Fake Christmas

Since Madi was leaving for San Jose a couple days after graduation, and for Japan a few days after that, we decided to have our family Christmas a couple weeks early. We treated it just like Christmas, with the same way of opening presents, same favorite foods, same Christmas movies. It was kind of nice because none of the stores knew it was fake Christmas, so it was easy to pop across the street for supplies.

We had a day to recover and clean up from fake Christmas, then we decided to accompany Madi up to northern California to help her and Koji with their apartment search. Madi got there a day earlier and lined up two days of apartments to look at with military precision. With maybe the exception of the last apartment we looked at, we all agreed that each was better than the last. They ended up getting a very nice, secure, quiet, second floor 2B 1B across from a school in San Jose.

Heather and I flew back to Phoenix from San Jose on Sunday. Although we had a nonstop, our plane was delayed due to the lovely weather much of the country is experiencing. Heather was catching a connecting flight to El Paso to get to her mother's a couple days earlier. She would have missed her connection, but it was late too. She walked up and they started boarding.

I spent yesterday Christmas shopping and running errands. Today Chelsea and I drive to Las Cruces for Christmas with Heather's family. We all drive back in a couple days, then up to Prescott for my family's Christmas, which is usually mostly on Christmas Eve. This year it is Christmas Eve Eve because Chelly and company are headed to Hawaii, where Chad's family is.

We have Christmas Eve back in Mesa, then we are flying back to Florida on Christmas day. The boat is in Panama City and we want to get it to the Tampa area next. Instead of hugging the coast we are planning on cutting the corner from the panhandle of Florida with the help of a couple of friends. They fly back on January 2nd, so we have a pretty tight window. Hopefully we will get a decent weather window in that time for the 24 to 30 hour crossing.

Madi flies from San Jose to LAX in a few hours, then her flight to Japan leaves about noon today.

Other than that, not a lot happening!

Madi's Graduation

We flew back to AZ on Sunday and have started boxing some more stuff up. We got a Christmas tree yesterday.

Today Madi graduates from ASU with a double major in English and Japanese. She worked so hard for this, and we are very proud of her. She is heading up to San Jose in a couple days to look for a place to live. She then leaves a few days later for a couple weeks in Japan to visit friends and explore some more.

Cliff Clavin's Promised Land

After arriving late afternoon yesterday, we are finally tucked away at our second staging point in Panama City, Florida. Outside this morning it is a not so Florida tourist board temperature of 35 degrees. Maybe it didn't seem cold to Cliff because he was from Boston.

Biloxi seems like a long time ago. We ended up staying an extra day in Biloxi to wait out the weather, and we left Wednesday to cross Mobile Bay. It gave us a chance to catch up on some chores and sleep, and to grab a hamburger at the Margaritaville there. The weather was nice on Wednesday and we chugged all the way across to a place called Homeport, home of LuLu's, sister of Jimmie Buffett. After a masterful docking job by Heather we walked over. On Pearl Harbor day they were closed for an employee appreciation party. We forced to cook some of the food we bought in New Orleans, and had a nice spaghetti dinner.

The weather for the next day was dicy again, but we decided to go for it. The first few hours we were on the intercoastal and pretty protected so it was cold but not too bad. We met a few barges again in the twilight which was exciting. The wind was really blowing when we got to Pensacola and it was decision time. Many of the bridges from here to Carrabelle are fixed and too short for us,  so we are forced into the gulf. We decided to make the jump from Pensacola to Destin. Because of the wind and our direction we were kicking up quite a bit of spray, which combined with the cold temperature was invigorating, and we were glad to see the markers for Destin. A very shallow entrance, but we docked  six feet from the Margaritaville there. This should be called the Margaritaville tour!

We waited a little bit in the morning for the wind to die down a little, but we needed most of a day to get to Panama City. We fueled up, then headed back out into the cold, wearing everything we owned. The wind was even stronger, but we were headed and the wind was pointed in slightly different directions, so less spray but very rolly. We made our way into the Panama City entrance and over to the marina, dodging dredging equipment and very shallow water. The wind was on our side docking, and we were trying to back in, so we had a couple of close encounters with our neighbors before we finished backing in. This is our boat's home for the next few weeks.

