Currently sitting on this porch, with this view, drinking coffee. Can’t complain.
Monthly Archives: May 2013
Stuck but happy By:Allison
Well, we’re still in Beaufort. This is definitely a more relaxed adventure at this point, but we’re enjoying it.
Our home away from the boat
So after our disastrous first outing, we’ve been at the boatyard. They couldn’t haul us out to look at the rudder until yesterday (Tuesday) so we had a chill weekend. My wonderful and amazingly hospitable cousin, Gwen, lives here in a historic house downtown. It’s amazing and has a downstairs apartment she’s letting us use to do laundry and take long hot showers!
On Saturday, Olivia (Gwen’s daughter) and her boyfriend took us out in his boat which was nice. It was good to finally be out on the water, haha! We went out to this place called Monkey Island which is straight from a cheesy Sunday morning Sci Fi channel movie – or Lost. It’s this island full of thousands of monkeys that are literally used for scientific research. There are signs everywhere that say not to step foot on shore or basically a sniper will probably kill you….and we TOTALLY obeyed those signs. We only saw a couple of monkeys, but that’s fine. I read online that they moved the monkeys from Peurto Rico because they had Herpes and were escaping and infecting people. I really don’t want a rogue monkey even TRYING to give me herpes. I couldn’t make this stuff up, people.
We also went to America’s only plastic kazoo factory. Funny story, we have also been to America’s only METAL kazoo factory in New York which also has the world’s largest metal
kazoo on its roof. I love random things like this.
How did anyone get into building kazoos for a living? Such a random niche. We also got to build our own kazoos which involves sticking two pieces of plastic together. I do, however, wish I could get a t-shirt since I have been to both kazoo factories. It sort of breaks my heart that one doesn’t exist.
People freaked and thought this was a pregnancy test, haha.
Monday, we went to see a lighthouse on Hunting Island. The beach there was gloriously trashy. Like…in an East Nashville best way possible sort of way. It was packed as we suspected. Also, you can apparently smoke all the weed you want there and the park staff doesn’t care. Pretty sure everyone except us was high and the guy riding around on his four wheeler pretending to work either didn’t care or doesn’t know what weed smells like. It was entertaining. The lighthouse ended us being really pretty but not half as entertaining as people watching.
Hunting Island Lighthouse
At the top.
So, Tuesday rolled around and the boat got hauled out. Apparently we hit an oyster bed on our first outing (worst boat drivers ever right here). Josh’s friend, Zac, is in St.Augustine on his boat and told Josh “just don’t hit anything” and we already failed at that one. However, we were on the correct side of the buoy and our depth sounder read fine, so it was more of a fluke than
our ignorance (So we will tell ourselves). Hitting that did a number on our rudder. It cracked it and bent some metal something that’s important and I don’t know how to explain via blog.
We debated for a long time on what to do. Sell the boat and move on, or throw the money into it. We decided to throw money at that sinking pos!
Really though, even if we can’t go far and don’t recover all the money and can only sail for a week at least we tried. Special thanks to Alex Vucelich, Zac Stepp, and Adam Smith for making Josh feel like he’d be a worthless loser if we tried to be smart with our money quit. We also sort of figured selling our boat in this shape wouldn’t get us much and if we repaired it, we’d hopefully be able to sell it for more money.
So, here’s hoping that we’ll soon have more exciting blogs to post than “our boat is still broken”.
Worst First Outing Ever By:Allison
So our first outing on this trip was so stressful I don’t want to think about it and write it up. I NEED to document it because one day it’ll be funny, right? That’s what they always say.
6:00 Working on getting masthead light wired so we can anchor out. Problem is, we can’t really tell if it’s working because it’s daylight. It seems pretty straightforward so we assume we have it right but it’s getting dark so we need to hurry out.
6:15 So we say what the heck and try to go. Start the engine up, head out but our charts won’t pull up now on our GPS. Snap.
6:20 JUST out of the side channel and the rudder goes HAYWIRE. It won’t turn so we’re spinning in circles.
6:22 Drop the anchor and try to figure it out. Josh jumps in the water thinking something is stuck on it or something. No such luck. It’s just stuck to starboard.
