BOAT – Bring Out Another Thousand

So here we are back in Brunswick, working on the ever expanding task list to get Where II ready for another season of cruising (ie not sitting at dock). I have learnt two things over the past month – It is easy to go broke by saving money and whoever said BOAT stands for “Bring Our Another Thousand” hasn’t worked on his boat for quite a long time! It should be BOATT – “Bring Out Another Ten Thousand”!

So here’s what we have been up to:
First of all it has started to get a little cold over here, and being a 240v 50Hz boat we are not able to run any of the 4 of our very expensive 18000BTU reverse cycle air-con units without running the generator, so one of the US cruising couples we has met here (John and Jerri – Ahyoka) took pity on us and gave us their electric heater as they have just installed their reverse cycle air. (Nancy and Judy on Makara had also offered us an air-con unit but as we were getting colder and had nowhere to really store it so we had to decline).

Well that was fine and dandy, but of course this meant I had to run a dedicated 110v circuit within the boat so I could run it and the chargers without running extension cord through open doors or windows (sort of defeats the purpose of a heater), so two days later after 2 trips to Home Depot, lots of grunting and swearing as I pulled wires from the back of the boat to the front, and one worrying moment as we flicked the breaker, we now have heating on the boat and loving it. Cheap, at only $50 in wiring and fittings.

We also successfully negotiated a outcome with our water-maker manufacturer – Dessalator to replace our pressure vessel ends and fittings at a much reduced price even though it is well out of warranty – so spent a quick thou’ there. Bought the new membranes and now have to try and put it all back together.

As we started to get ready to depart, we turned the Freezer back on and started having problems with it over night, like we did in Grenada. “Low voltage” kept dancing through my brain and I had a nagging suspicion that our batteries, which we wanted to get one more year out of might be dying. Well with a bit of investigation (open circuit voltage testing, load testing, capacity testing) with help from Nancy from Makara my fears were realised – batteries were shot. With a bit of research and phone calls I managed to get a good deal on 4 Lifeline 4D batteries effectively doubling our capacity for only a grand and a half! Yeah! Then of course there was installation which you would think would be straight forward – throw out four old batteries and put in four new ones....

Well not quite... The terminals on the Lifelines are not the same as my old Exides, so new lugs are required and to fit them in and do a neat job, I need to build a new harness. Not too hard. Nancy and Judy had all the good gear (crimpers etc) to do the job and recommended the appropriate lugs. Nancy also recommended to up the wire size to 3/0 for the long leads and 2/0 for the short runs to optimise charging. Fortunately for me I found out that when Lagoon did the conversion they left a long length of 3/0 for the inverter in place. So with a day’s work, I rewired the inverter and saved myself a couple of hundred dollars in wire. But the lugs seemed elusive... everywhere I ordered them from came back a week later and said they were out of stock. Meanwhile Nancy and Judy are preparing to depart and take the good tools with them. Fortunately for us and unfortunately for them, they had a water leak just outside the channel and had to return to Brunswick and I got a reprieve. The batteries finally installed and charging beautifully!

We bit the bullet and decided to replace the dodger/clears as they were basically falling to bits and had been restitched once already. We got Jeff and Ruth (Stitches by Ruth) down to the boat, discussed a few ideas and signed up for another quick thou’ and a bit. They are back on the boat, integrated into out cockpit enclosure and look and work great – three more smiles on the boat and little flaps over our genoa sheaves! There’s a thou and a bit out of the old wallet!



I also learnt about repairing fibreglass – had to repair the narcelle (middle pointy bit on the boat) where the trampoline anchor bolts had vibrated and cracked off chunks of fibreglass. To access this I had to remove the anchor roller (which also had cracks around the bolt holes, so I had to repair them and also two bonus holes where it had obviously been drilled incorrectly at the factory??!!) Before I could do that however, I thought I should stitch the few small holes in the trampolines so I didn’t fall through while working on the fibreglass. Half a day later I have stitched the port trampoline. We need to get another year out of this.

So I start dismantling the tramp supports, lying with my feet on the repaired tramp and I feel movement – a new hole forms around my big toe, so I move it and another hole forms. Didn’t even get another day out of the tramps, so Karen’s research was ramped up and new tramps were ordered, measured and delivered by Mum’s birthday 5th December! So looks like we aren’t leaving in late November!

Anyway I started work on the narcelle and the anchor set up. To ensure this didn’t happen again, in consultation with another Aussie, Tim on Dominion, I decided to screw stainless steel plates on the front of the narcelle and wrap them around the side and have the tramp attachment eyes captured by it. This was a slow process, rebuilding the fibreglass, shaping and polishing it and then installing the plates and reassembling.



While I was doing that I also redid the anchor set up to cope with the larger Rocna anchor we had bought in Grenada. In the end it was a nice job with a new scratch plate for the anchor chain that Karen ordered from Amazon.



