The Tinii

It's plural for Tinius, because we said so.

Category Archives: Life


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I like to walk- Josh

The past few days have been pretty frustrating and exhausting.  I guess I can’t complain too much though.  I mean we ARE living on a sailboat, sleeping whenever we feel like it, and don’t have to deal with the pressures of having a job.  It’s only fair that we have to deal with working on engines sometimes.

After we replaced the voltage regulator on the alternator we cranked the engine and it started right up.  The next morning we were planning on leaving and the engine would rev up like it was about to start and then die as soon as I would let go of the key.  My first thought was that it was probably electrical.  We had been having other problems with the ignition switch anyways and I thought that maybe it had just finally kicked it.  Allison and  I decided to take the bus to West Marine to get the stuff to replace the ignition switch and wiring.  We took the bus and didn’t get back for six hours.  I guess one or more of them had broken down.  By 10pm we had finished installing the new ignition switch and realized that it fixed the problem that we were having with it before, but it still wouldn’t start.

The next day I hotwired it thinking that bypassing some of the other connections might help.  It didn’t.  In fact, somewhere in the process of trying to get it started I burned up the condenser.  So I decided to take the bus to the auto parts store to get a new condenser.

I waited at the bus stop for an hour and a half.  It never came.  So, I walked/ jogged (in flip flops) the  9 mile round trip to Napa.  When I got there the guy looked through tons of parts for about 15 minutes and finally told me that he didn’t have one.  The door was in the process of closing behind me when I hear the guy yell “Hold on bud”.  He walks to the back again and comes out with the 8 dollar part that I needed.

After replacing that  I still had the issue of the boat starting and dying as soon as I take my hand off the key.  Turns out that it was not an electrical issue at all.  The next day I took the carburetor apart and cleaned it really well.  It was a little gummed up.  After I did that it started up right away. We really should install that fuel filter….

We plan on taking off tomorrow and going offshore outside the inner coastal waterway for a bit.  It sounds a lot more pleasant than trying to go through Hell’s Gate.

Also it is a “Supermoon” right now so the tides are crazy.

It has been going from this...

It has been going from this…

To this!!!

To this!!!


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More about the dead guy- By Josh

Well.. Yesterday was interesting (if your confused read the previous post).  People keep asking me if I was able to find anything out about the dead guy.  Here is what I know…

This is his boat.

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It looks like a boat you would find a dead body on.

Apparently he was taking it down the coast much like us… Yes on THAT boat…

He stopped here several weeks ago to do some repairs on his boat. (From the looks of it it would have taken him the rest of his life to fix it up even if he lived another 20 years).

The owner of the marina said that he was an older man who he thought was an alcoholic.  Apparently the owner thought that the guy was just trying to avoid paying his slip fee.  So yesterday he went to try and get the guy to pay up (as he had been doing everyday for a week).  When the guy didn’t answer he started yelling to the guy that he knows he is in there and if he doesn’t come out he is coming in. When he opened the hatch it was obvious what was going on.

Today the smell is completely gone.  Apparently the owner took 12 boxes of moth balls and 5 gallons kitty litter and put them all over the inside of the boat. Then he duck taped all the hatches, windows, and vents shut so none of the death fumes could escape.

Also in case you were wondering… No we are not going to steal that awesome anchor on the back of the boat… Maybe if we had a better place to keep it.


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Day 3 – By: Allison

Yesterday, we didn’t go too far and stopped at a marina. All the adrenaline of the first day combined with very little sleep on our first night anchoring had us feeling super crappy and pretty worn out. We just needed a day to celebrate all our firsts and relax. So we pulled in for fuel and when the dock master at Hilton Head Harbor Marina said something about a pool we caved.
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After a relaxing day, we got back up and going around nine. We left Hilton Head behind and entered Calibogue Sound. I got to see a stingray jump out of the water which pretty much made my day.

After the open sound, we had to navigate some narrow and shallow cuts. I had just downloaded a new FREE open source navigational software called openCPN. I like it so much better than SeaClear (what we were using). It’s much easier to use. In case you are wondering..a lot of people pay big bucks for a chartplotter system on the boat to keep them on track in the Intracoastal Waterway (or ICW, or The Ditch). We bought a $50 gps that plugs into a laptop and downloaded NOAA charts for free, then use a free software program for a chartplotter. It’s awesome.

Anyway if any other cheap ass sailing people are reading this, use OpenCPN instead of SeaClear.

