The Adventure Continues

Regatta Pointe Marina
Palmetto Florida
New Horizons
October 20, 2011

We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Well, here we are still in Palmetto, Florida.  We were suppose to sail out of here September 1, 2011 to meet up with John, Jessica, Joel and Jeanne in Biloxi, Mississippi but we were not able to.  We had gone out sailing before Sept 1^st and had problems with the engine and a dirty shaft, then we had problems with our Jib (sail). 

We found out we had a dirty shaft when we tried going out sailing.  The winds were blowing pretty hard that day and the engine was not responding as it should.  We got all the lines off and tried reversing New Horizons out of our slip.  We only got out a little ways before the winds began pushing us up against the concrete dock.  Keith and I were scrambling…Keith was trying to push off the pilings so as not to damage the side of the sailboat, to no avail.  As he tried putting it into forward and put the engine into full throttle, again the engine did not respond and we ran into the hooks that hold the lines onto a piling and ripped an entire section of our safety net.  It was a horrible feeling standing in the cockpit and not being able to do much.  We made it to the fuel dock where we put fuel in…but again, the engine was not responding and we were unable to go sailing.  The guys on the fuel dock told us that if our shaft below the sailboat is dirty the engine will not respond.  We stayed docked to the fuel dock all day. L We waited till the winds died down at about 10 pm and decided to try and move it back to our slip.  Thankfully we weren’t that far from it and Keith was able to bring it back in at full throttle.  We were able to get in touch with one of the divers that dive and clean the shaft, propellers and the entire bottoms of boats to come out on September 4^th, a Holiday and clean it for us.  He told us that, YUP!  It was filthy!  Lesson learned?  That we need to get the bottom of the boat cleaned at least once a month! 

We keep learning, every day.  We are becoming expert sailors! J  When we began sailing with no engine, just sails and we had the right winds, the boat would go pretty fast…but in order for the boat to go fast it **“HEELS” to one side or the other.  Whenever the boat would heel, I would scream….just like a girl!! LOL.. J  BUT, I have gotten better!  Since we began sailing with Tony and Christina I’ve learned a lot and have become more and more comfortable about going out sailing. 

I’ve learned how to back out of our slip without hitting the pilings and any other sailboats!! Hurrayyyy!!  And for most of our outtings I am at the helm and Keith is the one handling the lines!  I have gotten real good being at the helm…and I LOVE making the boat heel!! LOL  At first when the boat begins heeling I kinda make some funny noises…and I grip the wheel really hard, but then I see that the boat isn’t going to totally flip and I begin to relax, somewhat!  Although I can’t quite make my hands unclench the wheel, maybe that is why I have “tennis elbow”!!  LOL

 
I have also learned how to park the boat back into our slip.  At first when we began sailing, Keith was at the helm and I was handling the lines.  Well, that didn’t quite work out too well, especially when we got back to the marina and I would have to jump off the boat onto the dock and try to secure the boat.  One of the times we came back into our slip, we were at low tide, so the dock that we usually jump ONTO now we had to climb up to and to make it worse it was raining!  Well, as Keith was pulling into our slip…I had to belly climb up onto the dock!  Now I know how a seal feels!! LOL I still feel pretty nervous when we are coming into our slip, but every time I park the boat, I do a better job!! Yayyyy for me! J

We were very disappointed not being able to begin our REAL sailing journey with this trip to Biloxi but one of the things that Keith and I talked about was that our number one priority is safety, not taking any chances with anything.  If we were out sailing and got into some wind gusts or got pushed into a sandbar we would need to fire up the engine and motor away and if we didn’t have the engine, well, we could get into some serious trouble.  Likewise with the Jib (sail), if we had any problems with the engine we could still be able to make it to a safe harbor with a sail.  It’s always good to have a back up.  So, we had to stay put in Palmetto and take care of our engine and Jib.

 
I promise to write more as we begin moving down south.  We should be going down to the Florida Keys in November.  So stay with us…that is when the REAL SAILING journey begins!!

El

**        HEELING – In sailing heeling is a result of the force of wind on the sails.  Some heeling is inherent in sailing; as the force of the wind is transferred into forward motion, any excess is transferred into sideways motion, some of which is slippage and some of which is heeling. A boat that has too much sail set so that it heels over beyond a certain angle will sail less efficiently.

Sailboats getting ready for a race

Anchoring off DeSoto and fisihing

Catfish!  The most we've caught in one evening!  Had an excellent Fish Fry and Fish Tacos!

Keith Fixing the Spreaders!

He hates doing that kind of thing!  Can you tell??

Our friends!  Tony, Christina, Danny and Madeline!  We were taking a picture
of them while they sailed and Christina was taking pictures of us and video!