Biloxi Blues

Isn't that a movie name? We're in Biloxi after a very wet few hours between Long Beach and Biloxi. I checked the wind, but neglected to check the rain forecast. A couple of times the rain was blowing sideways between Heather and I. I haven't been that wet with my clothes on in some time. Fortunately they had a drier here at the marina to dry all our stuff out.

The marina is at Cadet Point, and is in the shadow of the Golden Nugget casino. We had dinner there last night expecting an early start this morning, but the wind still hasn't died down sufficiently. Problem is, if we don't leave soon, we can't make it across Mobile Bay before dark, and I haven't found another place to stop yet.

Better Late than Never

I obviously got out of the habit of updating this while we were on shore leave. We're in Mississippi!

We flew home with Chelsea the Monday before TG, went to medical and eye appointments, and cleaned out the storage unit. Thanksgiving was the traditional picnic outside of Prescott and the weather was surprisingly nice. It was good to see friends and relatives. My mother and grandmother both looked well, and my middle sister and her husband came over from California.

Even though we were back home for nine days, it went by in a blur, and soon we were 24 hours from flying back with a long list of to-dos. Didn't sleep much that night, but got it (mostly) done, and we were back in New Orleans last Wednesday night. The first day we provisioned and started making plans, but a front blew through that I'm glad we were not out in. The folks two slips over got a late start and left in the middle of it on their way to Cuba. I hope they are OK.

It gave us time to work on our list, and better appreciate our weather luck with more than a week long trip from Houston. It looked like we could at least sneak across Lake Ponchatrain, fuel up, and maybe  stay the night near Slidell. The window opened a little more and it looked like we could slide between two fronts moving their way east since we were moving east. The wind died down early Sunday morning and we left the New Orleans marina an hour after dawn. The lake was pretty flat and it was foggy but no problems getting to the cleverly named "The Dock" and topping up the diesel tanks. Other than a few showers it looked like the weather would hold out till dark, so we kept going.

We missed the weather call by a few hours. By mid afternoon the temperature was dropping and the wind was gusting over 20 knots. We weren't out there long enough for the gulf to really start kicking up more that some healthy chop, but we were glad when the Long Beach marina was in sight. Heather did a masterful docking job, and after a shower we had dinner at Steve's.

We have a short day today. We're only trying to get to Biloxi. This gives us a good starting point to scoot across Mobile bay tomorrow.

Shore Power

After lunch a good chunk of Saturday was taken up trying to connect to shore power. Think of it as the world's largest extension cord, with some additional features to reduce (notice, not eliminate) the chance of getting electrocuted while handling high voltage around water. It turns out our boat has a somewhat unusual shore electrical power configuration. It was supposed to be the next best thing 20 years ago, but turned out to be something of an orphan. Since electrical is not my strong point, it is always a struggle and takes time for me to work thru.

I wasn't going to worry about it because we are still at a temporary slip, and since we had asked for our version of power and they agreed, we foolishly assumed that that was what we were getting. Turns out our longer term slip has the same configuration as the temporary. So on a Saturday afternoon with many stores already closed we set out to come up with something, since we have only run the engine briefly since Thursday and our batteries are running a bit low. We finally found an adapter, but when we plugged it in our battery charger starting drawing 38 amps from a 30 connection. While this didn't trip anything or even measurable heat up the cord it made me nervous, so when we left the boat to head for the French Quarter we unplugged.

When we returned after walking around Bourbon Street, getting dinner at Mother's again, and a little early Xmas shopping, we plugged back in for the night. As the batteries filled up the draw came down, and this morning we are just in trickle mode. Enough amperage left to turn on the water heater! Since we're going to unplug the refrigerator this afternoon so it can defrost before we leave, we're trying to empty it out. After that, we eat out until our flights back to Phoenix leave tomorrow (Monday) afternoon.

