Thank You, Good Bye, and Stuff For Sale

So after a lot of thought and consideration we have decided to hang up our sailing caps for now.  We got to experience our dream and had the time of our life both good and bad.  Now that we are back in the States we really appreciate all the nicities that you take for granted; showers, toilets, electricity, fresh food, family. 

Also as we are about to turn 26 and 27 we want to get on with other aspects of life like starting our own family.  Maybe later in life we will return to the water with a lot more experience and luxury! We have learned so much from this whole experience and are grateful to have the chance to pull it off.

We want to thank all our family, friends and blog readers for their support.  And a big thanks to all the people who have helped us along the way, we would not have been able to do it without the wonderfully helpful sailing community.  And a special thanks to Eric our boating mentor for his wealth of advice.

We have decided leave Bright Eyes in Ft Lauderdale to sell and move back to Maryland to live.  We have dumped more money than we'd like to admit into this adventure (I'm an accountant and have it all in excel) so we want to get as much back as possible.  Therefor we are selling a lot of our equipment as separate items that will directly benefit someone looking for cruising stuff.

We will be in Ft Lauderdale for about a week then will take all this stuff to sell in MD.

Please us at call 240-305-7177 to inquire.

Chesapeake Bay Chart book - $40 ($60 value)
Atlantic ICW Chartbook - $40 ($70 Value)
Skippers Bob ICW Anchorages -- Free with purchase ($17 value)
Explorer Near Bahamas Chart book - $40 ($65 value)
Explorer Exumas Bahamas Chart book - $40 ($65 value)
Explorer Far Bahamas Chart book -$40 ($65 value)
Dosier's Cruising the Bahamas Guide book - $20 ($40 value)
All four Bahamas books for $120 ($235 value)

8ft Walker Bay Dinghy Inflatable - $400 ($630 value)
8ft Dinghy Cover, 600 denier - $30 ($55 value)
2010 3.5 hp Mercury 4 stroke outboard engine - $600 ($1050 value)

Two Green Zone Folding Bikes 20'' 6 speed with bags $250 ($400 value)
120v Ice Maker - $70 ($140 value) SOLD
100 amp alternator, brand new unused - $100 ($160 value)
Alcohol Stove, single burner 6800 btu - $80 ($155 Value)
Spot Locator - $80 ($120 Value)
Two Mustang Deluxe Inflatable Life Vests with Harnesses - $150 ($400 value) SOLD
Mast Top Climber with line - $100 ($350 Value) SOLD
Handheld Garmin - $100 ($200 value)
Handheld VHF HX 280S - $50 ($90 Value) SOLD
TV Antennae with mast mount - $80 -- ($200 value)


Portable red/green navigation light for dinghy - $20 ($35 value) SOLD
Two group 27 battery boxes $10 ($20 value)
Two Fishing Rod holders, rail mount - $30 ($70 value)
West Marine Air Dryer Dehumidifier - $30 ($60 value)
Rule Portable Hose with 12v/120v charger - $30 ($85 value)
West Marine Binoculars, Huahine 7x50 - $40 ($60 value)
20ft 5/16 HT G4 Chain, unused - $60 ($75 value) SOLD
Two 40 ft Safety Lines - $30 ($50 value) SOLD
Rail mount drink holder - $20 ($40 value)
Oil change drill attachment - $20 ($45 value)
Outboard engine bridle - $20 ($40 value) SOLD
Outboard engine rail mount, wooden - $20 ($30 value)
30amp to 15 amp adapter - $20 ($40 value)
Marriage Saver Two Way Headsets - $50 ($75 value) SOLD
Six 5 gallon yellow diesel jugs - $10 each or $50 for all six ($120 value) SOLD
Six 5 gallon collapsible water jugs - $20 ($35 value) SOLD

Boat Work and Out of Power

We have been pretty lucky so far keeping our repairs to a minimum.  Mostly we clean after the cats (litter and lots of cat hair).  We tighten up loose bolts and wires as we find them.  Dishes and general cleaning wrap up our boat work.

However during the week of the regatta it rained a lot and our house batteries suffered never getting a full days charge.  Since then our battery monitor showed 10.5 volts at night and 12.0 volts during the day under full sun light.  That is not good.  We couldn't plug anything in like charging our laptops and most electronics wouldn't run except for our led cabin lights.

