A new way to look at Quest

This is Quest through the eyes, (and the hands), of my wonderful daughter, Andrea.

I was telling her about how I had anthromophisized Quest. I said I kind of saw Quest as a spunky young girl, a bit sassy but that she loved us because we had her back out doing what she loves to do - sailing. I mentioned that she was beautiful and graceful in her off white sails and forest green trim.

Andrea decided to draw her for me. She's even prettier than the real thing!

We are in Jensen Beach

January 28, 2010
Hi 71 Lo 54
Lat/Lon 27 15.3 N, 80 13.8 W

We anchored out at Jensen Beach last night. We are staying here today to fix our radios, which have been on the blink... and also, to get the rest of the old name off the bow of the boat so that we can get the Quest put on.

Sids kids are meeting us in down in Key West on Feb 9th, so we're actually having to hurry, and worry about time. We have about 10 days to get down there, but we keep having to stop to fix things. (Which, I have been assured by more than just Sid, is just the nature of owning a boat.)

When were were in Titusville, I set up my cell phone account to use my phone as an internet modum, so that I can have internet more often. I'd basically have internet anywhere I have cell service. But I need a cable to attach my phone to my computer, and have not yet been able to locate such a thing within walking distance of a marina. ...sigh...

So,... for now, internet access is still brief and spotty.
Our time is growing short... and
from time to time, so is our patience.

Nobody said it would always be smooth sailing.

We saw a manatee!!!

January 26, 2010
Hi 70 Lo 56
Lat/Lon 28 5.0 N, 80 36.5 W

We saw a manatee this morning! He was sunning himself inside one of the slips right beside us at the Titusville Marina. There was a big shadow from one of the pilings across his back, so the pics didn’t turn out too great.

There are signs every place that the water is shallow,(which is almost everywhere), reminding boaters to watch for them. I was really hoping to see one, but kind of doubted I would because they are usually in really shallow water, and being on a sailboat, we can't get into most of those places.

The first ph0to is his back, in the second pic, you can see him sticking his nose above the surface to breath. I think if you click on the pic, it will get bigger.

Boats are the biggest reason for the huge decline in manatee numbers, so GA and FL have sunk a bunch of money into educating the public about watching for them. Dolphins are fast and smart and stay out of the way of boats, but manatees are slow and not very bright, so it’s up to the boaters to save them. Gee, that’s a scary thought.

Bless their little endangered hearts, but they aren't very cute, are they???

Oh, and we were moored right beside Santa Claus! In fact, when we say the manatee, Santa filled us in about a bunch of manatee info.
For example: There were 40 resident manatees in that general area.
And that they can be indentified by the marks and scars on their tails, similar to the dorsal fins on orcas.




We didn’t get to go to the Kennedy Space Center. It was $40 each to go, plus there was no bus out there, so we would have had to rent a car which is another $40, but the real clincher was that there was no Enterprise RentACar in town, and they are the only one’s that would come to a marina to pick you up. So we gave up. We were both disappointed. But we did go right past the launch pads as we headed south on the ICW, so we still got to see it. It was a good view, an awesome sight. But I didn’t think to take a photo… duh!

The ICW is wider and deeper in this area, so we got to actually sail most of the day. We were doing about 7.5 knots, and passed a few other sailboats that were motoring. It was a nice day.

We reached Melborne, FL at 5:30 pm and dropped anchore. We took the dingy to shore to give Bo is ‘shore leave’ and because we wanted to find a marine store to buy some charts for the areas farther south. Bo LOVES to ride in the dingy! Plus he knows it means shore leave!

We ask someone at the boat dock about buying charts. He said there was a West Marine store about a mile and a half that way à. So we started walking, and walking, and,… After a while we stopped and asked at a 7-11, “Oh yea, it’s just up a couple more lights.”

