Sopers Hole to Cane Garden Bay & BombaShack Full Moon Party - Sailing the BVI's (8 of 10)

Today after awakening in a great anchorage with a nice breeze, we fixed breakfast and coffee.  We all decided we would head to shore today and check out the stores and shops on Soper's hole.  There were still a few souvenirs that folks wanted to get and there were several shops along the water front that had t-shirts cheaper than a lot of other places we had seen them before.

We loaded up to the dinghy and returned to the Pussers Landing dinghy dock where we had drinks with the O'Day's the night before.  We walked along the water front and stopped in a few stores.  Mary bought a really cool shirt that was of a woman in a bikini so when she wore it, it looked like she was wearing a little red bikini.  There were shirt and gift shops, there was a dive shop and some clothing stores.

They also had an island spice company which was pretty cool.  It was a place to get whole nutmeg and a grater but we knew space was limited in our bags returning.  (The whole nutmeg ground on top of the PainKillers made them so much better.)

We had a short sail today from Sopers hole, west and then North up the western side of Tortola.  We decided to get over to Cane Garden Bay a bit early to see if Sandman was over at Myett's.  Obarr really wanted to try to catch up with him.  Deb had ordered that glass turtle that we didn't have time to wait for last time we were here so we told them we would pick it up today.

Today was Friday, it was a full moon and it was the night of the Bomba Shack Full Moon party which  we planned part of our vacation around.  We planned our itinerary such that we would be here in Cane Garden Bay on Friday and planned the week of our trip to coincide with a full moon.

We dropped our mooring in Soper's hole and sailed Southwest and then West around the tip of Tortola.  There is a great property right on the southern tip there that has some rooms for rent, a great dock at the water level and it seems to be built hanging over the rocks on multiple levels.  As we passed  Mary took a great picture of this place.

From the point in this picture we headed North and kept the island of Tortola to starboard as we went the short distance to Cane Garden Bay.

True to form and based on Obarr's tradition we tuned the music to the Jimmy Buffett Album, Son of a Son of a Sailor and cued up Track 9 "Mañana" as we sailed into Cane Garden bay.  (See one of the earlier blog entries on Cane Garden bay for the lyrics and why we play it when entering this harbor.)

As we sailed in we found place fairly close to where we stopped earlier in the week when we stayed in this bay.  We picked up a mooring ball and just relaxed.  At this point in the trip, we were completely into the island lifestyle and did nothing in a hurry.  We milled around and cleaned up the boat a little bit.  Played some cards, had a few drinks, sat around and shot the bull with each other and as Oday and T decided to take a swim, Me, Deb and Mary decided to head to shore.

Earlier in the week when we were here, Deb found a glass art studio where they used recycled bottles from the beach and all of the funds went to support the local waterfront community.  Deb liked one of the turtles but wanted a different color, so they started to make a custom one for her, but we had to get going and let them know we would pick it up today.  That was one of the errands we would run on shore.  Mary also wanted to head back to Myetts to pick up a couple of souvenirs and we were going to get ice on the way back to the boat.

Dinghy ride  to shore (this is a CT/Formosa-Deb and I love this style boat)

As we were loading in the Dinghy, T and Oday dove into the water off the side of the boat, and we motored through the crystal clear water to the Dinghy dock.  This time Deb took the helm and she drove the dinghy.  We walked over to Myett's first and Mary picked up a few things she wanted and then we stopped at the Glass studio on the way back to the boat.  The turtle looked great, right along with the blue swirl deb wanted inside the clear glass shell.  We picked up a 20 pound bag of ice, and loaded back up in the Dink.    After getting back on board the boat, Obarr wanted to see if SandMan was at Myett's so we decided that we all wanted a few pain killers and cracked conch anyway.  (The cracked conch at Myett's was unbelievably good).  Sandman was there and Obarr got to speak to him for a little bit which was really cool.  Sandman said he didn't remember Mike's name, but he did remember quite a few good dinners and parries on their boat.   (this goes back 10-15 years).

View from the Myett's Patio.
The Good news is that the View from Tony's is the same

We found out Sandman would be driving tonight to BombaShack so if we needed a ride, he said to just give him a call.   Sadly, Myett's was out of Cracked conch, so we decided to walk down the beach to a place called "Tony's".  They had 2 Painkillers for $6 so we figured if we were just going to have a drink, we would go to the cheaper place.  The view of the water was the same.

I swore to myself I would only have one painkiller because these things, combined with the heat, and not doing a whole lot, put me to sleep and I wanted to save some energy for the full moon party.

We went back to the boat, had a great dinner of marinated MahiMahi on the grill along with fresh veggies and some rice.  Another great meal aboard Kastor Pollox.  We all took showers as the sun started to set and then got ready to go to BombaShack.

Sun Setting  from Cane Garden Bay

When I say, "get ready" it doesn't mean get all dolled up, nope, this is a dive.  A dive may actually be considerably nicer than this place.  So by get ready, I mean we ensured we had cash, cigars, and some bug spray.  Robert and Mary decided to stay at the boat, mainly because of how winding the road over the mountain would be and Mary had a touch of motion sickness on the first day when we did this on the other side of Tortola.  We loaded into the dinghy again and headed back to shore.  Right at the top of the dinghy dock there was a cab waiting there so we just hopped in.  The cabs here are really just a mini van with a lot of seats in them and all of the windows open. To have some extra room, you tend to hang some part of your body out the window (it may be your arm or even your head).  There were five of us and only 3 other people hopped in, so it was not too overloaded.  I climbed all the way into the back and off we went through some very winding roads.  In the BVI's the cars drive on the left side of the road.  When we were coming down the back side of one of the hills, the switchbacks were so steep, when I looked out my window to my left as we went left around a hairpin turn, it looked like it dropped straight down.  (If you want the video at the end of this blog, I traced the road on a map to show how sharp these hairpin turns were.)

