Updates from Website Blog

Hre are the blogs that I keep on http://www.benevolentwanderings.com/ from March 4th to now...

DECISIONS, DECISIONS 030409

We are still in Mobile, AL. The engine is up and running and we are completing more projects. We've decided to wait for a weather window and cross to Mexico from here, skipping Florida. We like it here, it's inexpensive and friendly.We've been told again not to cross here but Brett and I are ready to head to Mexico. We will wait for the best window we can find and tough it out on the way there. It takes between 6 and 8 days from here. We were told an interesting fact. It's 600 miles from here to Key West and 680 miles to Isla Mujeres from here. But it would take a month to get to Key West. Our funds are completely drained and we want to get going at least to Mexico while we can. Jimmy Cornell is a well respected and famous writer of the "World Cruising Routes" and he recommends the crossing be made in April. We are hoping for a window before then. There are many stories of rough seas and fronts blowing over people at least three times before reaching Isla Mujures. It's enough to scare the bijeebers out of ya. But it's also just 8 days. We've spent a total of two and a half months trying to head South and still we have so far to go. The Gulf is intimidating and waiting on the weather window is key.

The weather has been chilly (low 30s at night) but it's going to warm up today in the 70's! yay! Brett is going to start working on our sail cover and I'm going to work on the woodwork. I am hoping to soak two of our heavy docklines and get them softened up. Maybe I'll even get to washing the deck today.We've met some marvelous people here.

Mary and her daughter and their cat have come down from Kentucky on the river and are headed toward the Bahamas. They are on a 27' Hunter. We shared each other's books. Cat and Bob are on a 37 Beneteau. This is their homeport and they just got back from cruising Florida. She took me to the grocery store which is 3 miles from here. We also met Mark who owns a Cape Dory 30' who lent us his ladder to get onto a boat we were looking at in the yard. We got to meet Sue and her daughter on the 60' Worum Catamaran, they seemed very nice and working as they go, too.So we are taking this opportunity and nice weather to get some more of our projects done. While I was grocery shopping, Brett did the laundry and attached a second latch to the fridge door and a latch for the engine room. Yesterday he also installed a new piece of wood on the bottom of the bathroom door so water wouldn't flow out of it while we took showers. The foam I had installed last year finally came unglued.

He also finally attached an eye pad to the bulkhead and strapped in my guitar out of the way.We played with the sail yesterday, trying to figure out what kind of reefing system they had set up on this boat. (see our Flotsam and Jetsam tab for info about reefing) We went over to West Marine and picked up two reefing hooks. We could have made do with a snap shackle to attach to each of the holes as we reefed but on a rolling boat with high winds, it seemed dangerous. Reefing is done often while cruising and it was a good investment for the right equipment for our safety on deck while underway. Usually when you have to reef, the conditions are NOT calm.I had a lot of fun messing with the sail and lines. We have spent so much time motoring since we left. Sailing is really what my passion is and I miss it and can't WAIT to actually start sailing and using our sailing equipment.

We are yet again having to replace our Garmin GPS. It's a long story but their new replacement unit for our "lost" one they "repaired" is also defective. So here we go again. After an arguement, we arranged to send this one in and they'll send us a new one. Our faith in Garmin is starting to wane as we keep a chartplotter in mind but they are still rated #1 so we will try again with them.

I have been reading a LOT of forums online through liveaboard magazine, cruisers net and SSCA. Learned lots of info and have enjoyed linking to other people's blogs and stories. I am watching Brett set up the sewing machine to finish my weather clothes. I'd better go get to work on something I can do.

PROJECTS AND HAPPENINGS 030609

I just spent an hour writing a long blog and my internet decided to close my programs. Maybe it was telling me it was too long? :) I guess to make my long, fun story short- We're working on great projects right now.

Brett is getting our new "stack pack" and lazy jack system finished up. It's going to be wonderful to not fight that old, tight, worn out and torn blue sailcover that we'd been using. The new one will be easy to use, fit properly, match the purple fabric, and just be wonderful. The lazy jacks will be SO nice as well to help keep the main sail together and into the "stack pack" as it comes down. No more heavy main sail in the water or falling on top of me! I'll take pictures as soon as he is done with it! I am SO thankful Brett is so savvy on the sewing machine!! I sewed the weather clothes and cushions but he does most of the canvas work. He's so much better at it than I am. I do have some small sewing projects still in store such as a vinyl flap to go on our hatch for rainy or rough weather. I am also going to make a bug screen for the companionway and some fabric covers for the turnbuckles on the chainplates. (That hold the mast up).

