Sailing

Slow Down

Slow Down

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Some times the world tells us just what we need to hear. All we have to do is listen.

We decided to move our boat from Palm Cove Marina in Jacksonville Fl, to The Marina at Ortega Landing, also in Jacksonville Fl.

The drive from one to the other is about 30 minutes; by boat it took us nearly 10 hours…

This was the first real trip we made since we bought the boat. We planned to leave by 8am but when we awoke there was a thick fog. Of course, on our first attempt to move our new boat we get fog… After waiting a while to see if it would clear up we set off at 8:50 in fog probably more dense then at 8.

With fog horn in hand we took it slowly…

Along the way we saw a lot of animals. Osiris particularly liked the ones he called Pelican-ins.

By about 10 the fog started to clear up and some dolphins decided to join us for a while, swimming in our bow wake.

Deirdre had a great time watching out for buoys and shouting out their numbers and locations. She made sure we started saying port and starboard instead of left and right…clearly she is the real sailor here.

We kept motoring along past bridges and ship yards, cruise ships, and tug boats; being rocked by the occasional motorboat wake all the way to the Main St. Bridge.

The Main St. Bridge is a lift bridge that was only opening at scheduled times while it was being repaired. This is a very old bridge right in downtown Jacksonville that crosses the St Johns River. It was in desperate need of some maintenance.

As we rounded the corner that blocked our view of the Main St. Bridge we called them on the radio. We knew they would only open at noon and it was a minute until. We asked how long they would be open and let them know our position. The operator called back and suggested that if we hurry we might make it. Jason tried to throttle up but we had already hit hull speed so we weren’t seeing much in the way of increased speed.

This is the view of the Main St. Bridge as it started closing around 12:03. It would be closed for another 4 hours!

With a little bit of time to kill Jason practiced some boat maneuvers until we noticed a dock near the local sports complex. We carefully pulled up to see if we could dock. We couldn’t tell from the boat so we came alongside the dock and tied off. Once on the dock we found out that it was a free dock for 72 hours!

Realizing we had hours to wait and a free dock we decided it would be a great time to make some lunch and have a nap. While Osiris was sleeping we noticed that this dock also had a fire station attached to it complete with fire rescue boats. Once he woke up we told him about fire rescue boats which created a lot of excitement.

We all decided to go and explore the area.

We discovered a statue of an alligator and the kids found a nice hill to run up and down. Unfortunately, they also found an interesting looking dirt pile which turned out to be a fire ant nest… Deirdre kicked it thinking it was just dirt and Osiris immediately stuck his hands in to touch! That was the day we found out how much Florida fire ants bite.

After pulling all of the ants off his hands we decided it was time to head back to the boat. Poor Baby! We let Osiris soak his hands, and play, in some cold water while we pulled the boat off the dock and headed to wait for the bridge. This time we weren’t going to miss it by a second!

Aside from missing the bridge by minutes and the fire ant fiasco, we didn’t really have any other troubles.

We passed a few mega yachts and of course more bridges. Fortunately, these were all easy to get past.

Then we did doughnuts in the parking lot… or rather we spun in circles outside of the marina while Jason moved the fenders from one side of the boat to the other (we had planned to come in on one side only to learn last minute that we needed to come in on the other side), all while keeping an eye on how much water we had under the boat.

Then came the fun part, Pulling a 14 foot wide boat into a 16 foot wide slip without hitting any other boats or the dock! Yikes.

Jason pulled it off like a pro. Several people met us on the dock to help us tie her off.

Finally, as the sun was starting to set we were at our new Marina.

All in all it turned out to be about a 10 hour day to move from one side of the city to the other! It was very stressful to move the boat on our first major journey, but it was also incredibly fun. After all of that stress and fun, Jason had to take an Uber back to the other marina to get our rental car. It only took him about another hour round trip…

We learned a very important lesson about boating life that day; sometimes you just have to slow down and enjoy where you are right now.

Simple Beginnings

Simple Beginnings

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We started off small.

It has been a long time dream of mine to live on a sailboat. I have told Carolyn for as long as I have known her that I wanted to retire on one. Unfortunately, like many dreams, it was not at all thought out. I hadn’t even learned to sail!

One day I decided it was time to take that first step in my long time dream. I went out looking for my first sailboat. Since I didn’t really know a lot about sailboats, I didn’t really know what I was looking for. My requirements were as simple as: can be pulled by my truck, and doesn’t take too much space in the drive way. I searched craigslist for a few days until I came across Blue Horizon.

Blue Horizon was a 14′ Vagabond Fractional Sloop with 100% jib. I didn’t know it at the time but she was a great boat to sail and easy to learn on. She had all of the qualities a sailboat needed to learn the basics. I contacted the seller and negotiated a bit. In the end we agreed that his price was reasonable but I asked that it include instructions on how to use everything.

After about an hour lesson on how to step her mast and bring up her sails, I felt like I could take on the world! I had to take her out as soon as possible (mostly so I didn’t forget how to rig her up). I got her onto our local lake in land locked Colorado and it was amazing. I was immediately in love with this boat and sailing in general.

Throughout my life I have had the opportunity to be on, and be in charge of several boats. In fact my fondest memories are of me handling boats and being on the lake. I recall my first attempt (with help) was driving a 42′ motor yacht in the San Francisco bay. I felt like I could do anything! Despite having been on many boats and loving every minute of it, until I sailed Blue Horizon for the first time, I didn’t know what it really meant to be on the water.

I found that our tiny little sailboat in our tiny little late with incredibly unpredictable wind, was the most calming place I could imagine. When I had wind I would practice my skills. I learned how trim both sails, how to heave-to, and how to control my little boat. It was a rush that I couldn’t find anywhere else. When I was becalmed (most of the time…) I just relaxed and maybe took a nap. It was great!

Thank you Blue Horizon!