Meanwhile the new Tramps arrived from Sunrise Yacht Products in Florida and we got our first door to dock delivery from Sherri, the dockmaster – I think she was trying to convince us to come back next year. It did not take long to get the new tramps on and the boat was looking good.



A couple of other things we did, that I don’t think we mentioned was to put a TV on the boat – yes after 5 years of watching movies and TV series on my computer, we succumbed to the draw of the United States of Retail-land and put in a gigantic Naxa 12v TV DVD combo measuring a whopping 22inches! Yes Andie, if you are reading this, my new TV is only half the size of the one you bought off me back in Elsternwick – oh how I have come down in materialism!

The installation of the TV was no mean feat! We often watch movies in the cockpit but in the colder weather we like to snuggle up on the couch in the salon and watch in there. It also had to be connected to the stereo (yes not surround sound with a big sub-woofer like back home) so we could hear it over the sounds of the anchorage or marina. It also had to be hard wired to a switch in the control box as well as be out of the way and secure underway. Easy huh! So after a while Karen suggested to mount it on the ceiling in the doorway and we found a mounting bracket on Amazon for $14! After a couple of days swearing as I was running wires through the ceiling, under the floor and from one end of the boat to the other it was installed and working brilliantly!



We also built new book cases in the owners cabin. Very similar to the ones that are offered as standard on the 420 replacement the 421. We spent weeks trying to source timber from France through the local Lagoon dealer, who was very helpful. In the end we found a local veneer and got it laminated in Florida and shipped to Brunswick. The packaging was extensive on the 8x4ft piece of laminated marine ply – so much so I used it on several projects, as templates for the construction of the cabinets and on jobs on other boats on the dock. In the end, the timber matched well, but we have not yet found a matching finish and we are not sure we ever will, but we are very happy with the results.



Anyway back to the story. We finally get everything done, new mixers on the exhausts and engines serviced etc and it is just the watermaker to put back together. The new controller is in – tick. It is almost Christmas by now and next I get the pressure vessels apart and start to plan the installations of the new membranes. When I start to reassemble with the instructions from France I notice one of the end caps is cracked. Luckily at this stage I had not opened the membrane packaging so they were still good. But now we had to get the replacement endcap from France replaced by France. Dessalator, once they got back from the holidays and understood the problem, were as usual very quick to sort out the replacement to be shipped from France but we are having a Georgian Christmas! And guess what I got (apart from more boat problems)?



Ok a couple of things you might notice about this pic, yes we still get up early to open the pressies, hence the messy hair and the closed eyes, yes we still have champagne with the pressies and yes I am wearing long sleeves – it if bloody cold in Georgia at Christmas. For a while I thought we might have a white Christmas. Oh and I got a Guitar that I now need to learn how to play.

We also had the pleasure of watching the Christmas boat parade in Brunswick, which include a lot of local and a couple of cruising boats as well as the local coast guard boat! The winner was a floating Christmas Tree!



So Happy New Year everybody – it is now 2013 and we wait about a week for the replacement part and successfully (we hope as you can’t test the watermaker in the marina) so it is looking like a mid-January exit from Brunswick right? No I got another Christmas present. Karen was doing a stock-take of supplies under the floor (yep that’s where we store stuff – not in the double pull out pantries of old) when she noticed water. That’s right one of the holding tank’s thru hull fitting was weeping, not taking on heaps of water but enough to not want to go too far in too rough conditions. Of course we are too tall to take advantage of the Inter-coastal Waterways so we do have to put out to sea so now I have to find a yard to haul us, organise temporary repairs, figure out how to replace the thru hull fitting and with what and with what dimensions (being in an imperial country with a metric boat).

On the advice of the local Lagoon dealer, we find a yard in Cape Canaveral. I do a lot of research on the web and talk to as many people I can, including Tim from Dominion I figure out what to do. I have to make backing plates and epoxy them, I am replacing the Marelon (plastic) thru hull fitting with 2” bronze fittings and hope like hell that this matches up with the 50mm existing piping to the tank and I order everything to be shipped to Brunswick. Meanwhile I get the local dive guy, Lee, to put epoxy putty around the current fitting to get us through to Canaveral (a 2 night sail from Brunswick).

We get the parts and spend a couple of days making the backing plates with embedded nuts to mount the sea cock to and wait for weather. We make a couple of trips to the shops and then pack up the van to leave in Brunswick and we plan a mid January departure. Then I look at weather and that mid January departure is today –so we say goodbye to one of the few people still in Brunswick, pay the bill, give up on getting my boat licence from Aus and slip the lines! We really are leaving Brunswick!

Back on the Water

Due to popular demand (ok 1 complaint on the blog) and after 9 weeks on the road through the Eastern US and Canada we are finally back on the boat and on the blog. It was a great trip, but being on the go just about every day, meant we got back here knackered (for those with limited Australian that means tired). It took about 3 days but then we started compiling “The List”. 