Getting Settled in New Orleans

After getting the minivan yesterday at the airport I shuttled Chelsea and her friend to their conference, after a quick stop at CdM. We spent the day comparison shopping marinas, had lunch at a great BBQ place called Blue Oak BBQ ("Vegan Free Since 2012"), then committed with paperwork to the marina we were already in. Then we spent an hour on the phone with the power company trying to get that set up, and a modifier to the boat insurance to include the marina. The boat insurance went up slightly, almost like the insurance industry had a thing against New Orleans. We met Chelsea and her friend for dinner down the street from their conference to Mother's, which is one of the few places we remember from being here years before Katrina.

This weekend we need to pump out and move over a couple to our longer term slip. This morning I need to get our power cable hooked up to the transient slip we are in so we can have some hot water and get everything charged up. We head back to Phoenix on Monday, so we need to get the boat moved and buttoned up by then. The front came in a day later than expected, but it started blowing pretty hard during the night, and it's still going at it pretty good.

We fly back to New Orleans on the 30th, and we figure it will take us a day or two to wrap things up and get gone on our way to the panhandle of Florida, somewhere, where the boat will sit for a couple weeks while we go back for Madi's graduation and Xmas.

New Orleans at Last!

We were a little early for our last major obstacle, a bridge that requires four hours notice to open, and they were a little late, so we waited for over an hour within sight of the lake. But we got thru and after a couple of tries got the boat into the slip at the marina. We had dinner at a nice little place on Frenchman Street, then walked down to Cafe du Monde for beignets and cafe au lait. Chelsea and her friend made it to the boat late last night and are still asleep. I'm about to head to the airport to get a rental car which we will also use to hold empty bags and other stuff while we have four, and maybe tomorrow five, people aboard for the first time. We all need to go to back to the airport on Monday with all our bags anyway to fly back to Phoenix. The back cabin somehow became a garage for things that didn't quickly fit somewhere else. More things for the list.

Last Stop before New Orleans

We left Venice about 7a, went a mile or so back up the Mississippi to the Baptiste Collette channel, which the Army Corps of Engineers dredged as an alternate route with the closure of the Industrial locks. It was a little shallow in spots, but I'm sure much better than it was before, and in a couple of hours we were back in the gulf, and for the first time since we left, without cell service. The gulf was a little choppy at first, but then it really glassed out and we started to make some time. We saw quite a few dolphins. Maybe we got a little aggressive and bypassed Cat Island for Half Moon Island. We had the following view several miles from the anchorage. Note to self - double check sunset time. It was pretty dark by the time we got to the anchorage which was a little disorienting. We got hooked and called it a night. Tomorrow - New Orleans!

Down the Mississippi

Tuesday was our longest day. We were up anchor at 3:30a and on our way towards the Harvey Locks by 4a. We were lucky with the "super moon" which was very bright, and helped offset the mist a bit. We were slowing down because we didn't want to go thru before sunrise, but then I remembered we had one more bridge to open, and it closed from 6:30 to 8a for morning rush hour. We sped up, maybe a little too much, and I almost ran into a barge. The reverse on the Maxprop is excellent! We made the bridge after being chided on the radio by the operator that we were cutting it close. The locks were no big deal because the difference was only a foot or two, and we were the only ones inside. We saw the tug below on our way to the locks.

We were on the Mississippi by about 7:30a, and the current was helping us by a knot or two. We floated by New Orleans, so close I could smell the beignets at Cafe du Monde. Damn you Industrial locks!

We kept going another 80 some of miles down the river to Venice, and spent the night at the Cypress Cove Marina. The only showers they had onshore were associated with a little hotel at the marina. It's been a while since I rented a hotel room by the hour. After a little dinner at the marina cafe we collapsed after a 17 hour day.

Houma to Mississippi Lock Staging Area

I'm a couple days behind because those days have been very long. On Monday we left Houma with a couple of ideas of where to get fuel, but neither of these panned out. We found a place called Joe's Landing a few miles down the Barataria waterway that had diesel and we were able to top up and head back to just over the ICW to Lake Salvador to anchor for the night.

We have only seen only a few other sailboats, and maybe twice that non-commercial powerboats of one flavor or another. Most of our company is in the form of barges which can be pretty big. Some have what's called a six-pack, with the barges doubled up that the tug is pushing down the ditch.