I am sanding the wood to prep it for a new coat of varnish. Being in a marina with expensive, spotless boats has us motivated to try and do a little cosmetic work. With all the vital projects done, we are able to work on the cosmetics now.

I have reopened a jewelry shop on Etsy, http://www.kylacorbettdesigns.etsy.com/ so I can sell some earrings I had brought with me from my inventory that I haven't worn. We are very low on funds and I was hoping to be able to sell at least earrings. I miss jewelry and my polymer clay a lot. I am excited to be able to at least post some earrings back on Etsy. I put a new tab on our website that links to it, too.

I had a new cruising friend lend me a "wonder wash" to try out. It seems to work really good for manually washing a small load- I still have to wring out which is my least favorite part of hand-washing but it gets the clothes cleaner than I can. They are only $45 which is about a month's load of laundry. So it would pay off. That's why I reopened my jewelry shop, I am hoping to save up to buy one. Laundry is one of my hardest tasks to deal with.

It's warmed up here- 70's. Thank goodness.We're waiting on a weather window to hopefully cross the Gulf and head toward Mexico. We've heard lots of horror stories about crossing here but we've heard of nightmares in Florida too- We can't really afford to go around Florida either. This week would have been a good week to cross but we just couldn't finish some needed projects before heading offshore by then. So we're patiently waiting for the next window- They become more frequent the later it gets in the year. April is generally a great time to go but we are hoping to leave sooner than that.

Another new friend took a look at my computer to see if she could get the camcorder to work on it with the new firewire card I bought. No such luck but they were able to get some errors on my computer repaired and it is running better. So I am very thankful for that! She has also been gracious enough to let me get rides to the store with her. The nearest store is 3-4 miles away and I can't walk it alone. We had people staring at us, honking at us, slowing down by us just walking to the hardware store over the bridge. And that was with Brett! So I haven't been able to escape much.

Hop y'all are doing well and staying healthy. There are some bad viruses out there right now. I am finally over my nasty cough. Thank goodness.Love y'all and miss everyone everywhere terribly much.

THE PALACIOS PLUM STRIKES AGAIN! 030809

Brett got the stack pack and weather clothes up on the boat. They still need to be finished but they are up. It's rather hidious with the blue paint on the hull but it's nice to have an efficient sail cover and protection from the waves with the weather clothes when we are offshore. I guess we'll never have a problem finding her in an anchorage. She definitely "sticks" out.

I worked on woodwork a little yesterday. I met some more people around here. Katt and Bob left yesterday morning, we missed saying goodbye to them. First morning I slept in. But I had been up at 4am the previous morning.We ran out of propane last night so we have no coffee this morning or tomorrow till we can get some. EEK

Mary gave us some lovely bread that she bought at a local bread shop down the road. She got a ton of it for almost nothing! My friend back in Oregon sent me my jewelry so I can post more of it on Etsy while we are here. I may turn to local stones and shells, etc when we head out of the states. That way I don't have to worry about duty, etc. with other countries. I really want to do my clay jewelry again but my supplies are pretty heavy and I am not sure how to have them shipped...Today I am hoping to get the rest of the woodwork sanded and start varnishing tomorrow.

CANVAS CRAZY AND FLYING FISH 031009

Brett spent the day using up the last of the sunbrella, making sheetline bags and halyard bags. Yesterday he made an awesome forsail bag that the genoas go into while still hanked onto the forstay. I have spent the last few days sanding and varnishing pieces of the boat's woodwork. I baked cookies on Sunday. I haven't made chocolate chip cookies in years! It was fun and they turned out great. I love my propane oven. Mary lent us her car and we were able to stock up on more groceries at Walmart. I also picked up some new kind of pine pellet litter for Benny that is supposed to be cheaper, smell better and more biodegradable than the clump litter we've been using. WE"LL SEE!I have put my earrings and anklets on Etsy again, hoping to make some money. I had a friend mail back my jewelry so it should be here soon to add to the shop. We are watching the weather and we might have a long enough break next week to try and make our crossing to Mexico. While cooking hamburgers on our grill tonight, we discovered one of the mullet (that jump out of the water all the time) ended up in our dinghy! It was a big one! We're steadily getting things done but I am starting to go stir crazy. Can't wait to get underway again.I got out my good camera today and took some pictures. I have posted tons of new pictures on our Picasa Web Album.

