I HATE SHOES

Earlier this month marked the three year anniversary of starting this blog. More importantly, it marks three years since I first purchased Winchelsea  and starting taking steps towards changing my life forever. In those fervent annuals, this blog has been the single consistent thing in my life. I'm not using the ubiquitous noun 'thing' without reason either; it's not a human, quite obviously, because I've come to know people within that period I'll never know again;  I've had three boats, crossed the country three times, and gone on some fantastic sailing adventures. I'm not involved with any of them now to a great degree; some of them by choice, others not. It's impossible to guess how much I've learned in these past years, and I'll admit I knew next to nothing when I first started this blog and moved aboard Winchelsea . I've come full circle though, living again in the northeast for a winter. So far, it's been bliss. I've beco...

The old one was a hunk of rotten mahogany and the most visibly apparent reason why I could not head south this year. The new one is three 2x6 pieces of plantation teak, ordered from Florida in October. I had them shipped to Maine with the intent of driving up to my dad's place to assemble and cut it in his wood working shop up there. Unfortunately, the Geo is on its way out and won't make it off Aquidneck Island, I found this out the hard way. My dad came down to Newport with the wood and some tools and I started joining the pieces together the next day. After the epoxy had set, Elizabeth came down from Boston and helped me cut and shape the wood into one resembling the old bowsprit. I had to be careful on the length and get it exactly correct, I didn't want to get a new headstay! My neighbor at the marina here knew a guy with a big sander at the shipyard, that saved me a whole lot of time. After it was cut and sanded, I ordered some bronze hardware to ...

Last night it dropped below freezing for the first time this season. I could see my breath as I went to sleep last night and I was greeting in the morning with a thin layer of ice on the dock. All of this is so wonderfully reminiscent of living on Winchelsea  three winters ago in Boston. As much as I can't stand the cold, that was an extremely pivotal and significant time in my life, and to be revisiting it with the additional knowledge I've gained and a boat I truly desired is blissful. Below is my typical morning: bOatmeal and coffee with my Primus OmniFuel stove, that I plan to put on gimbals soon. Boatmeal is simply a handful of rolled oats (not instant), some dry milk, raisins, cinnamon and hot water with some Grape Nuts or granola on top. Yes, the coffee is instant, but I plan on fixing that soon. Hurricane Sandy was not all that bad on the Rhode Island coast. The floating dock I am tied to was above the fixed pier it is attached to, due to the 3-4 foot sto...

I got a reply to a post a couple of weeks ago from Bill, a guy who was taking his Allied Seawind through Newport. We met up that Saturday and spend the morning touring each others sister sailboats. His is a later model, 1968 if I remember correctly, with some nice paint and interior furnishings; see the pictures below. It's amazing what some new paint and some cushions will do for the aesthetics of a boat! Soveraine  isn't quite there yet though. The bowsprit is off (see below) and the new wood is in Maine awaiting my construction. After that I'll dive into the chain plate issue as well as the electrical rewiring (interior and nav lights, VHF, stereo, battery charger, etc) and then follow with interior paint and cushions. Let the winter of boat productivity begin!

No matter what the activity, there are always different subsets of people who prefer one aspect of it over another. Take something close to your everyday life like driving, for example. You have the simple commuter who uses a car to get from point A to point B in the most cost-effective manner. A different person on the same commute may view his car as more of a status symbol and will drive some sort of ridiculously expensive piece of machinery to be stuck in the same traffic. Still others prefer to race their cars, some for fun and some professionally. Others like to "motor", and for this class of driver I like to view a late 1950s Jaguar humming along the windy roads of Vermont on a crisp fall day through the foliage. Then there is the entire group of commercial drivers who see the highways in terms of dollars earned per mile.  Sailing is no different. Most traditionally, and probably the longest running form of recreational sailing, would be yachting. It began in the...

It started with the dissolution of an engagement. It ends today, more or less, with the final scheduled charter on Weatherly  for the season. We sailed into Narragansett Bay last night after an 8 day trip to New York and Connecticut. There were 25-30 knot headwinds going there, and about the same on our stern coming home. Newport has cleared out; the kids are in school, beaches are vacant on the weekends and the tour boat numbers are dwindling. What a ride though, from arriving in Newport freshly single again back in early May, getting a quick job on Madeline , then onto an ill-fated stint with Sumurun , getting Soveraine , driving from Florida to New England, sailing Soveraine to Newport, and spending the last two and a half months on Weatherly, lots of different boats for a single season. As I said before, I'm ready for a break. Not that I'll be idle, starting this week I'm looking for a steady, and preferably indoors, job for the winter. I don't much mind ...