Now the boaters will know what the list is – it’s the things we have to do before we can move, and those things we should do before we move and those things we would like to do before we move and those things we are unlikely to do before we leave and those things Karen wants me to do before we leave (and I am unlikely to get round to and will never be forgiven for not doing...). Anyway this is a perpetually growing list and no matter how many things you cross off in a day, there seems to be more on the list at the end of the day!

To give you an example, on our list was replacement of our watermaker membranes which meant finding a local supplier (Karen’s job) of the membranes. While Karen was doing this I decided to pull the membranes out from under the guest head (bathroom) floor to make sure there was nothing else I needed – an easy but uncomfortable job requiring 7ft arms. Well to cut it short, yes the end caps were totally corroded and unserviceable. So, on the list simply:

• replace the membranes

became: 

• discuss problem with manufacturer of water maker (as this shouldn’t happen)
• argue with manufacturer that there agents installed the membranes under warranty and as this caused the failure repairs should be at their cost
• research possible local replacements for the membranes and pressure vessels as the French ones were very expensive
• research the possibility of replacing the whole unit with a new one
• negotiate an agreeable outcome with manufacturer
• order parts
• rebuild pressure vessels 
• replace membranes

We had a similar issue with our last warranty claim with Lagoon – I thought would just be a trip to St Augustine with the boat on our way south to repairs some small cracks in the narcelle (small middle pointy bow of the boat) has become a dismantle of the trampoline and rebuild of the fibreglass work and some stainless reinforcing which will be done here – with me doing a lot of the dismantling and reassembly work. I also noticed that the tramps were starting to fray so Karen got a job of sourcing new tramps for next year while I stitched up the old ones!

Needless to say, with the other items on the list (maintenance on the engines, replacement of mixing elbows, building new cabinets in the owner’s hull, maintenance on the sailing gear and rigging checks, cleaning and polishing etc etc) it is unlikely we will be leaving Georgia until late November, and then it will be back to the Bahamas for winter.
Meanwhile we are trying to make the most of our time here partaking in the First Friday night entertainment and learning new ways to drink rum aboard John & Jeri’s boat SV Ahyoka. Also, the wayward traveller who went further north this year are on their way south, so we may have visitors.

The first of them came through this week in their land yacht. Guy, Christine and Princess dropped in and spent 3 days with us with their friends Marcel and Joanne. Guy and Marcel were one of the first people we met when arriving in the Caribbean almost 4 years ago in Martinique. At first I thought they were a gay couple (well there were no girls on the boat at this stage and Guy is a really good cook). But Christine put that thought to rest on Guy and now that I’ve finally met Joanne, Marcel is now in the clear. We spent the weekend touring St Simon’s and Jekyll Island, having a few quiet drinks, lunch at Fins and of course playing Dominos.



So over the next month I will update the blog for the time between when we left The USVIs. I might do this in a random order as the mood takes me so check the blog out occasionally.

Nashville – I could spend forever here (or at least a week or two)

It’s been a long road trek and by now we are getting tired of living out of the van and tired in general, so we have decided to leave Graceland and Memphis until next year and concentrate on Nashville before heading home. Karen spends most of the night on the internet in the hotel room searching for a hotel room in or near the centre of Nashville, for a couple of nights, cheap of course but cannot find anything suitable, meanwhile I help out by watching HBO (which I have now decided I am pretty good at).

Next morning, we pack, have breakfast and while Karen has her shower, I take up the task of finding a hotel room for tonight and within 10 minutes I have found the answer, close to town, reasonably priced, and it is “where the stars stay” – the Drake Motel. So I book it for 2 nights – I am not missing Friday night in Nashville...


Not a bad job eh? Historic site etc etc.

Anyway after a short drive from Bowling Green we arrive early afternoon and check in next to Dolly Parton (well a life-size signed cut-out of her dedicated to the staff of the Drake anyway) and the girl behind the counter is very friendly and helpful and tells us how to get into the city, and since it is a Jim Beam party weekend, we should wait until a bit later and catch a cab in to see some of it. So we decide to chill in the room and catch up on internet time, some laundry etc before heading into town.

The room is unique – Room 107 – “Thing Called Love” Room...




So we decide to find out a bit about this place, what movies where filmed here etc. The first site we hit on was the Trip advisor review site (apparently Sheryl Crow stayed here) http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g55229-d98141-Reviews-Drake_Motel-Nashville_Tennessee.html and we were a bit worried about what we had paid for – particularly after reading the one titled “Creepy”, but we payed our money and we thought we would give it one night at least, particularly since we had the room where Sandra Bullock had shot “Thing Called Love” in what I believe was River Pheonix’s last movie. (Later we watched the movie and I can’t say I recognise the room and I thought she stayed in 108, but we had the sign).