So we walked, and walked, and walked. I had to pee like crazy and was sure I wasn’t gonna make it much further. By now it was 7pm and quite dark. I was about to go use a bush beside a business when we spotted the familiar blue and white sign, but still about 3 blocks away. We were both tuckered out, Bo however was having a wonderful time. Spurred by the call of nature however, I increased my speed, ran through the doors and made a bee-line for the restroom. “How do you spell relief?”

We called a cab to take us back. Bo enjoyed that too! At the end of the ride, the cab driver told us we’d gone over 3 and half miles! It was 9pm by the time we got back to the boat. The whole evening pretty well shot! Yeah,… nice little jaunt to the marine store!
huff, huff, huff,…


Wow, what a full busy day!

We are approaching warmer latitudes!

January 24, 2010
Mostly to partly cloudy – warm! Hi 73 Lo 58
Lat/Lon 28 36.7 N, 80 48.5 W

It was warm and sunny when we got up Sunday morning in New Smyrna! We had our coffee out in the cockpit and took our time getting around to leaving, as we only had 30 miles to go to our next destination of Titusville. Left New Smyrna at 11:00 am. :o)

We took the ICW to Titusville, just north of Cape Canaveral. Anchored by 4:30 pm.

The weather got cloudy and windy coming down here, but it stayed warm.

Again, the ICW is super shallow, if you stray even a couple of feet outside the marked channel, it’s only 5 feet, and as low as 1 foot only a few feet from there. Little sand bars all over the place! When you’re in the ICW, you have to watch the channel markers every minute. And it's not very scenic, miles and miles of flat scrub.

"Paddle faster Sid! I think I hear banjo music!"

It makes for a long, boring day. That’s why we like being ‘outside’ on the ocean. It may be bouncy, but you can relax and not constantly be on ‘watch’.

We will lay up here for a couple of days. They've been predicting nasty weather for today, but I'm currently sitting on a dock at the marina, wearing shorts and enjoying the sunshine. It's only about 70, but that's still feeling pretty darn nice. Sid is working on installing 2 more batteries, because we keep draining the 2 we have. So an upgrade there is necessary.

We expected nasty weather today, but I think we got it last night. We're hoping to go to the Kennedy Space Center tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be similar to today. I hope it stays nice. We’re both excited to see it. They even have ‘day care’ kennels for pets there.

A much better day...

January 23, 2010
Sunny - Hi 69 Lo 51
Lat/Lon 29 5.5 N, 80 57.0 W
St. Augustine is a charming town. It is the oldest town in the U.S. that is still occupied - founded in 1556. I wish we’d had time to really explore. Some of those buildings were amazing. But weather was dictating our movement, so we had to leave early in the morning to head south while we had a clear weather window. Such is sailing. Oh well… I do hope to revisit St. Augustine someday.

We went out to sea by 7:30 am. It was very bouncy going out. Tide and wind was against us, so waves were spraying up over the bow. WOW, it was cool! Yeeeehaw!

Sailing on the Atlantic was sunny and beautiful. There was a good 15 knot wind, ideal for sailing.



Gracie enjoys the views from the shelter of the dodger.





We took turns basking in the sun, but still kind of bundled up.
Datona Beach as seen from the Atlantic Ocean.


OH! OH! OH! And, (for those of you that have read my Hooty Hoot blog,) remember when I saw Tits in my Tree??? (Little birds called Bush Tits) Well, now I’ve seen Boobys at Sea! Yep, we saw Boobys!!! Red Footed Boobys!!

I’ve had such a good time adding new birds to my ‘life list’.


We entered the Ponce de Leon inlet, (just south of Daytona Beach), about 5:00 pm. We'd done some ‘serious’ research on this inlet before we left St. Augustine, so the entrance was a piece of cake. The skies stayed clear and sunny all the way to our anchorage at New Smyrna, on the ICW.

Bo was, (as always), eager to get to shore and check out all the marvelous new smells.

Cheated certain death... :o)

January 22, 2010
Started out sunny, ended FOGGY!
Lat/Lon 29 53.9 N, 81 18.6 W

This update will have to be really short. I have 2 impatient males waiting outside the coffee shop while I briefly access the internet!

