Headed back to the cold country

It's been kind of a long day. We were anchored out in Manatee Bay near Key Largo and our plans called for heading back to Manatee Boat Yard. We're going to leave the boat on the dock while we return to ND for Christmas and to take care of some committments in January. When we got to the boat yard, we wanted to have the holding tank pumped before leaving it for awhile. The pump out didn't work, so they promised they'd do it while we are gone. After getting tied up we went to get the art work for the hailing port for the back of the boat. One attempt was made by our broker before we put the boat in the water and that was unsuccessful. This time I had my artist wife use her magic and as you can see, it is now the only boat in the boat yard from Bismarck, ND

Now we have the unpleasant task of packing and semi cleaning the cupboards out. This will be minor compared to what we had to do when we first got here. We probably won't get a real early start tomorrow, since we have a couple of things to do and we don't want to hit the Miami traffic going to work. I hope I can get back to the blog while we're home, but if not I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a happy new year. We feel pretty confident that 2012 is going to be better than 2011.

We have Gemini Neighbors

Weather partly cloudy, wind 16 kts, temperature high of 78. Next door we have neighbors on a Gemini Catamaran like ours. It's a little older model, but you have to look closely to see the differences. I've had a chance to talk with them a little to see if they can answer some of the questions that I have. We solved one mystery about a toggle switch, but I still have one switch that baffels everyone. So we have a Gemini next door and in front of us we have a 105' motor yacht. The people on the Gemini invited me onboard. the people on the 105' did not. Hummmm maybe it's my deodorant.

Picture of our first meal on board. We've had several since, but the food was good and the wine was a good year, 2010.

Yesterday we went back into Barnes Sound to try the sailing systems again. We put up a little more sail even though we had more wind than the last time we sailed. Everything went well. I'm trying to get Marilyn to operate the wheel so that I can do most of the physical sail handling. It's going OK, but she still doesn't have confidence in herself, so she becomes a little anxious. We've talked about it and I'm sure things will get better as we use the boat more. We returned to the marina and decided to try docking without calling for line assistance. We know that at some point, we need to be self sufficient. It was interesting. I still don't have a good feel for how the boat responds, so the first time, we blew it. Had to back away and try again. This started a series of touch and go sessions with the boat and the dock. That's what I tell anyone that might have been watching us. It actually took us 4 tries to finally get where we needed to be in order to get our lines in place. Fortunately, there wasn't much wind so we could come and go without much problem at all. The good thing is that we never yelled at each other the whole time. Now that's progress.

Time to Learn some more

Two of the pictures are from when we left Manatee boat yard. The area is relatively protected. Lots of mangroves, but no other large trees. It's a prettly laid back mom and pop boat yard, so lots of people working on their own boats. The other two pictures are from the Anchorage Resort area right at the edge of Key Largo. We're on the dock right now with another older Gemini right next to us. Our boat is on the right. Marilyn caught the other picture just as the sun was going down tonight. Temps are in the 60's at night and 70's during the day. Looks like there could be a slight warm up at the end of the week.

Today's project was to get the oil changed in the car and install the selenoid for the propane that finally came in. I've also been waiting for a couple of other parts that I ordered and seem to be having trouble getting delivered. I ordered them from inflatableboatsusa.com and I may have to dispute the credit card charges because I can't get them to respond and they don't seem to show that anything has been shipped. That's probably the biggest irony of everything. I have the most problems getting boat parts in the boating capital of the US. Go figure. However, it seems like everyone is boating and no one is working.

Splash!!

The boat went splash. We finally got her back in the water. We left Manatee Bay Marine about 11:00am at low tide. Boy am I glad we don't draw any more water than we do. We saw about 3.5 feet as we were leaving the channel area. Some guys that we met at the boat yard on a 41 ft Morgan draw 5 feet, so they definitely have to leave at or near high tide.

