A year of travels

Ever since we left Blossom, I've been working on a little project to map our travels over the last year and I've finally finished!

Clicking on the picture below will bring up a Google Map showing our route over the last year as well as all of our stops. The distance between points is 0.075nm, so it's not as precise as I'd like, but it's pretty good.

Click for an interactive version

It's been a lot of fun and we're looking forward to starting up again in January!

Heading back to California

Blossom on the hard

We returned to Blossom on Monday, a day ahead of schedule, since Erika had become nothing more than a rain storm in our area. We thought we’d only need an hour or two but we ended up working most of the day. Once she was all set, we met with John, the facility manager, completed our work order and drove off. It felt so strange to be leaving Blossom behind!

On Tuesday we drove to Ft. Lauderdale and celebrated the end of our year with our friends CJ & Margie, at Coconuts of course. It was a fitting celebration as we met them back in ’09 in the Bahamas when we were aboard Lucky, when & where the seeds were planted for Blossom…

See you next year Florida!

It doesn’t seem possible that we’ve been away for 19 months. 7 were spent commissioning in Stuart and 12 were living aboard Blossom. We covered over 5000 miles (Martin has a very cool blog entry coming that maps our travel!) It was an amazing year of learning, growing, exploring and adventure. We’ve enjoyed the fabulous company of “old” (not in age ;) friends and made several new friends. It’s a wonderful community on the water and we’re looking forward to reconnecting with people in the months and years to come.  

And now it’s time to head to our land home and reconnect with our friends and family there.  This is our transition to our “6 & 6” schedule. We’ll be splitting our time, about 50/50, between Blossom and California. 

We’ll be giving the blog a rest while we’re in California. I suppose we’ll sneak a blog post in if anything Blossom-related occurs, but we don’t anticipate having much to write about. Our current plan is to splash Blossom on January 4^th, 2016.

And so we wish you all a fabulous autumn and we’ll see you next year!

Boat Business:

Here is our “Storage Protocol”. A few comments about our list…

We’re leaving Blossom for 4 months, on the hard, in an extremely hot & humid climate. We don’t have to worry about freezing temperatures so that hasn’t been addressed.

There were several sources for this list. The heart of it was plagiarized from another blog – Windtraveler. They posted their list when they left their sailboat on the hard in the Caribbean. (They’re a family of 5 with three children, including twin toddlers, living aboard their sailboat, a great blog!) I then reorganized a bit, deleted tasks which didn’t apply to Blossom, and added tasks specific to our boat, things we were told by the folks who helped us at the yard, input from various friends, experts, owners, forums and some gleaned from the internet.

I created this “protocol” so that we’d have a record of what we’d done. We plan to be putting Blossom up for 6 months a year, every year, in various locations, so it’s important for us to know what to do and what works. I’m sure we’ll be making changes over the years. Did we do it right? Well, we’ll report back in January and let you know! 

 Storing Blossom 

September-December 2015,

River Forest, LaBelle, FL

Interior

1. General clean: special attention to heads/showers (remove all existing mold/mildew) and galley/lockers
2. De-clutter all storage compartments and cupboards. Good excuse to “spring clean”

3.      Wash inside of all cupboards/drawers/settees (vinegar wipe)

4. Prop open all drawers, cubicles and lockers to promote ventilation. We used cozies, rags and towels. Don’t need to be wide open, just enough to let air in.
5. Raise mattresses up on plastic storage crates (creates some space to put things underneath, just don’t clutter up too much – need air flow)
6. Turn up all cushions for air flow 
7. Empty, defrost, clean refrigerators and freezers, leave open 
8. Remove all food and perishables from pantries, drawers and lockers
9. Clean and empty water from Keurig
10. Scrub down all appliances
11. Store cleaning supplies in bins to contain spillage 
12. Remove all garbage, clean containers 
13. Clean and store clothing/sheets/pillows/towels and pillows in vacuum sealed bags 
14. Close all curtains & blinds, cover PH windows with sun screens & towels…anything to block sun
15. Close deadlights on guest state room port holes
16. Close all boat hatch screens in GSR & MSR
17. Place ant traps and roach motels in ER, galley, showers
18. Hang Sun Pak packet in basement (any area that no one will be entering – they’re toxic)
19. Wash Hella fans (vinegar)
20. Vinegar wipe/wash walls, overheads and floors (used a short handled swiffer with microfiber cloth over it, sprayed with vinegar solution. Very efficient!)
21. Clean leather chairs with leather wipes