After getting over the reviews, we caught a cab into town and stopped to check out the prices for the Jim Beam festival – about $80 a day we decided to see what was in town first before committing the cash. We wandered up 2nd street and started our introduction to Nashville in the most appropriate place I could think of – a pub with live music @ 5:30 in the afternoon – The silver Dollar Saloon.





Now the band was okay, the bar wasn’t packed so we thought it had to get better, so we kept wandering past other likely named bars such as The Wild Horse Saloon (where Air Supply with be playing in early October??), Wild Beaver Bar, Doc Hollidays, Coyote Ugly, Buffalo Billiards and BB King’s Blues Club.

On the way we hit Rosie’s Bootery to do the necessary boot review and hat try on. I almost cried when I saw the price of boots (3 for the price of 1 or 2/3 off if you didn’t want 3) and thought of how much I paid for my vintage boots back in Prahran that I had just got rid of due to mold, rust on the point and the fact that after 5 years of not wearing shoes they didn’t fit any more.


I could have had both these snakes skin and alligator boots for less than I paid for my ones back home – but Karen talked me out of buying things that are going to rust and mould on the boat whilst never being worn. A hat now, that’s a different story...


Well try as I might, I couldn’t find just the right hat – people always told me I have a big head (my wife in particular), but it is only when you try on 20 hats, that you start to realise what they mean.

We skipped BB’s Blues Club as we were in “Country” country after all but did have a look at Coyote Ugly but there was nothing happening there, so we stopped in at Hooters to rest our feet and quench our thirst (mind you my eyes got a fair work out). They must teach the bar maids to lean over every time they talk to you or give you a drink. Fortunately their uniforms are well engineered and nothing falls out.

The next bar we saw going past us (yes that’s right – going past us) is, I would have to say quite unique – but seriously seems like just too much work to get a drink. In fact I would expect to get the drinks for free doing this much work!


The music coming out of the Benchmark Sports Bar behind us as this was going by sounded quite good so we settled in at the bar to have a listen. I was keen to try the local drink, but thought I had better leave that til later at night.


Well, the music was so good we moved from the bar, to a table and then eventually a booth. We even grabbed a meal while we listened.


Now I swore I would remember these guys were, but it ended up being a long night, so all I can tell you is the two on the left hand end were a couple of song writers, the bass player sorta looked like Bruce Willis and the guy on the cut out acoustic had a name starting with something like R maybe. Anyway, they did have Tex come in and jam for a bit on his sax and his voice would have made Johnny Cash proud.

After their session was finished, it was about 10, that’s right already after cruiser’s midnight, so we decided we had better venture down Broadway and visit the honky tonks down there. We queued for a while and made it into one honky tonk just in time to see the band pack up and wait for another to arrive, the second was pretty much the same, but in the queue we did hook up with a bachelorette party from Alabama. A bit disheartened we headed across the road to the Wheel to maybe have one last drink and here we were not disappointed – the band was great and the singer was a very talented and looked a lot like a girl I had a crush on in high school (heck maybe it was her grand-daughter), so we stayed there until they were packing up.


But now that I look at the picture in the light – she looks nothing like her....

Now you are probably think old folk like us would be ready to head off to bed by now , but when we left the Benchmark, we were told that the best drummer in Nashville was playing in the next band Chris Somebody or other. Now being an ex-drummer from the Toogoolawah State Primary School Recorder Band, I thought it was a must we went back and saw him perform. So well after normal mid-night we trekked back to 2nd Street.

Here the band was more metal than country, so it wasn’t what we came for but the drummer did give a 10min solo in the song or two that we caught which was pretty amazing. I tried to video it but the pocket camera didn’t really capture it well. When he played just the bass it was  pretty unbelievable.

Anyway then it was time to stroll back down Broadway and catch a cab home. Needless to say, I slept well, never felt like people were looking over me nor did I hear the hookers next door – if there were any.

Saturday, after a gradual rise from the comfy bed, we decided today was the day for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and Studio B, maybe the Ryman. Before we left we checked out what was on at the Grand Ole Opry and found Loretta Lynn playing so I spent some time trying to get tickets but lucked out. So it was onto a bus and into the city again.

We hit the museum and was told that the Studio B tour was full so we booked for Sunday and took off through the Museum, which believe it or not was full of country music memorabilia, guitars pianos, costumes and of course boots. There was even the Man in Black’s black stuff. Luckily, to keep Karen interested there was also Elvis’ Solid Gold Cadillac.


And Webb Pierce’s customized convertible – check the silver guns out!


After the museum we decided to just check out a couple of bars and get a bite to eat before having a quiet night in at the Drake so we headed to Hooters for a drink (don’t know why Karen wanted to go there again), then a couple of sets at BB King's Blues Club and had some Mexican on 2nd Street after trying to find just the right hat for me. No luck with the hat unfortunately.