When we were in Jacksonville, we moved the boat from Marsh Island to anchor at Exchange Island so that we could use the Arlington Boat Ramp to dingy supplies back and forth to the boat. (5 dingy loads!)

We got most of our stuff done in Jacksonville. We really struggled with the autopilot, and finally had to call a life line – my wonderful sister Kate, in Spokane, WA. We had her get on the internet and find a tech support number for the type of autopilot we have. When we called the guy gave Sid a couple of things to try, and one worked! It’s not working perfect, it still shuts off occasionally, but it works MUCH better. Thanks Kate!!

I got most of the ‘Kristina’ name off the boat, the ‘Krist’ is gone, the ‘ina’ is still there, so Quest is not on yet. We ran out of nice weather so that work had to stop. We did get to enjoy record rainfall in Jacksonville. HOLY CRAP! He, he,… Lucky us!

Oh, and in case you want to know,… the water in the St. Johns River that flows through Jacksonville,… looks like coffee. Nope not kidding a bit! It is dark reddish brown. Absolutely disgusting! (My apologies to anyone from Jacksonville that may read this – but DAMN - you guys gotta clean up this river!)

We left Jacksonville for St. Augustine at 7am in order to go out to sea with the tide instead of against it. The sun came out about noon, and it was BEAUTIFUL. For about two hours.

Then the fog rolled in, the temperature dropped 15 degrees, the wind picked up, “Otto” the autopilot lost its course, and land disappeared. We knew we were only about a mile north of the St. Augustine inlet. But it was like we were blind. Visibility was down to about 50 yards a good share of the time. Frankly, I don’t mind telling you I was a bit frightened. But Sid and I worked together as a team, using the radar to pick up obstacles, and using the gps to find the course we were supposed to follow. Finally, after drifting 1 mile too far south, we saw a boat going in. We could see it for long, be we were able to follow him using the radar. I had to tether myself to the rail, and watch for channel markers with the binocs as we went in. Wow, it was scary. But we made a good team and made it safely to anchor inside the inlet.

Ok, the boys are chompin’ at the bit. Better scoot. Oh, and yes, we all wear our harnesses and lifejackets, even Bo. (Both pets are doing very well.)

Slowly making our way south...

January 20, 2010
Hi 69 Lo 56
Lat/Lon 30 23.7 N, 81 30.4 W

Yesterday, we left Fernandina at 11:00 am and headed out into the Atlantic Ocean! We were officially ‘at sea’ by 11:50! It was beautiful! Sunny weather and the water was calm and glassy. Not much wind at first. We had to get out there several miles to find enough wind to sail. But then we scooted along at about 5 knots. We saw lots of dolphins. We could hear on the radio that right whales were being sighted somewhere in the area, but we never saw them. (Another item to check off my bucket list; I have now officially sailed on the ocean.) :o)

When you’re at sea, it can be very difficult to tell where to turn toward land and head inland to your destination. Everything looks the same from out there, so having good charts and watching your latitude and longitude is vital. This is so fantastic, I’m learning so much! We successfully navigated our way into the Jacksonville inlet, and up the St. John River toward Jacksonville. We followed a nuclear submarine into the inlet. It was sorta cool. I've never seen a military submarine before, let alone a HUGE one so close!

We found a place to anchor, off Marsh Island at the edge of town, about 6:30 pm. Not a moment too soon either, the sun had just set and we're not keen on navagating new waters in the dark.

Today we are in Jacksonville, Florida. We will be here for a few days to pick up supplies and equipment from Costco, West Marine, Petco, and a few other places. While here, we plan to fix the auto pilot, get the dingy outboard running better, and repair the fuel gage.

We hope to get the old name, ‘Kristina’, removed from the stern and get ‘Quest’ put on. I sent the graphic to sign shop here in town, and they should have it for us by Thursday. OH BOY!

We're officially in Florida

Quest sailing under the bridge at Brunswick, GA.

