The blog has been quiet for about 8 months now. Some of you are probably thinking that we've sailed off the edge of the earth. Plus you likely also know there be dragons out there!
The good news is that we didn't sail off the edge, and that we haven't encountered any dragons (yet). But we have spent some time getting ready for our 2011 cruise.
Preparations started in earnest the first week of November, 2010, when Bill drove down to Brunswick with a car full of stuff. After about a week getting the boat ready to move again, Wayne Leblanc flew down to help Bill run Jubilee outside from Brunswick, GA, down to St. Augustine, FL. We had two goals in mind with the move further south: 1) getting a slightly “warmer” start when we ultimately departed in February 2011, and 2) having some bottom work done at Oasis boatyard in St. Augustine, a yard where we had received several positive recommendations.
The trip down from Brunswick was uneventful, as you can tell from the pictures of Bill's crack crewman Wayne on (and sometimes off) watch. We made the trip in two daytime runs, with our customary overnight anchorage at Cumberland Island just off the St. Mary's river.
After the sail down to St. Augustine, Bill and Wayne drove further south to Melbourne, FL, to attend the 2010 annual SSCA GAM. Like last year's GAM, the seminars and vendor area were outstanding – well worth the two days Wayne and Bill spent there.
After Melbourne, Wayne flew back to the Twin Cities and Bill had Jubilee hauled. As of 11/15 Jubilee was out of the water and firmly on the hard for the next two months.
Bill got one nasty surprise when we hauled … blisters in the bottom (see example photo)! When we over-wintered on Lake Erie in 2007-08, we contracted a yard there take all the prior coatings down to glass for an InterProtect 2000 barrier coat job before re-painting the bottom with salt water bottom paint. An InterProtect job should last decades, and it should totally seal the hull from any moisture intrusion! What had happened?
In examining the blisters we quickly determined that they were not gel coat or fiberglass blisters at all. Rather, prior coatings on the hull had not been fully removed as we had paid to have done before the InterProtect was applied. InterProtect only bonds with gel coat or fiberglass, it can't be applied on any other coating. Bottom line, at Oasis we now not only had to refresh our bottom paint as originally planned, but also had to totally strip the InterProtect layer and the layer beneath it that had not been removed in 2008, and then start from scratch with a properly applied InterProtect barrier coat.
Oasis Marine in St. Augustine did an outstanding job, as you can see by the “after” photo here. We're presently in discussions with the Ohio yard regarding compensation for work not performed properly in 2008. It appears we'll be receiving some relief on that front, but we're still negotiating what the relief will entail.
While the boat was out of the water we had her surveyed, as our normal 5-year insurance re-survey is going to be due in May. Jubilee came through with flying colors. The surveyor identified NO recommendations. We'd never experienced that in a survey before. Surveyors always seem to find a little nit here or there, but we had been working hard to get the boat ready for this year's trip. We must have been doing the right things.
Shortly after Jubilee was re-launched, Judy flew in to Orlando. While driving her back to St. Augustine we got a call from Twin Cities sailing friends Bob & Judy Snyder, who were similarly readying their boat, but at Tiger Point near Fernandina Beach, FL. Turns out that mutual friends of theirs and ours, Jeff and Jean Burton, were flying into Jacksonville that evening. Plans were set to meet for dinner in Jacksonville. We subsequently called Bill and Sylvia Mueller, Unisys and boating friends from Roseville, MN, who are presently aboard their boat in Brunswick, GA. They quickly agreed to join us for dinner too. In short order, eight Twin Cities sailors converged on the Bahamas Breezes restaurant in Jacksonville. (photo courtesy of Sylvia Mueller)
A few days later the Snyder/Burton boat had started heading south. They arrived in St. Augustine Saturday night along with John and Nora Mayo from the Toronto area aboard their Sabre 425 sloop Saber Tooth. With our car we ferried folks back and forth to the Saltwater Cowboy for dinner, a great seafood restaurant and favored “locals” hang out (meaning well off the tourist path). We remembered to bring the camera this time (see accompanying photo).
It's now Tuesday night, 2/15. Judy has wrapped up our provisioning, having made countless trips to the local grocery stores (a total of over $1800.00 in groceries bought, repackaged and stored, with our meats all re-packed, vacuum bagged and now firmly frozen). In parallel, Bill worked on getting the boat ready to go – everything from cleaning and waxing, to re-installing electronics, to going up to the masthead to put the wind instruments back on, and other “normal” get ready stuff. Of course there are always a few surprises along the way, like a 10-year-old water heater that decided to start leaking when we turned it on. It was great that it happened here, however. Luckily the local West Marine had an exact replacement in stock.
So with that we're now ready to start heading south. Our plans for this year (of course written sand – they could easily change at any time for weather or other contingencies) are to head south to about Lake Worth/West Palm again, and then jump to the Bahamas as in prior years. We're going to try to get down to the Exumas as quickly as possible, weather permitting, and spend a few weeks there. Our friends Wayne & Cynthia Leblanc will be meeting us in the Exumas for a week in later March, after which Cynthia flies home. Wayne, Judy and I will continue on to Georgetown where we'll re-provision for Wayne and Bill continuing further south while Judy flies back to Mpls in early April. Wayne and Bill plan to continue through the Far (southern) Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos, the Dominican Republic, and on to Puerto Rico where they'll leave Jubilee on the hard where we've reserved a place at a hardened (hurricane straps etc.) storage area in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, for the hurricane season. Our plan is then to return to Puerto Rico after the December holidays next year, re-launch, and then spend the next winter-spring cruising season enjoying the Spanish, US and British Virgin Islands.
But there are lots of miles yet to go under Jubilee's keel before we get to that point. As the oft-quoted Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu stated in the 6th century BCE, “A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step”. Weather permitting we plan to take that first single step south tomorrow. As in past years we'll be trying to post to the blog about once a week. Stay tuned and enjoy the ride with us!
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