Summer 2020

Return from Florida

My winter 2019 season ended with a rough ride home to Rhode Island in early May 2020. The ride home had tossed everything in the salon as I fought beam seas.

My Keurig needed a minor repair but she is still making coffee this morning as I type this

Lots of fenders to starboard as this early in the season has many transients coming and going.

Back in my slip in early May… I thought the worst was over…

Covid-19 Pandemic

2020 had some good times for me but it sucked in so many other ways

Dad

Now home, the first order of business was to go see Dad. I had flown up to visit once during the winter but now we could spend the next six months together until I had to leave again on Halloween 2020.

Dad & I enjoying some coffee & catching up

I could not do my trip south each winter if it were not for my brother, Eddie and his wife, Doreen. They give so much of themselves to help my Dad live his best life. They become the primary care givers for my Dad when I leave to head south for the winter. Family is a wonderful thing.

Doreen is playing barber and making sure Dad looks sharp

Eddie and I took my Dad to the D Rounds Truck Shows 2020

My Dad drove trucks all his life. These days his memory is failing. My brother and I thought it would be nice to take him to the Danny Rounds truck show 2020. Dad surprised us with his recall of all things trucks that day. It was a great day to see him get out and smile around the antique trucks.

Projects – Dad’s Home

When I get back every Spring my brother and I make any needed repairs to my Dad’s home. This year was a busy one with lots of repairs and modifications to siding, ceilings, furnace, new privacy fence, etc.

FBM – FaceBook Marketplace – Cash is King

I spent some time using FaceBook Marketplace to sell many items and turn them into cash to purchase others. I am kind of addicted to FBM.

More Anchoring – No Kayaks

This was the year that I finally decided to sell both heavy kayaks and go with twin lightweight, high-pressure inflatable, SUPs (Stand Up Paddleboards). I was able to stow two SUPs in the port kayak hooks and a 12″ high-pressure inflatable dock on the starboard side. I also purchased two 12′ x 18″ rafting fenders so other boaters can raft along side me each weekend.

Dinghy Upgrade

Fishing is big in SW Florida. However, much of the water is very shallow. I have decided to upgrade my dinghy as my old Walker Bay 340 dingy (shown below being hauled away by its new owner). It had several patches and was showing its 8 year age.

I found a 12′ Highfield aluminum hulled hypalon dinghy with a 25HP Yamaha outboard on FBM (shown below).

I then set out to customize it. I added:

Tan colored dinghy chaps
Motor & seat covers
Custom silk-screened state registration panels
Garmin GPS/fish finder
NMEA 2K network for outboard engine data on Garmin.
Lifters trim tabs,
Garmin Fusion Stereo
Upgraded battery box with cell charger and 12V power.
Drink holders
Fishing rod holders
etc. (see pics below)

I like to trick out the dinghy to have everything that I need for fishing.

Summer Getaways

My brother was nice enough to cover for me while I flew to Florida on a family emergency as well as got in a few boating trips to Martha’s Vineyard, Cuttyhunk, Block Island and Newport.

Forget Baby Yoda, I got to hang out with a baby Zebra

Saltwater Drone

My old drone got damaged by salt water so I decided to buy a drone that can land directly in the saltwater.

My 4-Legged Kids

Thanks to Kelly for letting me visit our dogs before I left. She’s a great dog Mom and takes the best care of these two. I love these furry kids.

My girl Happy on my right and my boy Brody on my left.

Projects – Simple Life

I worked on several boat projects such as replacing my Khalenberg air compressor, new bottom paint & zincs, waxed hull, LED & party lighting, upgraded to all Gen 3 iPad Pros for navigation, new windlass & deck mount, etc.

Simple Life’s new party lighting in the salon

I also added a new espresso machine and station complete with everything needed to make some good coffee drinks.

Also a shoutout to Greg and Tracey from MV Reel Fine for giving me their old dinghy davits. I mounted them on the stern just before I left.

I finally mounted a proper first-aid kit, Anti-chocking device and AED – Automated External Defibrillator. I hope I never need these but it’s good to know they are aboard.

While I had the boat on the hard for maintenance, I made sure to pretty her up.

Civic Duty

Soon I was down to a week before departure so I had to run out quick and cast my vote.