We left the Manatee Creek area and got into the deep water of Barnes Sound where there is anywhere from 5 to 10 feet of water at mean low water. Yes the Florida Keys have some skinny water. First we sailed down wind with the Genoa only just to see how it would work. Shortly after getting under sail we spotted several dolphin who came to see what we were doing. We hoped that this was a good omen of things to come. Since the wind was relatively light, 8 to 12, we decided to put up the main and see how things went. Everything seemed to work well. We were having a pretty good time, so we decided to sail around awhile before we headed to the Jewfish Creek and Anchorage Resort were we plan to stay for a few days. We arrived with no problem and got tied up with a little help from the dock master. When we hooked up to shore power we met our next challenge. No power on board. We had the dock master checking his outlet and checking our power cord. At first it looked like it might be a bad power cord, but then the dock master realized that he didn't have his tester turned on. (Marilyn just got up from her book to got get a blanket, so sometimes it does get cooler in the keys) Finally we found a toggle on the electrical panel that had no label. As soon as we turned that on, amazingly we had power. We never even knew that switch was there. That's the kind of thing that we've been working with for the last three weeks.

It was time for a beer. We had a friend we met at the boat yard drive our car over to this marina, so we felt we owed him a beer or two. At the bar we met a couple of other individuals that had helped us with repairs, so it's a good thing it was happy hour and the beers were only $2.

It's been an exciting day which includes finding out that our son Tom who's in the Navy is also going to go onboard a ship for 6 week in December and January. Time to go to bed. Till next time.

Windy, Windy, Windy

I think I'm back in North Dakota. We've had 3 days of 25 to 30 mph winds, so if we had snow we'd have a regualar old blizzard. But no snow! I've checked the forecase for the next week and the winds looks much better which I'm happy for. If we get the boat in on Tuesday, I'm not really interested in starting out learning what the boat will do in high winds. I'd like to use it a little before that happens. We'll be moving to a marina call the "Anchorage Resort" for about the next two weeks. From there, we'll be able to sail and/or motor in either Barnes Sound or Blackwater Sound. This will give us easy access to learn about the boat and then have a place to return to reassess what's gone right and what hasn't and to finish up some final repairs. After that two week period we'll be heading back to the Manatee Creek area where we have the boat now. There's a small boat yard in that same area where we will keep "9 Lives" in the water while we return to ND for Christmas and take care of some cruise commitments that I have with the Dakota Community Bank. Don't forget to send me an email if you haven't done so, so that I can add it to my laptop addresses. My email is bschlo@btinet.net.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. No, neither one of those boats are ours. I guess we might espire to one of them, but ours is much more modest.

After breakfast this morning we took a drive through some of the neighborhoods just to see what thing look like. This was a stop at the canal next to the Holiday Inn. Lots of BIG boats. I had been to this area before when Lon Romsaas, our son Tom and I visited Kirk and Carol Romsaas several years ago when we did our open water dive for scuba certification. The area looked a lot the same. They even still have the original "African Queen" of movie fame still on the dock. It's in pretty tough shape, but we understand they want to fix it up.

Most of the afternoon was spent, you guessed it, watching the Greenbay - Detroit football game. When we do get on the boat I'm afraid we're going to have to frequent the local sports bars even more than we have in the past. We won't currently have any TV unless we happen to be at a dock that has somekind of cable hook-up.

We communciated a little with Tom this morning and hope to Skype with Andrea and grand-son Kyle this evening. We also sent a few texts back and forth to Mike and Renae Baltzer who are in Denver visiting the Schweigert/Sweeny clan for Thanksgiving dinner. Sounds like they were going to have 34 for dinner. Later.

Out with the old and in with the used

We did find a used inflatable to replace that poor little Port a bote. I couldn't convince Marilyn to get in the port a bote so I knew we had to do something.

I talked with the boat yard office this afternoon and made arrangements for the boat to be put back in the water on the Monday after Thanksgiving. The new batteries are in and we need one more fitting to replace the sump pump in the head. A new selenoid has been ordered for the propane, but even if it doesn't come right away, it can be installed when the boat is in the water. I need to have the wind stop blowing for at least one day so that I can get the two head sails put on the boat. I tried to put the big screecher on yesterday, but when it was half way up, we realized that it was just too windy to get it up, secured and rolled up.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but it was pretty warm today. When I got in the car to leave about 2:00pm the car thermometer said 88 and it was sitting in the shade. It was also pretty humid. When I got done cleaning the dingy, my shirt looked like I'd gone swimming.