22. Remove all port hole screens, clean, polish and store
23. Make sure all electronic are unplugged
24. Remover batteries from cameras, flashlights, small appliances

25.  Check medical kit for expired items

26. Check ditch bag for expired items
27. Final walk through – make sure everything is open/askew/leaning to promote air flow throughout boat
28. Install fans to promote air flow: salon, GSR, PH, Utility room, ER
29. Dehumidifier – placed in galley sink to drain overboard, set to 50% humidity (less than 50% can harm wood, more than 60% can promote mold/mildew, or so I’ve read…)

Machinery Spaces

30. Empty holding tank, flush with fresh water, treat with Zaal
31. Empty gray tank, treat with enzyme
32. Empty fresh water tank
33. Change out Seagull filters
34. Make sure hot water heater is emptied. *Varied opinions on this. Can leave and drain upon return, empty before leaving or add additive like bleach.
35. Treat diesel tanks with stabilizer 
36. Close fuel valve @ tanks
37. Pickle water-makers 
38. Drain and clean bilge
39. Confirm bilge pump is on in “automatic” position and working 
40. Turn off AC & DC switches according to list
41. Turn off wing and generator start batteries
42. Change all racor filters
43. Change oil, oil filters, fuel filters, all engines
44. Flush A/C with barnacle buster
45. Clean all sea strainers and close sea cocks
46. Clean ER
47. Clean & tidy basement

Exterior

48    Check decks for loose items & stow

49    De-clutter and clean exterior lockers

50    Remove all settee cushions, store in boat

51    Clean and mildew treat pilot house window screens (we have suction cups, not snaps, so we put them on the inside of the windows for storage)

52    Put fiberglass mesh inside through hulls - leave open the seacocks for the scupper drains & galley sink (for dehumidifier). Squirt with bug spray for good measure

53    Wash boat lines

54    Wash fenders and store in lazarette, secure large fenders in cockpit

55    Wash boat mats

56    Deep clean barbecue

57     Service/lube bicycles

58     Cover and store kayaks (we were able to store in a building)

59    Tie FB chair covers on

60    Hang anti-mildew packets (Sun Paks) in all outdoor lockers and in (covered) dinghy

61     Put fender in stack exhaust (dry exhaust boat)

62     Put all VHF antennas down

63     Cover all vents with plastic (John suggested using shrink wrap tape) (keeps out bugs and moisture)

64     Put grease (automotive or we were told Vaseline works too) around jack stands and blocks to ward off bugs *We couldn’t do this because they’re relocating Blossom in a couple of weeks

65    Take photos of boat on stands Lock boat (and lazarette)

66    Lock boat and lazarette & leave key with yard manager

Dinghy

67    Remove all loose items

68    Service dinghy outboard (change oil & filter)

69     Turn off battery switch

70    Tape Sun Pak to console

71    Stabilize gas

72    Disconnect fuel tank

73    Run outboard to empty engine of fuel

74    Removed/opened drain plug

Administrative

75    Email list of approved vendors/persons to the yard 

76     Bring Wheelhouse up-to-date (update maintenance log)

77     Make list of spares/parts needed for next season

Arrangements for time on the hard:

·       Power wash hull

·       Wash & Wax

·       Replace zincs

·       New bottom paint 

·       Monthly boat wash (exterior)

·       Weekly checks – Someone will come in to boat every week to make sure power is on, house batteries are charged, and that dehumidifier & fans are working, no mold/mildew

Hauling Blossom Ahead of the Storm

Blossom docked at River Forest

It’s hard to believe that we’re wrapping up our first season aboard. We certainly chose the right place to leave our floating home. The facility at River Forest is fantastic! We’ve been impressed with everything about it here - the docks, buildings and grounds are immaculate and well kept. The staff are incredible – experts at what they do, efficient and friendly.  The facility has two building to house boats, one is air conditioned, as well as a concrete yard with tie downs. We’re too tall for the buildings so we’re outside.

