That’s all folks…for now

/ Sherry Galey / 2 Comments

The time has come to leave Windsong II and head back to Canada.

She’s safe and secure “on the hard” and will be well looked after until we return to her when hurricane season has come and gone.

I’m not overstating it to say that it has been pure joy to spend time sailing her, motoring her and living aboard her these past few months.

We are truly, truly sad to say good-bye. I personally did not think I could get so attached to a large inanimate object, 😉 so I have learned something. I’m sure part of the love, respect and attachment I have for Windsong II has to do with the fact that I am oh so  aware that I am trusting my life to her.

The only really hard part of this whole time away has been missing family and friends. For those of you who have come along for all or parts of our journey to find Windsong II and then get to know her, it has been a pleasure to share the sights and sounds of our experiences with you through these 52 posts on the blog. We have deeply appreciated your generous good wishes and kind comments. Thank you so much for being there!

Hopefully, this is only the beginning of many more years of travelling with Windsong II.

Until next time….WIndsong II…over and out.

An excellent credo…

/ Sherry Galey / Leave a comment
Twenty years from now you will be more
disappointed by the things that you
didn’t do than by the ones you did. 
 
So throw off the bowlines. 
Sail away from the safe harbor. 
Catch the trade winds in your sails. 
Explore.
Dream.
Discover. 
~Mark Twain

Happy Birthday, Bob! (50th post)

/ Sherry Galey / 6 Comments

I haven’t been able to post for a while because the Internet speed at the marina has slowed down (!), so I’m taking advantage of being at Leo’s house to put up a quick one.

We celebrated Bob’s birthday last night with Leo and Joan at the Sailor’s Return restaurant, which is right next to the Sunset Bay marina. We ate and drank excellent food and watched the sun set by the boats. A great time was had by all!

We’re planning to haul her out and put her on the hard next week (how’s that for nautical jargon?). We’ve pretty much decided on the boatyard we’ll be leaving her in. It’s very secure and not too far from where we are.

There are just a few (!) things to be done before and after that. We have to take the sails off the boat, change the oil in the two diesel engines, take all the canvas off the boat, wipe the inside of the boat with vinegar, put bay leaves in the cabinets…etc etc.

Then we can come home!

It’s all about the bridges…

/ Sherry Galey / 3 Comments

The voyage on the ICW between Miami and Fort Lauderdale is all about bridges. There are around 10 that you need to navigate. Some are fixed and 65 feet high, which easily accommodates our 55-foot mast, but most are low drawbridges or bascule bridges which have to open to let sailboats and other large boats go through. Since they typically open on a schedule, you have to pay attention to arriving at the bridge at the right time, otherwise you miss the opening and have to circle for a half an hour until the next one.

For the most part, everything went beautifully. There was very little traffic on the ICW since it was a week day.

But there was one bridge near Miami that gave us grief. The ruler beside the Julia Tuttle bridge said we were supposed to have 56 feet of clearance, and our mast is just over 55 feet, so we knew it would be close. But there should have been room.

I was looking up when we went through and saw something on the top of our mast hit the bridge and fly off in pieces. I was afraid it was our antenna. That would have left us without a good VHF radio. (We have a handheld one that we can use in a pinch.) But it turned out to be our anchor light. Bob tells me we have an extra one and is threatening to send me up the mast to replace it. Such a funny man!

At noon, we had one more bridge to go through before reaching Fort Lauderdale. As we were coming through Port Everglades where all the cruise ships head out to sea, we saw some commotion around the 17th Street Bridge.

A sailboat with a draft of 14 feet 3 inches had run aground right in the middle of going through the  bridge. Two tow boats were struggling to get him off. We joined a small parade of sailboats and other boats circling around for an hour or so until the situation was resolved. The poor captain was very apologetic to everyone for holding us all up. He said he had successfully made it through that bridge in the past. But the tide was pretty low today so perhaps that was it.

If we hadn’t hit this snag, we were thinking of continuing on to Boca Raton. Instead we’re moored just before the Las Olas bascule bridge in Fort Lauderdale and we have access to  the Municipal Marina facilities, including Wifi.

On to Boca Raton tomorrow!

Getting all charged up

/ Sherry Galey / 8 Comments

“Houston, we have a problem.”

These are not the first words you want to hear when you’re just waking up in an idyllic  anchorage. We had had a perfect sail from Dinner Key to No Name Harbour on Key Biscayne the day before. That evening we had celebrated our anniversary with a dinner of grilled snapper, a pitcher of sangria and Key Lime pie (not as great as Joan’s, but it did in a pinch).

We sat on the balcony of the Cuban restaurant overlooking the anchorage and, as the sun set into the midnight blue water, we kept an eye on our boat and listened for sounds from Angus and Charles who were babysitting themselves that evening. All was quiet and still. I took advantage of the Wifi to have a brief Facebook catch up with my sister, Elena.

We chuckled as we recalled the antics of Angus or “Houdini dog” during our stop here two years ago. We had gone to the same restaurant for supper. Just as we were getting into the dinghy to motor back to our boat, Bob looked over at Windsong and saw something white and fuzzy sticking out of the top of the boat. “Is that Angus?”

And indeed it was. We couldn’t believe it. He had somehow managed to jump into the V berth, crawl on top of whatever was in there and pop his head out the hatch to look for us. Of course, he was younger then.

We have many fond memories of this anchorage, which is an easy walk to a beautiful beach and the Cape Florida lighthouse I so enjoy photographing.  We were hoping to stay a few days this time. But it was not to be.

Bob had woken up before me and was checking the voltage of our batteries, which had been fine during the day, but low before we went to sleep.

Dead as doornails. Which meant no power to keep the fridge and freezer cold, no VHF radio and no juice to start the engine. There was no wind, so we could not sail anywhere. We were stuck. Not Gilligan’s Island stuck, but stuck.

We needed a boost or a tow, depending on the state of our batteries. This was a job for Boat U.S.! Figuring we should be prepared for such eventualities, we had purchased Boat U.S. insurance (CAA for boats) before we left Canada. Tows can be very expensive ($600 is not uncommon) so being insured is a no-brainer.

We didn’t hesitate to call Boat U.S., and, within 45 minutes, Matt showed up with his tow boat to rescue us. You could tell that he had done this many many times before and his professionalism certainly inspired confidence. First, we tried booster cables, but the batteries were totally fried. A tow it was to  be. Matt tied us on to his boat with a line and proceeded to lead us back to Dinner Key.

We had called ahead for a slip and for docking assistance, and since we were familiar with the marina, we knew where to find Slip 46 on Pier 2.  Entering the channel was not a problem. The tricky part was docking with no power. Once we got into the fairway, Matt moved from in front of us to beside us and pushed us into the slip from the starboard side.

Bob steered the boat and I threw lines to our helper on the dock and fended off the sailboat to our starboard side as the bow of Windsong II veered in that direction.  It was a bit hairy, but everyone pulled together and we docked without incident.

When we bought the boat, we knew the batteries were old, but we hoped they would last at least for this cruise, so we could replace them all next fall. And we had been using shore power to keep all our systems powered up. As it turns out, the batteries had nothing left to give, so we are now in the process of replacing them with fresh new batteries.

We’ve decided to go from three batteries to four batteries, which requires some additional wiring. So, all together the installation takes about a day and a half, and then we’ll be on our way again. Take 2!