We had to send our NEW Garmin in that they sent us as a replacement for our original one. It was defective. They treated us pretty poorly on the phone and broke their promise of sending us the new replacement unit when we shipped ours. Now they are saying we have to wait until they get ours. So we might lose our weather window thanks to Garmin. After dealing with them on this long issue, I am hesitant to ever buy another product from them. They are getting onto my list with Dell of NEVER AGAIN.

I finally got a cheap headset to use on the computer for phone calls through Skype. All the cruisers use it - It was only $2.95 a month for unlimited calling to landlines so I signed up. Our cell phone was costing us a ton of money. I picked the wrong headset, it's very hard to use but at least I have something now to use with Skype.

Hope everyone is doing well. Make sure you go check out our pictures :)

A VISIT TO BELLINGRATH GARDENS 031409

Mary invited me yesterday to go to the Bellengrath House and Gardens with her and her daughter. I dug through my nice clothes and finally found a skirt that still fit. We had a wonderful time, the flowers were beautiful! The whole garden smelled heavenly! We had perfect weather for it. (Today it's POURING rain). We toured the Bellengrath house FULL of antiques. It was GORGEOUS. I drooled over the beauty and of all the antiques. The gardens offered me unending photographic opportunities. We strolled through Azalias, Orchids, Pansies and Camelias, talking about anchoring and dinghies. It was SO nice to have another woman to talk boats with! I realized I have never really toured anything like that before- It was such a treat to get away and enjoy the beauty with other "girls".

Mary lent me a wonderful book and article that I am reading before they head off. We are both planning on heading out after this front passes, probably Wednesday. I am hoping to leave together, at least down the bay until she turns to the ICW and we head to an anchorage at the mouth of the bay. From there, Brett and I will start our long journey towad Mexico. We'll head out to the "100 mile fathom curve" and then follow the currents that parallel Florida- We're hoping to make Isla Mujeres in 6-8 days without stopping. But if we do need to stop, we'll head toward Tampa. I have made preparations for rough weather on the way. I am so excited at the possibility of making Mexico soon. We're hoping to arrange for Benny's health certificate on Monday.

Today, some old friends surprised us and took us to Dauphin Island. We had a marvelous lunch with them at the "Crusty Crab" / "Pelican Pub" restaurant and bar. It was wonderful food and nice atmosphere. It was great to catch up with old friends, too.

I have spent the last two days posting loads of jewelry onto the Etsy shop, http://www.kylacorbettdesigns.etsy.com/ and hoping to sell it to continue our voyage. I have posted lots of beautiful pictures from the gardens under the PICTURES tab! If you are interested in a 4x6 or 5x7 (possibly an 8x10) print, let me know- I would love to start offering my photography to you in prints to enjoy as much as I have enjoyed them!

CHANGE IN PLANS (03/16/09)

We've decided to head out tomorrow toward Florida. We will be sailing along with some friends that are also headed that way , at least to Pensacola. From there, the fronts should pass and we will head out into the Gulf.

Last night we invited a solo sailor over for dinner on our boat. He had just pulled in last night by himself after a 9 day passage from Key West. With no restaurants within easy walking distance, I offered him a hot meal of burritos. So he came over and we enjoyed dinner while talking sailing. He had the same name as a friend of ours in Serendipity and so we'll never forget his name.

I have shopped like crazy for groceries and have us stalked for about a month! We will be concentrating on anchoring from this point forward so as not to dwindle the money I got from selling my photography equipment and jewelry. I'll update when I can.

MOBILE BAY, AL to PENSACOLA BEACH, FL (03/17/2009-03/20/2009)

We left on St Patrick's Day from Turner Marine in Alabama with Mary and Coleen on their boat. The both of us wound our way through log debris and light chop out of the Dog River Channel. We'd NEVER seen anything like the logs that were surrounding us! It was scary and the rolly polly chop didn't help. After reaching the Mobile Ship channel, we put up our sails and cruised around 3 knots for a couple hours, both of us trying "wing-on-wing" where you have the main sail and the head sail out as far as you can while going downwind. After figuring out that we'd not reach the anchorage until 10pm, we both set our motors and and reached the ICW quickly.

