All posts by Ryan

Where to find the time to blog?

Uncategorized

Over the past 5 years I’ve been addicted to sailing blogs and voyaging novels thinking when I get the chance to take off myself I will keep up a daily journal and blog for myself and interested folks; hasn’t happened.  Between boat chores & repairs, exploring new locations and researching future destinations I haven’t found the time yet.  Diana has filled in and has written about our latest adventures and hopefully I can get a routine to do the same, but I think learning the guitar might be a better use of time . . .?

So I’ve joined Twitter, never thought I’d think about tweeting, but it’ll give me a chance to update the Blog via Twitter from my phone on a more regular basis just much more succinct.  No time to say much more as we have a 4am departure to Cape May, NJ tomorrow. . . need to hit the bed.

I’m Back

Personalities

Diana required that I do not do any boat chores until noon today so I have some time to write on our neglected blog. It’s been well over a month since my last post and a lot has happened, most of which has been chronicled by Diana, our trip across the country, time spent in Beaufort, passage up to the Chesapeake and a few of the place we’ve been so far. I’ll break this post down into my two most realizations on this trip; 1) there are some really interesting folks out there and 2) boats are a lot of work.

A month in we have met some really interesting folks floating around on the water. In Hampton VA we met Tony and Bente a super sweat retired couple that; have crossed the Atlantic via Iceland on a small single engine plane for their honeymoon, lived aboard their boat for 12 years 3 of which were in Venezuela where they stayed while Bente successfully battled cancer, and get this were professionally and personally close with Carl Sagan (these folks are very smart). After we left Hampton we made our way up to Deltaville, VA a small unincorporated community and met Michael on his very early 1960’s Prout Catamaran. Micheal has been sailing his small catamaran back and forth from the Bahamas to Virginia for over 30 years most of which he has been by himself and now he is in his mid 80’s! If there is anyone who I have ever met that needs to write a memoir he is on the top of my list. His father helped found BP, his childhood was spent in many countries in the East and West, he fought in WWII and then stayed to help keep peace during the founding of Israel, he married the daughter of a US ambassador, moved to the US had 3 kids and found himself to be a young widower. Michael did not bend to the wishes of his family and move back to the UK so his family could help raise the kids he stayed true to his and his wife’s plan to raise the children in the US; two of which are doctors and the other is successful in business. To me this trip can be called a success, just by having the time to have wine with Micheal.

Michael's early Prout, "Wind in the Willows" at anchor in Deltaville, VA

Michael’s early Prout, “Wind in the Willows” at anchor in Deltaville, VA

We also met Sean and Louise in Deltaville, this couple has spent the last 12 years touring the Americas on a converted double decker bus that was designed to be completely grid dependent and were just making the move to water. Their fist boat which was at the marina to have some work done is a 50ft, 100k pound, steel trawler; essentially a small ship. They got some private instruction for sometime and are looking to take off and potentially cross oceans on that single screw boat! Oh and if your in the market for a converted doubledecker bus, let me know I can get you in touch with them! The last folks worth a mention are Ron and Mark, we met these two at the only restaurant in the tiny fishing village of Reedville, VA. Ron just retired from flying F16s in the Airforce and decided he wanted to sail so rather than taking lessons or starting small he bought an early 80’s IOR (International Offshore Rule) boat. For folks not familiar, it would be like buying a not very well maintained early 80’s Lamborghini for your first car; crazy complicated maintenance, out dated impossible to find parts, super scary handling characteristics, but crazy fast once mastered. Mark was hired as a captain to help sail the boat from Norfolk, VA to Baltimore, MD. Mark’s past life was a Navy Salvage diver who then retired to mostly sail boats between the West Coast and Hawaii where he currently lives. These guys estimate it took at least 300 man hours between them just getting the boat seaworthy for the ride up the Chesapeake and once in Baltimore Ron has his hands full with endless more projects! Both super nice and interesting folks who both gave us offers to meet again when in Baltimore or Kona.