Sunday it was up early and into town for the Studio B tour – there was some sort of football game on so parking was a bit hard but we managed and arrived with plenty of time for the tour bus walking past bars that were already open, full and with live music. Now Studio B is nothing to look at, but it has a pretty amazing history having seen Elvis, Dolly, Waylon, Willie, Charlie and the Everly Brothers record here. Over 35,000 songs recorded and over 10,000 of those Top 10. Elvis alone recorded over 100 hits in this little space.  A lot of the equipment is still in place and it is still being used today.  In fact I got to sit at (and pretend to play) the same piano that Elvis used in all his recordings!


Nashville was great, could have spent a lot more time here, but it was time to move on to get to Chattanooga by sunset. We tried a couple of camp sites on the way as it was getting warmer again but  we didn’t do so good and ended up in a hotel room just north west of Chattanooga near Ruby Falls.

Ruby Fall is an underground water fall, about 1000 feet below the surface. We took a lift down to the falls in a small group of about 12 people and trekked underground to the falls. You can tell people that cave obviously are very special when you look at the named formations like “Donkey”.



Apart from that Ruby Falls was pretty spectacular – particularly with the lighting in the chamber.


From there it was onto Chattanooga to check out the Choo Choo (apparently a significant part of the Civil War). We arrived at the transit station to get the electric shuttle into town and it was then I realised I truly was in America.


$345 for a basic divorce and it is done – just dial 1-800-DIVORCE!

Chattanooga was a pretty little river town, but after lunch there was not a lot to keep us there with the boat calling out to us, so we hopped the shuttle back to the van and started the last leg of the trip to Brunswick – of course there was one more hotel room and just one little margarita on the way
 
COMMENT:

 AUTHOR: paula 

DATE: 11/19/2012 10:11:22 AM 

Thanks Guys for the blog makes me want to go to nashville. hey Matt r u still listening to 3RRFM as you have been mentioned on Brian Wise's show recently
take care Pxxx

Road Trip America

Right, got the van with a mattress in the back, a tent, an esky (cooler for the local folks, chully ben for the kiwis and I don’t think the poms need one for warm beer) full of food and bevvies and a plan! We’re off to see 6000 miles of East Coast America and Canadia! Head south down the I95, turn right to Louisiana, north to Memphis, up to Wisconsin across the border to Canada across to Quebec and down through Maine, NY, DC and the Carolinas. We’re gonna see it all, Graceland, Corvette Factory, Manhattan, the Smithsonians – the lot. Everything that pops up in popular novels is on the list.

So we get about 10 miles out of town at the junction of the I95 and stop for petrol (gas for the local folks) and it is still bloody hot – over 100F and we muse – “do we really want to head south in this heat??” A quick show of hands and our plan has gone out the window – that’s the driver’s side window as it is the only window that opens on the van – and we decide to turn right on the I95 and reverse our trip. Now this won’t surprise anyone who knows us or has been following the blog, but really 10miles out of 6000 – that’s 0.16%???!!! But if we had of stuck with a plan we would have turned left in the St Vincent Strait into the Med 5 years ago!

We bypassed Savannah (been there, done that) and headed straight for the Carolinas –first stop Hilton Head Island SC, a resort island with long beaches and a nice village. So nice beach, hot chicks



 ... but when you are greeted on the beach by a sign like this, we didn’t feel like staying (notice it doesn’t say no fire arms).



So we took off in search of more gas and ended up staying our first night in Hardeeville SC in a Cleanstay USA which was anything but. Fortunately $30 is not much to pay for grime.

Things started looking up on day 2 as we headed into Beaufort (pronounced Boofort) SC, not to be confused with Beaufort (pronounced Beaufort) NC. This is a pretty little Southern town with history surrounding you, with cast signs indicating when went on when. The old houses, some dating from around 1810 seemingly inviting you onto the porch for an iced tea – although I ended up paying for mine in a cafe in town.



Of particular interest was St Helena’s Church which was established in 1712, but suffered badly in a Yamassee Indian attack in 1715 (now we are talking – Indians!) and was rebuilt in 1724. It was then used by the British as a stable in the Revolutionary War and a hospital in the Civil War and the graveyard houses 2 British officers and 3 American Generals. Indeed in the graveyard you see American and Confederate flags flying side by side on the graves.(American’s history seems dominated by wars... )



From Beaufort we continued heading north and set up camp just south of Charleston, trying out the tent we had bought with us from Aus, which still seemed to be waterproof and yes - that is Karen in the wilderness on the internet.



We spent a day wandering around Charleston – so much history and grand houses, it was amazing. We toured 2 of the houses, The Rhett-Aitken house (c1820) and one other. There truly are so many sights that in the end they all melded into one and I can’t recall the name of the house we saw, but it did have a nice garden if that is a clue to anyone. In fact I can’t even recall lunch or what beer I had with it – but I am sure that happened too. No wait, we went to an Irish pub in town and had some great fish and chips (fush & chups to the Kiwis) and of course a pint or two of Guinness – well Karen had a Sav Blanc actually.