6:23 See a dolphin 🙂
6:25 Peer into the locker where we keep lifejackets. It’s itty bitty, but if I squeeze just right I can see down in it. I squeeze and figure out how the rudder works but that part of the set up looks fine. What do I know though? This is my first time looking at it, haha.
6:30 Our options are slim. Josh starts blowing up the dinghy to possibly tow us back but that’s a bad idea because we basically have no steering and an opposing current.
6:35 The southerner, or something in me takes over. I’m usually a panicker, but I decide,”I can rig this. I can get us back.” So I crawl into the tiniest place ever. You’d never believe a person could fit. I hold a flashlight in my mouth, a socket wrench in one hand, and a pair of vice grips in the other and completely rig this junk. It’s not fixed, but after thirty minutes crammed down there I think it’ll get us back.
7:15 The tide is going out and the docks are shallow, we get really really close to getting back into our difficult spot at the docks…it’s getting dark now. My rig job gives way last minute.
7:30 We’re drifting around near some really nice boats. I should mention that we haven’t called each other any bad names still which is impressive under this stress.
7:35 Josh falls in the water and and we somehow still manage to stay away from boats and get to the end of the dock.
7:45ish We’re holding onto the end of the dock thinking about what to do next when the nicest man ever drops from the heavens. Carlos (the angel) works at the boat yard and lives on a boat at the dock. “Need some help?” he asks in the calmest tone ever to two soaking wet clearly frustrated idiots.
7:50 Carlos the Angel finds us an easy spot to get to that is usually occupied by a yacht. He helps us get there and tied up. I want to hug him, but I’m all wet.
7:55 “Hey I smell gas.” Yup, we have a gas leak. It’s easily fixed but we have to get it ALL cleaned out so we don’t turn into a bomb. No cleaning up and going to bed for us. We turn on fans and blowers and soak gas up out of the bilge with a shammy. Run water and dawn through multiple times and shammy some more.
9:00 Finally crawl into bed.
12:00″ OMG I am sore.”
7:00am Um, I pretty much look like I’ve been in a car accident because people aren’t meant to fit in a space that usually holds a few lifejackets. I am cut up and bruised. No wonder I could barely sleep.
8:00am “Should we sell the boat and hike the Appalachian Trail instead” Perhaps.
Haha. But really it was a long night. We’re waiting to hear what happened with the rudder. Everything hangs on that. We’re not going to throw a ton of money into a $4000 boat. Yes, it only cost $4000 + a zillion hours of free labor from us. If it’s too expensive we really will sell it and hike for the summer instead. We’re pretty much good doing anything as long as it’s adventurous and not expensive. Plus, we are NOTHING if not flexible…and apparently really good at rigging things under stress.
On a happy note, the mechanic at the boatyard told Josh our engine was in excellent shape. Seeing that Josh put more than a few hours into our old Atomic 4 to get it up and running, he was pretty proud!
So stayed tuned, next time you hear from us we could be in Maine hiking our way South. 🙂
That blog about why you haven’t blogged. By:Allison
I read a lot of blogs and inevitably every one has a post that starts out, “Wow, I haven’t blogged in awhile.” Then the author proceeds to list excuses as to why they haven’t blogged.
Yeah, we moved out of our Joyce Lane Farms house.
So what? The shipping of our boat got pushed back several weeks.
Who cares that I am in a wedding in two days and my in laws who we are living with move out of their house in four?
Honest moment here. Yes, we’ve been busy but I’ve managed to watch one season of Monk, half a season of The Fringe, and most of season one of Felicity.
So, I have no excuses other than nothing interesting enough to blog about has happened unless you want my commentary on Felicity (awkward sums it up).
Good news is that our boat will be in South Carolina by Monday! Say a prayer that the shipping goes smoothly and the engine starts without too much work (our engine stresses me out all the time). I’m not kidding. Pray. Right now.
In other good news – our boat is officially being renamed Willy. As in One Eyed Willy from The Goonies. None of those cheesy yacht names here. And yes, Josh has a pirate hat and a real pirate sword. Be on the lookout for a boat named Willy captained by an adult dressed like a pirate shouting, “Goonies never say die” while we almost die about a million times because we don’t really know what we’re doing with a 30 foot sailboat.
Fun times.
The Tinii 