We arrived at the Bomba Shack and it needs some explanation.  On one side of the road is the shack, 2 bars and the beach (and bathrooms), on the other side of the road is the place where you can buy drink tickets, there is a kitchen, large outdoor bar and huge stage and dance area.  When you walk up to this it kind of looks like someone built it out of old pallets or wood that washed up on the beach.  There are t-shirts, bras, panties, hats, flags, roadsigns and you name it that are covering the walls.  (Walls that don't really keep much out, most walls have gaps and holes in them.  

As you walk into the entrance on the beach side of the shack, there is a bar to the left and a few make shift benches out of stumps to sit on.  There is no floor, so you kick your shoes off and enjoy the soft sand on your bare feet as you walk through the bar.  It is not really small.  Maybe 200 feet long or so when you get inside.  There are areas to sit, there is a ledge you can put a drink on and look out over the beautiful bay.  Oh, this is also where there are a few local entrepreneurs offering up mushrooms for sale that will surely "take you on a ride"   There is hand written notes all over the wall.  Some are funny, some are more like "ABC was here".
On Full Moon Party night, they don't take cash, you have to go across the street and buy tickets.  (Essentially drinks were $5 each if you bought the tickets).  I bought $20 worth of tickets and walked back across the street to get a painkiller.

We decided to walk up the street a little bit as we could see there were some things going on there too.  They had a stand making snow cones.  Someone was selling jewelry, and several folks selling shrooms again.  Then we found the most entrepreneurial of all of them.  A guy had a card table with a whole bunch of bottles on it.  He was selling drinks for $3 about 100 feet from the entrance to the BombaShack and there were about 20 people hanging around there.   He was working hard trying to get Deb and T to do Mushrooms with him but they passed.

Game where you had to swing the ring on a string and get it on the hook

As we walked back, deb decided she wanted to do the "All you can drink pass" that they were selling.  It was $50 and included all you could drink all night, a BBQ dinner and gave you access to the Mushroom tea that BombaShack makes and a t-shirt.    We decided to check out the other side of the street since we were at the ticket shack.  We walked around into the dirt path that led behind all the bushes/shrubs and trees and there was a huge bar and raised stage and picnic tables.  We met Bomba who was hanging out near the back door of the Shack.

We also ran into Sandman and hung out with him on and off most of the night.  The band was good and as it got later more and more people started to show up. I guess by about 11pm or midnight, there were a couple hundred people there all together.    It was a great place for people watching.  We saw one person so drunk that he couldn't really walk on his own.  We saw one poor girl stumbling and throwing up near the bushes and went to check on her because we thought her friends had left her, but her boyfriend had just gone to get her some water.    I also saw a guy selling shrooms way in the back of this outdoor field/dancefloor/bar/stage/dining room or whatever you want to call this giant outdoor area cut out of all of the trees and kind of hidden from the road.

I heard the band yell "So how many people do we have here from Texas" and there were a bunch of cheers.  I walked over to talk to some in front of us that had cheered and when I asked where she was from, her response was "I am from Oklahoma, he is from Kansas, close enough, right?"    I just shook my head as I walked back to our group.

Before the party was really getting going, Deb and T decided that they wanted to dance, so went right up in front of the band and just started dancing with each other.  We were all back near the road talking to Sandman and got a kick out of the whole scene.  There is something funny that happens when girls dance together, all of the guys stop what they are doing and watch, so at one point, there are maybe 75 people milling around this large area, Deb and T are the only ones in the middle of this field dancing with each other, and of the 75 people milling, 50 were just kind of watching them.   It was pretty funny, but to their credit, they got others to start doing some dancing too.

I wish we had more pictures of this place, but it is not like being in a well lit area, so most of our pictures didn't come out very good at all while we were there.

Sandman with OBarr, T and Deb (at the BombaShack)

We finally decided it was about time to head out and asked Sandman for a ride.  He said yes, but that he was also taking 3 other guys back so we all decided to go back together.    The other guys are nice enough, one was from the Coast Guard stationed in St. Croix.  They were on a holiday for a few weeks and sailing with one of the guys aunt and uncle.    On the way back, I remember hearing one of the guys talking to his buddy about the plan when they got back to shore.  They were going to try to shine a flashlight at the boat they were on in hopes that their Aunt or Uncle would see it, get in the dinghy and come get them.  If that didn't work, they were going to swim out to the boat.

Of course we said we would take them to their boat.  So now we had 8 of us in the 10 foot dinghy.  We certainly had this thing loaded down so we just kept it slow.  The water was flat as could be anyway in the bay so it was a nice quiet smooth ride out to the boat.  So as we left the dock, we asked which boat they were on and sure enough if it wasn't that gorgeous CT (Formosa) that we had seen in Cane Garden Bay, Jost Van Dyke and The Bight.  Deb and I love this boat, it is the style and size we really like/want eventually.  When we pulled up next to the boat, there was no boarding ladder, but these guys were young and nimble, they just climbed up the port holes and rigging up onto deck.  His Aunt came up into the cockpit with the commotion and we complimented her on the boat.  She invited us to come over tomorrow in the daylight and she would show us down below. (Sadly we slept in a bit and when we woke up they were gone the next morning).

All in all, the BombaShack was a good time.  OBarr did say that it was not nearly as big as it had been many years ago and when we talked to some locals about it, they said that it used to be the only one on the island so everyone came to that full moon party.  Now they do one in Trellis Bay, Cane Garden bay and Cappoons Bay where BombaShack is.

Below is a short Video for the morning in Soper's Hole on Tortola and sailing up to Cane Garden Bay for the Full Moon Party at the BombaShack.    If you are don't see a video below, please click this link to go the the video on YouTube.

Leverick Bay, Key Bay Peter Island, Sopers Hole - Sailing the BVI's (7 of 10)

We really enjoyed the air conditioning from being on the dock so much so that we all slept in, we prepared coffee and breakfast in the air conditioning and then each went and showered on shore where we could take as long a shower as we wanted.