The Rhett house was in pretty much original condition (i.e. it had not been renovated so we saw potential) and came complete with stable and a lady’s and a gentleman’s buggy and reasonably intact slaves quarters, so it gave a reasonable impression on how the other half lives in the day.

We wandered the waterfront and took the free bus rides and were fairly tired by the time we made it back to the campsite (via Wal-Mart to buy a fan as it was still stinking hot). But of course no day would be complete without a game of Mexican Train Dominos!

Well our strategy of heading north to get cooler wasn’t working so we took to the hills. The Smokey Mountains in fact. It was a long drive up the hills from Charleston to Cherokee, but one that did achieve the aim – cooler weather. Cherokee is on the western end of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and an interesting town for a boy who grew up on F Troop, Dan’l Boon, Tonto and Kimosabi (apparently meaning “chicken shit” is some Indian language I am lead to believe) but not really knowing a Cherokee from a Sioux. This really was an enlightening place – the home of the Cherokee. Now what I knew from TV looked like this...



... and there were a couple of guys dressed like this singing and drumming for the tourists (sorry about the quality of the photo). And I wanted one of these to fight the Indians...



... the holster, not the beer gut. Although it doesn’t look right with boardies and thongs (flip flops for the locals, Jandels for the Kiwis and from my experience the Poms only wear sandals and socks) although the beer gut does sort of fit in. But here in Cherokee we learnt about the “Trail of Tears” when the Cherokee Indians were marched (displaced) to the plains and about Sequoyah, the Cherokee that developed the Cherokee alphabet  which if I am correct is one of the few, if not the only written First Nation Languages in existence.



We also saw the modern side of Cherokee, visiting Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Resort where Kenny Rogers still performs...



By this stage we are following one of Lonely Planet’s “USA’s Best Trips” and since were so close, we should take a trip through the National Park to Tennessee and visit a must see town of Gatlinburg “where Heidi meets Hillbilly” and “Dollywood” and at least see the sign (as I couldn’t convince Karen that we really needed to go there). We visited the town, couldn’t find a park, and couldn’t see what the fuss about a fake looking Alpine town in the middle of America was so headed onto Pigeon Forge for Dollywood. We went up Dollywood Ln, Dollywood Blvd, past the Dollywood Express (steam train) and found the Dollywood car park but alas no sign, so it was back to the caravan park.

Unfortunately, we learnt a couple of other things in Cherokee that were not really so much fun. Firstly our tent, carried from Australia and stored on the boat for 5 years and despite several coats of silicone spray, did in fact leak... a lot... no a real lot. Secondly Karen and Matt were the names of our seemly unusual camping neighbour’s “mortal enemies” – her words not ours... a little bit kooky, a little bit spooky... Time to move on we thought – and probably stay in a hotel to dry out the tent.

Before we left, I did something I had not had to do since I owned my first new car – a Seat Cordoba no less – and that was to check under the bonnet (hood for the locals and I have no idea what the Kiwis call it) and bugger me (don’t know if the locals have a term for that or if I just made them blush, the Kiwis will understand it and I think the Poms invented it) the coolant expansion cap had gone walkabout (not there for the locals, gone to Bondi for the Kiwis) so it was off in search of a wrecker (junk yard for the locals and “the backyard for the Kiwis – boy am I gonna be in trouble if I ever stop in NZ) to replace it. But apparently, since the cash for clunker program, these are a bit rare so we had to head to Ashville to try and find one. In my second unsuccessful visit, I noticed that they had a full set of Australian number plates (tags for the locals) 1 from each State including the ACT. Now I was impressed and asked Karen to go back in and take a photo for me. But Karen was more impressed by the Taxidermy and this is what I ended up with.



So our first week on the road ends up at the beginning of our Blue Ridge adventure in a Dodge dealer, buying an expensive coolant cap, trying to convince them that we don’t need a complete service on our 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan (complete with mattress is the back and close to 200k miles on the clock).

Finally we are going to the BVIs

Now we had heard a lot about them – the British Virgins, but we had never met them. They are supposed to be beautiful full of nice little cosy places to hide away... but you will never be alone, there is always someone coming along to snuggle up to these beautiful British Virgins, and from what we have been told – it is mainly charterers with all the known dangers associated with them – poor anchoring, aggressive mooring techniques and a certain agenda that doesn’t warrant or care about making sure their boat is securely hooked before departing for the bar.