Today I went sailing on Weatherly , as I have for half the summer, but it was no ordinary Monday on Narragansett Bay. We had a pretty standard charter and sailed back to the dock but, fifty years ago, to the day, Weatherly was sailed into Newport harbor as the 18th defender of the America's Cup. To commemorate this feat, as well as give recognition to a very historic vessel, Weatherly has been placed on the National Register of Historic Landmarks. There's more info here:  http://news.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/2012/09/defender-of-ame.html Tomorrow we leave for New York for some charters and a regatta. Photos to follow!

12 meter legend Intrepid  went out for a sail trial of their new carbon main yesterday. It marks the first 12 meter in history to use one. Manufactured by Doyle sails, it will go back to the loft for adjustments before making its racing debut this weekend for the 12 Metre North American Championship.

I am a firm believer in a higher power at work in the universe. Like of a flow of energy, akin to a current in a channel or a trade wind, you can either go with it or try to beat against it. And when you're going with that flow, the universe responds in kind. Back in July I posted  about a couple, Scott and Kitty, who made their way around the world in an Allied Seawind called Bebinka . It took them 4 years and they took a lot of pictures. Recently, they posted them all to the web , complete with captions, which I read in its entirety before purchasing Soveraine .  I returned from my cousins wedding in New York last Monday night and was up early that next Tuesday, determined to get my engine running. I went out and bought a new fuel tank and the materials to install it and got back to the boat at about 11 am. I was below when I heard a knock on the hull and someone say, "Allied Seawind! You in there?" I popped up to see an older man in his dinghy who told me that ...

I've decided to spend the winter in Newport. We're just not ready to make the trip yet. I've only had her out sailing twice and I need to get more time with her before I spend my limited resources on a 1,500 mile trip to Florida. Not to mention, when I got to Florida I'd be broke and back in a state with limited employment opportunities. I got the engine started a few days ago, after a new fuel tank, filters, lines, a rebuilt water pump, cleaning the heat exchanger, changing the oil, etc, but the gearbox is stuck in forward. According to people in the know I've talked to the discs are warped and it needs to be rebuilt. The bowsprit and bobstay still need to be replaced as well. Again, she's not ready and I'm not either. I'm going to spend the winter here, save money and get Soveraine exactly the way I want her. I had considered taking the boat to New York; I found a slip for $300 per month right across from lower Manhattan in Jersey City. However, my n...

I spent the past two weekends racing Weatherly  in Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. It was really my first introduction to racing at that level, and what an introduction it was. We had a lot of wind in the Vineyard and managed to break two halyards and sheared a 1/2" diameter steel bolt that was holding the boom vang to the mast. I was in the bow, which was tough, wet work, with multiple headsail changes, flying and packing the spinnaker and a ton of coordination between it all. Upshots were that I learned a ton, attended some pretty high-brow dinners and parties and had a raucous time getting to know my fellow sailors on the other 12 meters. Here are some photos, in the first one, I'm the one on Weatherly (US 17, the one leading) hanging over the side in the red jacket. In the second, again in the red jacket tending some winches. There are a ton more pictures on the website, check them out!

After I managed to get Soveraine  to Newport, I needed to find a job for the remainder of the season. I applied to be a launch driver for the New York Yacht Club at Harbor Court (which you have to say with your teeth clenched to get the full effect), but the pay was lousy, I wouldn't be sailing and not allowed to accept tips! A friend who worked on another 12 meter told me a spot had just opened up on Weatherly , whos claim to fame is winning the 1962 America's Cup. I sent in my resume and within two days was sailing with them and offered a full time position for the remainder of the season. Somehow, I always manage to land on my feet. Either through tenacity, a positive attitude, sheer dumb luck, or most likely a combination of the three, it works out. Weatherly  was designed by Phillip Rhodes, who also designed the Rhodes 19 which was the boat I learned to sail on in Boston Harbor. It was the only 12 meter to win the America's Cup designed by him (the rest by Sparkman a...

