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Part 5 of 5! (finally the last Lessons Learned post of this series) So when I installed a new Raymarine chartplotter last year it immediately made our functioning radar into a big round brick attached to the mast. I knew this before the installation and I put a new radar on the list of things we needed to purchase before we retire but not high on the priority list. The crossing in January made us reconsider this. When we left New Year's Eve on the crossing from Shell Point

Part 4 Today's lesson learned is really about the need to properly keep time; clue: it might not be wise to use that fancy GPS watch... To put the importance of this topic into perspective, I will first cover watch schedules, then explain why a GPS watch might not be the ideal choice. " Watch Schedule ' is a term used to describe how the crew will split up the time to make sure someone is at the helm throughout a 24-hour period. On our four gulf crossings, Jimmy and I ha

There better be smoke alarms. And great neighbors. We are grateful to have both. This is the short story. For those who want more detail, there will be a follow up post about this incident sometime in the future. It all started when I had received a phone call at 9 pm Tuesday evening from my dock neighbor who lives on her boat in St Petersburg. Several thoughts ran through my head. First was that this call could not be coming with good news at this time of day. Then the ne

Part 3- Jimmy's tips on eating well underway Since I am the cook of the family unit it's probably best I take this one. Preparing meals while under way is more challenging especially if the seas are big. Rocking back and forth and bracing yourself in the galley while preparing food is a talent in itself. Knowing this and from our past passage cooking adventures I have three items that help out during overnighters or extended passages. First though a little story from our

Lessons Learned Part 2 - Sondra's tips on minimizing sea sickness When seasoned sailor and co-founder of 59 North Sailing Mia Karlsson was asked about a recent shakedown cruise made on Falken , their Farr ‘Millennium’ 65, she responded with something like, "I sea-trialed the buckets". Her delivery of this comment had me cracking up, but it is such a great line because Mia has been known to be one of the least prone seasick members of the team, and it is a nice reminder nea

If you are reading this then the boat is still floating. Whew. One of the most important rules of boating is "keep the ocean on the outside of the boat". So it was with much trepidation that I intentionally created a larger hole where a small one existed. All while floating in our slip in St. Pete. Let me back up a bit and I apologize if I dive into the weeds. So, where our prop shaft enters the boat there has to be some sort of mechanism that a)keeps the water out of the

Part 1 - Background Jimmy and I have had the opportunity to complete four Gulf Crossings so far, and still learn a lot with each one. I thought I'd take a moment to jot down some observations, however, even though I tried to be very brief, it was turning into a long blog post. So, Jimmy and I have decided to make it a series, starting off with an introductory background post. Jimmy noticed my use of "crossing" instead of "overnight passage", so maybe a definition is needed

This weekend Jimmy and I attended the St. Pete Boat Show, which was the 45th annual show, and is the largest boat show on the Gulf Coast. What made it extra special to us was that we did not have to stay in a hotel!!! (Sorry St. Pete tourism office). We have attended the St. Pete Boat Show on two other occasions, and stayed in hotels close to the venue. Last year some friends of ours (the P's) stayed at a hotel further out from the downtown area for a fraction of the cost

Why St Pete

Friday 12/30 - Three of us drove down to ABYC after work and unloaded our gear before Susie and Bill stopped by to say hello. A simple dinner was made up in the clubhouse before we made it an early night. Saturday 12/31 - We got up and prepped the boat for a potential 9AM departure. With nearly everything ready, we checked the weather and decided to wait for the afternoon tide, probably around 5:30PM to let some stormy weather pass by. The cloudy misty morning was spent

There may be a possibility to move Utopia to St. Petersburg New Year's Weekend. Jimmy has been checking weather and wave forecasts to see when we might have a good window to make the jump from Apalachee Bay. The trip is roughly 150km and could take between 25 & 35 hours. Since this is the first crossing with just the two of us, we are looking for a mild weather window. At the moment it looks like we may vacate our ABYC slip on Saturday. The latest would leave is Monday, d

Jimmy and I are now in the mode of frequently watching the weather forecasts. The plan is to leave our slip of the past year one day between Friday 12/30 and Monday 1/2. Since this is our first short handed overnighter, we wish to have calm seas for the crossing. So in the mean time, we chip away at our checklists. Some small challenges include navigation lights and broken water pipes at the marina. I had tap our nav lights a few weeks ago to get them to come on. Well,

This week we renewed/extended the lease on our apartment for only seven months. The current lease ends March 16, 2023, and the new one ends October 16, 2023, meaning we now have a final date as land dwellers. It is really exciting seeing all of the pieces fall into place and having a date out there. The timing is also interesting. We received the keys to the apartment right at a year ago, and this week we set our final date in the apartment. The original lease was for 15

This weekend was all about checking out safety systems onboard Utopia. We plan to take her to St. Petersburg the last weekend in December. It is roughly a 150 mile passage which could take 30 hours to complete. We've crossed the gulf three times so far, each time with a total crew of four. This time it will mostly likely be just the two of us, so I am taking a closer look at our safety items. Starting out with double checking the coast guard required items and reviewing a

Jimmy and I set a plan in place several years ago to begin full time cruising and now we are a year out. I really wish we started to capture some of the preparation from the past couple of years, but am glad to finally get around to doing this now. We just might attempt to recall some of the more interesting highlights from the planning phase. But for now, I'll start with this weekend. October and November have had us reflecting back to where we were a year ago, back when