I decided to test each battery by hooking them up to the solar panels and battery monitor alone for a day and see if it could charge up.  Two of the battery never showed more than 11.5 volts even under the full sun power so I guess they are dead.  One battery would range from 11 volts at night and 14.1 volts during the day.  The last battery ranged from 9 volts at night to 14.1 volts during the day.  But even those two batteries would not hold the charge at night.

During this time we have been trying out different spots around town that we can pick up wifi and power.  It's not the wifi that we need so much but the power.  We don't use too much electricity on the boat so we've been ok with just using some light at night, however Christine is craving music.

It is quite expensive to replace our battery bank here so we are hoping our new plan will work.  We will use the electricity during the day that the solar panels provide and then only use lights at night.  So basically using the two house batteries we have as a funnel for electricity even though they can never hold it.  Luckily it's sunny most days.

Also lucky is that we keep our small starter battery on a separate switch so it has been unaffected by all this and we can still start the boat!

The other major project I have to do is scrubbing the barnacles and growth of the bottom of the boat which can be tough in a choppy current.   Also restitching a lot of our canvas.  Those cats can be a menace sometimes, but at least it will keep me busy.

Sorry for no pictures as this was quite a lame/boring blog, but we thought if we can tell the good side of cruising we can tell the bad as well.  And everyone knows what a 12volt battery looks like...

Food Stuffed Sailboat

Now that all our major projects are done, we have a few smaller projects we'd like completed before we leave. Install a 100 amp alternator, install a remote gas gauge, and install our transducer. So theres plenty to keep me busy over the next month.




I ran one extension cord from our inverter to the galley and one to the v-berth. This way we will be able to easily use 110 volt devices like the rice cooker and our laptops. We know these type of electronics are huge energy suckers so we will keep an eye on their use and try to use them while the engine is running.

I also ran the wires and installed Christines v-berth fan. I know, it's too cold for a fan now but hopefully in 2 months we will need these two babies on full blast.



The top climber finally got put away. After 4 trips up I finally got the new LED masthead/anchor light securly installed and our tv antenae mounted to the mast instead of hanging by ropes.

And here's another view of our sweet solar panels.

We also took our first huge provisioning trip. We redesigned our food storage system and packed it with tons of canned and boxed goods! This is about half of what we have aboard and we plan to make one more big trip. While away our dining will consist of 40% of food we brought, 30% of local food we purchase, and 30% of food we catch! Or something like that....

25 days to go from opposite hair day couple!

50 Foot High Boat Work

37 Days to go!

We have put alot of work into this boat so we don't feel too bad about outsourcing the dinghy davit project. In fact it is the first and only project on this boat we didn't do our selves. It turned out pretty good and now we dont have to worry about where to store the dinghy or keeping the water from growing algea on the bottom of the dinghy. Our dinghy, named Sawyer, is now nicely raised off the stern of our boat and we can easily deploy it when needed.

Sawyer will be our main mode of transporation when cruising. Whenever we need to get inland or want to explore Sawyer will be ready to go for us.

About a month ago we replaced all our lights with LED bulbs to conserve electricty. The last light to replace was the masthead/anchor light at the top of our mast. We have been putting it off cuz its a real pain to get up there. We purchased a Top Climber from a friend which is much easier than climbing up with the Bosuns Chair. After spending a a good 20 min figuring out how to use it I was started climbing. The Top Climber works by running one strong line up the mast and then using a squats motion to move the two mechanical parts up one at a time. It is quite the workout and after about 30 min I was at the top.


I have been up there twice before but this time I had to remove the old light and electrically connect the new light. I worked as fast as I could trying not to drop anything. Ofcourse I did drop one tool but luckily after I was done with it. Soon the sun started to set and it got colder. Along with fatuiged muscles it became increasingly difficult to mount the new light. The electrical splicing went well but it took me 20 min to realize that the new light screw holes were about 1cm further apart than the original so I couldnt screw both sides in. I had to come down but will go back up with some 4200 and duct tape. It's pretty secure already with one side bolted down but I want to make sure it's not going anywhere. We tested the lights and they were very bright and worked perfect. The new light is brighter, taller and has clearer glass.

