Thursday, June 19, 2008

SolMate Hospitalized



June 2, 2008


SV SolMate is in the hospital getting surgery!

We are confident everything will be fine (except my wallet).
A few blisters and a fresh coat of bottom paint. Maybe even a buff and wax above the waterline.
She'll be feeling spritely in a few weeks!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Bottom Dwellers Do Exsist

It's a nasty job, but has to be done. And honestly, I'd rather do it myself than to pay someone. I'm talking about bottom-cleaning. Yep, scraping barnacles and the plenitude of sealife that kindly attaches itself to the bottom of your hull. It seems to thicken, like rolling a snowball, picking up mass with every changing tide. The conditions here are perfect- constant current, warm waters, and a boat that hasn't had a fresh coat of anti-fouling paint in almost 3 years.

So I don the gear- scuba tank, mask, fins and scraper. I plunge in and attack- scraping away the thick mass of hairy like growth. Fortunately, not too many barnacles to contend with, as these formidable opponents can be really tough to break off. But the algae-like plant life was unbelievable. Here, a mild current is your friend. Whisking away the nasty stuff as it falls from the hull. I burn through an 80cu tank in about an hour, a testament to my miserable aerobic condition. When I draw the last labored breath through the regulator, I ascend the 3 feet and drift to the swim ladder to climb out.

OH- THE HORRID OF WHAT I FIND CLINGING TO ME!!!
You wouldn't know what color my t-shirt actually was, because I was covered, literally COVERED, in millions if tiny brine shrimp. They were in my hair (head, chest, leg....yes, there too), in my ears, on my mask, in my gloves-you get the picture.
While I could have come unglued, I forced myself to minimize the gross factor. Fortunately, I still had not removed my mask, so at least my nose and eyes were out of reach to the clingy buggers. And it stayed on until the last known creature had been power-sprayed off of me. As I shot the hose down into my shorts, I flet a sharp sting in the nether-regions. Instinctively reaching in to brush away whatever was making contact with the sensitive skin, I feel somenthing that actually seemed to take a defensive position. In the haste of the moment, I scooped out a handful of biomass and slung it to the deck. To my shock, a small sand crab regains his footing and scurrys off the edge and into the water. As far fetched as it sounds, yes, I had the crabs! Carryn doubled over with laughter. Another silly twist to the mundane job of bottom cleaning. A day we won't soon forget.

B, C & B

PS As if scrapping the bottom wasn't a tough enough job, I took on repairing the temperature gauges in the engine room. Note to self...yoga might be a good thing to learn!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

May 4, 2008- Williams Beach




Tybee Island, Ga-The locals "Hot Spot"


We decided to get a jump start for our Cinco de Mayo celebration and cast away our lines. We set sail for a local beach only accessible via boat called Williams Beach. Thanks, Steve of SVCamelot for instigating the trip to go explore.


It was a beautiful, calm day. We relaxed and motored (no wind to sail) down the Bull River to rendezvous with Steve and his family. This was our first dinghy ride away from the boat while anchored off a beach and it went really smooth. Bella LOVED every second. She really knows how to embrace each moment and teaches this simple concept everyday! We experienced Williams Beach on a low tide so the marine life and island exposure was vast. High tide started rolling in around 3pm as well as the wind so we decided to pull anchor and head back to our marina (both wind and tide in our favor, yeah!).


Upon our return to Bull Marina, we were greeted by our fellow boat buddies who assisted with catching a couple of lines for smooth docking (great job Captain). Our adventure continued long into the night sharing 5 o'clock cocktails with Steve and Carol along with a variety of great conversation topics.


Somehow, the converstation turned into telling old stories about what we used to physically be able to accomplish like water skiing etc... before we knew it, Steve convinced Brandon to rediscover his water skiing abilities and go for it (we are talking about a long time ago). Not only was the water cold but it was Steve's small skif so not a ton of horsepower, if you know what I mean. They both successfully got up to ski and had a ton of laughs (I have photos to prove this).


This was not the end of our night, though you would think it would be...then we all boarded the skif to head out and watch the last rays of a great sunset. The excursion took us down the Wilmington River where we saw grand homes attached to their even more amazing boat dock house (Brandon and I thought we would love to own just the boat dock house). Upon our return to Bull River Marina, the docking of Steve's skif went just like a text book what not to do when you dock. Both Brandon and Steve fell in from variable incidents leading up to a hilarious swim. Fortunately, neither one suffered any injuries!


I hope to attach photos from this day's adventure but I am new at all this so we will see...


Until next time...All Aboard!


B, C and B
PS This weekend was also my first time to Captain our dinghy and I had a blast! Thank you Brandon for being an awesome teacher, I love you!


Saturday, May 3, 2008

Our first Blog

Welcome to our BLOG (which I undersand is short for weB LOG).
We couldn't be more excited to enter this new (that tells you how up to date with things we really are) medium with which to share our thoughts and ideas. Our hopes and dreams. And the progress we make on this journey of life.

We are writing this first blog from the salon of the SolMate, our 45' Morgan center cockpit sloop. We are tied up at a little marina on the Bull River, on the coast of Savannah, Georgia. Listening to some John Denver and Bob Marley with the crackle of the VHF in the background. There are storms moving in and that usually generates some interesting traffic on channel 16. Just finished dinner and our Portuguese Water Dog, Bella, is laid out flat on the cabin sole. She is bushed from the days activities- a dinghy ride up the river to gawk at the beautiful homes on Whitemarsh Island and a feable attempt to catch a fish or two (yes, I actually caught a speckled trout- yeah, just one; then I got hung up and lost my tackle which was the end of fishing for the day)

As our family and closest friends know, Carryn and I have fostered the dream of taking a sabbatical from the rat race. Not sure where it started, but sometime around 2002, I picked up an interest in sailing. After reading seemingly all that was written about the subject, we went on the hunt for the perfect "first sailboat". More about that later, but after over 6 years and our second boat, we are really picking up steam on our quest to let loose the dock lines and venture into another less scripted chapter of our life.

As this is our first installment of our Blog, I will save all the details for future installments. But suffice to say, we are looking forward to sharing with all our family and friends. Time to freshen up my Rum and Coke, and get out into the cockpit to enjoy the breeze and catch the last minutes of sunset.

We'll get back to you soon.
B,C&B