Sailing to Peter Island (you can see boats anchored ahead at the Indians)

Sailing to Peter Island

 We had talked about wanting to spend one night in a very deserted area where we would be the only boat.  There is something just picturesque about that thought, so O’Barr again came through with a recommendation on the southwest side of Peter Island.  There was a small point that pointed to the south and would protect us from the swells that would come from the east.  This spot would also allow us to be behind the windward shore that was only about 2 ft above sea level so it allowed all the wind to still come across the bay.  We pulled in and attempted to anchor.  We could see the bottom in 15-20 feet of water and dropped the hook a perfect anchoring sand, but it just wouldn’t grab.  The first time, we assumed it was because there was rock below it.  We pulled it up and made another attempt this time a bit closer to shore and in water that was more shallow.  Again the anchor wouldn’t grab.  We dove the anchor and it just didn’t look like the point of the anchor was aiming correctly.  We pulled up and attempted it again and the same thing.  When diving to inspect our hold we saw the same problem.  We pulled up the anchor and realized that the darn thing was broken. The spade and the shaft were not aligned like they should be.  We started to think about re-rigging the spare anchor but none of us really wanted to chance having an issue in the night.  We started to consider how lucky we were earlier in the trip.  We only anchored 2 other times.  Once was just for lunch and the other was an overnight in Cane Garden Bay.  We really lucked out that we didn’t drag since it seems now that the anchor likely was not set real good earlier when we used it also.  

Deb Relaxing for the short time we were at Key Bay (Peter Island)

What do you do when you have a problem but it is not an emergency?  You open up a beer, and think about it for a few minutes.  We did just that and came to the conclusion that we would head over to the West side of Tortola to Soper’s Hole.  We could pick up a mooring there as there seemed to be a good number of them in that bay.  A plan was hatched and away we went.
We sailed northwest toward the western side of Tortola, passing St. John on the Port side again.  We went North between Little Thatch and Frenchmen’s Cay and then Eastward to Soper’s hole.  By now, we have circumnavigated all of the BV Islands with the exception of Anageda which the charter companies don’t like you to take their boats too because of the shallow water and reef surrounding the island to the north of Virgin Gorda.  

View into Sopers Hole from just between Thatch Island and Frenchman's Cay

We picked up a mooring and watched all the activity on a tall ship that was docked near us.  The ship was called Ocean Star and was an 88 foot Schooner that weighed 75 tons.   She has a staff of 4 professionals and 16 student crew that sail this boat while taking classes, and getting life lessons and certifications in diving, etc.  They offer 20-90 day voyages and this particular ship works mainly in the Caribbean.   While we were there, we saw the kids working on the boat and cleaning the decks, etc.  We saw them getting lessons in Dinghy handling within the anchorage and as evening drew near, they were all swimming and having a great time jumping off the sides and off the bow sprit for some relaxation time.  What an awesome experience for kids.  I looked it up when we returned, it was pricey but still an awesome experience or opportunity for a kid.  It was about $4,500 for a 20 day sail with lessons, about $10K for 40 days.  I asked our Granddaughter if she would be interested in something like that and she said “I would not go to school on a ship, you would waste your money on that”.  Funny how brutally honest kids can be.

Sea|Mester Boat - Ocean Star

Deb and I saw a couple of really nice looking boats moored in this well protected bay and wanted to take a dinghy ride to explore them.  First Obarr and Oday took a little cruise around the anchorage to see if there was any chance that he knew of, or had met, the folks that were on board the Morgan Out Island.  After they came back, Me, Deb, Oday and T loaded a couple of beers in the dinghy and slowly tooled around the anchorage.  We saw 2 beautiful Hinkley’s, and several boats that you could tell were cruisers that had hunkered down in this place as a hurricane hole.  We even saw one boat closest to shore that had about 5 anchors deployed, 3 forward and 2 stern anchors.  It was an odd setup but it looks like they certainly didn’t want this thing moving.  

We decided to run up to Pussers on the waterfront for a drink.  They had a great dinghy dock and it was amazing at how clear the water was here as well.  Just a few feet off the shore the depth dropped from 4 feet to about 20 feet because just 20 yards from the shore was a large fishing boat that likely drafted 6 plus feet of water.  

We had a couple of drinks on the water front and then returned to the boat for a relaxing evening.  It was an early evening so I was able to copy some photos and videos down to the computer and sift through what we didn’t want to keep.  

Another relaxing night hanging out with friends.  Robert took this picture off the back of the boat as the sun was setting.  After another great day, we were off to bed.

Sunset out of Soper's Hole (aka West End of Tortola)

See below for a very short video clip from this day of the trip. If you are reading this in an email or PDF, you may not see the embedded video below.  If not, please go to the following link to see it - Click here for Sailing the BVI’s Chapter 7 of 10 - Leverick Bay to Key Bay to Soper’s Hole

Saba Rock to Leverick Bay - Sailing the BVI's (6 of 10)

We decided today that we really needed to get water.  We were down to about 30 gallons or so and it just made sense that if we were going to come to a dock, we may as well top off fuel too.  Since we were not able to get a mooring at Saba Rock the night before we would have to pay for water and fuel. Methods was not a huge problem but we were a bit concerned about maneuvering up to the fuel dock with the direction of the wind.  This was going to be the first time we take the catamaran to a dock and just didn't want to increase our odds of hitting the dock or not being able to get close enough to tie off.  We did a little checking and found out that we would get some free water (100 gallons) with a mooring at Leverick Bay and based on the guidebook and so e Ariel photos, it appeared that it was going to be a better spot to fill up.

This would be our shortest travel day of the entire trip, so we decided to take advantage of it and do some sight seeing.

We went back over to Saba Rock in the dinghy and walked the island.  It is a beautiful resort.  We walked the docks, around to the grassy lawns overlooking the Caribean.  As we walked along this area we saw a small headstone that read "Ganja the cat" and it looked like Ganja was good to him because based on the dates he lived 18 years.  

We continued our walk toward the sandy area and back again into the docks where the underwater lighting attracts the Tarpon at night.  