It was very familiar as soon as we entered the protected part. Mary and Coleen had never been in the ICW before.We went by LuLu's restaurant (Jimmy Buffet's sister owns it) and continued on to the anchorage. We decided to pass Wolf Bay anchorage and head toward the more popular, Ingram's Bayou anchorage. While going through the glassy waters of Wolf Bay, dolphins finally emerged and Coleen got to see her first dolphins. The sun set on us and it was gorgeous. We anchored at twilight, with just enough light to see. Both of the boat's anchors grabbed quickly.I made a feast of grilled cajun-seasoned chicken breasts (which Brett grilled), fried red potatoes, canned pears and grilled cheesey garlic bread. I also had a large glass of my special milk before it went bad. The fridge couldn't be on while anchored. Dinner was YUMMY. The weather was beautiful with little wind and stars everywhere.

In the morning, I peeked out to see if our anchor was still in the right spot. It was completely foggy, I couldn't see anything. I looked up and found Mary's anchor light, the other sailboat's anchor light and the lights across the ICW and knew we were good.We left the anchorage around noon and headed for Big Lagoon. We led this time with my printed charts off of the NOAA site. Brett laughs at my "disposable charts" but they work.

When getting into Florida, the water turned greener and the boat traffic increased. It was so beautiful. Colorful buildings and white sandy beaches lined the green water. One boat's wake had us rolling worse than the ocean! I took lots of video and pictures on our way to Big Lagoon. We found our anchorage and set anchor. It didn't set well so Brett put out the other anchor, too. In the afternoon, all of us dinghied to the beach on Perdido Key. It was the first time either of us had dinghied away from our boats and beached. The scenery was heavenly! It was warm with a light breeze, green blue waters and pure white beaches. PERFECT. We all talked about how this was what we pictured cruising to be. Brett flew his kite a little but there wasn't enough wind. Coleen and I discovered a kite on the beach and she adopted it. It was amazing how fast she was able to fly it! As Mary sunbathed and Brett sat, Coleen and I played frisbee, flew her kite and gathered hermit crabs into her pail. It was so fun! Mary, Brett and I talked about boats and the sailing we'd had the day before.

That evening, Mary invited us over to her boat for spaghetti and bread with salad and wine. It was great food and we had a great time talking more about boats. When we got into our dinghy, Brett pointed out the phosphorescence on the oars. It was cool! It sparkled and glowed as he moved them back and forth. We rowed back to our boat in the dark, in awe of the beautiful stars and glowing oars. It was very eerie to come up to our boat in the dark, with only our anchor light on.

We spent a restless night looking at the anchors as the wind and current clocked us around. The phosphorescence glowed on the anchor lines, making it easy to see. The moon came up and shone across the water. It was magnificent.

I got up later and struggled with the main sail halyard. the wind was knocking it against the mast and i couldnt sleep. After struggling for 20 minutes, I finally got it tied away from the mast (in my PJs). I got back below and found it to be 6am! Grrrr. I made coffee and got on the computer. I noticed the battery said it was dead! I was shocked- We still had the anchor light on and the other lights so I didn't know what was going on. I switched to our second battery and began studying our books and making a chart of amperage hours and all of our equipment. We spent the day taking naps and cleaning. Then I went over to the beach for awhile while Brett took a nap, he wasn't feeling well. Mary and Coleen met me over at the beach. I had been wading in the water, it was so warm. I finally went back to the boat and started making banana bread for them before we left.

We decided to head to a marina before the wind hit - we wanted to stock up on supplies (Brett had run out of cigarettes and I wanted ice). Then we would be ready and rested to maybe head out to the Gulf on Friday. I said goodbye to Coleen and Mary at the beach and we motored out of the beautiful anchorage. We wound our way through the lagoon, confused by the markers. As we entered the narrow cove between the Pensacola Bay and lagoon, the water turned turquoise green. We made our way through the beautiful water and found the Gulf on our starboard side! It was the most beautiful color green I'd ever seen! There were boats EVERYWHERE and fishermen and Navy planes. It was very busy and absolutely stunning in color. We passed the Gulf and headed toward the marina on the other side of the bay.

We changed our minds and went to a closer marina near the ICW. It was the same one that Mary was going to head to on Friday (today). The dockmaster was extremely friendly and it ended up a beautiful spot. We had laundry, the yacht club, a grocery market, lots of restaurants and stores on the other side of the road. It was perfect.

