Dreams and Reality

It’s Monday just two weeks since the incident and we are getting anxious to get Why Knot underway once again. It will take some time for us to get the incident into the proper box and put it away but we suspect that a few peaceful nights at anchor in some clear water will do the trick. Here is a link to an event that helps our thoughts about the incident.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVwePp3hcNA

That sort of puts things in perspective. I am guessing that the captain is now doing car washes somewhere.

Several friends are “out there”. Safari will make port in Key West today. Keeling Time will continue their voyage of discovery heading north from the Georgia/Florida line toward our ultimate destination, the Chesapeake. Aletheia will continue her voyage out of Galveston bound for Portland by way of the Panama Canal. And so it goes. Cooling our heels in New Orleans, though not the worst place to be, is not what we had in mind at the start. Things do happen. Speaking with Rick the other day, we learned that Keeling Time was struck by lightening in Florida and lost everything electrical aboard. He said it hit astern about a hundred yards or so and must have traveled aboard through the propeller shaft. Thanks to having a handheld GPS and VHF radio, he was able to navigate into a port. It happened in a squall when visibility was zero. Now that’s the stuff that causes uncontrollable facial twitching. That event laid Keeling Time up for two months. So, stuff happens and while we don’t like that kind of thing, it is really what makes for good stories around the bingo table at the rest home 25 years hence. A boat with dings is a boat used in the right way. That pretty one in the harbor with all the fine bright work may not have ever been as sea. Like the fellow we met at Galveston that did a few crossings, not the Gulf but the Pacific, one could tell he was an experienced mariner by his looks. He had a few dings, so to speak and maybe a slight twitch.

As of this date, we have over 650 days aboard Why Knot but not many of them were actual underway days on an actual adventure. Most were short day sails or overnighters. This is different, way different. It became more evident when we came home. We relaxed from the newly realized procedures that we developed aboard which started to shape our routines aboard. Large couches, washing machines and unlimited hot water are the most notable things not available aboard. We learned that two people can actually pass each other in a hatchway while holding stuff in hand.

Things go unspoken aboard that were topics of conversation before the cruise. There are long minutes; even hours with very little conversation as each of us take in the view ahead or astern. Movement aboard is limited to only a few feet or yards at most in any direction so we depend on the changing scenery to entertain us. It appears to be doing a fine job for us since Bear’s library and my iPod library have not been touched much. With the exception of the show, Sunday Morning, we have yet to watch much TV aboard. That will change since we will spend less time underway each day from this point on. Lesson learned.

Subject, of course, to further underway modifications, we have it down; the routine. At the start of each day, I spend an hour or so checking weather, looking at the guides and charts and planning the voyage for the day. In the “ditch” there is little latitude. Once into Mississippi Sound and beyond, the choices are more numerous. Anchorages vary from small barrier islands with historical significance to “hidey holes” along the GIWW. There are more ways to go “out” and around to avoid traffic or bridges. I am told the closer to Florida, particularly the east coast of Florida, we get, the more offshore sailing we will do. The primary reasons are the sheer number of bridges and more importantly the traffic such as the flat out Cigarette boats that disregard the “no wake” zones and create huge waves. One cruiser, though a “power boater” himself said that we should find places to stay from noon on Friday to Monday morning to avoid being pummeled by those guys. I have visions of waiting at a bridge for a scheduled opening with 10 boats either side waiting. We will see but we will heed the warnings of those who have gone before.

Today, we start dealing with repairs again. Hopefully, the weather in the New Orleans area will cooperate so the yard can remove the mast. That is not something done in bad weather. We should know more about delivery schedules of parts sometime this week.