It's been great spending a few days with Matt. Thank you Tomeaka for sharing him.

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The Journey Begins

Day 1........Newport, RI June 26,2011

Welcome aboard Matt! This is an unexpected gift from Matt AND Tomeaka. Matt has taken a 6 month leave from his job in the Caymans to race on PowerPlay----a Cayman owned TP 52 race boat. The racing in and near Newport coinsided with us passing by. Tomeaka has "gifted" us with a few days of Matt's helping us move through the Long Island Sound. Lou is thrilled to be on a boat with "his boy" and I'm thrilled to have a knowledgeable sailor aboard. He has found the tools, tweaked the rigging, tightened up some loose fittings, and helped Lou problem solve an issue with the autohelm. That's in the first 2 hours.

Matt's a "going-machine." He raked and tuned the mast and hoisted the main. We were making great head-way and passed port after port. At the end of the day we had covered 55 nm. That's a lot for us old folks on an old boat. It was a beautiful sunny day and the boat was humming.

Day 2 - June 27, 2011

Morning-----very early morning----is such a peaceful time of day. The sun is rising, the wind is quiet, and the water is flat. We started at about 5 am to take advantage of the flood tide. And, we did. We were at a moderate engine speed with no sails, and we were going 8.7 nm. On The Good Ship Tequila that's 30% faster than normal cruising speed. Tides are an awesome thing, but frankly I'll be happy to be back in the land of fresh water and no tides. In 14 hours we have covered about 100 nm. I like having Capt'n Matt on board.

I went to sleep with the sound of father-and-son chatting on the deck. NICE.

2011 The Blog is Back

We just want our "fans" (thank you for following our adventure) to know that the boat is in the water and floating, we're living aboard in 550 square feet, we have no automobile transportation, and we have returned to a very simple life style: Where are we going today? Do we have water in the tanks? How full is the holding tank? I tried to cook dinner the first night aboard only to find that the flame lighter didn't work and we had no matches. So, no hot dinner that night....shrimp salad filled the limited menu.

I always feel a thrill when the boat slips into the water and the straps are slack. She floats! After a winter in dry dock up on jack stands, she looks great in the water. We arrived in Rhode Island in mid-May ready to clean and polish the old girl (she's 27 now) and paint the bottom. It rained and was cold EVERY DAY. Thank heavens we weren't tent camping this year. We did manage all the clean-up projects before going on a little vacation.

Lou decided to bring along a new girl for the beginning of our 2011 adventure. She came with Donna but isn't much of a friend. Her name is SICKNESS. Two doctor visits and a trip to the Newport ER have provided enough drugs to keep us going. It's nothing life threatening----just miserable---sinus, bronchitis, ear infection, burst ear drum, and unstoppable coughing. Of course, we had to share with Lou too. I predict that we will get better.

Our plans are somewhat fluid. Is that a surprise? At this point we plan to be in Newport over the weekend to see Matt and then head for New York City. That involves going through the Long Island Sound, up the East River, and around the tip of Manhattan. We'll be sure to wave at the Statue of Liberty as we glide by.

We did a sea trial today with our broker, Casey. Everything worked on the boat as it was supposed to work. You can see from Casey's face that he loved the way Tequila handled. We had a great sail and skipped back to our mooring just before the rain drops.

So, once I post this blog, we'll go back to the boat and batten down the hatches. Rain in coming.

Fall 2010

Brady is 15 months old already. He is trying to talk and has a lot to say. However, at this point it comes out in screams.

Ryan is our 4 year old grandson who is the "life of the party." He keeps life interesting.

Kyle is 7 years old and in the 1st grade in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. He loves school and playing soccer.
We've recently spent a few beautiful fall days with our favorite grandsons. They had a ball jumping in the leaves, and we had a ball watching them!

Please forgive my mistake. When I edited my blogs in preparation for printing them in a book, I stored them in "draft" form. Now I find out that they have to be resent in order to be printed.

So, you will be receiving all 57 posts from 2009 and 2010. Please use the delete button. You certainly don't have to read them AGAIN. So sorry to bother you.

Hope your fall has been as beautiful as our's in northern Michigan. Keep well and be happy.

Good-bye Summer 2010

We hate to end this summer of sailing from Rhode Island to Maine and back again. It's been a great experience.


Earl (the hurricane) pushed our decision to return to Bristol up by 10 days. We were in Woods Hole, MA, and planning to tour some of the oceanographic places and then head on to Martha's Vineyard with Sharon and Lloyd. The advice of all the "weather experts" at the yacht club was that we should head as far away from that area as possible. So, we made a beeline down to Bristol, RI, and had plenty of time to secure the boat for whatever Earl wanted to throw at us. Fortunately the storm turned and we barely got any rain or wind.

Sharon and Lloyd were in complete agreement........but now they are involved in unloading and putting the boat away. Lucky them. Really, we feel so lucky that they will help us. By the end of Labor Day Weekend we will have readied the boat for winter storage. Then we will go off to Boston to be tourists with them before putting them on a plane to return to Michigan.




Thank you for reading this blog and sharing in our adventure. Next year we will begin the journey back to Michigan, so stay tuned. :-)

Almost the End

Replica of the Mayflower

Lloyd and Sharon

This has been the summer Lou and I have dreamed about.....living aboard, an engine without problems, beautiful days with a few foggy/rainy ones to remind us of the beautiful ones, fabulous friends who have been great boat buddies, and a fun filled week with family on Mt. Desert Island. Maine,(sailing in Pebnobscot Bay was even more wonderful than we imagined.)

Last week we were in the eye of a 4 day nor'easter. That resulted in heavy rains and high winds. When we tried to stop in Marblehead, we were encouraged to move on before the 7 to 11 foot waves started rolling in. We went on to Jim's in North Weymouth and were well protected in the Back Rive. (Thank you Jim!)