River Forest

We shared the basin this week with two other boats. I wish we could have spent more time with them but we were so busy and the boat was in such a state that we didn’t have much time for being social. Kathy & Terry and their pup Baylee were passing through, having some work done. Kathy gave us the low down on the marina and warned us about Arthur (see below). I hope we meet up with them again under more relaxed circumstances! The other boater, JJ, was also getting work done and he left once his boat was hauled for the storm.

The channel leading into River Forest (the dot in the middle is an alligator)

The first thing we realized is that River Forest is really far away from everything! We rented a car from the nearest rental in Lehigh, a 45 minute drive away. It was just as well as we didn’t have time for anything but working on the boat. The facility is just west of Lake Okeechobee. It’s 2 locks in from Ft. Myers so there’s no storm surge and it’s fresh water, so there’s little bottom growth to worry about. And there isn’t much around it so that means less debris in high winds. It’s a perfect place to store a boat during hurricane season. They even tie the boats down to the concrete when there’s an impending storm. The only downside is that it’s hotter than Hades, and humid, until autumn. So those are the factors to deal with when you’re shutting up the boat. There’s a bit of wildlife (other than insects) here as well – an alligator came calling every day into the basin. Martin named him Arthur.

Can you find Arthur?

Someone must have fed him at one point because he came around dinner time every day, except the day we cooked bacon for breakfast - he made an early appearance that day :) (We didn’t feed him - we feel that that only endangers wildlife – but I think he could smell what was cooking!)

A close up shot

We had hoped to have a solid week to prep Blossom for her 4 month rest on land. The weather, however, put a bit of a hitch in that plan. Erika was an erratic, rather fickle tropical storm that seemed to be heading right for us, so the manager at River Forest had to make a call – hurricane mode or not? And he had to do it in time to get all the boats that would be coming in hauled out and prepped. So on Wednesday he made the prudent decision and the yard went into double time. Of course, as we now know, the storm would dissipate over Cuba before reaching us, but we’re happy that it all went down the way it did. The irony was not lost on us that we rushed down to southern Florida to get to our hurricane hole and ran straight into the path of the first one to come close to Florida in 10 years!

Rather than haul out on Monday, we had to haul on Friday. I can honestly say that Martin and I have never worked so hard on Blossom as we did those 6 days.  We’ve been living away from our CA home for 19 months and aboard for 12. So this was the equivalent of moving away from home (again). We took the opportunity to thoroughly clean and declutter her. I was brutal – anything not used went: into the garbage, into a give-away pile or into a box to be shipped to CA.  This will probably be the most “difficult” storage experience simply because we’d never done it before, were learning as we went along, were rushed, and we’d been aboard for a year. In the future, we’ll know what we’re doing and will only have 6 months of living aboard to clean up after.

We wanted to finish the work while we were in the water so we’d have air conditioning, could use the bathrooms and wouldn’t have to move off the boat so soon. With the expedited schedule there was no way to do it in time. We were lucky enough to find a local woman who routinely works with boats at the facility. April was a God-send! She knew how to put everything up (contributing to my list) and she spent a full day with us on Friday cleaning and prepping, both before and after the haul out. We wouldn't have finished before Sunday (the guesstimated "arrival" date of what remained of Erika) without her. She’s going to check on the boat periodically while we’re away as well. And she works with a local charity so she could take our food and other items and make sure everything went to a very good cause.

By the time the daily torrential afternoon rainstorm hit on Saturday we had finished 98% of our work. We were just in time as the remnants of Erika are supposed to pass through this afternoon (Sunday). We expect no more than a big rain storm but it’ll be nice to be relaxing in the hotel knowing that the work is all but done.

 Steering into the “well” (Matt & Martin)

Entering the well to get hauled. Martin and April on the bow. The guy in the blue shirt, Ben, is driving the lift. Pretty cool eh?

Fitting the sling. This is serious business and John's an expert

Blossom weighed in at 76 tons with 1000 gallons of diesel and a bit of water. She's a heavy boat.

On Thursday we moved into a hotel in east Ft. Myers. It’s a 50 minute drive but it’s a decent hotel and there are places to eat nearby. One day on our way in we saw a huge turtle walking very, very slowly across the road. There was a fair amount of traffic so we stopped and I moved him to the ditch. Poor guy was terrified. Who knew turtles could hiss?

Relocating the big guy

We’ll go back to the yard Monday or Tuesday to finish up and then head to Ft. Lauderdale. We’ll visit with friends Tuesday and then we fly back to CA on Wednesday morning. Wow!