“Not to worry” we said and invited Jon and Sam (Imagine of Falmouth) over for drinks and nibbles to tell us all about it – and it did sound nice. So the first good weather window we checked out of St Martin and did an overnight to Virgin Gorda. It was a beautiful, fast, downwind sail with a couple of gibes thrown in to keep us on our toes during the night and we arrived at Spanish Town Virgin Gorda and dropped anchor in a notoriously “bad holding” anchorage. Then we sat down and waited our hour to see we were holding before we headed ashore to clear in. So as not to waste this time, we checked for internet and got our emails. We got one from Rob and Kathy (Quetico) who had arrived in Virgin Gorda a couple of days ahead of us. It said BVIs are nice but crowded with charterers in every anchorage they tried to visit so they took off to St John’s USVIs.

As we were reading this a charter boat came in to the anchorage, proceeded to the small opening in front of us, threw all their chain over the bow, turned the engines off without pulling back, got in the dinghy and went ashore without even looking behind at us.

Well this and Quetico’s email convinced us this was not the place for us and we hauled anchor and motored around to the leeward side of St John’s and took a mooring in Caneel Bay. It was peaceful heaps of room and we knew that we had made the right decision, despite having only motored through all the beautiful British Virgins.

We got Debbie down and hightailed it around to Border Protection offices in Cruz Bay and checked into the US Virgins instead. After checking in, we decided we deserved a nice cold Margarita to finish the day off nicely and we did.
The next two days were spent exploring Cruz Bay (shops and restaurants). We thought the church parking bays we particularly well signed.



After lunch we ran into Dave and Colleen (Promise) and we all caught the bus around to Coral Bay and watched Colleen and Dave have their lunch at a bar there.



There was not much else to see there, so having been there, done that and bought the T shirt, we headed back to our boat and got ready to head to St Thomas for some more shopping.



In St Thomas we did the usual, Kmart, Home Depot and Cost U Less and relaxed a bit at the bars at the Marina, where we caught up with Rob and Kathy. Then before we left there was one more unusual stop... an Ice Bar! If anyone had told me I would be dressing in a parka in the tropics, I would have thought them mad... but here I am.



The bar was full of ice sculptures, of both local legend, Pirates and Nordic Adventurers (including Santa Claus) and all bathed in an eerie purple, blue and green light.



Karen was lining up next year’s presents with Santa whilst I was checking out the mermaids.



Of course it was only right that we sampled the local flavoured rum (it was included in the price of entry) so we selected the vanilla rum which even Karen enjoyed.

COMMENT: 

AUTHOR: Silke & Patrick 

URL: http://www.la-palma-sailing.com 

DATE: 5/13/2012 8:02:05 AM 

great to hear from you guys! keep on posting!

we'll leave for Azores next week to spend our "summer hols" there (till beginning of August), if you like - follow our blog. great waters!
"big plans" are still on for beginning next year.... keep in touch! XX

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Andrew & Janice
DATE: 10/15/2012 8:29:05 AM
So...where are you now, how are we going to sail vicariously if you are not blogging - hope all is well Janice and Andrew (Melbourne)

Sint Marteen or Bust... and Bust it was!

Well we finally made it to Sint Maarten after a fantastic overnight sail from Guadeloupe where we spent New Year. The wind was on the beam for the whole way and shifted with us as we turned around the top of Nevis. If not for the fluky winds (it varied from 4 knots to 30 knots over the night) and the bumpy seas as we left Deshaies it would have been a perfect sail!

Now I will be upfront here and say, that since I didn’t write a blog about Sint Marteen or St Martin last year, when we had spent 2 months there, this blog will combine some reminiscing from our previous visit.

Also you must know something about Sint Marteen and my wife to understand why we stay so long. St Marteen is duty free on the Dutch side and the winter home for a lot of cruisers getting work done on the boat. It is also easy to shop in the States (say on eBay) and import them at very low cost. Karen is a shop-aholic. She doesn’t have to buy big or expensive or anything sometimes, just to be shopping is the need. Barely a day goes buy where she can’t find a reason to try and buy something. So we have lots of friends here and good happy hours and you can shop alot...You can see where this is going can’t you.

So let me give you a brief look at our stay last year (on the way south from Barbuda). We got here with the plan to spend a couple of weeks here before heading west to BVIs, Cuba and Louisiana and onto the Western Caribbean. We decided to stay in Simpson Bay outside the bridge for 2 reasons – one it is pretty, clean and you can swim and make water, two we have an aversion to anything solid (like a bridge) near our boat.