We all loaded up in the dinghy and crossed the channel to walk around the Bitter End Yacht Club.  This place is really interesting and very well appointed.  The dinghy docks were in great shape and were right in front of the hotel.  We were amazed at the wood carvings in the lobby.

View from the Hotel entrance toward the Dinghy dock

This is a typical island resort layout with all open walls but this one had really nice wooden floors and walls.  The all appeared to be hand sawn.  We walked through the lobby and certainly had to take some pictures of the wood carvings and a group photo of us all standing right behind the Bitter End Yacht Club and logo.  

We walked down the water front and looked at some of the boats that the Hokin Family had bought over the years.  The story behind the Bitter End Yacht Club is a bit interesting.

In the mid 60's they family brought their boat to this area for recreational fishing off this remote island.  In the late 60's and early 70's the land where the Bitter End Yacht Club (BEYC) is now was just a fishing camp with no running water and no electricity.

there was a Bakery with fresh baguettes for sale 

They loved it there and thought it would be a great place to live.  The attempted to lease an acre of land to build themselves a house there, but the owner "Basil" at the time didn't want to lease them an acre, but instead offered to see the whole place to them.

In 1973, the Hokins bought the property.  The family didn't know anything about running a hotel or "camp" as it were then, but they were enthusiastic about their new property.  Each year the family would all come to this area and they discovered the great sailing, diving, fishing and snorkeling from Anageda to Tortola.  They had a desire to share their love of this area with others, and had the building designed and built.  Today the Resort creates it's own electricity, collects and distills it's own water and uses treated gray water for irrigation.

View from the upstairs lobby of hotel toward Prickly Pear Island

Today is a premium stop for anyone going to the area.  Beatifully appointed, and well maintained, it is the kind of perfect trees and flowers that you expect to see on a Hawaiian resort or Disney land, but the people are all laid back islanders.

We took a walk all along the water front and shops at the Bitter End.  I did end up buying a great portable cooler.  It is a neoprene cooler that you wear on your shoulder (Soft sided) that will hold a 12 pack of beer or a 6 pack and 4 bottles of wine.  It is a great bag and I look forward to using it at sundowners and events at other people's boats when we are back home.

We filmed some of the water front buildings, including a Bakery, Movie Theater (outdoor of course) marina office, fuel dock, hotel, gift shops, restaurants, pubs and what not.  See the video at the end of this blog for some more views of this including a great little bench that was built under a stone arch for shade.

View from slip back toward the shore

We loaded up into the Dinghy and headed back to the boat to pack up for the very short trip to Leverick bay.   We dropped the mooring and headed across the North Virgin Sound and circled the fuel dock finding our best place to pull up to it.  We waited for another boat to pull out and worked our way right onto the dock between 2 other boats side tied.  O'day did a great job and the guys on the fuel dock were really helpful with guiding us to the right spot and making fast the lines as we came in.

While we fueled up, Deb inquired about the Mooring versus a slip in the Marina.  We were shocked to find out that if we took a slip, we would get al the water we needed for free.  So a slip, with electricity, was only $25 more for the night than the mooring ball.  It had been 5 nights and we all thought that we would take advantage of the power and air conditioning while we were here.  After fueling up and filling with Water, we moved into our assigned slip.  Again Oday made it look like he had been Captain of a Catamaran for many years.  Once tied up, we connected power and flipped on the Air Conditioning units in the boat.  No water flow coming out, so we started to investigate what happened.  Turns out that with all of the sailing and beating, we just lost the prime to the pumps.  After reprising the pumps for each air conditioner, we were pumping cold air into all of the staterooms and salon.

Lunch time visitor

We emptied the trash, cleaned up the boat (Taking advantage of the water) and walked up to the restaurant for lunch and some Pain Killers and Caribe beer.  I love Island restaurant, it is not uncommon to see a dog wandering through looking for a handout.  In this particular one, we had a chicken come through looking for some food.

After a really good lunch including drinks, Conch fritters and cheeseburgers in paradise, we decided to go for a swim in the pool on shore that was included with a slip rental.  The water was warm, but it was very relaxing to just chill in the pool for an hour or so.   Right next to the pool was one of those great outdoor tiki style bars, so we had to swing on over and have a drink or 3.

Yep, Texas Flag is us

One of the other cool things about hanging out in these water front bars and restaurants is the characters you meet.  We met a guy that was there and he was full of rich stories.  Really nice guy, and he was sailing "down island" on his "french cat" that was anchored out in the bay.  In the hour or so we sat there he shared all kinds of interesting stories.  If I were to sum it up quickly, he was a cowboy from Wyoming or something like that.  He told stories of doing work for Nasa and rockets.  He also talked about doing some kind of work for the Russian space program.  He discussed national security type work he had done, He supposedly did delivery of private Boeing aircraft including delivering the 777 to Sir Richard Branson.  He suggested that he was going to stop by Richards Island, but the wind was just too good, he didn't want to stop sailing.  He is a test pilot and, oh yeah, he is a kite surfer that flies to all locations when there is a hurricane so he can kite surf in those.    I personally think 85% of it was BS, but it was all interesting.

View of the restaurant, stores, bar and pool from up on the hillside

While we sat at the bar, Obarr took a little walk up the hill and around this part of the island.  He used his amazing zoom on his camera to get pictures of the boat, the marina and even zoomed in on us sitting at the bar from a 1/4 mile away.

We slowly worked our way back to the boat and enjoyed the nice cool air that was in the boat.  We were able to connect to the Leverick Bay restaurant's wifi connection so we all posted a few pictures on Facebook and I must confess I did download my work email so that I could sift through it to find the important stuff.  We slept really good at the dock and planned to sleep as late as everyone wanted to.

We have a small video from our walk around Saba Rock and also Bitter End, It you are reading this anywhere other than the blog online, you will need to click on this link for the Saba Rock, BEYC Video.

Matagorda to Freeport

When we arrived at Matagorda city Marina, The crew from Nightingale came over and assisted with the lines, which took quite a bit of patience because I was having a heck of a time backing into the slip I was attempting to get to.
I finally made it, but not before seeing all of the mud churning up from how shallow it was, no wonder why I couldn't rotate into the slip, I was likely plowing some mud with the keel.