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a terrible tendency to over think things, to death. And I love lists. So imagine how I went to town on this task! My “Storage Protocol” is still in progress and currently lists 85 tasks. All but 6 have been completed. I’m sure that many were not necessary for a 4 month break (I think that Blossom could easily rest on the hard for years the way we’ve left her!)  But we’ll see when come back in January how it all worked out and can determine if we should tweak the protocol. (Yes, I was a project manager in another life.) 

I’ll post at least one more blog entry before the end of this season. I need to get a photo of Blossom on blocks and tied down. I’ll put our latest draft of the storage protocol up as well.

Boat Business: (Storage prep will be the next blog)

• On Tuesday we met with a local contractor to discuss getting cockpit shades made. We have some now but they don’t work well. We took a chance using suction cups rather than snaps on all our window covers and the cockpit shades. They’ve worked wonderfully for the windows but not for the cockpit where there’s too much surface area and the wind blows them off. Next year we’ll have shades that slide along a track and tie down on the bottom. They’re very necessary at anchor in the Bahamas when you have your back to the afternoon and setting sun.
• We're going to have the yard place markers under the rub rail to indicate where the slings should be placed for future haul outs. Misplacing the slings can be a disaster...

Quilt Business:

I thought I’d also post a picture of what I’ve been working on this spring/summer. I keep talking about “my quilting” but I couldn’t show what I was doing because they were gifts. Now they’re finished and delivered!  My cousin and his wife had two gorgeous twin girls born this May. So I made them two baby quilts. (With some help, my Mom helped me piece the fish quilt when I had vertigo.) I'm really pleased with how they turned out. 

Blooms and Bugs applique quilt front

B&B back

Fishy Business front

Fishy Business back

Key West to River Forest Yachting Center

Drinks & Blues in Key West, this guy was really good!

We celebrated our last night in Key West by going into town. We had sunset drinks at Mallory Square and then dinner on Duval at La Trattoria. We scored a window seat and people-watched over dinner. Mostly we watched a local guy drumming up business with his tourist-kissing parrot.

Hanging out at Shrimp Road Grill

 Our last happy hour at Stock Island Marina Village

We enjoyed our stay at Stock Island, it was pretty quiet (some noise from the civilian and military planes), clean, and had very new facilities. Given the choice, however, I think we’d go back to the downtown area next time. We really like staying in the “bight”, where you can watch the boats coming and going all day, the tourists walking, and you can walk into town any time you’d like.   

Yet another lovely sunset over the Gulf

And the moon rising

We left on Wednesday for our last overnight off-shore passage of the year. The trip couldn’t have been much more mellow or serene. We had flat seas (2 feet or less the entire trip), clear skies and no one within radar sight the entire trip. We were traversing the gulf so we were in “deep” water (55ish feet), there was no channel to follow, no turns to make and Blossom ran straight as an arrow. We left the lobster pots behind in the daylight once we left the channel and entered the deeper water. We made excellent time running at about 7 knots. We ran the FLIR but there was nothing to see! Only one wildlife sighting - a massive turtle swimming along the surface in the evening.

                              View from the FLIR, not much to see

Florida skyline at sunrise

The only traffic we saw the entire trip was right as we arrived and the Key West Express blew past us. They’ll make it to Key West in 3.5 hours and it’ll cost you $89 one way. For us it was an 18 hour trip and cost us more than three times that on diesel – ouch! We can significantly cut down on costs by taking on passengers next time :)

Key West Expres

Anchored off Sanibel Island 

We arrived around 10 in the morning and anchored close to shore off Sanibel Island. There was no one else anchored nearby, it was overcast (which kept the heat a bit at bay) and it was calm – lovely! I spent the afternoon at anchor washing all of our lines and fenders. Martin made several arrangements for the upcoming week, ordering parts, renting a car, and contacting John Deere & ABT regarding some issues we had. (Yes, we did have a few technical issues that we’ll need to address at River Forest. I’ve listed them under Boat Business below. We’ve traveled over 750 miles in just over two weeks, so I guess it was time for something to need tending to!)

Enjoying the fly bridge view at Sanibel Island

And the sunset

Our evening at anchor was perfect. We sat on the fly bridge enjoying the view with an excellent bottle of wine and then Martin cooked a mean barbecue chicken dinner.