We're starting to get the Skype thing down. We placed a video call to our daughter and grandson this evening and also talked with Colleen Schweigert last week. So, if you want to Skype, let us know.

Getting Closer

This picture was earlier this month when we were visiting Tom in Augusta. I've run out of current pictures, so I guess it's time to start taking some more. There have just been other priorities.

We can kind of see light at the end of the tunnel. Our new friend Lou, not to be confused with Lou Hafermehl, will be helping put in the new batteries and a new shower sump pump today. We're also going to lubricate the roller furling hardware on our head sail since it was hanging up when operated. The only other major thing to complete is replacing a selenoid on the propane gas line. Even in this sailing capital of the world, I couldn't find a replacement selenoid and had to order one. It's suppose to be here early next week, but even if it doesn't get here right away, we can temporarily bypass it and have things operational.

The weather has been really unsettled lately. Very similar to the BVI where clouds come and go. Yesteday a couple of squals came through at the boat yard that must have dumped a half an inch of rain each. Temperatures are still moderate with no snow, so I guess we can tolerate it.

If you haven't already done so, please remember to send me your email address so I can add it to my laptop. My email address is bobsch@btinet.net. Most of my email addresses were on my desk top in Bismarck. Later.

The Schedule Has Changed a Little

I heard a rumor that there were snowflakes in Bismarck yesterday. Not sure if that's true or not, but there was a low of 63 here last night.

We've worked out arrangements to stay in the apartment that we have for another week. We do have a couple of items to deal with on the boat before we can put her back in the water. The surveyor recommended that the batteries be changed and the location of the batteries is unbelieveable. Hard to believe that an engineer would put the batteries where they are when everyone knows that they have to be replaced sooner or later. Oh, wait a minute, I know a few engineers and I guess it's not unbeliveable!! Anyway, after working on the Baltzer/Schlobohm electric golf cart, I've decided to get some assistance with the replacement. We have to go through the inverter/charger to even start to see the batteries, so help is on the way. We also need to replace the selenoid on the gas line, get the hailing port printed on the boat and get the roller furling systems going. Once those are done, I think she'll be ready to go in the water. We do need to replace the dingy and I'm not having much luck finding a used one. Found a couple on the local Craig's List, but can't seem to get anyone to respond to me. We also need to make arrangements for a place to leave her when we return to North Dakota for Christmas and January. So, we just needed more time than we originally anticipated.

The good part of all of this is that the people that own the apartment where we're staying are selling the house and they're actually moving further north just before Thanksgiving, but not closing until December. So when we approched them about additional time they said we could stay in the main part of their house, since they were not going to be there. They were also going to give us a much better price because they were concerned about the inconvience that we might experience while the movers are there. Actually, we'll probably be over working on the boat, so may not even see the movers.

What, A Day Off?

There was the danger of a strike, so we decided to take the day off from cleaning and fixing. We did go look for a place called "Mother Ocean" which takes things on consignment. I think we're going to take our "Port a boat" dinghy there along with several other items that we have and see if we can get someone to buy them. After that we had lunch with, Bill Ware, the guy that was the broker for the boat when we bought it. He's been really helpful with fixing things and answering lots of questions. He's made money on the deal, but I appreciate all the advice that he has provided. He's going to stop by the boat yard tomorrow and look at a few things on the boat and also show me some anchorages and other spots on the charts that are worth exploring.

After lunch with Bill, we looked at a couple of marinas that might have dock space for storing the boat while we're back in ND for December and January. As you can see, we're not in Kansas anymore, Todo. The one marina "Gilbert's Resort" looked like Sturgis South, NOT. Eat your heart out Ron Yeager. There had to be at least 100 bikers at the resort. Lots of boats around, but if you were in their marina, you'd have to be ready for week-end parties and bands. Hay, that doesn't sound so bad, maybe we'll have look closer. Time to check out the football on Sunday afternoon.

