Transat Part 3 – The Wait
We’ve been hanging around St. John’s for what feels like forever by now. There has been a low developing to our SW for days, which is forecast to bring gale force NE’ly winds to the Grand Banks. It will finally arrive tomorrow. So, being the prudent mariners that we are, we’re sitting tight and letting […]
Transat Part 2 – Newport, RI – St. John’s, Newfoundland
After 3 days in Newport, our autopilot issues were finally resolved, thankfully under warranty, and we were able to get underway again. I’m happy to report that in all of our digging into the pilot problem, we discovered that the NKE system does not send enough voltage into the clutch for the electric drive. The […]
Transat, leg one-a bit shorter than planned
We left Charleston on Thursday, July 14th, with an intended destination of probably Halifax, but maybe all the way to Newfoundland if the weather looked good. Our friend Tim joined us on Wednesday, we took care of some final boat chores, and got out of the 98 degree heat of Charleston just as soon as […]
Prison with a chance of drowning?
After nearly a decade with TJ I figured it was time to go for a trip with him on the Constellation. She is a 170′ Bering Sea fishing boat. I was excited and anxious at the same time. Mostly I was concerned about getting seasick, while he was mostly concerned about getting me on the […]
The storm trysail, and other odd bits seeing the light of day for the first time
We’re now in the process of getting ready to cross the N. Atlantic. Basically, when I come back from Alaska, the plan is to take off immediately when I get home from work and sail straight to Halifax or Newfoundland, take a short breather, and then continue on from St. John’s to the UK, unless […]
Stuck inside of Charleston with the Rockland blues again
We had paid up at the Ocean Club marina through the end of March, so we stuck around there until the 30th, when a decent weather window presented itself for the trip north. The coast from about Hatteras northward had been seeing some pretty lousy weather. One gale after another had been passing through the […]
The autumn of the patriarch
Yes, I know I ripped off Marquez, but it’s such a fitting title for our little king. We shipped Baxter off to Europe a few days ago with Jenny’s friend, Natascha. He will spend the winter and spring with Grandma. Jenny will go to Europe on Tuesday, and when she comes back, it will be […]
Surgery, fun for all
I arrived in Orlando on a Thursday, and had managed to schedule the removal of the offending organ for the very next day. This was actually quite an achievement. I cold-called probably a dozen places, and just couldn’t get any traction with most of them. My side of the conversation generally went like this: ‘Hi, […]
The Gallbladder Blues
After the usual delays and chaos of trying to get our beloved Constellation out of Seattle and on it’s way to Dutch on time, we managed to leave just a day late. That’s pretty much par for the course. We elected to transit the inside passage as far north as Queen Charlotte Sound or Dixon […]
The naked drunk guy with the knife
So, while this is outside the generally factual, sailing-based travelogue we’ve built here, it’s just too good not to share. At about midnight last night, I was just nodding off despite the neighbor’s wire halyard incessantly clanging off his mast- Really, people, is it that hard to tie these things off-, when I heard some […]