Friday morning we slept in a bit, which is the norm following an overnight passage. We pulled up the anchor and headed out to Colusa Jacks Marina just north of Ft. Meyer.  We turned on the main engine and the gauges died for good (see below).  I felt a bit melancholy leaving our last anchorage for the year.

 Heading inland – Cormorants and Pelicans, love them!

The trip through Ft. Myers was uneventful and scenic. We docked at Calusa Jacks on the Caloosahatchee River. We stayed there last February on our way across the state with our friends Sean & Louise. It’s a charming little marina and the folks that run it are so nice. It’s in the perfect place to stop between where we were anchored and River Forest. We can only fit on one end of the fuel dock so I called ahead and reserved our space for the night. That wasn’t a problem as it’s off season now and there’s little to no traffic this far up the river. Just like last time, we got fresh eggs from Joe & Shana’s chickens (and 1 duck egg!) and an offer for a ride into town. We had perfect weather from Key West to Ft. Myers and our timing was perfect. Right after we docked the weather changed…

The day started off so pretty

Then this came...

And this...

Which led to this...

And this.

And finally…

It was hot and stormy, and we’re trying to eat up the food on the boat, so we stayed aboard Blossom and barbecue’d for dinner. The storm was past before dinner time and foolishly, we thought we’d enjoy dinner on the aft deck. Then the plague of flying insects descended upon us and we enjoyed eating in our salon. Welcome to inland Florida! (I spent an hour trying to hose off the millions of dead and alive bugs the next day. Reminder to self – turn ALL lights off at night!) We woke up to an unpleasant surprise in the engine room on Saturday. With a heat index of over 100 we had to run the engine room blowers for hours and hours. And we sucked up a few hundred thousand insects in the process. The ER was looking like an insect graveyard. Yuck.

Cruising down the river

Saturday morning we left straight away. We had to go through 2 locks and 3 on-demand bridges. Luckily, there’d been a lot of rain recently and the locks had just switched from a two hour schedule to on-demand. Saturday was dead calm, the heat index was up to 105 and the sun was shining. Passing through the locks was hot business!

Approaching the lock

In the lock

We arrived at River Forest around 3, entering through a very skinny little canal. The first boat we saw, by virtue of it's magnificent height, was a fellow Nordhavn 55 that's being stored here. It feels good to be in the company of family! The facility is here looks fantastic, we'll be exploring over the next few days...

The next week or so is going to be crazy busy. We have at least 3 vendors coming to the boat and of course we have to pack up and ready her for 4 months on the hard. We're having a tough time wrapping our heads around the fact that this first year is over. Wow!

Blossom at River Forest

Boat Business: Blossom had a few hiccups on the trip from Key West to Sanibel.

• We got an error on the main engine saying “Tachometer gauge not responding”. Interestingly, the gauges were reading fine both on the main panel and the Maretron screen but we couldn’t get the error to clear. UPDATE: On Friday morning the RPM and oil pressure gauges gave it up. Martin had already called JD on Thursday so we’ll just update them on the situation.
•  I thought I heard a knocking coming from the starboard stabilizer (probably me being paranoid but…) so I went to take a look and found that there was a slow hydraulic fluid leak under the actuator. Martin cleaned it up and put a diaper under it so we could monitor it.
•  On my first ER check I did a visual of the main shaft and the area was covered in salt, with more salt sitting under the shaft. It appeared to be a slight leak, evaporating before it could run into the bilge which was dry.
• 9k gen overheating. We tried using it for ac at night but after 4 hours or so it overheats. We’re not sure if the cause is the 90+ degree ambient temp + 87 degree water + sound shield or if there’s something amiss…tbd.

Preparing to store Blossom

I’ve been fairly obsessed with what to do and how to put Blossom up so we don’t come back to a mildewed, cockroach-infested boat. Looking at all the boats here on the hard and under cover in the large storage sheds makes me feel more comfortable. I'm looking forward to talking with the manager and knowing what the game plan is. I’ve been communicating with other owners and I found a great list on a sailing blog. We'll be leaving the boat for half a year, every year, so I'm sure we'll get this down. I'm going to develop our "Storage Protocol" so we have it to refer to every year. I'll post it when we’re done.