Monday, Jan. 19, 2010
Sunny, Breezy Hi 70 Lo 44
Lat/Lon 30 40.8 N,81 28.8 W

Yesterday, we motored down to Fernandina following friends, Glen & Pam Rogers. We took the ICW, (Intracoastal Waterway) rather than going out on the Atlantic.

We were fueled up and underway by 10:30 am.

The ICW through Georgia is a series of meandering rivers. It's very shallow, and snakes and winds back and forth with marshes and shoals everywhere. We bumped the bottom twice. We draw 4ft 8 in., meaning our keel sits 4'8" below the waterline. So each time we saw the depth finder reading 5 ft, it got our attention quick! We are NOT fans of the ICW. And we didn't DARE try sailing in such shallow waters. When we leave for Jacksonville today, we're going outside to the Atlantic, and not using the ICW. And there, we'll get to sail!

It has'nt all been easy going. The dingy motor is temperamental. Our fuel gage doesn't work and neither does the auto pilot. The boat sat unattended for a little over a year, so there are several maintence jobs we'll be doing when we get to Jacksonville. (Brunswick was so small that we couldn't do much of it there.)

In addition to a few things not working, we also made our first sacrifice to Neptune, God of the Seas. We though he might like a digital camera. Um, yea, I had Sid's camera in the pocket of my sweat shirt. Of course it wasn't MY camera, I had to loose his. Yep, it went overboard on the way down here yesterday. :o( But to his credit, after making a sour face at first, he said, "Well, it could be worse. Don't beat yourself up over it. I was thinking about getting a water proof one, so now I will." (An previous mate, who shall remain unnamed, would have haunted me about that for MONTHS, YEARS!)

This is Sid scoring 7 lbs of fresh shrimp, right off a shrimp boat, just before we left Brunswick. $2.00 lb for FRESH shrimp. That's several inexpensive and GOOD meals! YUM!

For those that don't know her...

This is Gracie,... SUPERRRR CHICKENNNN!!!!

Sorry,... I guess people find strange forms of entertainment
when stuck in a boat on a rainy day.

Yesterday's Sail

Saturday - January 16, 2010 Rainy, Hi 65 Lo 51
Lat/Lon 31 9.0 N,81 29.5 W

It's raining pretty good, so we’ll be staying inside most of the day today. Might do some computer work, research, more organizing maybe. Might get together later with Glen and Pam to drink some wine and play a wild and crazy game of scrabble. Met another cool cruising couple, Mike and Lindsay. They may come by too.

Yesterday, 1-15-10
It was sunny and beautiful all day. Sid went around and greased and oiled all the rigging, and gave the deck a quick rinse, and then we took Quest out for a spin. Everything went well and worked great! We motored out of the marina, and into the large Brunswick River waterway.

We set all 3 sails, the main, the headsail and the staysail. She looked beautiful, like a lovely young lady all dressed up for the prom! And MAN can this girl move! The breeze was really light, but Quest danced along effortlessly at 7 knots, swinging her skirts with glee. (Ok, maybe that was ME out on deck, squealing with glee….)

Her sails are all outlined in the same forest green as the canvas over the cockpit, it's very pretty when they're up, but I couldn't get a good picture of the colors without getting REALLY wet! LOL! Maybe tomorrow, if I sit out in the dingy as Sid sails past, I can get a good picture. We'll give it a try if the weather is decent.

We had a small pod of bottlenose dolphins follow us for a brief while. I tried to get a picture, but all I ended up with were several photos of water… *sigh*

The water here is incredibly shallow. If you stray even a few feet off course, you can run aground really easily.

Traveling with Pets, cont...

I forgot about this picture! So I just had to post it!

I believe this would be classified as a 'disgruntled traveler'.

The stickers on the crate say
"Hi! My name is Mr. Bojangles. Bo for short."
and "I must be a bird-dog cuz I'm flying!"
and "Jacksonville or Bust."