Last Minute Projects

Preppy was supposed to join me for the 1st week on the trip but we needed that week to finish several projects that needed to be done before departure . I can’t thank Preppy enough for his help during this last minute rush to get things fixed and get off the dock. I don’t know how I would have done it without him. Nice to have good friends. Below is a pic of Preppy & I while we took a break and chatted with Heather and Debby who had come by to see me off.

Stay tuned for the next blog post about the first leg of my Winter 2020.

Vero Beach with Friends

Well we made it to Vero Beach just in time for Christmas.

We had not decorated for the holidays and with it being almost 80 degrees and sunny it was not feeling quite like the Christmas for us Northerners. What to do? Put up a Christmas tree. OK, the boat is not that big so we settled on a small Xmas display instead.

We are staying in a Suntex Marina (formerly Loggerhead Marina). Suntex’s HQ is in Texas and they recently purchased 11 Loggerhead marinas in Florida. The marina here is surrounded by high-end condos in a gated community. They have a beautiful pool and waterfall as well as a captain’s lounge where the captains enjoy coffee together each morning.

The trip South down the Indian River from Melbourne Beach to Vero Beach started with a beautiful sunrise.

Followed by large homes and the occasional trawler passing by.

The highlight of our stay was getting to spend time with Kelly’s Auntie Lori and her husband Jim who have an amazing home here in Vero Beach. Thanks Auntie Lori & Jim for being such great hosts! Here is a selfie from happy hour with our waitress Savannah (whose personality matched that beautiful smile).

The weather has been warm and sunny but Chief Martin Brody and Happy don’t seem to mind.

PS. Don’t tell them it’s not real grass in the cockpit.

We have been hearing about the 8 degree weather back home so we hope all our friends back home are staying warm.

Supermoon Where Are You?

Yesterday morning we awoke before sunrise and got underway to Beaufort, NC.

The first & last supermoon of 2017 was helping slice through the dark as we pushed away from the dock.

Supermoon 2017 — Supermoon Reflecting the Sun’s Rays

Supermoon infographic — Supermooninfographic

Supermoons happen when a full moon approximately coincides with the moon’s perigee, or a point in its orbit at which it is closest to Earth. This makes the moon appear up to 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than usual.

December’s supermoon is actually the first of three back-to-back supermoon full moons to come in the next two months. On Jan. 1 and Jan. 31, the full moon will also occur near the moon’s arrival at perigee, according to NASA, which billed the line up as a supermoon trilogy. The Jan. 31 supermoon is also the second full moon of January, making it a Blue Moon, and also occurs during a total lunar eclipse.

As the sun got ready to sneak over the horizon there was a beautiful orange-pink hue reflecting off the water.

Today’s leg of our journey takes us from Hobucken, NC to Beaufort, NC

The Beaufort of coastal North Carolina is “BOH-fert”. The Beaufort of South Carolina is pronounced “BYOO-fert”. Established in 1709, Beaufort is the third-oldest town in North Carolina.

As we made our way out of Goose Creek and into Pamlico Sound, the only traffic we passed was a tug pushing a barge.

Tug and Barge — YATPB – Yet Another Tug Pushing Barge

The dominant wave set was coming from the NE and that meant we had a following sea as we turned and made our way down the Neuse River. A following sea that is slightly to one side of the stern can be annoying when you are at the helm. The waves catch up to the boat from behind and lift the stern pushing it to port or starboard. This can swing the bow as much as 30 degrees at times and it starts to feel like you are pointing the boat all over the place. I made a quick adjustment to increase the autopilot’s response rate and the bow heading deflection lessened considerably. Being a slow boat (6-9 knots) you are often at the helm from sun-up to sundown to make your destination. Autopilot is an electronic device with some firmware loaded on it that drives a hydraulic pump which turns the rudder. There are many settings that you can control but the response rate is the one you will want to adjust so that the rudder position changes are swift or slow enough for how you want the boat to point.

Autopilot Control

Autopilot Display

As weekend boaters, we were boating in destinations like Block Island, Nantucket or Provincetown. These locations are anywhere between 6-12 hours from our home port in Warwick, RI. We would be forced to run the boat at 8.5 knots and only get about 1 MPG. Now that we are full-time boaters, we slow the boat to about 6 knots and get 4 MPG. You can go 4X farther if you simply reduce your speed by 2.5 knots. (Recall 1 knot = 1.15 MPH so approximately every 6 knots you would simply add 1 to get the speed in MPH).