Atleast the view was pretty nice up there.

Currently I am working on installing the solar panels. I drilled each panel to 2x4s and will then connect the 2x4s to the bimini bars on top using U-bolts. Here are some progress pics. I hope to have this done by the end of the week.

Happy Thanksgiving!


-Joey

Let There Be LED Light

Two more weddings since the last post. Whew! Congrats to Melissa and Gene and Steve and Jess!!! No more weddings in the near future so back to boat work. Darn ;)

To see all the wedding pics click here October 2010 Weddings

Joey has almost finished putting together the jerry can wood - the project I started in May but never finished. The boards are on but we need to apply a weather proof coat.



Let us not forget that last weekend was also the sailboat show in Annapolissss!!! We went this year with a shopping list and stuck to it for the most part. We bought one thing not on the list which we needed anyways which was a boat hammock, I cant wait to figure that thing out/put it to use. Other than that we got some LED's so soon it will be up the mast again for Joey. We replaced the running, stern, and masthead/anchor lights. We also replaced the cabin lights in our v-berth and main cabin. And we got an LED utility light that will be used to light up the cockpit when needed. This will all keep our energy down when we are anchored at night and have no solar power.

Oh yeah, here is a picture of some dumpster food we found. YUM!!!! Actually it's not dumpster food it's 'freecycle' food.... less than 80 days til blast off so beggers can't be choosers right, especially since Joey just purchased the $250 wirie and though he begged for a discount they wouldn't give us one. Sigh. Our current internet is poor at best now so this will immediatly help. And it will allow us to continue blogging while we are cruising!

Tommorrow is Joeys birthday. We are gonna play some golf!

-Christine

Back into Gear

Last weekend we attended 2 weddings and watched football on sunday. Congrats to Jordan and Sarah, and Mike and Angie! It was good times seeing friends and family.




This week we kicked back into gear. Our solar panels and dinghy davits came in so now I just gotta mess about with them. I also took on the task of changing all our lights to LED. We will only have 170 watts of solar panel power so we need to keep our energy usage as low as possible. The LED lights use 1/10 of the energy as our regular lights. This task hasnt been as easy as I thought. The LED light fixtures are way expensive, and if I just want the bulb I am having trouble finding the correct replacement. So far we have replaced the running lights and stern light with LED bulbs.

I think I found a bulb replacement for our Perko masthead/anchor light but the salesmen said that I could see the exact bulb at the Annapolis Sailboat Show so we will wait till then to make sure it fits. Our next problem is the amount of light produced by cabin LEDs. We put a nice one above our stove that will help with cooking at night, but the don't seem bright enough to read by. LEDs are bright to look at but they don't really light up the room. So we will look around at the Boat Show for options. We still want to replace both lights in our V-berth, our one halogen bulb in the cabin, our 12'' florescent kitchen light, and figure out a good light for the cockpit. Any advice is always welcome!

We also purchased a new main halyard. This was on our to do list since we got the boat surveyed and we kept putting it off. Well now is the time to complete the important to dos! It wasn't so hard of a project. We just took the distance of our "luff" (distance from boom to the top of the mast) and tripled it to account for going up, coming down and running to the helm. West Marine let us borrow a piece of line to make sure it matched out current line and fit through the blocks. However, West Marine was charging $1.14 per foot and at Bacon they had the same line on sale for $.80 per foot. So we got a good deal there and bought 120 feet. To run the new line in I sewed the ends of the new and old line together and then just pulled it through. It was quite easy and looks great. We are gonna take the old halyard and use it to replace our 4th halyard that is even worse condition but is only used to lift boat items like the dinghy.

We are also having bilge problems. I spent 3 days cleaning it out and getting the bilge pump to run but even now it is kinda faulty. i have to wiggle the switch on and off to get the bilge to really catch and suck water. Since the bilge can really be worrisome, we will be replacing that pretty soon before we leave.



We have a big weekend ahead of us with a boaters party, another wedding, football at a friends house, and the Boat Show to attend! One other item we just discoved is the TheWirie. It is a internet antenae for cruisers. We are gonna keep an eye out for it at the boat show. Does anyone have any experience with it?

84 days left!

-Joey