I've gotten myself into some hairy situations with my past dinghies. From breaking free at sea, breaking free at anchor, sinking/resurrection, theft, rowing in 20 knots of breeze with a 5 knot crosscurrent, etc. I have a new one to add to the list today: a clan of three of Newport's finest. I left the local pub Benjamin's at about midnight this past Monday. It was a short walk to the Ann Street dinghy dock a quarter of a mile away and, unbeknownst to me at the time, I was being followed. When I arrived at my humble chariot, I pumped out the water, pumped up the port side tube that never stays inflated, hopped in and pushed away from the dock to start the engine. Within seconds, three bright beams of light illuminated me, in front of a stern voice instructing me to return to the dock. I didn't panic though, that's exactly what they want you to do. They're looking for a reason to throw the book at you, the trick is to never give them the opportunity. I obliged, ...

The title of this post was the original sales slogan for the Allied Seawind 30, which Soveraine  is one of. She is a 1963 model, hull number 42, I think. What I do know for certain is that a 1962 hull, the first year they were built, did a circumnavigation. He didn't know it at the time but Alan Eddy was to become the first person to sail around the globe in a fiberglass boat. When he returned he wrote a short book on his experience that the Allied company used as promotional material. It can be found online here . Another fascinating circumnavigation was done in an Allied Seawind 30 in 1971 by Scott Kuhner and his new wife Kitty. They kept a great photo journal and their son was kind enough to upload the entire collection to the internet (click the link on "the entire collection")! It is all very well done, and although it may take awhile I would highly recommend going through all the pictures. It's a great story and I've already got my head spinning with diffe...

I went back and forth for a long time trying to decide on an appropriate name for this boat. I first toyed with family names, such as Andrew for my departed cousin and Beatrice for my Grammy. Neither of these would work though, just too close to home. I then thought of past loves, and deemed none of them appropriate either. Bernard Moitessier, my favorite sailor and author of all time ever, had named his boat Joshua  after his favorite sailor Joshua Slocum. Could I name my boat Bernard? I mean, if such a great sailor could give his boat a masculine name, then I surely could as well. I thought I had made up my mind, but I just couldn't shake the thought of my boat not being feminine. I decided I would sail her first to truly let her make my mind up. And after the trip from Watch Hill to Newport, I knew it had to be a lady. But what could the name be? I thought I'd try and incorporate what my goals with this boat are: self-sufficiency. I found a thesaurus and the word sovereig...

The journey started with a quote, as we all piled into the Metro in Newport, bound for Watch Hill, "your souls had better belong to Jesus boys, because your asses are mine." Not sure where I had heard that before, but I figured it was appropriate given that I apparently have a reputation for wild adventures on the high (and in this case not so high) seas. Dan and Seabass (Captain Seabass) had agreed to share in this adventure since they both had off the following day. It took about an hour to get down there, and since it was were Seabass grew up we stopped into a place where he knew the owner and had some $1 tacos and margaritas when we got there. I attempted to put on a collared shirt, but was promptly told that this was not that kind of place. Nine tacos and eight margaritas later we piled back into the Metro for a couple of miles to the boatyard. 5:15 am came early the next day. Sunrise was at 5:30 and we were puttering along at 5:45. I had the dinghy hip-tied to the b...

As soon as I had my stuff loaded into the Metro, I blasted out of Sarasota with my eyes firmly on the road ahead, never looking in the rear view mirror. Orlando and my brother were my next destination, apparently a 12" tire is about as common in Sarasota as someone who doesn't have a gym membership. Brent had found one on Orange Blossom Trail, go figure. It also happened to be poker night with him and some of Crystals coworkers. I was out quickly, after trying to bluff with an early all-in. Brent had to get up at 4 for work the next morning, so I did too, and hit the road a solid two hours before the sun rose. Not that I was unaccustomed to night watches, and with the light traffic out of Orlando and the crisp northern Florida air I was glad to be moving again. The following two days were two of the most life changing I have ever experienced.  If you're ever going through some shit or fighting some demons inside, I highly recommend taking a 19 year old car on the verge ...

And it begins. After flying to Florida two days ago for the sole reason of grabbing my little three cylinder Metro, charts from Maine to Florida, an EPIRB, a sextant, tables, books, all my tools and a few other essentials, I leave tomorrow. It's going to be a 1,355 mile solo road trip without a working radio, air conditioning, functioning windows or locking doors. I'll be driving up to Watch Hill, RI, where she (my small yacht I have yet to choose a name for) is waiting, at a maximum speed of 60 miles per hour. The car is 19 years old and handles like a skateboard, as well as for fuel economy. This is a voyage and from now on, I'm on a budget. It's the name of the game, stretching every last dollar to maximize my freedom. Because for ever $15 or so dollars I can save, it equates to one less hour I have to spend making someone else money. I suppose I've been "voyaging" ever since I left the desk job, or purchased Winchelsea or wherever you'd want to ...