The anchorage was very pretty, but the fierce mosquitos returned. I was highly motivated to figure out how to install the screens on the ports, but by the time I did that I was pretty woozy from the blood loss.

Tomorrow we raise anchor in the wee hours for our longest day yet.

Houma, LA

The terrain between Morgan City and Houma is much more interesting. Below is the view we had from the boat.

Houma is a nice little town with a marina right in the center. We had dinner at the Pit Stop, picked up a few supplies at the mini-mart, and are settling down for the night.

Tomorrow we fuel up a couple miles down from here and proceed to the head of the Bataria waterway where we will anchor for the night. This is about 15 miles from the Harvey locks, which will dump us into the Mississippi just upriver of New Orleans. If the Industrial lock was open we would proceed downriver a half dozen miles to the lock, then go a few more miles to Lake Ponchatrain. Instead we continue down the river 87 miles to Venice for the night.

Morgan City / Berwick

We made it to Morgan City, but the docks there are still all torn up, so we are across the river in Berwick, where there is - nothing! We thought we would have dinner and get a few supplies in Morgan City, but not now without taking the dinghy across the river, so our only option was Dominos. We are sandwiched between the two bridges you see in the picture below, and a railroad bridge to the right. Whatever, it was free and we live near an airport. Tomorrow (today now) we head to Houma and make our final plans for getting around the industrial lock and to New Orleans.

Avery Island

Avery Island was fun. They have a small museum followed by a walking tour that takes you through the admittedly simple process and ingredients, but then a zillion variations on that theme in the gift shop.

Also part of the island is what they called the Jungle Gardens. This was a nice walk through what had once been a very expensive 170 acre garden for the owners. There was a Buddha statue that was either a couple hundred or a thousand years old, depending on who you believed. It was inside the glass walled pagoda behind Heather.

We came up the channel seen below. We had several feet of water under the keel almost all the time until we got close to the dock.

Tomorrow we head to Morgan City, even though we are too late for the annual Shrimp and Petroleum Festival. 

Morning at Avery Island

Well, it's a beautiful morning at Avery Island. Heather is taking this first chance to sleep in she's had in more than a week.

We only have about a foot and a half of water under the keel at the dock. The locals don't seem to think much of our chances on getting back out.

Yes, those are vultures.

Tabasco!

Well, we got to Avery Island, where Tabasco is made. The trip here got a little "African Queen" as we made our way thru the bayou, but we got to the public dock across from the guard shack without running aground. No pictures because it is now very dark. We should have a lot of pictures tomorrow.

Getting into a Routine

We are anchored in an oxbow in the Mermentau river a couple miles up from the ditch. It's quiet and beautiful and we have it entirely to ourselves. Yesterday we had our first lock and first pontoon bridge (actually two). We passed a tug with a barge load (two whistle), and spent our second night at anchor. It took two GPS' to convince me we weren't dragging, or at least quickly reset. Once the sun comes up we set out for Delcambre. This just a few miles down river from Avery Island, where Tabasco is made, and there is apparently a very nice nature reserve.

Casino Buffet (and No Mosquitos)

We made good time and proceeded a few miles farther up the Calcasieu river to the L'Auberge Casino and Resort for the night. We tried a little of everything at the buffet while flipping thru election results. We can get some fuel around the corner which removes that concern for now.

After the Ellender bridge lifted for us to go thru I punched it to get thru as quickly as possible. This seemed to knock loose a barnacle or whatever from a prop blade or the mechanism, so it now seems like we have an overdrive gear, with higher rpms and no overheating. Tomorrow we have a lock and two pontoon bridges to get through, and should make it to somewhere around the Mermentau river.

In a ditch, off another ditch, from the Ditch

Well, we made it to Taylor Outfall, which is a very nice swamp, with the guide book rating the mosquitos as "fierce". That appears to be correct. Tomorrow is another long day, complicated by a lift bridge that requires four hours notice. Hopefully tomorrow night we will be anchored in an oxbow a couple of miles up the Calcasieu river. Still trying to figure out what to do about the closed industrial lock. We may just take the boat to Mobile, fly to New Orleans to be with Chelsea for a couple days, then all fly home as planned. That would shorten our trip to the Florida panhandle after TG.

