Cruising

Anna pointed out that I haven’t been as participatory on the web site as she is so we have changed the site a bit to include a Blog for me. (She feels that I have so much to say…Yea,right) Anyway, Here I go.

PS. If any of you feel like commenting on what I say please take a minute and post your comments.


Cruising….What a great idea. Lots of time to see the sights and enjoy the things that you like to do. Time to relax and kick back. Well, the real truth is that it’s a lot more work than I ever thought it would be. At first, when we had the masts on the deck and the Goose was in essences a motor boat the days amounted to nothing but eat, sleep and drive the boat. Now that we are a sail boat again the work load has tripled. Whether it is sailing or sitting at the dock the effort that is required to move the old gal or to maintain her is considerable.

Sailing: The waters around here (unlike the Great Lakes) are filled with crab pots. These are cages set on the bottom with a tasty fish head inside and a rope leading to a float on the surface. The crabs find this irresistible and unfortunately a boats propeller finds the rope irresistible too! As you sail you are “dodging the pots” and when you motor you again find that the pots are migrating into the channel. I personally feel that the crabs have learned how to drag the cages into the channels as a way to get rid of them.

In port: In the last few days (for instance) I have finished up the rebuild of the dingy, sanded the main mast and varnish it, (All 45 feet that the sunshine can hit has to be varnished twice a year) and I checked out the toilet and found that it is starting to leak (parts on order). The sail has been repaired, the mildew scrubbed out of the chain locker and of course the alternator is still sitting in the cockpit waiting for me to disassemble it, re-wire it and re-install it. The “list” seems to grow even as I scratch items off from it.

The only good note to this cacophony of work is hearing the palm trees rustles when I’m up the mast or seeing a flock of white cow ibis hunting for bugs in the grass as I sew on the sail and of course I still can’t help but smile when a dolphin swims past.