Sumurun and I have parted ways. I won't get into the details publicly, but if you ask me in person I'll give you an earful. Unfortunately, the schooners are full for crew for the summer, leaving me up the creek as far as employment. Looks like it's day work for a bit until I can find something more regular. As always, I'm constantly looking at craigslist, yacht world and sailboat listings just to see what's out there and what boats are going for. I have been using the good old boats list  as a reference as to what my ideal boat would be. I had been looking at a Tartan 27 a friend owns, but decided it was just a bit too small for my needs. I wanted something in the 30' area, definitely no larger than 32', with a full keel and, if possible, a transom hung rudder. Then I saw her. An Allied Seawind (first generation, not the second) in Rhode Island, for $10,000 or best offer. I called the guy and he gave me the back story of sailing it with his kids when they ...

When I got to Newport, I had gainful employment within an hour of clearing customs on schooner Madeline  with Green. This was a great gig, one I had done before and knew well. However, some bizarre new policy was implemented that only allowed 30 hours, spread over 6 days, of work per week. Something about us not getting "burned out". I had worked 12 hour days previous seasons and didn't know why this was any different. I was keeping my options open for something else to come along and by sheer luck the captain of Amerigo  put me in touch with a friend of his who then forwarded my info and experience on to her captain on Whitehawk  who then got me in touch with the captain of Sumurun , who was looking for deckhands as well as a mate. I met him the very next morning and he immediately asked if I would come for a sail on Friday and Saturday. I accepted graciously. Sumurun is an amazing yacht. I remembered it from two summers previous since we would...

Bermuda is an interesting island. It has a very British feel to it, fitting since it was theirs for such a long time. Its quasi-tropical as it has reefs, clear water and shares the same latitutde with South Carolina. It has very neat, pastel painted houses and a wonderful bus/ferry public transportation system. $12 gets you a days pass. Probably the most intersting thing I found about the place thought is what they do for fresh water. Ground water does not exist since they are on a tiny rock in the middle of the Atlantic. Instead, there are rain catchers on every roof (you can see them in the picture below, it looks like a larger step in the roof) and they are painted with this lime wash stuff to act as a natural preservative of some kind. The water quality is comparable to distilled. Each house can collect just under 100,000 gallons annually. Genius. I also had the extremely fortunate pleasure of meeting this guy Randy West  who was on a boat doing the same trip up...

St. Maarten was exactly what I had expected in an eastern Caribbean island; high-brow resorts sharing beachfront property with relative shacks the true locals live in. The scenery also as I had imagined, a tropical place where mountains meet the sea with the gentle trade winds rustling the palms. We departed on Wednesday morning after Lisa, the owner, and Bill, the father of a friend of Grants, came aboard Tuesday afternoon. Funny aside about Bill's son, he worked on the boat owned by Rupert Murdoch, and apparently he's on it a lot. I won't editorialize on that fact. Anyway, we left with 10-12 knots of breeze out of the northeast and with this Swan 56 pointing 30 degrees off of the apparent wind, 20 degrees in the gusts. The picture below is a stitch of a bunch I took to capture that first day sailing. That's Lisa reading in the cockpit and Bill at the helm (click on it for a bigger image). After a day of this blissful sailing the wind fell a...

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, you can track our progress on Amerigo on this link:  http://share.findmespot.com/ sh ared/faces/viewspots.jsp? glId= 0nXrkg9adnhrc92feTQqcyXTmJGSNo qc0 Things are great so far, the captain is a whole 9 days my senior and from Scotland, an interesting fellow. The boat, and St. Maarten, are gorgeous. We depart tomorrow morning and from the looks of it the breezes will be light and variable. That's all for now, back to work!

I would apologize for the lack of blog posts but, to be frank, there hasn't been much going on to post about. After I returned from the final voyage of Terrapin Flyer , I got an apartment in Sarasota and also got engaged. I've been doing some casual sailing on a ComPac 16 and some racing on a friend's Bristol 40 but that's about it. It has been a nice change of pace actually, compared to the thousands of miles I logged in 2010 and 2011. I've been looking for jobs where the pay is a little steadier and more substantial than the occasional delivery, but that is not to say I won't take the occasional delivery! The job market is weak in Florida right now, and to supplement my income as well as my sanity I've been looking for a delivery gig. It's high season for them as the winter gales ease and before hurricane season starts in the north Atlantic. A friend gave me a contact down in St. Maarten for the captain of a 90' Pendennis sloop. Unfortunately, by...