Ron and Mark with us at the Tiki Bar in Solomons, MD

Ron and Mark with us at the Tiki Bar in Solomons, MD

Boat work. . . it was thought if we bought a new boat I wouldn’t be burdened with so much maintenance and repair headaches! Well maybe there are fewer tasks, but its hard to tell, because there isn’t anything to relate to as our old boat Frog was much too simple to use as a relative comparison. I thought I’d have time to piter around on small upgrades here and there (water maker, inverter, SSB, etc) but unplanned failures continue to occur which require attention. So far our electronics have been a big headache with intermittent failures of AIS, Wind and GPS all which have magically resolved themselves with no concrete resolution, though I have taken everything apart (maybe loose connections?) Just yesterday the air conditioning condensation pump quit and the generator impeller died with less than 100hrs of use. Countless other gremlins and hiccups have taken a lot of my time so nope, the water maker is not yet installed. Later this week we will be redoing our battery bank increasing our charger size, installing an inverter and much more sophisticated AC and DC monitoring systems; but we’re paying some who knows what their doing while I watch over their shoulder! I shouldn’t be complaining each little hiccup lets me learn a bit more about the boat which is important, I just wish the frequency was less; which should begin to decline as she really hasn’t been put through her paces until now.

All in all it’s been a great trip so far with all the folks we have meet, great little towns we’ve seen and a wonderful sunset almost every night. In the coming weeks I should get more time to study the subjects I’m hoping to and post more on the blog.

Annapolis Sunset

Annapolis Sunset

Chandlery Review: Salty Dog Marine – Norfolk VA

Chandlery Reviews
Expertise:4 Stars (4 / 5)
Selection:4 Stars (4 / 5)
Customer Service:5 Stars (5 / 5)
Value:5 Stars (5 / 5)
Average:4.5 Stars (4.5 / 5)

9557 Shore Drive East Beach Shops, Norfolk,VA 23518    (757) 362-3311

Salty Dog Marine is a small shop within walking distance to the marinas along Little Creek in Norfolk VA.  I just stopped in to see if they had anything that I needed, which is always quite a list and ended up walking out with some nylon line to finish our lifeline netting and a barely used Fortress FX-37 for $200!!

Mike the owner seemed to be very knowledgeable and said that he could get pretty much anything out of the “Evil Empire” (West Marine) catalog in 2 days for much cheaper prices.  I didn’t take him up on his offer, but I have no reason to doubt him.

Stop in and see Mike, I’m sure he has something new or used that is on your list for a good value.  He may be expanding his store now that the nearby West Marine has moved out.

 

I gain inspiration from Ricky. . .

Philosophy

So I will divulge one of my guilty pleasures, one of the shows I have recently enjoyed watching is “Trailer Park Boys”; a mockumentary (like Reno 911) about some not so intelligent guys trying to scrape by on small time crimes in Nova Scotia. This is a pretty lowbrow show with poor acting and even worse editing that was recommended by one of my most intelligent friends; thanks Cynthia!

Before I get into the quality in Ricky that gives me inspiration let me state, I do not condone; crime, drug use, drug cultivation and lastly not being responsible for your own actions.

So why was I laying in a crappy motel room thinking of Ricky? Ricky never lets his current situation get him bummed; he has the great ability to look on the bright side no matter how bad things are, except if his good track pants get ripped then its a downward spiral. Ricky lives in a car that is missing a door, regularly does stints in jail, has a girlfriend that rarely shows any love or respect and is so broke he regularly scavenges for tobacco in old cigarette butts; all this and he generally maintains a positive outlook on the future.

Going forward, no matter how thorough the planning, there will be situations that will be uncomfortable. I need to be careful and not get caught up on the moment of discomfort and remember the purpose of this trip.

Oh and if you have time you want to completely blow, check out “Trailer Park Boys”, you can stream it on Netflix.

The Goodbyes are Over and We’re on Our Way

Planning

 

I haven’t yet determined when the next chapter actually begins; leaving California, leaving Washington or leaving North Carolina. What I do know is that today marks the first day Diana and I are out on our own in uncharted territory.

The last two weeks have been a blur of packing, preparing and most importantly farewells. Emotions have been swinging back and forth between total excitement and a fair amount of sadness. Diana and I had great send offs from work, cake, gifts and many heart felt discussions; we are truly blessed to work with such great folks and find immense comfort knowing that someday we will return. Dinners with friends have been great and happy occasions for the fact that many will be coming out to visit with us in the not so distant future.

