Back to Blogger!

By Sailor Keddy -
Well, Tumblr was fun for a bit, but I'm back to using Blogger. I like Google products and Blogger seems to fit what I do more, which is blog text more than pictures, quotes and the like. I decided to keep the "Winchelsea" part of the URL because let's face it, that's what I'm going to name my next boat. I can't really think of a better one with as much personal significance.

That's all for now...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sumurunning

By Sailor Keddy -
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...
Read more

The EPIC Dinghy Disaster

By Sailor Keddy -
The day started so very, very well. Maria was coming in from Boston just before noon, and Jeff, running late as  usual, was due to arrive just after 2. The plan was to take Winchlsea out for a spin, even though there was very little wind. I was fine with this because I had just rebuilt the water pump the week previous, and was anxious to see if that really did solve my engine issue of shutting down after less than an hour at work. By 2:30 we were off of my buoyed anchor (and we did it right this time) and motoring down Narragansett Bay. After over an hour, the engine was still running smoothly, with no changes in RPMs or sounds of her struggling. We had been motoring up wind, so we could have a nice down wind run coming home. It was a picturesque Friday afternoon in August sailing in Rhode Island sound. On the way back the wind died, but we didn't care; we had no place special to be. I flipped the engine back on as we approached Fort Adams and rounded the point back...
Read more

Decisions, decisions

By Sailor Keddy -
After getting over the initial shock of the engine completely failing, I realized I did have some other options besides to sell the boat straight away. Option 1: Sell the boat. I could probably get between $3,000 and $4,000 for her, considering the engine is pretty much shot. This extra cash would definitely help in rebuilding my life down in Florida. Option 2: Transport the boat to Florida on a truck. Not a viable option at $3,000. Thats like 6 months rent. Option 3: Diesel repower. Not an option at this time at about $8,000. Just don't have the cash. Option 4: Keep her up here. I could just leave her at anchor, talking with the locals leads me to believe this is a viable option. I'd definitely have to keep that liability insurance though. The only trouble would be trying to sell her remotely, or if I chose to keep her I'd have to still repower at some point, which would be $8,000 as noted above. Option 5: Scrap. There is 4,700 lbs of lead in the keel. Lead goes ...
Read more