Escape (pronounced a la Dory)

Well, we finally escaped the clutches of Kemah about mid-day, and made it all the way to Galveston. We are beginning our glamorous new lifestyle tied up to the fuel dock for the night. We'll head into the ditch early in the morning and get to Sabine, give or take.

Operation Get the Hell Out of Texas

We had a week between my last day at work and flying back to Houston for the last time. Had a couple hundred things to do, get, pack or whatever. We got a slow start, with nothing but a three hour nap to show on that first Saturday, but that worked out since we spent much of Saturday night at Emergency with Chelsea and her friend. It kept building as our flight approached, with Thursday and especially Friday pretty frantic. We’ve never both been away from the house for more than a week and a half, so there was a lot to arrange and schedule. And we needed to pack for more than three weeks, covering hot in Houston, cold on the water, and everything between. Plus a load of boat stuff. Almost 150 pounds of checked bags, and easily another 75 pounds in carry on.

We’ve been in Houston for a couple days now. Even though we've been busy, our list is longer now than when we got here. We keep thinking of new things. We're north of Houston now picking up the dinghy and outboard we had delivered to Heather’s sister’s so we could get the sale prices (thanks guys!). We'll assemble the tender and try it out this afternoon.

To expedite our departure I’ve started another list of things that need to be done, but we can leave Houston without starting.

Chelsea is OK

Well, that didn't take long. Per the title of this post, Chelsea is OK, but she was in a four-car accident Saturday night. She was a little sore in multiple places yesterday morning, and already had an appointment to see a doctor later today, so they can see if there is anything to be concerned about.

It was on a freeway off-ramp, and doesn't appear to have been anywhere near full freeway speeds, but nonetheless her passenger may require some delicate surgery.

It was near ASU, and apparently there was a lot of Homecoming traffic. The offramp was backed up almost to the freeway. Chelsea was stopped, waiting for the light. Apparently the girl who hit her was trying to get directions from her phone and did not get that the offramp was nearly full until too late, although she must have slowed some. She rear ended Chelsea, who in turn bumped into the car in front of her. While everyone else seems to be OK other than sore, with bumps and bruises, Chelsea's passenger has some eye damage that may require surgery. We'll know more in a few days.

Heather was also rear ended not that long ago (at very slow speed) by a distracted driver looking at his phone instead of driving his truck. Distracted driving seems to be the new impaired driving.

So my last day with Boeing was last Friday, the day before Chelsea's accident. I'll take this as another reminder to use our time well. Be safe out there.

What About the Kids?

By popular demand, an update on the kids. To be fair, we would not be doing this without the support of Chelsea and Madison. They are both working very hard at school, and each will be graduating with a degree in the next six months or so. Even when I was thinking of retiring in March the timing was tight for the girls, but they have been very flexible and understanding with their parents effectively running off the join the circus.

Madi is due to graduate in December with a double major in Japanese and English. A week after graduating she heads back to Japan for a few weeks to visit friends and tour the country. She'll be moving to the SF bay area in January, and finally be back in the same place as her boyfriend Koji. She'll get a job, hopefully using her Japanese skills, but her (at least) part time job will be studying for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test late next year.

Chelsea is studying criminal justice, with a special interest in solitary confinement. She should graduate with a masters degree in May. Soon after the voluntary layoff discussions started she expressed interest in staying on for a doctorate. This may, weirdly enough, work out well for everyone. Next year we will hand the house over to Chelsea for a few years to manage. Hopefully with roommates her housing expenses should be minimal, and she can keep the dogs and cats without moving. By the time she finishes up a doctorate the house should be pretty much paid off, and we have a few years to get the house in shape to sell, rent, or whatever.

In the mean time I think we're going to move all our stuff into the garage, but it remains to be seen if this is physically possible. We've been purging a lot of the crap we've collected in the 25 years since we last moved, but there's still a lot to go through.

