We are off for a short break. See you all again on January 2nd.

We are down to the last couple of items on the job list and will soon head home for a short break. I'll star posting when we start our adventure again on January 2nd. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and good health, happiness and joy in the New Year.

A Week of Maintenance

With his technical background (Jens is a marine engineer by trade) he knows the importance of doing regular service and maintenance.  This past week he has tracked down all the parts he needs to change oil, filters and fluids on the genset, the Yanmar engine and the gear box.

Our dock neighbor Joe, has been very helpful.  Joe and his wife have been coming to Daytona in their 60 foot motor boat for the past eight years.   Joe knows the area quite well and he and Jens headed out one day on Joe's two scooters to track down some parts Jens needed. A fun way to do some shopping!

Part of SEGWUN's beauty is the teak trim.  Teak needs to be taken care of and since she was sitting in the sun all summer, the varnish had started peeling and needed to be sanded and revarnished.  We got started with the sanding but soon realized that to do it by hand would take a war.  I tracked down an Ace Hardware store about six kilometers away.  I was all set to walk, when Rick who works here at the Marina offered me the use of his bicycle.  Well, he just made my day!  I was back and forth in less than an hour and back to work with our newly purchased Black and Decker mouse sander.

We still have a few days of work ahead of us, but we are also dependent on the weather and today is too cold to varnish.  So, time to just sit back, relax and remind ourselves that we're not in a hurry anymore.  Maybe i'll bake some cookies this afternoon.

Reducing our Carbon Footprint and Living on a Budget

When we decided to live on our boat for the next three years, we also thought it would be a good time to make a real effort to reduce our carbon footprint. We were dismayed when we saw the news about the 'plastic island' in the middle of the Pacific. We talked about what changes we needed to make to ensure that we didn't continue to contribute to the mess we are making of our environment.

The obvious thing is to stop buying products in plastic bottles and products that are over packaged. We stopped buying bottled water and bought a Dupont water filter for our tap. Every morning I fill two half liter reusable bottles with the filtered water. This usually lasts us for the day. We still buy our milk in 2 liter plastic. We had planned to buy UHT milk in Tetra Pak packages, but the price is often triple that of pasteurized milk. Here, the fact that we are living on a budget has overruled. I don't understand why they have to sell long life milk at such a premium.

We also started buying green cleaning products such as biodegradable soaps, shampoo and cleaning products. These products are also often more expensive but the price difference is more around the 20% range which we think is more acceptable.

Our boat didn't come equipped with solar panels or wind generation. We have seen a lot of our fellow sailors using wind and sun as energy sources. Something for us to look in to, but it is also a cost that we had not built into our budget. We have to calculate the ROI before we make the decision.

We are looking for any other ideas on how we can reduce our carbon footprint while living on a budget. The two don't always go hand in hand.

SEGWUN Takes a Mud Bath

During my last post, I may have sounded a wee bit bored.  Cruising slowly down the ICW watching the world go by.  Well, we've had a few interesting days.  The clouds were coming in and the wind was picking up as we were looking for a place to anchor on the 28th.  We went into Kilkenny Creek and found a great anchorage in a branch of the creek that goes to a dead end.  We had time for our sundowner and the rain started.  It was windy and raining the whole night long but by morning it was clearing up nicely.  As we headed out into the Sapelo Sound, we were hailed on the radio by a boat that was heading out to sea.  Many boaters going south use the ICW to avoid having to do overnight sailing out on the Atlantic.  On the ICW you can stop and anchor pretty much anywhere.  But down at this part of the ICW, there are many Sounds that give you access to the Atlantic and you can do a day journey on the Atlantic. If the weather is fine and the winds are right, it's a good option since you avoid all the winding creeks and rivers of the ICW.  So, our dear friend on the radio suggested we should go out to sea and take advantage of the "flat seas" and good wind.  It was a split second decision for us and off we headed.  The sea was not quite as flat as we were expecting, swells in the range of 4-6 feet, and the wind direction coming from southwest meant we had to tack about 9 miles out and 9 miles back.  The sea was green and I have to admit, I felt a little green as well.