Thaangs is shooor differ’nt down here in Georgia.

January 15, 2010 Sunny, beautiful. Hi - 67, low - 36
Latitude/Longitude 31 9.0 N,81 29.5 W

I had no idea that some of the most basic aspects of life would be so different on the opposite side of the country. Because, despite the distance, we ARE still in the same country,… I think.

For instance – Life seems to move in slow motion here. People just saunter along,… no particular place to go… no worries, no hurries…. And that’s the waitresses in the restaurants. It slows down from there!

The work ethic is certainly different here. There is no such thing as customer service. ‘Yall git whatever they feel like doin’ at that pa’ticalar time, an' ats it.’ Now don’t get me wrong… people aren't mean here, they are VERY friendly, in fact, ever’ body wants to visit a spell. They just don’t want to go out of their way if it means getting off their stool, or walking across a room. *shrug*

They also don’t seem to realize there is an energy shortage going on in this country. I’ve never seen so many HUGE 4 wheel drive trucks, SUV’s and Hum V’s in all my life! Why the hell do they need big 4X4’s here??? There’s NO snow or ice, and there sure as the hell are no mountains to climb. There’s not a mountain, hill, or even a bump in the road for hundreds of miles! ‘I recon theyall jus’ like drivin’ them big ol’ gas-guzzilin’ rigs, and ta hell with all that conservation shit.’ *humph!*

And then! How sad is this??? We have not seen ONE, single, solitary recycle bin since we’ve been here! NONE! All our bottles, cardboard, and plastic just has to go in the trash! :o(

Oh, an ‘WOW, do thayall taulk funny’ too. The waitress at the Waffle House today got at least 3 syllables into the word ‘dog’! What a hoot! She kinda said, “Aaoohh, luuk at this daa-aou-ouugg out here! Hay’s so kee-uute!” (Oh, look at this dog out here, he’s so cute!) Sid and I have been getting such a kick out of it! But it’s a good thing we’re not staying here long, we were both laughing about how easy it would be to pick it up and start talking like that.

“Would yall still luuv us, if'n weyall came baik taulkin’ fuuunny??”’

The 'POOP' deck.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010
We spent the entire day cleaning. Our poor little boat was covered in bird shit, from the nasty Grackles down here.


But we went to work and got her cleaned up!




























After lots of scrubbing, she looks lovely.



Brunswick Landing Marina has a ‘happy hour’ every Wednesday evening. So we went last night, and it was great fun to talk to other ‘cruisers’. We actually met a couple, Glen & Pam, from Abottsford, BC, which is about fifty miles from Anacortes. They just bought an Island Packet boat almost identical to ours, and are doing the same thing we plan to do, (spend winters on the boat, summers in the Pacific NW. Glen & Pam are getting to start off doing 6 months onboard, where as we only get 2 months this first time out. They are heading down the coast just like we are, but they are heading over to the Bahamas, where as we are going down to the Keys.

We were going to try to head out this weekend, but now were not leaving until Monday. (Nasty storms expected this weekend, so we are waiting it out.)


January 14, 2010 Sunny and warmer - hi of 61 degrees and low of 28.

Gracie was feeling a little out of sorts the last two days, but she has returned to her normal ‘charming’ self. I’m glad she’s feeling better.



Today, Sid got the dingy cleaned up and the dingy motor serviced and running. So we took a little spin around the marina in it.

We had a new coating of bird poop today, so Sid re-washed the decks and hung some flags up in the rigging to scare them off a little more.




I’m telling you, those Grackles are NASTY birds!

They look like a black bird, but are the size of a crow, are as numerous as starlings and shit like seagulls! Grrrrrr!



I sorted through all the equipment, tools and other stuff that was left on the boat by the previous owners. I rearranged things into nice organized bins and lockers, according to what the item does. For instance:

If it moves and isn’t supposed to.
Screws, glues, tapes and ties.