More Work Than Meets The Eye

OK, we knew there was going to be some work getting the boat ready to put in the water, but it's turning out to be more than we initially expected. Even though we hadn't seen the dinghy when we surveyed the boat, we knew it was a "port a boat" and might be a little iffy. We sent Tom a picture and he said it looked like something that the Native Americans might have used back in the day. It's not quite that bad, but we are going to think about what our alternatives might be. For now it's completely assembled, ready to go on the divits and may have to work for awhile until something else can be worked out.

Marilyn has spent a lot of time cleaning and rearranging things in most of the cabins and we still have a fair amount to deal with. We were scheduled to leave our apartment on the 18th, but I've talked with the family we are renting from and we have it worked out for another week if we need it. I feel much better knowing that we have that extra time to continue with the boat as well as determine where we will keep it once we put it back in the water. This morning when we headed for the boat yard, they were having a foot race over one of the two bridges that lead to Key Largo, so we had to take the other route which was about 25 miles longer. Only in Florida would they close a main road for runners. It would be kind of like closing I94 from Bismarck to Glen Ulin and then make everyone take old Highway 10 with no turn-offs.

The weather has been a little blustery lately with winds from 15 to 20 kts, so not too much boating going on. It will be interesting to see how often the winds blow like that and especially interesting to see how the boating is in the skinny waters of the keys.

Marilyn's Two New Best Friends

Marilyn has two new best friends. Soft Scrub or Bleach and Miller Lite. She needs the beer after the cleaning. Things weren't terrible, but after being closed up for 5 or 6 months, there was a lot to be cleaned on the boat particularly since someone left the refrigerator closed. So, we had a little bit of mold to deal with. The previous owner had duplicates and triplicates of just about everything, so we had to decide what to keep and what to throw or giva away. Marilyn can also be seen daily at West Marine and the local hardware store.

The house in the photograph is where we're currently staying. It's not large, but has everything that we need. It's about 12 miles from the boat yard, but all the stores that we might need are pretty much in between.

We've recently been in contact with our neighbors at the lake, Randy and Pam, and they are going to be staying in Key West over the Veteran's Day week-end. So, we made arrangements to at least have a quick beer with them on there way through Key Largo on the way to Key West. We also just recently got things set up to Skype, so if you are signed up for Skype and want to visit, let us know.

Now the Fun (Work) Begins

We've finally made it to the boat yard to get an idea of what needs to be done to prepare 9 Lives to be put back in the water. We're going cabin by cabin and locker by locker to see what's there and whether we want to keep it or not. The first thing that we found out was that the previous owner had enough dishes and glasses plus fry pan, blender, toaster oven, etc to outfit 3 boats. So we will be removing a lot of stuff. The boat does have a full enclosure for the cockpit area, both screened and plastic. It was like putting a jigsaw puzzel together, but we finally figured it out and numbered the pieces so that next time it won't take so long to set up. The weather was beautiful for this kind of work. It was in the mid to upper 70's. Glad it wasn't any warmer since we were down below a lot.

We kind of met the guy that was working on his boat down from where we are. I pointed out to Marilyn that he had Wisconsin plats on his truck, so she immediately went to find out if he was a Packer's fan and where the best place would be to watch the game tomorrow. We found out that he and many others are Packers fans and they go to a place called the Glass Bottom Bar which is next to a restaurant called the "Pilot". We never did find out his name, but I'm sure we will. It just so happens that the bar is within walking distance from where we're staying, so you can imagine where we'll be tomorrow afternoon. We will be going back to the boat for at least the morning to keep on working.

Don't forget to send me your email address if you make your way to this blog. I need to save them all on my laptop. Till next time

From Atlanta to Titusville

We're currently in Titusville FL. We had a great time at the Atlanta Aquarium and as you can see, Tom made a new friend. The trip down is getting to be a little long with the stops that we've made, but we're really happy for the opportunity to visit with Tom. We hope we can see him at least for an evening when we head back to Bismarck, but want the trip to go a little faster as long as the weather will cooperate.



We stopped in Savannah, GA yesterday and once again played tourist and did the local Trolly Tour to get an overview of the city. Lots of history and way too little time to digest it all. Went from Savannah to Titusville, FL today. Went down to the local marina to see how things might have changed since we sailed here 20 years ago. They've changed a lot, but the city marina still has lots of transient sail boats and there were a lot anchored outside of the marina. Tomorrow we head for Key Largo. We probably won't get to the boat tomorrow, Friday, and am not sure what the situation will be for the week-end, but for sure Monday, we'll start to see how things look.