So we successfully navigated Fields Cut, and a few other tight spots with this set up. In the sun its hard for Josh to see the screen so we tag team it and all those years working together came I’m handy.

We made it to an anchorage in Turner Creek and are here now. We are just watching the sunset and about to make tuna burgers on the grill.

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We might stay a few days and take a bus into Savannah. Once we move on, we’re gonna go to a really inexpensive marina not too far away. I saw the price on Active Captain…then I saw that they have golf carts you can take into town. Uh, yes please!

Now that you know all the nitty gritty details of our day, I am going to get a little emotional on ya’ll.

To all the friends and family who told us not to quit and who encouraged us…thank you. Seriously….if you have a dream that seems ridiculous, or scary, and it’s really hard to see it through…surround yourself with people who won’t let you quit.

People who tell you (in slightly fouler words) to buck up and sail the crap out of your $4000 sailboat.

People who call you and help you problem solve every step of the way.

People who pray for you, and give you homemade limoncello, and cards stuffed with cash for the hard days.

Read blogs of people who have done what you are interested in.

If you’re a fellow Christian, find a church full of people telling you to get off your ass and do what you’re made to!

It was really hard to quit a job I loved, pack up a home I loved, and leave neighbors I loved. You know what though? Josh and I wanted to live on a boat. We wanted to go back to Haiti (less than 10 weeks until that happens). We wanted to live overseas. God turned those wants into something more and we couldn’t be happier that (to quote my favorite movie) “It’s all happening.”

God has literally provided every step of the way.  At the boatyard we were at, a new friend even gave us sailing gloves which we ended up needed really badly.

Things will work out. It won’t be easy…not at all. It will, however, be worth it. Be wise, have some common sense and faith and do what you know you are supposed to do.


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Day 1 on the ICW-By Josh and Allison

Yesterday was crazy. It was awesome, it was intimidating, it was my childhood Treasure Island fantasies come true (that sounds dirty), but most of all it was worth it.
We shoved off from Marsh Harbor boatyard at 9:00 am.  Said goodbye to the friends we had made over the past several weeks and were off.  About two miles from the boatyard is a drawbridge.  Just as the bridge was opening for us our engine died. We hailed the bridge on the vhf and told them not to hold it open for us. We got the engine started quickly and went to anchor nearby to steady our nerves a bit. We
decided to try again, but guess what? Engine died again. Once again it started back up quickly. At this point Josh figured out it was dying when we pushed the engine too hard. The mechanic had adjusted things a bit and we were giving it too much gas for the new tweaks. So we tooled around in am open area for a solid 45 minutes to make sure that was it. Another boat was coming through northbound so we radioed in to let them know we’d be trying one more time. Josh thought it was funny to say, “Is it third time’s the charm or three strikes your out.” Allison did not think that was funny, but it turns out third time is indeed the charm. We made it through!

Before we knew it we were in a beautiful open sound! We both kept saying it was all worth it. We got the the north side of Hilton Head island and were following the buoys well, until Josh decided not to listen to Allison’s awesome navigational skills. We ran aground…like barely…but couldn’t get off and didn’t feel like waiting. Luckily we had just purchased our Boat US membership with unlimited towing and Allison sort of wanted to get our money’s worth anyway so we went ahead and called them. A really nice guy came from Boat US, hauled us off in 5 minutes, and then showed us the best place to anchor for the night.

Anchoring went well although you wouldn’t know that from the way Allison acted. She was so nervous, she barely slept (and kept josh awake all night as well) and checked our coordinates constantly.

Guess what, we didn’t move!

Now we are sitting here plotting our next course of action. Hopefully we’ll make it most of the way to Savannah.

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Hoping & Praying: Allison

We have been in Beaufort three weeks now. Last Thursday the boat finally got put back in the water, but we couldn’t head out right away for two reasons. One being a tropical storm that decided to show up. Another being that water was coming in the boat.

Yes. Water. Inside the boat.

Turns out when the rudder was removed it cracked the area around the rudder post just a little so that a very small, but steady stream of water was coming inside. Just enough for concern.

After the tropical storm passed, Josh filled the crack with epoxy and covered it with resin which solved the problem.

BUT, Sunday I came down with a fever and a few aches. Nothing terrible, but enough to make me want to sleep all day and be pretty useless helping on the boat.

So, I rested today and drank a ton of water. We are hoping and praying really hard to head put at high tide tomorrow. Say a prayer that all goes smoothly and that Willy finally decides to cooperate along with the weather and my body.