The most difficult goodbye has been our neighbor Tom. Diana and I, well mostly me, have developed a very close relationship with our elderly neighbor that lives alone across the street. I’ve grown accustom to coming home, walking across the street and talking to Tom about work, history, family or any other topic; he frequently joins us for dinner and is just a constant presence in the neighborhood. Since Tom does not have a computer, nor does he know how to use the internet I have committed to send him hand written letters and make the occasional phone call. So let me point out the moral of my life lesson; you know that single elderly man or woman in your neighborhood?. . . reach out, you may make one of the most meaningful connections of your life.

Alright, enough of feeling sad; Diana and I drove up to Seattle on Friday, April 12th. We had the truck packed to the gills and towed my old Nissan which made the well used Budget truck work pretty darn hard , it took us 15.5 hours which normally takes close to 12.

After trying to sleep in after a 15+ hour drive we had to unpack the truck and get ready for the entire family to descend on my mother’s house. It was a great Saturday; grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all came by to wish us good luck. The bizarre thing about this gathering was that everyone got along! I’m not sure what was going on with the stars this past week, but the regular family arguments never developed. I also got to reconnect with my cousin Nathan whom I haven’t seen in probably 15 years, that was a lot of fun and I hope to rekindle that relationship.

Sunday was spent watching McKenna mop up the competition at her dirtbike race. I was hoping to see her soar off of jumps, but the race we watched went through the woods and did not have the motocross type jumps I was hoping for. After the award ceremony where she got her 1st place trophy we were able to enjoy special Washington style Mexican food with Shannon, Blake and Amber. . . Sooo good! Where else can you get enchilada sauce and cheddar cheese??

We waited out a few extra days due to crappy weather east of Seattle that allowed us to spend a bit more time with friends and family as well as deal with bank and insurance tasks.

Today’s drive was fairly uneventful. We left my mother’s house in Maple Valley at about 6:20am and got into Bozeman MT at about 6:00pm MDT. The truck ran great, we saw some amazing scenery and just powered through. I think Diana took some cool pictures that I’ll post along with some others from the past few days when I get some more time and energy.

We’re both super excited to be on our way!

It’s not a matter of if, but when

Practices

. . . you’ll run aground. We’ve run aground a few times in very low risk situations. Taking a sailboat up the California Delta it’s pretty much inevitable, the bottom is very soft silty mud that has little probability of damaging your keel except for premature bottom paint wear. You may have also noted that we touched bottom in the Beaufort area due to not reading detailed charts. . . this is my point of concern.

As we make our way along our itinerary we’ll eventually find ourselves in areas where the consequences of running aground are much more than a bit of bottom paint. Recently a Lagoon 450, Ryana’s bigger sister, ran aground in the Bahamas and became a total loss. The captain’s reasoning for his mistake is the electronic charts he had loaded on his chartplotter indicated a potential route through two islands, in reality it’s a reef strewn area that folks find difficult passing in a dingy. This particular vessel and crew have significant sea miles between them and it’s likely they just got complacent in their route planning. I truly feel for these folks as it must be a horrible feeling seeing your vessel awash up to the coach top. . . everyone makes mistakes and I’ll learn from both mine and those I’m made aware of.

Diana and I have set a standard practice when sailing in new locations. . .

  • Consult cruising guides focused on the area
  • Compare various chart sources if area is known for having chart discrepancies
  • Create route by reviewing paper charts
  • Validate proposed route with each other
  • Enter route waypoints on ship’s chartplotter
  • Have crew member on bow to spot coral heads if needed

Boat aground near Port Ludlow. . . Click for more info

 

There is potential for our practice to get old and tired but maybe this picture will remind us why we go to this trouble.

Ryana???

Philosophy,

IMG_9708-001

Wow you named your boat after yourselves?  How vain, self-absorbed or narcissistic are you people?

Well vain, self-absorbed? Maybe a bit.  Narcissistic? Definitely not.

A little history. . . Diana and I have been together for quite some time; even before we were officially dating most of our friends knew we came as a pair.  In various circles we soon became known as Ryana (Ryan + Diana = Ryana).  Since we wouldn’t deny enjoying each other’s company or deny the fact we spent significant time together, we didn’t have any specific reasons to push back on the moniker.

A history of a nickname may still not be a valid reason to name the boat after ourselves.  Why not name the boat something like “Adventurer”, “Horizon”, “Wind Dancer”, “Solace”, “Escape”, “Sabbatical”, “Salish Spirit” or anything else?  The simple reason is. . .