Even knowing this, we made the decision to up the speed to 8.5 knots and reduce the amount of time spent in the following sea.

Happy and Chief Martin Brody appreciated that we burned a a bit more fuel for their comfort.

Brody and Happy — Chief Martin Brody and his Big Sister Happy

As we turned into Adam’s Creek the ride smoothed out and we dropped back down to 6 knots. The current in Adam’s Creek was swift and the DSM (Depth Sounder Module aka. Fish Finder) was showing asymmetric rippling of the creek bottom. I believe this is caused by a swift bottom current.

Adams Creek Rippled Bottom — Asymmetric Rippled Bottom of Adams Creek

The fish finder was also well, finding fish. The DSM uses sonar or high frequency sound generated by a device that protrudes through the hull and is sending a column of sound waves straight down beneath the boat. These sound waves not only reflect off the bottom but when they hit a fish the sound resonates in the fish’s swim bladder (a small air-filled sack that helps control a fish’s buoyancy) and this echo is detected and colored sharply to allow you to spot fish on the screen.

Adam’s Creek is a lovely place with lots of sights to see.

Youtube Video of Bald Eagle in Adams Creek

Very Caribbean Don’t You Think?

Bonus Points for Parking Your Helicopter in Front of Your Mobile Home

Boat Slip only $75K

I’m Pretty Sure The War Over Slavery Ended?

Adams Creek spills out into the Newport River and it’s marshes and shallows are something that you will want to avoid.

Shallow Birds Standing.JPG — Kelly & I Often Joke… “If You Want to Know Where it’s Shallow; it’s Where the Birds are Standing”

As we pulled into our slip in Beaufort we hailed the dockmaster who warned us about the swift current running transverse to the slip we were assigned. As we pulled in to the fairway the current slammed into our full keel and began to push the boat toward the bows of the boats across the fairway. I was forced to back out quickly and reposition so that I could now take the swift current into account and position the boat for rapid spin and quick back into our slip. Kelly was quick to toss lines to the dockhands and soon we were checked in and given the keys to a “courtesy car”. Up North, I’ve never stayed at a marina that offers a fee courtesy car to marina guests. The car was a welcome treat and we put it to good use re-provisioning the boat with more food & beer.

Courtesy Car Kelly — Courtesy Car – We Got Wheels!

With all our chores completed we quickly made off to the marina bar for happy hour and spent time chatting with Bartender Kristen and fellow bar patron, Dan. Dan was an amazing fellow who told us stories of his solo sailing around the world in a small boat. He offered us some local knowledge about wild horses that roam the islands around here. I KNOW more wild horses to find!

After I consumed as many 50 cent pork sandwiches as a man can eat and washed them down with a great local IPA it was time to retire to the boat.

Hoppyum IPA.JPG — Great Local IPA From Foothills Brewery

We were no sooner readying for bed when we were accosted by “Monkey Bird”. This vile creature had a penetrating stare and an awful cry. I spent sometime staring into this monster’s gaze and knew it was time to lock the door and keep the crew of Simple Life safe.

So it’s off to bed.

Monkey Bird Standing.png — Monkey Bird Prowling the Docks

Atlantic City NJ to Ocean City MD & CathyPaul

We left Atlantic City @ sunrise.

Sun at 7AM — 7AM off the Coast of Atlantic City, NJ

Kelly promised a breakfast “to die for” and delivered in every way.

My favorite. Corn beef hash (“ova ah’d” as I say) with eggs a bit “sunny” and American Cheese on toasted wheat bread.

“Wheat bread” said with the emphasis on the “H” like how Stewie from Family Guy would say it. It sounds like an “Haach”.

Breakfast — Epic Egg & Cheese with Corned Beef Hash & Stubbs Sweet Heat BBQ Sauce

Here is a video of us leaving AC. It was so calm that I simply untied the boat, stepped on and put it in forward to leave the slip.

We slipped past the Atlantic City USCG station where their rescue boat sat quietly.

AC CG Station — USCG Station Atlantic City

The dogs like the cockpit grass and they often they need me take them there while we are underway.

While underway we were happy to find the sea state somewhat tame for the end of November. Our passage to Ocean city, MD was 9 knots the whole way.