The next Sound to get back into the ICW was very narrow showing depths of 4-5 feet on the plotter.  We didn't want to risk it, so we continued south and came into St. Simons Sound, just as the sun was setting.  Getting back on to the ICW route took us to Jekyll Creek, approaching low tide, and pitch black.  Well, it was a difficult navigation and we grounded the boat a couple of times before we gave up and decided to sit tight near the side of the creek for the night and do it during daylight.  We anchored but not being happy with it, we decided sometime around 11PM to move the boat a little further back, where we thought it would be more out of the way.  In some ways this was a good thing as a few large barges came through during the night and we would have risked being in their way.  However, somewhere around 3AM, we woke up to a strange feeling.  The boat was leaning heavily to the right.  The tide was now going out again and we were stuck in the mud.  As the tide continued to go out, we were sitting with a 20 degree list.  The keel was planted completely in the mud.  We could have jumped out and walked around the boat.

What to do!  Wait for the tide to come in as there really is nothing else you can do with a beached boat.  It's a bit awkward to get around with such an angle; and a bit worrying.   In comes the tide as we hold our breath; and up comes SEGWUN.  We thought we might have to have it towed out because we felt we were firmly stuck in the mud.  Lucky for us, we got out and continued along without any problems.  Phew!

Our next stop was for water.  We should have topped up our water tank when we took on fuel in Charleston, but we thought we were doing so well on managing our water supply.  I think the top half of the tank is bigger than the bottom half because all of a sudden we had no water left.  Yikes!  We're stuck in the mud and we have no water.  Well, the really funny part is that while we were trying to sleep sitting stuck in the mud we kept hearing what we thought were helicopters over head.  They would come and then go and then come back again.  It finally dawned on Jens that it was not coming from outside of the boat but from the water pump trying to pump water that wasn't there.  Ok, now we know what that sound is.

Fernandina Beach Anchorage

Well, here we are now, safe and sound in Daytona at the Aquamarine Marina.  We've got a list of maintenance and odd jobs to do before we head home on December 12th.

Lessons Learned

Lessons learned and things to remember:

1.   Keep the water tank full, ie if you have a chance to fill it up, do so. Don't wait until you're low.  We ran a little low yesterday and wondered if we would have enough water before we found the next marina.  Mind you, we had plenty of beer but it's hard to make a good cup of coffee with beer. 


2. If you think you hear helicopters flying overhead at night, and there seem to be more than one and they sound like they are hanging around, check that it isn't actually the water pump trying to pump water that is no longer available because you didn't stop to fill your water tank last time you were in port.  


3. When a local fisherman suggests that you should sail out today because even though we had a huge rainstorm the night before, he believes the wind will be good and the seas will be flat, think twice.  He's obviously a local and his boat has a shallow draw which means he can stay close to shore where the sea probably is quite flat.  We discovered the Atlantic can be quite shallow near shore with depths of 3 to 4 feet in many areas and with SEGWUN's draw of 5.6 feet it means we can't hug the shoreline like some boats.  We had a rough day at sea but covered a good distance.  We hoped to at least see a few Right Whales, but no luck.

4. Turn the dorado air intake vents to aft position when sailing in rough seas.  Otherwise, be prepared to wash all the salty water that has sprayed into the cabin.  Nothing like salty duvet, salty sofa, salty floor...you get the idea.


5.  After a long day of sailing and you're looking for a quiet place to anchor avoid narrow and shallow creeks with a tide change of more than 7 feet.  Particularly those called Jekyll Creek.  Unless of course you enjoy sleeping with a list of 20 degrees and think your boat would benefit from a mud bath. 

6.  Don't believe everything you hear about these nonslip pads for under the carpet.  When the boat is listing at 20 degrees, nonslip doesn't work so well.  I have the bruises to prove it.

7.  Dolphins prefer men to women.  I swear, it has to be true.  I can be on deck for the whole afternoon but as soon as I go below they appear around the boat frolicking away for Jens.  As soon as I come back up to the cockpit, no more dolphins.   Or is it just Jens that they like.  



Not enough battery power on the computer to do an update tonight.  But we expect to be in Daytona tomorrow evening and I'll have time to give you more details about SEGWUN's mud bath and our adventure in the Atlantic Ocean.  We're now in St. Augustine, Florida.  Just 50 miles from our destination.