This journey is not a search for place, emotion or time; it is a search to cultivate our individual and mutual priorities in life

We hope to have at least 50 good years left in us and want to ensure we spend every one of them in a meaningful way.  We’ve let life lead us to the point where we are today and definitely cannot complain (great friends & family, good jobs, comfortable house, extra spending money), this is the first real decision in both our lives where we are leading life, not life leading us. The trip is about us so why not be open about it?

RyanaShirt

Oh; and we already had the shirt. . .

 

It’s Official – We Told work!!!

Planning

We have executed a “Go/No Go” decision over the holidays with a clear vote for “Go”.  Now we need to tell our managers that we are leaving for a 2 year sailing trip in less than 90 days!

We have done a lot of thinking on making sure we don’t burn any bridges so we are both welcome to come back to our current company when our voyage is over.  It was quite a relief to the both of us that our managers were supportive of our dreams; not only did they say a 2 year sabbatical was okay, but they want to ensure we stay in contact so we can be placed in good positions upon our return.

So no, we didn’t state the words sung by the late Johnny Paycheck; my woman hasn’t left and my boss ain’t no fool.  Though no matter how great of place you work, I think we all fantasize about bursting out those words every once in a while. . .

Holidays in Beaufort

Planning

We decided to take a long weekend trip out to Beaufort to visit Ryana, talk with the boat yard about needed work and play tourist for the weekend. As usual our trips to the East Coast are on redeyes so we arrived a bit tired, got our rental car in New Bern and drove the hour drive to Beaufort, stopping for Mexican food along the way.

We stayed at the Beaufort Inn which is nice enough and is walking distance to town for shopping and eating. We got an early check in and managed a decent nap before exploring. We ventured out looking at all the historic homes all decorated for the holidays, that we’ll get to see more of later when we take part in the Candlelight tour.

Our first stop of interest was the Old Burying Ground that dates back to the 1730’s, you pick up a brochure and follow a self lead itinerary discussing dead people of interest. A bit strange, I wonder if all the other folks that aren’t mentioned in the brochure are a bit jealous of never getting attention. Anyway we saw the guy that was lost at sea only to return to have his wife remarried to another man, many war heros from both Revolutionary and Civil wars and the girl buried in a rum barrel. We also got to hear about all of the town’s hauntings from the guy that leads the ghost walks, he just happened to be strolling the cemetery with his wife. He had a few good stories, enough to make the hair on the back of my neck stand on end and for Diana not to want to walk the town at night. That was about it for Thursday besides an early dinner.

Friday was our day to play tourist, no agenda. After breakfast at the Beaufort Inn we wandered town in a mild drizzle where all the shops were closing out all their merchandise for the 2013 year. It seams most shops close in January and completely reset their inventory, not sure I’ve seen this before, but it’s the low season and it’s always nice to have the luxury of a reset. The thing I really did not want to miss was the Beaufort Maritime Museum. . . Blackbeard!!!! Not sure if you are familiar but it is thought that Blackbeard scuttled his flagship the “Queen Anne’s Revenge” just outside of the Beaufort channel, and the museum has some great exhibits showing the artifacts that have been recovered from the wreck site; how awesome is that? We had dinner at the Blue Moon Bistro which was great, both service and food. We stopped by the Backstreet Pub, the beer was good and it was as musty as ever.

On Saturday we were supposed to meet up with a guy from Jarrett Bay to take him out to hear the squeaks on Ryana, but he was too busy working on another job so we took her out on our own since we had nothing else on our agenda. Well it’s said that there are two kinds of sailors, those that have run aground and those that are liars, I’m not a liar . . . won’t get into the details, but the major lesson learned is to have both captain and admiral review charts prior to weighing anchor and both agree on a course. No harm no foul, we backed off with no issue. Made the bascle bridge and headed out the inlet for about 5 miles then returned. We had tickets to the Candlelight Tour which started at 5 so really wanted to get back. I was able to sweet talk the bridge operator to open 2 minutes late so we didn’t have to wait another 30 minutes for another opening. We cruised back to Jarrett Bay with time to spare for a shower before the tour was to begin.

