A Morning Kayak...

This morning I went kayaking...
I didn't get as many bird pictures as I was hoping, but I was totally entertained by a very cute raccoon.

Finally... some work done on the sailboat...

After about 2.5 weeks of unemployed leisureliness....

I awoke early (early for an unemployed girl), and started to task on the sailboat :)

well, mainly, the sailboat's dinghy....

The dinghy, Wren, was lifted out of the water by the diver that cleans the boat bottoms in the marina. he let me borrow some handy-dandy tools to clean the bottom, which had growth of close to two (2) inches!!! it turned out to be all soft growth, very lucky for me! perhaps the hard growth doesn't like the "cold" winter waters.... I definitely expected to see lots of barnacles since it'd been since January I had the little bugger out of the drink!!!

After long hours of scraping/scrubbing, she was almost as good as new! even some of the neighbors were inpressed with how well i cleaned up... the dinghy ;P

Then, the next task... getting the dinghy on board the sailboat to get her out of water!

I rigged up a pulley system with some extra pulleys i had stored that had come along with the boat when i bought her.

Using the spinnaker sheave and halyard, and my new fangled pulley system, i somehow hoisted that dinghy out of the water and onto the sailboat... Not sure it really fits though, because it completely covers the anchor locker. or, otherwise gets in the way of hoisting the mainsail... but, perhaps this can all be worked out... i'll definitely be working on the muscles though every time i hoist that dinghy on/off the boat! each time praying the spinnaker sheave can take the weight...

well, Russell, what do you think??? will this work??

Sun Tea Anyone?

Been relaxing, relaxing, relaxing...

that long list of todos has been waiting to be done...

I've only successfully accomplished the relaxing part!!! That, and much soul searching...

During my relaxing I've been enjoying making sun tea, playing with the cats, and cooking in the solar oven...

One day Patty decided to play hide-and-seek... this game is a little nerving since Patty has previously taken a dive into the cove around the sailboat....

I couldn't find here anywhere... then, i saw it, a little black tail hanging out of the mainsail cover... As I lay in the shade beneath the boom and covered mainsail, Patty crawled out of her hiding space and came to cuddle with me in the shade. Instantly I was overwhelmed by a feeling of such peace. it was wonderful. Pura Vida was whirling around in my head as the sun tea seeped, the butternut squash cooked in the solar oven, and i cuddled with my Peppermint Patty in the shade on the deck of the sailboat, a fantastically perfect temperature breeze... It really, honestly, doesn't get much better than this :)

Here is a pic of Patty trying to get back into her new hiding place!

Sailing on Katapoul

Still unemployed and loving every minute of it :)
Although i must admit, except for the occassional small child... I'm the youngest at this here Starbucks by about 30 years on average.... perhaps 40 years....
Now unemployed I've taken up Chai Tea with soy milk drinking to get my internet fix in ;)
Any ways... haven't been doing much work (okay, no work) on Athena...

BUT, i have gotten some sailing in!!!!
Tampa Bay to Naples on Captain John's S/V Katapoul. A great trip!
The log is presented on my Captain's Log blog ;)
here are some of the pics...
The first pic is Capt. John dinghy-ing out against the wind and waves to the sailboat with all of our stuff... The sailboats are in Davis Island Bay in the northeastern tip of Tamp Bay.
Lots of pics of the Sunshine Skyway crossing Tampa Bay... How often does one get to pass BENEATH the Sunshine Skyway, aye ;) This bridge frightens me to no end to drive over!


Captain John looking up at the skyway...








Be sure to note "well placed" dirty dish towels ;)
I think these are part of "the look" of a sailboat that has been "taken over by poor hippies" and not well taken care of... this "look" is to thwart otherwise thieves that might be more interested in a nicer looking boat ;)




On the other side of the skyway... exiting Tampa Bay. Take a look at the "tiny" bus on the bridge...

Tankers exiting too. We had to watch out for tankers as we were traveling through Tampa Bay and crossing the shipping channels.



Egmont Key just outside of Tampa Bay. A very pretty island.
With the weather of the day, I felt like I was back "home" in New England... cold and damp and cloudy ;) sorry New Englanders ;p



North Captiva Islands.
The sun sorta came out for a bit and brought the tropical greenblue color out in the waters.


Shrimper off of Ft. Myers Beach. This is a pic of a smaller shrimper, most of the shrimp boats we saw were much larger than this one.







Jen on deck before sunset beyond Naples.
I love spending time on deck. John liked to spend time down below.
In the background, George, the wind vane (evidenced from chain on tiller and small metal vertical sail at stern) is steering Katapoul ;)


Sunset at Naples just before reaching Gordon's Pass...
The Gulf has the most beautiful sunsets! even when you can't see the sun ;)
The wind and waves starting to pick up again...

As John noted, many people on shore probably enjoying the sunset with sailboat ;) we're probably in a lot of visitor's pictures ;p

More todo...

I was standing at a Athena remembering the things I had forgotten to put on the previous todo list....

22. Scrape bottom of now well grown dinghy.
23. Formulate and install a way to store the dinghy on deck of Athena.
24. Install new depth sounder.
25. Finish painting the stern.
26. Pick font for Athena lettering and enlist the sign maker.
27. Convert port aft birth into storage. (split cushion).
28. Figure out where I'm going to build new shelves on Athena for all those darn engineering books!
29. Reinstall small teak table in cockpit.
30. Clean and put into service Athena's second fresh water storage tank.

Sailorette - Unemployed...

Tomorrow I join the great ranks of the unemployed...
Which can only mean a few things.
1. It's time to get back to working on the sailboat!
2. It's time to get back to working on the sailboat!!
3. It's time to get back to working on the sailboat!!!