After tying up, getting everything in ship shape and checking the water intake strainers for any mud, we were set to relax.  Deb fixed dinner and we had a bite to eat and then went up to the bar/restaurant at the Marina for a couple of drinks.  While we were there the crew from Nightingale came up and offered us a round of drinks, on them, for coming back and helping them get ungrounded the evening before.  I thought it was a really nice gesture, and certainly not the reason we did it, but it was nice either way.

Karen making Coffee

We had a good night sleep, and I must have slept sound because when I got up at about 6:45, I noticed that the shrimp boat that was docked 10 feet off my bow was gone and I hadn't even heard it leave.
We showered, fueled up, restocked a few beverages and were off the dock good and early in hopes that we may be able to make good enough time to make it all the way to Hitchcock.

As we started out into the next open body of water, it became apparent that we were NOT going to be making it all the way to Hitchcock.  This whole week had been filled with winds at 20-35 knots and today was no exception.  It was slow going slogging into the wind and waves for several hours which put us behind schedule a bit.   We decided that the best place to stay was going to be Freeport.   If you would like to see some video of the slogging into the wind, go to this link on Youtube for the Video.  Link to "Slogging up wind in the open Bay"

Mid afternoon, we happened to notice Nightingale coming up behind us.  They were making a few
knots faster than us and we talked on a radio for a while as they were passing.  We got some good pictures of their boat and sent them via email.  I am hoping they have some good ones of us as well and can send them our way.

They were also staying in Freeport but not at the same Marina.  I was concerned about a fixed bridge near the Marina they were staying at so we stayed at Seaside Marina (mainly a large fishing boat Marina for offshore fishing yachts).

At some point during the trip, I decided to troll a lure for a while.  I certainly didn't expect we would catch anything on the ICW since I was still rigged up for offshore fishing in deeper water.  I figured what the heck and we did troll for a little while but then pulled it back in when coming up on some more barge traffic.  What I certainly did NOT want to catch was the prop shaft of a tug boat.

We ended up going through a set of flood control locks on this leg of the trip as well.  We didn't have to wait too long, but the water coming down the

Brazo's River East Lock (on the ICW)

river was flowing at a pretty good pace into the ICW and had about a 3-4 knot current.  It felt like forever before we made it through that lock at about 1.5-2 knots over the ground.  When looking at the water, it looked like we were cruising full speed, looking at the locks we were crawling.  We went through the first lock and then had to circle in the river a few times to let some other traffic go through, they were heading West on the ICW and going north up the Brazos so we had to stay on the down current side of the intersection until he passed.  Once through, we were able to go through the second flood control lock and continue East on the ICW.


Tonight, I wanted to go out and grab a bite to eat rather than stay on the boat.  Last time we were through this Marina about 6 months ago, we stopped and had one of the best burgers ever at a little place called "Castaways" and I was determined to go back to this place.  We walked over for dinner and drinks and in a bout of crazy small world stuff, we met some folks there.   One of our guests/crew posted on Facebook that we were in Freeport.  Someone she went to high school with happened to reply to that post and said, I have 4 crazy aunts that are down there on vacation.  Sitting at the table next to us were 4 older women having the time of their life.  They were toasting drinks, dancing with each others and other people in the bar and Deb, in only the way Deb can, Goes over and asks if there is any chance they know "So and So".  As it turns out, that was his "4 crazy aunts".   The night went down hill from there.  Deb and Karen joined their table and next thing I know there were trays of shots and drinks, etc going that way.  

Jim, Kenny and I had our beers and just watched the girls have a great time.   While we were there, there was a gentlemen at the bar that had drank more than he should have to safely drive home.  The owner of the bar insisted he not drive.  This man was on a motorcycle and very worried about the safety of his bike leaving it out front.  The owner helped him wheel the motorcycle into the
bar/resteraunt and then got him a ride home.  That, in my book, was one really cool move.    I must admit it did allow for one photo of Karen on a Motorcycle :)

So now it was time to head back to the boat.   I am not sure what it is about my lovely bride, but when she has a few drinks, you never quite know what she is going to do/say.   On this particular day, apparently she thought she should talk in a British  accent the rest of the evening.  So the whole walk home, she rambled on in a perfect (or maybe it just sounded perfect to me after a few beers) British accent.  She even used the English words for things rather than what she may normally say, referring to the bathroom as the Loo and the elevator as the lift.  I do have some rather funny video of this, but I decided that I would not post it, but I must admit, I just had some pretty good laughs going through them all again while writing this blog.

So off to sleep for the night and tomorrow we are headed to Hitchcock.  That is going to be as far as we can get because the Waterways around Galveston, Houston Ship Channel and the ICW are all closed on the other side of Hitchcock due to the Oil Spill.  (At the time we were sailing through (on March 24th) not at the time this posts)

Enjoying our time in Corpus Christi

It has been a crazy couple of months.  As most of you know, Deb had partial knee replacement surgery at the end of September and with that came 6-8 weeks of recovery time.  While considering a date for the surgery, Deb was weighting a planned sail from Kemah to Corpus to spend a couple of winter months a bit further south.   Additionally, Deb and I are planning on a vacation and she wanted to get the surgery done as far in advance of that as possible so as to be very mobile for our vacation.  This meant that when we were planning on sailing the boat to Corpus, she was still using a walker and NOT able to get on and off the boat, never the less up and down the companionway.

At the beginning of October, our friends from Dallas came into town and planned to make the trip with me (See previous blog posts on the actual trip) and I am still blown away by their generosity and willingness to help out with this.

Night time view, Downtown Corpus is just at the end of the dock

Slowly we began to settle in to our new location.  We are actually on a dock that is right off the road.  I was worried about this at first, but after a few weeks, I am finding it to be pretty workable and convenient since we can keep our car just about 20 feet from the stern of our boat.