The Candlelight Tour is essentially an open house of many of the historic homes and inns in Beaufort. All this is quite interesting to us being on the West Coast where historic is anything over 75 year old. Many of these building date back to the early 18th century. All the hosts and hostess were very friendly and were quick to answer any questions around the structures themselves, past owners and general history of the town. It was a pretty cool evening.

Sunday we finally got to meet our project manager Steven at Jarrett Bay. Seems like a really nice guy and went over the warranty items we’d like them to repair along with the modifications we want to make before heading out on our trip; raising the davits, upgrade the counter, add a new through hull for the watermaker, increase the life lines so Stanley can’t fall out and a few others. Jarrett Bay seems like a great yard, but may be a bit too expensive to have them execute the changes we want. No big deal as we can decide later to do it ourselves or have another yard do it.

Back home to California bid a farewell to Ryana and we’ll see her again in a few months.

 

To Beaufort

Offshore,

Sunday Sept 9

Sunday morning was a bit hectic with last minute shopping and preparations.   The girls took the car to get a few things that were forgotten on the provisioning list, mostly Jack’s ham.   Once they returned the rental car was returned to the airport.  The next couple hours were spent storing provisions, fueling up and eating ice cream.  We cleared the 17th street bridge at 1:00pm and headed into the North Atlantic.

The first few hours couldn’t have been better, we had W to WSW winds around 14 to 18 knots with the boat speed bouncing between 9.5 to 10.5 overground, it truly was beautiful sailing for the first part of the afternoon.  Right after nightfall things changed, the wind began shifting to more of a WNW direction and squalls began to appear on the horizon.   For about 3 hours we continued to change direction avoiding the squalls that were lighting up the sky all around us, didn’t see too many lightning strikes hit the surface, but still made your butt pucker.  Diana was a bit oblivious to this as she was having trouble establishing her sea legs and ended up doing a bit of chumming off the back.  Since we did get Jack up for some support we let him sleep in until 3 am for his watch duties.

Monday Sept 10

The wind continued to clock further north forcing a course further East than we really wanted.  The seas were not overly large but quite steep causing regular pounding from the bridge deck as we beat into them.  Fairly uneventful, not overly comfortable day at sea.  Saw a few dolphins and sharks, had a great dinner and Diana started feeling a bit better.

Tuesday Sept 11

Though the seas continued to be rough we started the day with high spirits knowing we made it to Georgia and ate significant quantities of bacon.  After a few hours the bacon high wore off it was clear the crew was getting a bit tired of the rambunctious seas and pounding so it was decided to keep heading north but finish the day at anchorage in St Catherine’s sound.  The wind remained between 20-25knts out of NNE where we continued to sail at the tightest angle we could, still getting used to these catamarans, definitely not windward machines.

We lined up the channel just around dusk and would have to navigate the sound at dark, good charts, radar and crew on the bow really help with this.  We dropped anchor in about 10 feet of water and all crashed for the evening.

Wednesday Sept 12

After a short conversation over breakfast it was decided we had some time to spare so why not try to wait out the northerly wind and hang out in Hilton Head for a day or two.

We quickly pulled anchor and began our slog north.  The seas were actually more confused than they were on Tuesday which further relieved us with our new plan.  We motorsailed for the majority of the day and made it to Hilton Head at 4pm.  Found a great little marina, Palmetto Bay, to hang out at for a day or two and enjoyed a great meal ashore where once again a significant quantity of sea creatures were consumed.

Thursday Sept 13

Weather and sea conditions have not changed so we decided to stay put in Palmetto Bay for one more day.  This gave us the chance to do a bit more provisioning, exploring and installation of the remote VHF at the helm (no idea why a highly optioned boat does not come with this crucial piece of $100 equipment).  Cynthia got some nasty blisters wearing her mom’s boat shoes san socks while we went and wandered the island we finished the day with Diana and Cynthia baking some pizzas and Jack getting his steak at the Black Marlin restaurant.   As always interesting folks were found at the bar, didn’t stay out too late as we were shoving off in the morning.

Friday Sept 14

I think I remember hearing about sailing to a schedule is not an ideal way to plan a voyage. . . Well that is a luxury for the folks who are not currently employed.  The weather situation calmed somewhat, but still had that damn northerly wind.  We were not going to seas in dangerous conditions, just not ideal, when we have the luxury of time we would have spent more time at Hilton Head, for now back to sea.  After fueling up we shoved off a bit before 9 am.