While we did not have to slow down, the 25 knots winds made for a wet ride. Thankfully I stayed dry & never had to change out of my PJs and slippers.

The boat feels heavier than normal since we have her loaded with more stuff than usual. Even the bow spray seems to throw further.

Every marina we have visited thus far seemed to be shutting down due to the freezing temps.

This presents a challenge for us as there has not been any water to wash the boat or top off the water tanks. Thankfully, MV Simple Life has ~450 gallons of water aboard in her two tanks. As long as Kelly is not doing laundry (she loves doing laundry on the boat), water is not an issue.

The ride from AC to OC left plenty of dried salt crystals on the boat. Our salty windshield

glistened like a diamond in the sun.

Today’s trip was about 70 miles. That’s about an 8 hour trip. This late in the season you only have about 90 minutes more of daylight.

Leg AC OC.png — Today’s Route Skipped over Delaware

Upon arrival I was a bit embarrassed to have to hail the marina and ask where they were located. My Navionics chart chip from 2012 had the marina in a different location. The marina is actually very protected once you slip past daymarkers 1,2,3 & 4. Austin the dockhand was there to catch a line for us and hand us the diesel hose to top off our tanks. I added 350 gallons of diesel @ $3/gal.

That means we made it from Wickford, RI to Ocean City, MD on roughly 350 gallons of diesel. Not too shabby though if I were slowing down I could use half that.

Here are some pics us at the docks.

After a long day I needed to sneak away to a bar called the Sunset Grille.

Sunset Grille.JPG — Sunset Grille in Ocean City, MD

We enjoyed happy hour with new friends “CathyPaul”. It’s actually Cathy & Paul but I’m sure I heard them combine themselves into a single name, “CathyPaul”. They were lots of fun and kept me entertained the whole time.

They also taught me how to say the name of the island that I hope to anchor at tomorrow morning. It’s called Chincoteague Island “Chinko Tee gah”. Tomorrow’s trip there will look something like this..

The anchorage is exposed to the Atlantic but in a NW or W wind, I believe it will do just fine. I must say that after studying the charts there are very few inlets at this point in the trip. The inlets that you do find caution mariners about unmarked shoals, breakers over sandbars and shallows everywhere. If we had a faster boat we’d have more options to skip over the more challenging inlets. Instead we often must either stop sooner than we’d like or try to use all of the daylight to make it to the next anchorage or marina.

I found this webpage for Chincoteague & Assateague Island . It talks about wild ponies on the island.. Maybe I should take the dink ashore and let the Chief Martin Brody and his sister Happy run with the ponies?

Ponies in the water — Ponies rather than horses? Is that what you call em?

Well it’s late and I better hit the sack. These days we are running from sun up to sun down and it’s leaving us wanting more downtime.

Good night for now and Kelly & I want to give a shout out to all our high school classmates who had a reunion tonight. We wish we could have made it but we left New England too late as it was.

Point Judith & Waiting on Poop

Our departure was later than expected but Steve Harding and Sean Flynn helped us get out before the sun set. Thank you both.

Before leaving the marina we stopped to fill up the water tanks with 450 gallons of water. The water was turned off on our dock due to the recent freezing temps and the next fill will have to be further South.

Taking on Water Before Departing Warwick, RI

The seas were fine in the bay, not bad (for mid-November) after taking on 350 gallons of diesel @ Wickford Cove, RI . We proceeded to run into the darkness until anchoring in Pt Judith’s Harbor of Refuge. The dogs don’t like the swell but are happy now that they are on anchor. The only issue we have is PooP.

We made the decision that the dogs will do “their business” on the artificial grass we placed in the cockpit. This saves me from making beach runs every morning and night to let the dogs have their time ashore. While I usually enjoy these dinghy rides… it is November. One of the best features we added to the boat was diesel-fired forced-hot-air heating that is ducted throughout the boat. The ride here was warm and dry in the raised pilothouse. Our plan is to celebrate our first night on anchor and awake with the sunrise & get underway. We are the only boat in the anchorage and with the moon being a waning crescent and overcast skies the anchorage is dark.

Pt Judith2 — Dark Anchorage lit only by the lights from shore

Tomorrow, we want to put as much water under the keel as we can.
Getting South to warmer weather is our priority. We really appreciate all the great comments from our friends & family and hope you continue to enjoy our blog. We will do our best to post as often as we can.