One big change is getting four of the five cars we currently have off our books. The convertible we'll sell (since we already have another soft-top). Through a complicated series of negotiations and compromises, Chelsea will take Madi's 2004 Prius, Madi will take Heather's 2007 Prius, and one of Heather's students will fix up Chelsea's old Camry and they'll split the proceeds from selling it. This leaves us with only the Land Cruiser for when we're in town (and to insure).

US Sailboat Show in Annapolis

Well, we finished out the boat show for this year without too much fiscal pain (except for the dinghy and motor). It was rainy on Saturday, but that kept the crowds down. It cleared on Sunday but was very windy. Most things were 10 to 20% off for the show.

We picked up an offshore life vest with a built in harness for Heather, and a couple of separate harnesses for the coastal vests we already have. We needed a third tether for George when he helps us after Christmas, so we ended up getting a double in case someone needs to go forward on the boat in bad weather. We picked up a chart kit for New Orleans to Florida, the new Southern guide book which only just came out, and a couple more books on anchoring and weather. Heather got a cap with the boat name and a whale tail graphic embroidered, and also a handful of stocking stuffer sized/priced items.

We managed to go the entire show without setting foot on a boat. It just didn't feel like something fun now that we have our own. We did look at a lot of dingies and motors. This is a critical decision because the dingy is your car to get from your house to wherever you want to go (if your house isn't parked at a marina). After all the looking we ended up cheaping out on a PVC dingy for the next year or so until we are in Florida next year. By then we should know better what we want and need, and be in the best place to buy it. For a motor we ended up with a 5hp propane model, which sounds good and I hope works out. I think we're going to try and have them delivered to Heather's sister Holly's house in Houston.

We met last night with Jeff and Jean from Two Can Sail for some pointers on the journey from Houston to Tampa. They have been a great resource, from planning, buying and surveying the boat, and now getting started. Highly recommended!

Next year we should attend the show with our boat here in Annapolis. Headed back to Arizona this afternoon.

What Kind of Boat?

The boat that we bought is a Beneteau 411 monohull sloop with two cabins, made in 1998. The line drawing at top represents our boat, down to the shoal draft keel. We struggled for a long time with this decision, with us thinking that certain things might be appealing, but ultimately rejecting most of them. I even took a boat buying class with John Kretschmer, who gave a pretty evenhanded review of the kind of boats available, but as a professional had needs that differed from those of a newly retired couple that didn’t have enough years left to ever become that kind of blue water sailor.

While most sailors might view the following statement as an insult, I mean it as a compliment. The Beneteau 411 is the Toyota Camry of 40 foot sailboats. More than a thousand were made, which makes it one of the highest production sailboats of this size ever, believe it or not. It's comfortable and functional, not luxurious or showy. It benefits from more recent design changes, but is the victim of others, such as hull shape, which is a little flatter than we would like.

It has an aft cockpit with a sugar scoop stern, which make getting on and off the boat easier. It has an aft cabin for guests  to port under the cockpit which is nice, then immediately forward of that is a small day head (bathroom), then the nav station, then a settee which is opposite the dining area. Aft of the dining area is the galley (or kitchen). Moving forward is our cabin, which has a pullman bunk to starboard. Forward of the cabin isthe second head, which uses the triangular space well, but won't be usable when underway in any kind of seas. This will be our (very) tiny home, for as long as it’s fun.

What happened to leaving work next year?

We had talked quite a bit about me retiring early next year, since Heather has been semi-retired for about a year and a half. The soonest I was eligible for full retirement was March 1st. As luck would have it, a voluntary layoff came thru for my organization. It sounds weird, but it's a way for big companies to help folks out the door without getting sued as much.

Since they were willing to give me 6 months pay to leave 4 months sooner than I had planned, I bit. The date the company established for me is two weeks from today, the 21st of October. Three weeks after that will be the longest I've been without a job since I was 13. This really works out for the best, because it's going to take us more time than I thought to get the boat to Florida. It's a big step, but this is as good a time and way as we were going to get. I'm sure there will be some bumps, but the thought of not going now, while we're both still pretty healthy, scares me more.