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Keep On Keepin On- Josh

I have decided to make a soundtrack to go along with your reading.  Over the past couple weeks we have been through a myriad of emotions and thoughts about whats next.  The videos with song will hopefully help you better understand what we have been feeling.

Immediately following our rudder breaking we were reminded of our time a couple years ago when we auditioned for Deal or No Deal.  The audition was just a few miles from our house and we thought we would just go over and hang out for an hour or so in the morning.  When we arrived the line was longer than we were expecting (the show was in its fifth season).  We thought we might be standing in line for two maybe even three hours.  After four hours in line (in 90 degree heat) we were committed.  It looked like maybe another hour or two and we should be in the door.  Two hours later we rounded the corner and realized that the line extended past the door, looped around a few times and then came back.  Thirteen hours after we arrived we were finally able to audition for 30 seconds.  I was actually asked to stay for an additional minute (because I’m apparently entertaining, but not THAT entertaining).

At a certain point, it really didn’t matter if it was going to take the rest of our lives.  We just kept telling ourselves, “Well, we’ve been here this long.  We might as well stay.”  After that experience we vowed never to let that happen again in any situation.

That is just the situation that we find ourselves in now.  We have spent so much time and money fixing up our boat that we feel like we can’t quit.  At the same time, we don’t want to waste time and money having another Deal or No Deal experience. A hundred bucks here, a few days there and we’ll be in that situation again. Long story short, we never signed anything in blood, so the vow to avoid the Deal or No Deal situation that we made wasn’t completely binding.

Feel free to play the next song.

After much “encouragement” (or something) from some friends, we decided to keep on going.  We decided to waste our savings and live the adventure that we have been working for.  Right now we are extremely close to having enough issues worked out so that we can try it again.  We have been here long enough now to have some idea of what to expect from the tides and current.  Its actually probably for the best since Beaufort SC sometimes has 12ft tides.

Since being here we were finally able to change the name of the boat.

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Named after One-Eyed-Willy from the greatest movie of 1985

We were able to repack the stuffing box.  Something that clearly needed to be done.

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Here are some pics of the rudder repair.

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Halfway there!!


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A Day in Charleston (while getting sidetracked by alligators) By:Allison (which is becoming the norm, JOSH)

On Sunday, we decided to drive up to Charleston for the day. I had never been and my old college roommate had just moved there with her fiance. So we loaded into the jeep for the hour and a half ride.

My cousin had told us about a Wildlife Management Area that had a pond full of alligators on the way, so we decided to go. It’s called Donnelly Wildlife Management Area. It’s a couple miles north of the Harriett Tubman Bridge. The place is weird and awesome all at once. We weren’t quite sure where to go. It’s got a main gravel road that sort of loops through the place and no less than 500 million small driveable trails. They’re all named and the gates are wide open so we assumed it was fine to go wherever we wanted. There was nothing telling us not to but it still felt very wrong to a rule follower like me.ImageWe finally found the lodge which had a large pond in front of it with rice trunks. My cousin had mentioned these so we figured we were in the right place. Sure enough we started counting alligators. They’re all super tiny in the pictures because we only had the go pro.

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At one point, Josh drove up on this little bitty “trail” that split the pond. As we drove, we apparently startled an alligator right next to my window and you could hear him slide down into the water which I was not a fan of! All I could think of was the jeep getting stuck and having to walk back down that little trail. Not my idea of fun.

We finally had our fill of sketchy trails and gators, so we got back on the road to Charleston. Once we got there, we went to a park on the waterfront and had a picnic that was quickly overrun by wildlife. I felt like Snow White only they were all trying to steal my food and I really don’t enjoy squirrels. One time, a friend in college tried to feed on a fry and it bit her. My luck, if one bit me it’d be rabid. Plus they’re only rats with bigger tails.

This one squirrel wouldn’t give up. Like, people were commenting on his bravery. So, Josh set the go pro down with an apple right in front and snagged a video. I’ll get that up here soon….

We met up with my former roomie and her fiance who showed us around. It was nice getting to see them. We spent the day walking around Charleston and I sort of wanted to move there immediately. It’s such a pretty town, plus all the food there looked and smelled amazing. I basically wanted to move there and eat my way around and gain 50 pounds.

Most of the pictures I took were not of interesting landmarks, but were instead of the crazy birds and squirrels at the park so you’ll have to google images of Charleston to find anything interesting, haha.


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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.

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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.DCIM101GOPRO

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.

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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.

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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.

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Hunting Island Lighthouse

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At the top.

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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

Imageour 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”.


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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. 🙂