The Marina here in Corpus Christi is having some renovations done on a few docks so there was not enough room for any more "live-a-boards" on the other docks (with privacy locked gates).  We rolled with it; (Because what else could you really do) and we moved into our current slip.  I was not happy that the pump out service was not available on this particular dock but in the end, this is turning into a good thing.  It forces us to actually get off the dock every 2 weeks at the longest and at least motor over to the next T-head to pump out.  (for those that are not familiar with this, it is the unpleasant task of removing the contents of the holding tanks (think septic tank on land).  Not a romantic subject but certainly part of living aboard and keeping our waters clean.

There is a lot of foot traffic that walks down the sidewalk and passes the boat.  Most are just out strolling for the day/evening and some are walking to the restaurant that is at the end of the street we are on.  At first I was concerned about privacy, but we have not had anyone walk down the pier on the side of our boat.  There is a small wire gate we can close when we are on the boat for the night to keep people from walking down the dock.  We see quite a few people snap a picture or comment on the name of the boat.  If we are outside, we have had several stop and wave or even chat for a while.  The boat name and the fact that it still lists Panama City FL as the sailing port usually brings many questions.   We don't mind, we are excited about our lifestyle and don't mind sharing it with others.

We did have an interesting experience however when trying to order high speed internet service from ATT U-verse.  I figured it was going to be interesting when I called to order the service and attempted to have it installed.  The conversation went something like this…
AT&T: "May I have your address so I may check for availability in your area"
Me: "Well, there is not really a specific address, I am about half a block from the intersection of X and y"
AT&T: "Right, but can you just provide me your address, even if the house is not complete yet"
Me: "No, see that's the problem, it is not a house, it is a boat that is tied up along X Street"
AT&T: "I don't understand, you want internet on a boat??"  This was asked with utter disbelief.
Me: "Exactly"
AT&T: "Well if you can provide an address I can help, but I don't think we can get internet to a boat"
Me: "Ok. Thanks, I will think of another way to ask and call back later"

Then it dawned on me, I called back again and I ordered the service and provided the Marina's address.  Then I waited for the AT&T truck to circle the marina office repeatedly trying to figure it out and I went out and spoke to the man.   In the end, I was able to convince him to just run me a long wire down the sidewalk from the small little green tower where they connect the houses and I would take care of the rest.  He did, and I stapled the wire along the underside of the wooden bulkhead down to my slip.  I then wired in a telephone box in the breaker panel for shore power.  I then just hooked up a phone line into the boat right by where I connect Cable TV, Water and Electric.  It worked like a champ so I have high speed internet and can work very productively from here.   It was a bit comical however.

Relaxing in the Cockpit (writing a blog post)

All in all, we like it here.  I can't ask for much more, here it is in mid November and I am in shorts and a t-shirt sitting in the cockpit with a beautiful breeze blowing in on me while writing this blog.  In the mornings, the sun rises right over the palm trees at the end of the T-head and it really is pretty.  The Marina has really nice showers and laundry facilities when I want to take a long shower (it is a guilty pleasure).  Heck they even have free ice for Marina Members.
The only real downside of this location has to do with the flights in and out of the airport here.  They are not all that convenient and there are not many per day.

I will end this post with a nice little view of the sunrises from the boat.

The work moves to the V-Berth

Our plan of starting our refit inside the boat from the rear and moving forward has worked pretty well.  We are now to the V-Berth which is a pretty good sign.  This is an area that will require quite a bit of work due to leaks that were in the large opening hatch on the coachroof.  Like most things, you don't quite see how bad it is until you take out all of the molding and really start looking closely at things.

We have removed the headliner from the coachroof, and removed all of the molding carefully labeling it all with a sharpie so we can put the puzzle back together.  Sadly I broke a piece of the molding, but as this project has gone on, I have been getting better at correcting my mistakes.  One of the things we learned how to do was  make our own molding to match what is on the boat.  It takes some time and creativity but we have been able to replace it all and keep making them out of solid Teak.

Dry fitting curved Mahogany wall in place (lots of work to still be done)

We removed the opening port, cleaned all of the old bedding material off of the fiberglass both inside and out.  We removed every bit of sealant and bedding from the port as well as the decorative trim that goes on the outside.

We have made new decorative wall sections out of Mahogany plywood like it was originally.  This will cover the raw fiberglass on the inside of the coachroof.  We put a thin layer of insulation behind each panel and then start the re-assembly.  This particular piece was a bit interesting because it is curved.  We have certainly dealt with curves before but this one is not as wide so the curve it a bit tighter.

The picture is just the first step where we have just dry fit the curved piece in place.  The next step will be to bed the port later today and install the other 2 sides of the mahogany walls.

We have been putting the work in the V-berth off since we moved aboard, but we are expecting some friends to visit in a month or so and want to be sure that this room is ready for them when they arrive.

Frankly, the toughest part of this V-Berth work is going to be the fact that the forward bulkhead is rotted and is going to have to be replaced.  It's purpose is to essentially store the anchor chain and rode.  For those not familiar with it, when pulling in the anchor, the chain or line goes through an opening called a hawse-pipe and drops into this forward compartment.  It allows the topsides to stay neat and not have to find a place up there to store 200-300 feet of chain.

Air Conditioner Condensation problem

Today I hope I have solved the problem with condensation in the forward air conditioner condensate tray.  Typically these are supposed to gravity drain and people either put them into a sump or into the bilge.  I have an issue with this on our boat.  When we bought the boat, it you can tell there was an air conditioner in this spot but it was not there.  It had all the hoses going to that location including a drain hose to the bilge.  The problem was that the drain hose ran parallel about 4 feet before it went downhill toward the bilge.  The problem is that it would not gravity drain out.
There were NO other routes to a lower space without drilling holes through a stringer and I feared doing that not knowing exactly where the 115 gallons of water tanks are and how far they extend.
I have spent countless hours trying to come up with a solution that did not involve taking up the flooring.  I looked into the Mermaid Condensator, but it doesn't appear that Mermaid sells them any more even though I found a ton of references to them on the web. I thought about making my own, but would have a similar issue with routing the suction tube to the through hull location on the discharge side of the water circulation.