Lou and I took this time to get off the boat and be tourists for a few days. We went to Plimouth Plantation and thoroughly enjoyed the actors who played the parts of actual pilgrims. Then, we went aboard the replica of the Mayflower. Oh my gosh! I got a refresher on my history of these settlers. They were English who fled England over the church and lived in Holland for 11 or so years. Life was very difficult in a foreign land, and the men had diffculty finding work. Besides, they wanted their children to remain English. So, they signed an agreement with a group of investors who bought the ship and agreed to feed and cloth the pilgrims in exchange for 7 years of work for The Company. At the end of 7 years each person would be granted 20 acres in the winderness. That was more land than nobles were given in England. So, while the work was extremely hard and the weather severe, people were willing to take this risk for a better life for their family.

Once we toured the Mayflower I realized that the sail across the ocean was even more difficult than I had imagined The exact dimensions of the replica of the merchant ship Mayflower are:

106.5 feet long, 90 foot hull, 25.5 foot beam, and 13 foot draft. There were 102 passengers traveling in the hole for approximately 3 months. I could barely stay down below for 10 minutes. Once they arrived in Plymouth Colony they faced farming in a wilderness, having to grow all their food, untold dangers, and living in 1 room dirt floored mud sided houses. It is unbelieveable to see.

So that's enough history. We've started talking about our "adventure" and I want to write it down so I don't forget:

PEOPLE WE'VE MET:

*Bob and Camille in Bristol, RI, aka the Commodore and his wife. They invited us for dinner, talked about sailing spots, gave us charts, and introduced us to lacrosse.

*Jim Halpin lives on the Back River of the Fore River in North Weymouth, MA, which is near Boston. He arranged for us to use his friend's mooring both on the way to Maine and on the way back to Bristol.

*A perfect stranger we met on Martha's Vineyard who shared stories about the Methodist Camp Meetings and the cute Victorian cottages.

*Another perfect stranger we met at the Boston Yacht Club in Marblehead who was full of stories about where to go and where to stay on our journey up to Maine.

*The lady who Marlene and I talked to in Marblehead who's house was built in the 1600s.

*The barber who cut my hair in Rockland, Maine, who had been cutting hair for 50 years.

*Sarah Rogers who encouraged Lou's new interest in drawing and painting.

*The librarians we met in several of the little ports. In Castine I met the Director of the Library who grew up in Keane Valley, NY, and knew our friend Norm from Colorado.

*Judy who is a waitress in Braintree, MA. She was so interested in our trip that she wanted our blog address and didn't charge us for breakfast.

*Seeing Don and Louise Tuski in Bath, ME. Don was the former President of Olivet College in Olivet, MI. He is the new President of the Maine College of Art in Portland.

OUTSTANDING EXPERIENCES

*Whale watching near Bar Harbor, Maine.

*Seeing and feeling the power of the tides in the East River, NY, and the Kennebec River in Maine.

OUTSTANDING FOOD

*Lobster stew in Tennants Harbor, ME

*Peach Shortcake at the Ebb Tide in Boothbay Harbor, ME

*The Front Room in Portland. We would fly to Portland just to eat there again.

*Kelly's Landing (thank you Cyndi) near N. Weymouth for their twin lobster dinner for $20.

OUR BOAT BUDDIES

*Cyndi McChesney from Colorado. She lived through the "night of the mosquitoes" and was still smiling. She introduced us to Jim!

*Mike and Marlene Cosgrove from East Lansing. Mike learned to helm through a gazillion lobster pots going into S. Freeport and pretty heavy fog going out. Marlene was a handy galley winch who was always happy.

*Dave Himes from Chicago who was living one of his dreams and planning to check it off his bucket list. Dave loved every part of every day.

*Sharon and Lloyd Slinglend from Trenton, MI. They are our old (read that as OLD) friends who met us in Boston. They have sailed with us in the Detroit River long before Tequila was remodeled. One 4th of July we wore every jacket we could find and were still cold. Hopefully this week will be filled with warm suuny days.

Our big thanks to Cyndi and Sharon who each helped us see a whale.

Back to Boston

Lou has found his next "dream boat." While we were in Salem we were able to go aboard this 150 foot Barquentine sailboat. The size of the masts and the lines made our rig appear doll-like. This boat carries 10,000 square feet of sail and a 14 foot draft. Just think that I worry about our 7.5 foot draft. It was a very interesting tour.

We stayed an extra day or two in Salem so that we could do some very touristy things.....ride the trolley, visit some museums, etc. Salem is famous for the witch trials that occurred in the late 1600s, but it's real fame is from the world wide shipping industry. Salem was THE major international port at the time. It's said that the captains could sit in their parlors looking over Salem Harbor to Marblehead where the pirates kept their boats.

We tried to moor in Marblehead to reprovision and take on water, but the harbormaster strongly encouraged us to go back to Salem (only 3 miles away) or continue toward Boston. I'm so glad we opted to continue to North Weymouth (near Boston). We traveled through a rainy day, but the seas were pretty calm and the winds were still light. After we were settled on the mooring that Jim Halpin had secured for us, the winds began to build. We are tucked way back in the Back River of the Fore River off the Hingham Bay, but I honestly was worried that the mooring wouldn'd hold us. It blew HARD and rained all night and continued into Monday. I think Lou and I will just "hunker down" and stay below all day today. Maybe this weather front will pass soon.

We'll be here until Friday when our old friends from Michigan join us for the return trip to Bristol. Sharon and Lloyd are bringing the good weather with them I hope. Otherwise, it could be a repeat of last year when Bill and Karen Murray came and we were in the tail end of a hurricane. Yuck!