I have often wanted to wander into the the realm of being unemployed. No, my savings account is not as stacked as it should be. I don't have funds hiding out in bank accounts in other countries or in safe deposit boxes somewhere...
It's possible in a couple months I might be in the line at WinnDixie with my food stamps, but hey, how else does one come to appreciate the struggles of others without experiencing what it's really like to live in those shoes for a while.
I wonder if things look somehow different when one doesn't know where the next dime is going to come from.
It feels I've always been sort of teetering on the edge of poverty... Never having much more savings than what would last a month or so...
In reality poverty could happen to any number of us at any time.
How would you handle it if it happened to you?

Well, my dear friends close to me, consider this a warning... as my friend Capt. John has said, now I must learn the art of showing up at friend's doorsteps in time for dinner ;)

But, back to the boat...
Goals for the first two weeks of unemployment as follows:
1. Repipe the fuel line from the Racor fuel filter to the engine.
2. Give my solar oven to Vicki and make some space.
3. Construct battery box for battery #2, starter battery.
4. Hook up the Cirius radio (maybe this should be priority One!).
5. Strip all teak on outside of sailboat.
6. Reseal all teak on outside of sailboat.
7. Finally finish wrapping more neatly the wire ties on the standing rigging.
8. Reseal some of the through deck fixtures.
9. Send special 7" 304 stainless steel shaft from roller furler out to get treated so hopefully it won't keep rusting.
10. Install new battery switch.
11. See if I can't figure out how to change the forward/reverse handle on the wheel so that when you push forward the boat actually goes forward and not reverse, vice versa.
12. Finish piping up the fuel for the propane stove.
13. I was thinking of installing the manual water pump for the head, but I think I'm just going to get ready to take that whole sink out of the head when I take Athena out of water this summer...
14. Modify one of the storages beneath the starboard bench in the salon.
15. Hang new "weather station", temp/humidity/pressure somewhere.
16. Seal the mast boot.
17. Replace the arms on two hatches.
18. Read.
19. Write.
20. Relax.
21. And... photo document all of the above ;)
All of the above can hopefully be done within the shoestring budget I'll be on for the next couple months ;)
I'll be blogging as often as possible... although I won't have much access to internet!

Jumbo Shrimp???

Look what I saw in the "Snook Light Aquarium" very early this morning.... 12:30 AM...

I think it's a shrimp! It was at least 6 inches in length and at least 1 inch in width. This creature was swimming around the surface eating all kinds of surface critters. A little difficult to photo as it was dark, the tide was somewhat low and a distance beneath the dock. Wish it wasn't so late, I would have liked to watch him longer...

"Sunrise, Sunset..." - by Mary

"Sunrise, sunset, swiftly through they years

One season following another

Laden with happiness and tears" - from Fiddler on the Roof.

The post on the spoonbills recalled that I hadn't posted my sunrises or sunsets on my visit with Athena.

So for your viewing pleasure....

The sunrise and so it goes lighting the sky ever so gently and quietly...

And the sunset off Panther's Key

going ever so slowly...

And finally another sunset not quite so boisterous...

yet ever so subtle ...

flush and blushing like a maiden embarassed for the first time.

Yet always different and charming

no matter how many ways we view it..........

New Stickers on Veggie Car

Remember back in October when I spent a weekend on land and converted my "new to me" 1980's mercedes to run on 100% waste vegetable oil (WVO)???
Well, I finally convinced Capt. John to make the unique stickers I came up with for the back of the car... The rabbit logo is John's, but the words, are mine ;)
I can't help but chuckle ;)
Don't forget you can click on pic to see bigger/better ;)

Here's the story... one day, it just came to me, the idea for stickers on the back of the veggie car... I thought it was ingenious :) and, an attention getter too :0
So, I got a call from Capt. John, a.k.a. Naples Biofuel Org, and I told him I had a great idea for stickers on the back of my car... So, I told him, "My car is bi... but, prefers veggie!" silence... more silence... finally i said, "don't you think that's funny!!!" and, in all serious like, he said, "well, you can't have the website address on the back of your car then."
But, as you can see... the stickers are now on the back of the car, and the website address too!!! for all those that might not be able to read in the pic, it's www.naplesbiofuel.com
It took asking our friends what they thought, and finally, i think the winning go-ahead vote, was from our Buddhist meditation teacher, JoAnn :)

Peppermint Patty

Peppermint Patty, at it again, silly girl. Playing with toy my mom got the cats for Christmas.
In the background, two pieces of paper taped to my wall, trying to pick which font I want painted on the stern of Athena and her port, Mother Earth ;)

Sunrise and Spoonbills

I stepped out of the boat one morning last week to see this most beautiful sunrise, and as I was watching, 11 Spoonbills flew right over head :)

New Stove

Well, there was much discussion over putting a stove back in Athena. She originally had an alcohol stove, which I heard are subject to quick bursts of nearly invisible flame if they're not operated just right...
However, after struggling with using the solar oven, I caved into getting a propane stove. It's difficult to use the solar oven. It's rather large in size, and thus takes up considerable storage room, and then there's the tracking of the sun... really one can only use this method when the boat is stationary, and even then, the only time the boat is really stationary is when at a dock. At anchor the boat is always swinging with the wind and tides making it difficult to truly track the sun with the oven, particularly when one is off exploring and not on the boat!
So, after waiting one and one half months (a special order...), the stove finally arrived.
I installed on January 21st.
I did need to make larger the original cutout for the previous alcohol stove.
Lucky for me, I have great friends with tools :)