In the end, I went old school low budget and I sure hope it works for me.  Basically I put an automatic bilge pump in the condensation tray, I ran a 3/4" tube from that pump to a vented loop above the water line and then tee'ed it into the galley sink drain above the water line.  The vented loop will prevent sink water from ever running or siphoning back to the condensate tray.

So now in the Galley I will have a modified bilge pump switch that will be labeled as Air Conditioner Condensation Pump

As a side note I tested this out by pumping the condensation into a bucket before I plumbed everything in.  In South Texas where it is between 85-92 this time of year.  The 16,000 BTU air conditioner for the forward salon extracts about 3/4 to 1 gallon of water an hour.  That actually shocked me, I didn't expect there to be that much.  It just goes to show I want to do something with the rear air conditioner now too in order to avoid all of that water going into the bilge.

In the event anyone is interested in the parts I used for this solution, I have put links below.

                

Refrigeration - Yeah

Now that the newest shelves are installed in the engine room, I was able to connect the Technautics Cool Blue low amp DC refrigeration system.  I mounted the cold plate quite some time ago (came with a 2 and a half inch thick cold plate so it will retain that cold for a while without having to cycle the compressor.

Cool Blue compressor is on top right of shelf

This may be one of the simplest units to install.  Once you have the cold plate mounted and the 2 freon tubes run to the location where the compressor will be, it is just a matter of connecting them and tightening to the specified foot pounds (10 in this case).  We mounted the thermostat in the refrigerator and ran the wires to the engine room where the compressor is located through the same path that the freon tubes were run.


After connecting the freon tubes, it is a matter of just connecting 4 wires, 2 for the thermostat and DC Positive and Negative.  In my case, I had to run the wire for it since we located the compressor in a different location than where the old one was.  This wire was easily run in the existing wire channels in the engine room to the distribution panel where it has it's own 20amp circuit.  The previous owner had the old unit connected directly to the battery and not through the panel or on a fuse or circuit.

The Technautics Cool Blue allows for variable speed compressor settings and has some smart controls that will actually have the compressor run at a lower RPM as the batteries begin to get low.

The good news is that I put a gallon of water in there and had nice ice cold water to drink so it is working good.   :)

As a next step, I will end up building a new top loading door for the refrigerator box so that it matches the rest of the counter tops we installed and allows for access either to the Freezer or Refrigerator without having to open both like it is now.

Water Circulation Woes...

As you may know we have been working on an engine room redesign/refit.  The start of this project was driven by the need to remove a rotted subfloor and add holding tanks.  To access all of this, essentially everything but the engine had to come out of the engine room and then start the process of rebuilding.

So the good news is we are really close and as we have been doing down this path, I have been planning how I would mount all of the pumps and strainers back in the engine room to make them easy to service.

The plan was to mount the water intake strainer for the engine and air conditioners on the side of the subfloor with easy access just sitting inside the doorway of the engine room.  I planned on using a single strainer for the air conditioner circulation pumps, so essentially water would come into the water strainer and then on the outbound side, I installed a tee fitting with one line going to the salon where the forward air conditioner water circulation pump is mounted.  The other side of the tee went to the rear air conditioner water circulation pump which was mounted in the engine room.

In the diagram below, Pump1 is mounted in the engine room and is a 1000 gallon per hour pump and runs water circulation for the owners state room air conditioner.  Pump2 is mounted in the Galley and is a 500 gallon per hour pump and runs the water circulation for the main salon Reverse cycle Air Conditioner/Heat pump

When we connected everything and ensured no leaks, we turned on the Air Conditioning in the main salon fed by pump2.  When the compressor kicked on, the pump did also and began circulating water and we had good discharge out the boat, I was feeling pretty good.  When we turned on the owner's state room air conditioner fed by pump 1, it would stop the feed of water through pump2.  I suspect this is due to being closer to the water strainer and also the fact that the pump is a higher capacity pump.  I really do not want to put another through hull in the boat so have at least come up with my next plan of action.

In the morning, I am going to remove Pump2, and just connect the lines together where the pump was.  I will then re-plumb the sea strainer to only feed to pump1, out of pump 1, I will locate a tee and feed water through both air conditioners.  The down side of this is that I need to either install a relay so that the pump kicks on when either Air Conditioner compressor runs, or I can connect Pump1 to it's own 110v breaker and just ensure that when either air conditioner is on, that breaker is on and the pump is running all of the time.

I do believe I may add valves to each output side from the pump so if I want to, I can turn off the water flow to either air conditioner if I need to service one without having to turn the other off.

I will be a little nervous wiring in the 110 volt pump to the breaker panel.  The good news is I can pull the shore power cord so I know that we will have no power coming into the boat while I am in there working on the back side of the distribution panel.  It should be a short cable run for the pump given it's proximity to the panel.  I will also need to disconnect the power to pump 2 from the inside of the Webasto Control unit in the forward salon.

Sadly, it looks like some more time in the engine room.  I don't mind it so much except after a few hours of being contorted into whatever position was required for the given job, I seem to end up with quite a few stiff muscles a few hours later.

All the while I was working on this today, Deb was sorting every single stainless steel screw, nut and bolt that I have managed to gather over the last 2 years of work.  She organized them all by size and put them in small waterproof containers.  She also sorted and organized all of the varied electronic, electric and plumbing spares and parts that we have on board.
In the last 2 weeks she has painted all of the bilges and storage behind the settees and the V-berth.  She started to organize and put the navigation station back together (we had relocated all of the items to another location when we rebuilt that).  She also cleared and organized the Galley and Tool storage.

June 2, 2013 - Update
The plumbing has been re-arranged and working as described above and outlined in the second illustration.  I opted for a seacock under the galley sink for the forward air conditioner rather than at the actual pump location.