If it doesn’t move and should.
WD40, grease, pulleys, and cotter pins

If it leaks and shouldn’t.
Patch kits and plugs

If it should leak (drain) and wont.
Pipe snakes, drain cleaners, solvents, etc.

Well, you get the idea. This little exercise has taught me more about boating life than you can imagine!

Anyway, I think we are fairly organized and have things running well. Tomorrow we should be ACTUALLY taking the boat out for a spin. Finally! Yeaahh!

Glen and Pam from the IP38 came down this evening to see the boat. We had Mai Tai’s, cheese and crackers and visited a bit.

Time for bed... I'm POOPED!

A couple of photos...

Gracie and I in the Atlanta Airport, January 11th at 10:30 pm,
waiting for our connecting flight to Jacksonville.

Sunset, January 12th, Brunswick Landing Marina in Georgia.

Flying with Pets

One word,… SUCKS!
Ok, here’s a couple more words,…
UNPREDICTABLE
EXPENSIVE
EXASPERATING

What were we thinking to have pets! HA! And we're going to have to to include the two cats on the next trip!???!!!
It cost $175 to fly Bo, (our dog)! Damn, we could have bought him a ticket for the seat beside us for that! We had originally been told $100 per animal, but we figured out that must have been a different airline.
Then, the carrier we bought for Grace, (our parrot), was too big. I’d been given standard pet carry-on dimensions, and bought a hard sided carrier (with a perch in it) to fit. Well, apparently those dimensions work for every plane, on every airline, in the whole wide world, EXCEPT the Boeing 575. And – you guessed it – that is the plane we were on. So we had to buy a soft sided carrier from Delta there at the ticket counter. Those Delta people are smart, they KNOW they’ve got ya by the short hairs at that point, so they charge $75 dollars for the exact same carrier they sell at Petco and Petsmart for $35. Aaarrrggg!!!!

OK, so we left Seattle at 1:30 on January 11th, 2010. (Flight left 20 minutes late.) Arrived in Atlanta at 9:30 pm (late). Missed connection to Jacksonville which was to leave at 9:35. Lucky enough to catch another flight to Jacksonville that was to leave an hour later. It left late, was delayed by 30 minutes, so left Atlanta at 11:15pm, arrived in Jacksonville at 12: 45, where a van picked us up and drove us to Brunswick.

Arrived in Brunswick at 2:30 am on January 12th, 2010. We stayed at Best Western at off I95. Picked up a rental car (mini van) from Enterprise at 10:00am, arrived at the Marina by 10:30am.

I saw Quest for the first time. It was very exciting. She’s been sitting at the marina, unattended since we bought her 3 months ago. Her deck is covered with bird poop. But other than that, she looks wonderful. While we were hauling our stuff onto the boat, a bottle nose dolphin swam right up to the dock! He swam one direction, then swam back the other direction, so close I could have reached out and touched him. He was checking us out, I know he was. It was SO FRICKIN COOL!!

Quest is beautiful, and she seems so big! Far larger than tiny ‘Evolution’ that I had in Portland. And quite a bit larger than ‘Lazy Lee’ that Sid and I use in Anacortes. We spent most of the day today putting away our stuff, (most of it), and there was room for everything, and it’s not a cluttered, chaotic mess! I LOVE this boat!

January 13, 2010
Up and around early this morning. Clear skys, sunny, but cold. 41 degrees now with a hi today of 54.

A couple of good questions...

We have received a couple of good questions about how we'll handle certain things on the boat. We'll try to answer those as we go.

Here's a good one we've gotten a couple of times now:
"How the heck is the dog going to do his business on the boat? Are you taking a roll of sod? Tying a rope to him and throwing him overboard? Is he toilet-trained?"

It's funny,... this question about the doggy doo was also one of the first questions someone asked about the trip.
Actually, since we'll basically be harbor hopping on this first trip, we'll try to stop at least once a day so that Bo can get some exercise and do his thing. But he will also have a piece of astro turf that is attached to the stern of the boat by a line. Each time he uses it, we'll toss it overboard to drag for a spell, then pull it back on board to dry. He'll get real accustom to this system next fall, when we get to longer passages that will take several days.
As for tying a rope to him and throwing HIM overboard, I'm sure there will be plenty of times when we want to do that too!