One thing I don't have is everyone's email address. I had most of those addresses on my computer in Bismarck, but forgot to transfer them to my laptop, so if you read this, please send me an email or your email address. Weather's great. High today was 79 in Titusville. More later.

On the Way

We're on the way to Key Largo. Left Bismarck on Thursday with hopes of getting to somewhere around Omaha on our way to see Tom in Augusta, GA. We made it to Sterling and had a flat tire!!! The tire was toast, so we changed it and headed back to Bismarck to see about repair and/or purchase. Someone told me there's a recession going on, but we had to go to three different tire stores before we could get someone to look at it because they were so busy. Finally, OK Tire said they'd check it out. Long story short, after a new tire and an additional 2 hours in town, we set out again at about 10:30am. We kept moving anyway and did make it to Omaha, but much later than we'd hoped for.

The next day we made it to St Louis for a visit with our God Daughter Ann Baltzer. We met her at her new restaurant find the "shaved duck". Food was great and it was nice to visit with Ann and her roommate Katie.

The following day October 29th we made it to Atlanta and met Tom there so we could do some sightseeing with him. Today the 30th, we went to the Atlanta Aquarium and the World of Coca Cola. Had a great time playing tourist, but it must have been too much work for Tom and Marilyn, because they're currently taking naps. Weather has been cooperating, but we haven't seen any extemely warm weather. We hope to leave for Key Largo on Wednesday the 2nd with maybe a couple of stops on the way. We're both really excited to see what things look like at the boat yard, so we'll let you know when we get there.

Well we actually purchased "9 Lives", but things didn't exactly go as we had them planned. After the survey and purchase, we decided to have it moved from Sarasota to Key Largo and have it hauled out for the summer season. Bill Ware, the broker that we dealt with, was also licensed to move vessels, so we had him do the move. What should have taken about three day turned out to take almost a week. They had fuel problems and had to stop at least 2 times to try and resolve the situation. After replacing a few lines and a fuel pump, the problem seems to be resolved. I guess we'll see once we are able to use the boat ourselves.

Plans are to head south on October 27, 2011. We will head for Key Largo by way of Augusta, GA in order to see our son Tom who is stationed at Fort Gordon with the Navy. After a short visit, we'll travel the last 600 miles to Key Largo. We have an apartment set up for about two weeks while we work on the boat and get it ready to put back in the water. During this entire summer we've been working to get to this point with no help from mother nature. The flooding on the Missouri river is another whole story the needs an entire blog just to explain what happened there. Suffice it to say that our house didn't get wet. However, we were out of the house from June through August because we didn't have road access. We're back in now and things are well. Still things to be done, but nothing that can't wait until next spring, since most of the repairs are to yard and landscaping. Once we get settled, I hope I can be a little more religious with updates on our travel and activities.

THE PURCHASE IS UNDERWAY

Although it hasn't been finalized yet, we are in the process of purchasing "Nine Lives" which is a 34' Gemini catamaran. We still have to complete a survey of the boat, which is similar to a "home inspection" and do a sea trial before the deal is closed. Somewhere in that process, I guess we have to give them some money too.

We're not sure when we'll be able to get onboard to actually start doing what we want with the boat. Plans are to either move it from Sarasota, FL, or have it moved to Key Largo, FL. That will probably take place sometime the end of April or the first part of May. We plan to leave it on a mooring in Key Largo when we're using it in that area. We will either leave it on the mooring or haul it out onto land when we return to North Dakota for the summer. Since summer is almost here, at least according to the calendar, not a according to the snow on the ground right now, we probably won't get on the boat for any long period of time until next Fall and/or Winter. All of these things will take time to put in place and we also need to decide what to do with our home in Bismarck. We're excited and at the same time a little apprehensive about this whole new adventure. Our biggest hope is that all of our friends and family will come and visit us from time to time and that they'll keep in communication through this blog or by email.