Engine Room (Side of subfloor wall) | Left strainer for A/C and right strainer for Engine | Pump with split outputs

LED Multi-Use Lighting for the Owners Stateroom

We have been considering putting accent lighting in the Owners Stateroom since we completed the refit there last year.  I ended up purchasing some LED light strips that were single color and waterproof at a local electronic component store to install in the boats breaker box.  I never did install them but it started the expansion of our ideas for the stateroom.

LED lighting is available at West Marine but it is very expensive and not as versatile as what you can order online.  I reviewed the specs for the LED strips from West, and the ones I can find on Amazon seemed to be fairly similar in that they were the bright LED style strips and waterproof, but the ones from Amazon were also able to be cut to any length and could be set to change colors if desired.

Link to Amazon RGB LED Lights

Thin Cedar Strips mounted

We chose Cedar as the mounting surface for the pleasant smell, resistance to moisture and lastly it was an inexpensive but good way to accomplish the task.  I bought a single 8 foot cedar fence picket and 3 8 foot lengths of scalloped moulding to put the LED's behind.  We got these from home depot.

We cut thin strips of the cedar wood and drilled thin pilot holes through it every 18 inches or so.  We then drilled a small countersink hole at each one so that when mounted to the walls, the screws would be flush.

These particular LED lights came with a 120V AC to 12V DC adapter included in the kit which allowed me to toss that and wire these directly into the boat's 12v DC system.  When we did the refit in the stateroom, we planned to add lights later so already had wiring into each of the 4 corners of the room.

LED's mounted to cedar strips

When installing these lights, we installed the small electronic component, and Infra Red Remote receiver into the corner of the stateroom (where later we will install a small shelving unit with power in it to charge cell phones and Ipad's and store eyeglasses when sleeping).

Once the wiring was connected to the connector for the LED's we mounted the LED strips to the cedar strips facing down.  These particular LED's come with a 3M adhesive backing but I don't suspect that will hold up in the varied temperatures on the boat.  We are adding some epoxy glue to the back side as well to ensure they stay put.

The scalloped molding was also cut to the proper length, had pilot holes drilled, as well as counter sinks allowing us to install and fill the screw holes with bungs after the fact.    Every time in the past we had installed anything that was wood on the boat, we have used a good hardwood (either Teak or Mahogany) but in this case we chose to use a simple pine molding and stain it to the color we wanted.

All my wiring tools
(meter, shrink wrap, marine crimps), etc

After staining the pieces, we applied multiple coats of varnish like the rest of our interior projects.  Once dry we installed these pieces of molding to the cedar strips with the top of the molding flush with the top of the cedar strip so that it creates a void aiming downward for the lights to shine down without being able to see them directly.

We are happy with the way the LED's have turned out and will also be doing something similar in the Salon as we wrap up that part of the refit as well.   The good news is that the entire strip of LED's in the stateroom (about 16 feet of them) still draws minimal amps and are better than the 2 double filament fixtures that were back there before we started the refit.  It is a pleasant surprise to turn on all of the boats LED lighting throughout and watching the DC Ammeter barely move.

Below is a short video we did showing what the lights look like in operation.  We filmed them with the lights changing colors but I don't see us using it that way, I suspect that we will just have a single color when they are on.

The Salon Remodel begins

This is an old post from September of 2012, I just noticed that it remained in draft mode and was not published according to it's schedule

Now that we have wrapped up the Navigation Station, Galley and Walkthrough, we had friends in town and did some nice sailing, now it is back to the next bit of work on the boat.

So yesterday it started, cushions removed, everything removed from the storage below the settee, cupboards emptied and the demolition begins.

Salon - Port Side - Before

In the "Before" picture you can see both Red and Blue arrows.  The blue arrows point to places where we have noticed water coming in when it rains hard.  The odd thing about a boat is where you see it dripping from is typically nowhere near where it is actually leaking.  In this case most of the dripping was coming out of the florescent light fixture mounted on the ceiling behind the settee.  

The leak actually appears to be coming from 2 places.  One is from a poorly bedded opening hatch about 6 feet from that location.  The other culprit appears to be the opening port just above the light itself.  

The red arrows point to all of the areas where the wood will need to be replaced.  This falls into 2 categories.  The peeling veneer on the back wall is rather easy, typically it is just a thin 1/8" thick piece of veneered plywood as a decorative piece.  The flat top of that counter behind the cushion is a little bit more complex and is 3/4 inch teak veneered plywood and helps to provide structure and strength to the boat by locking the galley and Vbert bulkheads together.  

That is the countertop that the cupboards are mounted to, it is also the top of the storage area behind the seat back and houses the air conditioning vents for the Salon area.  

Salon - Port Side - Wood removed

We removed the cupboards, removed the decorative veneer wall from behind it.  Removed the face of the storage area (Also the back of the salon seats) and then removed the horizontal piece that was rotting. 

As we typically do, we have taken these wooden pieces to our storage unit where we will sand the moulding and all of the good pieces of wood down to fresh wood with 220 grit sandpaper.  For the pieces that are rotted, we will use the old ones as patterns and make new ones.  

The big decision now is if we will put it back the way it was, or try to improve upon the storage that the boat has, and we will likely need when living aboard.  I think we will be doing the later and likely will make new cabinets that are deeper than the previous ones.  We will also work to create dividers and doors across the entire countertop so that we have storage all the way across.  By doing these 2 things, we should more than triple the amount of storage that was above the counter on the Port side of the boat.

The hole in the bottom of the seat is the access panel to the 16,500 BTU air conditioning unit that will be installed as soon as the leaking ports have been repaired.  

The realization hit both of us today, it is amazing that in just 2 day of working  (about 7 hours total) we have gutted this section of the boat again down to bare hull and fibreglass in areas.   It will take us 3 months to build all the new stuff and install it again.  And as we all know Murphy's law (I am convinced he was a sailor) kicked in and it started to rain today and will for the next 3 days when I really need to remove and rebed 2 opening ports and 2 opening hatches in the roof.

We did a small video showing what it looks like in more detail now that we have removed the old "stuff"