"Are you going to be using wi-fi or will you have to wait until you are in port to use the internet?"

As far as the internet goes, most marinas have free wifi, so I'll probably have to send my emails and post to the blog when we are in port. But I know there are ways to get the internet when you're 'out there', I just don't know what those options are yet. I hope to ask people we meet along the way and see if anyone has any words of wisdom on the topic.

The truth is, this whole first trip is all gonna be trial and error. Trying different stuff to see what works and what doesn't! It should be REAL interesting...

This initial 'Shake-down Cruise....

We had originally planned to go over to the Bahamas on this trip. But upon learning that you can end up waiting 3 weeks for a decent weather window to cross the gulf, we've decided that since we only have 2 months on the boat this trip, we'll just stay on the Florida side. We'll stop at lots of ports down the coast and explore the Keys. We'll head over to the Bahamas when we go back this fall.

This map shows or general plan for this trip. (You can click on it to enlarge it.) Keep in mind that traveling under sail is slow. We'll be sailing against the current, so we'll do well to average 7 knots, (about 8 mph).

We'll start by spending a few days in Brunswick, GA, doing a couple of day-sails and getting the feel of the boat. Then we'll sail down to Jacksonville, a much larger city than Brunswick, and spend several days there stocking the boat with all the necessary supplies and equipment.

Then probably around January 20th or so, we'll harbor-hop down the coast to the Miami area somewhere, where we will pick up Sid's kids, Sean and Jessica, on Feb. 9th or 10th, for a week or so of exploring the Keys.

We'll hopefully even go over to the Dry Tortugas, where the snorkeling and diving is said to be extrodinary.

By early March, we'll head back up the coast to Quest's summer home, Indian Town, where she will be store up on the hard until we come back to retrieve her in November.

Well, for now,... that's our story, but we are not necessarily 'stickin to it'. The wonderful thing about this trip is that things can change.

I plan to eventually put an interactive map on this site where our progress will be tracked by GPS, and our latitude and longitude will be listed. But there was a lot involved in getting the map on the site, and I don't have time to deal with it yet, so that will have to wait until we're on the boat I have some time to 'jump through all the hoops!'

One huge hurdle is behind us!

Today we shipped a huge box of stuff over to the marina in Brunswick, GA where Quest is moored. In theory, it should arrive the day before we get there, or at least by the day after we get there. (I just hope it DOES get there!)

The box is full of equipment and supplies for the boat, 104 lbs of supplies to be exact. I can’t even remember what all was in it, we’ve been making ‘the pile’ for weeks. Let’s see,… there was a barbeque, a drill, a circular saw, a socket set, some snorkel equipment, a wet suit, 2 sets of foul-weather gear, some emergency flares, a first aid kit, and sewing kit, a set of pots and pans, a hammock, some dock lines, a bunch of cd’s and dvd’s, a couple of books, 3 flashlights, two pair of sailing gloves, and a partridge in a pear tree...

It’s a huge load off our minds to have that box on its way to Georgia. I can’t believe we are only a week away from being there ourselves. It just doesn’t seem real yet.

Welcome to Sailing Quest

On Jan 11th, we'll be leaving Anacortes, WA to fly to Brunswick, GA to board our new boat, a 40 foot Island Packet.

We will use this blog to keep family and friends up on how were doing as we learn to deal with a new boat, each other as sailing partners in a small living space, and (probably the most interesting part...) having a dog and parrot on board.

We have a ton of preparations to make before we leave. Stuff like stopping mail, finding someone to care for the cats (who will stay behind for this first trip), house plant care, paying bills, and packing a load of equipment that we are having shipped down ahead of us, preparing the dog and parrot for travel, plus packing clothes... oh my... I guess the adventure has already begun.