Well within the first week we found out it was easy to import stuff using Safe Cargo Services at the airport so we headed out and set up an account. We then spent our mornings in McDonalds using the internet and eating hash browns ordering anything we could think of off ebay and Amazon and various other vendors and had them shipped in. This included:

* An extra solar panel
* A new solar hot water collector
* A new recirculating pump
* A cruising guide to Gulf of Mexico and one for Belize and Mexico
* A set of radio headsets so we don’t have to yell at each other (which to date we don’t use as we must like yelling at each other too much)
* Ink for the new wireless printer (which we bought locally)
* A new internet booster antenna (the bullet) and associated bits and pieces
* A new central vacuum  for the cleaner in the family
* Some new downlights
* A chain stopper
* A new fan

And they’re only the things I can remember 9 months later. We also bought Karen a new computer and the printer, went shopping in back street and bought shampoo, hair treatment, conditioner, placenta (don’t ask me what that is about – but it is necessary) and vitamins to name a few. So all this shopping and waiting for deliveries extended our 2 week stay to two months and we decided to skip heading west and head back down to Grenada for another season.

Don’t get me wrong, we did do other things than shop – but I just needed a bit more time to remember them as they weren’t quite as significant as the shopping or so it seems.

We did to Sunday lunch with Ricky and Colin at the Sunset bar watching the planes land over the beach. When I saw the internet pictures of this beach / airport combination, I thought they were photo-shopped – but no it is true. The planes land just over the beach.

People hang on the fence or stand on the beach to take photos in the jet wash. I even saw people park their cars on the road between the beach and the runway and get them sand blasted in the jet wash (rentals obviously). What idiots!

So I had to try it.... I stood just over the road from a smallish jet and had my camera at the ready. As the plane took off, unfortunately my hat and then my sunglasses got blown off but I toughed it out and snapped away and this was the result...

Yes that is my stomach and foot. I did get another clearly focussed photo of just the sand but I thought this one was more interesting... Anyway lunch was good and if the girls drink topless at the bars they drink for free. But alas there were no game birds there this day.

We also hired a car and tripped round the island, visiting Cost U Less, Back Street, Ace (there’s that shopping again) and Orient Beach where all the beautiful people go. I found one beautiful person there (apart from Karen) and unfortunately she was the only one with her clothes on.

We also were lucky enough to be there for Carnival on the French side, and although it was much smaller than the Grenada Carnival, the fun was still there.

Karen was also big on Sunday Dominos with the ladies (where she managed to organise the sale of Libertas to one of the yacht club members back home) and I went wandering through the streets and up to Fort Louis.

The Heineken regatta was underway when we arrived so we managed to watch bits and pieces of that as well.

With all this under the belt on our first visit, I thought that we should be right for a quick visit, but shopping got in the way again. Apart from stocking up on rum, wine, cigarettes, which is a must in St Martin, we managed to need new anchor chain which we got shipped in from Sherri at Wholesale Yacht Parts in Grenada (cheapest chandlery in the Caribbean and servicing all islands sherri@wholesaleyachtparts.com ) and charts for our trip to New York. So the quick visit ended up lasting a month. And with the sightseeing out of the way there was only one thing to do (apart from shop) – party!
Friday night bridge openings at the yacht club, dinner out every now and then, happy hours at Barnacles and Lagoonies, lunch at Buccaneers and of course Dominos every Sunday (or any day Karen could fanangle it) on Princess of Tides with Christine, Guy, Bill and his girlfriend Princess.

There was of course Australia Day as well. Overseas, this appears to be a day were everyone excuses Australians from drinking lots of beer and being boisterous – actually that sounds like every other day since I hit the Caribbean. But no – this was even bigger! The mega yacht marina held a night at the bar (probably because so many of the crew are young Australians just like me) which included pie eating and beer eating contests! I missed the pie eating contest, but my English mates Steve and Sim entered but I think they missed the point (or did they). Disregarding the objective of eating two pies and downing a pot of beer as quick as possible – these two sat back and had a leisurely free dinner.

Meanwhile, I got serious and recruited a fierce team for the beer drinking competition, Steve, Rosie, Jon, Sam and Captain Matt

Well despite all the team talks, warm up beers, and many more years of experience than our opposition we lost. Sam(antha) and Rosie put up a good show but of course us boys let them down....
For some unknown reason (mainly because I instigated it) I got recruited into another team to challenge the winners, but somehow I got stuck with this attractive, blonde, well endowed team mate, who said she had never drunk beer, doesn’t like beer, can’t imagine why she would want to drink beer but was oh so keen to be in a beer drinking competition. (She’s the one next to me on the right if my description is bit off)

Well we lost again, although she seemed to have a lovely time and hugged me forever after we lost – in fact I had to tell her my wife had a knife before she would let me go – I haven’t lost my charm – drunk girls still like me!

After 2 dismal showings in the beer drinking competition (4 free beers), we decided to call it a night (but not before Karen lifted the “Wombat Next 5km” decoration to be used on our boat next year.

St Martin is a very easy place to stay, particularly for a shopaholic cruiser and just as difficult place to leave. But we have many miles to go to get to the Bahamas and eventually to New York this summer so all good things must come to an end so it is off to the Virgin Islands again. Here is something to ponder until the next time I write...

If this is my second time in the Virgins, can they still be Virgins?