After exiting the Tybee Channel and turning north we found choppy seas and proceeded to motor directly in to them to make our way to our final destination, Beaufort NC.  Though we were going directly into the seas and wind things have calmed a bit since Wednesday as were only experiencing light pounding from the bridge deck.  We had both fishing lines out, engines turning at 2200 RPM, making close to 6knts so all in all things not so bad.  Had a beautiful evening with Cynthia becoming quite excited over the bioluminescence, which is pretty cool stuff to watch in the wake.

Saturday Sept 15

This will be our last full day at sea as we are estimating coming into Beaufort tomorrow afternoon.

Jack finished up a fairly calm graveyard watch with a bit of boat traffic.  Not long after sunrise it was determined to raise some canvas and try to get this sailboat sailing again.  We couldn’t quite sail as close to the wind as needed for our course, but one engine turning low RPMs helps make us make pretty good speed.

Around 11am we had 15 to 20 dolphins riding our bow waves for a good 15 minutes it was a pretty cool experience and one I’m sure we’ll repeat on our future travels.  I’m sure seeing them frolicking and squeaking in the sea will brighten anyone’s mood no matter how bad the passage.

Still trying to coax as much forward momentum out of the boat as we can with lightening wind, just before going to both engines we luffed the sails to let Jack and Cynthia take a dip.  Jack made himself useful and scraped some growth off the props and all fun ended when a shark decided to come say ‘hi’, not necessarily a man eater but still unnerving.

Had a great lasagna dinner with a beautiful sunset to finish the day with both engines driving us NNW.

Sunday Sept 16

After a quiet yet lumpy night watch spirits were high as we were about to make or goal of Beaufort NC.  The day was started with a great breakfast due to Jack’s cooking and continued to push engine speed a bit higher with the hope of making landfall with time for dinner and drinks.

At 3:30 pm we made landfall at the Town Creek Marina, just inside the Beaufort Bascule bridge,  to top off our fuel tanks and was granted permission to stay at the fuel dock as long as we wished.  Cool deal, because there are cocktails to be had at the Fish Tales restaurant.  After much celebration and a few Rum Punches and Dark and Stormies it was time to shove off and head up the creek to Jarret Bay Boat Yard.

We arrived an hour before dusk and got some local knowledge from s/v Last Dance.  After cleaning up it was time to head into town for dinner and more celebratory cocktails.  We called a cab who was nice enough to call around to find a restaurant with a kitchen that was still open (it’s easy to forget Sundays in small towns can leave your options a bit slim).  We ended up having a great dinner at the Dockhouse and then wandered over to the BackStreet pub which is a really cool little old tavern.  None of us lasted too long as the cab was called once again as we shared a ride with a two other gentleman who got caught up on the town gossip with the cabbie, fun night!

Monday Sept 17

Frantic, Frantic. . . We needed to get the boat hauled, cleaned and emptied of our things to catch our flights out of Raleigh at 3:45.

The boat was hauled, pressure washed and stacked fairly quickly.  I was hoping to give it a good wash down for it’s long storage,  but barely had time to think.  We got all things put away, locked up and had a conversation w/ the yard manager on things we wanted to get worked on. . . . Time to go!

 

First plan was to get a cab from the boat yard, then to enterprise to rent a car and then drive to Raleigh. . . not enough time to make it by 3:45.

So, ‘Hey cabbie, can you take us to the airport?’

‘Sure, New Bern, no problem’

‘No, Raliegh’

‘Hmm, let me check with my other cab’ . . . ‘sure how about $250’

‘Sounds good, let’s go’

So we took a cab all the way from Beaufort to Raleigh; had plenty of snacks to share and about 30 minutes in everyone was out cold.  The cabbie was a pretty interesting fellow who moved his family from Arlington VA to Beaufort for a more simple life.  He quit his accounting practice and drives cabs to stay busy, says it’s the best decision he’s ever made.  Hmm.

We’ll we made it to the airport with just a few minutes to spare, but our flights were delayed anyway.  We all shared a good linner at the restaurant and bid a farewell.   It was a great  10 days and couldn’t have done it without Cynthia and Jack.  Thanks a lot for the help!