I watched in amazement at how accurate TV was with FLorida- Old women walking together with earphones on, palm trees lining the streets, colorful buildings blossoming all over, white sand instead of mulch. The temperature was perfect. We walked two minutes to the grocery market. Brett grabbed a bottle of chocolate milk and a pack of cigarettes while I plucked two pounds of coffee of the shelf. We also bought a smoked chicken and a bag of ice. We went back to our boat. We enjoyed a fun banter with a friendly sailor next to us. he was hilarious. It was fun. We ate dinner and then walked to the convenience store nearby for pop. We found ourselves in the middle of Spring Breakers, with dozens of young kids walking around all over the place. It was HOPPING!

We made our way back to the boat, enjoying the beautiful weather. I went to bed early, again exhausted from lack of sleep from the previous two nights. We found ourselves in a norther this morning and cannot leave here even if we wanted to. It will drain our funds staying here but it's for the best anyway. They are predicting high winds and huge swells for the next few days in the Gulf. Mary and Coleen should be here today, I can't wait to see them. I saved them half the banana bread for a treat when they arrive. It was SO incredibly fun to cruise with them. Mary is awesome and Coleen is soo smart! Mr. Kitty is pretty cute, too. It was really fun to be with them as they experienced the ICW for the first time. I wish they'd left with us yesterday to come here as the winds are high today and the channel is very shallow. I hope they make it ok without getting too seasick. I wish we could continue down the ICW with them but our mast is too tall to make the next bridge.I took tons of pictures and video!

ENJOYING PENSACOLA (03/21)

We decided to stay at this marina a week until the high winds and large swells subside next week. Mary and Coleen came in yesterday after a detour to sailing in the Gulf out the pass we went by the day before! Mary had a wonderful time and is HOOKED on offshore sailing.

I gave Brett his birthday present early. I found some boat shoes that were on an incredible sale that were decent (Sperry TopSiders) at Boater's World. He was extremely pleased with them and they fit well. I took a picture of him putting them on. He has had a 25 year old running joke that there was boats in San Francisco that they couldn't step on unless they were wearing "Sperry Topsiders"! He never thought he'd have some. It was fun to give them to him.

The marina has a bar and yacht club and open veranda where they have live music on the weekends. So we met Mary and Coleen at 730 up there and enjoyed music while talking boats.

Today, I started the day by posting more jewelry online to help pay for this costly stop. At around 1130, Brett noticed HobiCats racing around in the bay across the main st. We made our way over and found ourselves on another gorgeous beach! I had brought my good camera and took pictures of the boats and parrots. It was cool. We watched an UN-experienced guy rent one of the hobicats and make mistake after mistake in the 30 knot winds. We were flabergasted that the company rented out these fast, tippy boats to just anyone! And he even had to ASK for a lifejacket! He ended up turning the boat over after being blown to the other side of the bay. We watched the young worker jump on his waverunner time and time again to go help the guy. Brett pined to go sailing on the Hobicat but it was just too cold to be out there without a wetsuit.

We laughed as we walked around in fleeces while hundreds of young people strolled in bikinis and shorts.

We split lunch at Surf Burger and then meandered down the beach and across the boardwalk to the other side of the island to the Gulf. I took shots of the crowded beach as we walked the pier for 2.50. I also snapped shots of surfers below the pier! After the leisurely stroll, we finally headed back to the boat.

After returning, Brett rebuilt the windsurfer sail and was soon sailing our little Knot Yacht around our Little Sabine Bay at a slow 1-2 knots (KNOT YACHT- ONE KNOT YACHT). I sat in the sun and played around in my acrylic paints. Mary and Coleen headed to the beach just before Brett returned. They asked me to go with them but I stayed and painted and washed dishes, agreeing to meet them for dinner later.

I got up the nerve in the calm winds and got into the dinghy with the sail myself. After a few instructions from Brett, I was able to successfully tack and steer the dinghy without Brett telling me what to do from the dock. It was uncomfortable to sit in and try to move around when tacking but it was nice to finally to do it by myself. After I made a perfect landing at our boat, we left to the beach to find Mary and Coleen and head to dinner.

We sat on the beach with them, talking more boats and watching the hundreds of college kids and families playing volleyball, flying kites, and sunbathing. Dozens of beer cans overflowed in the trash cans onto the white sand. I had never been on such a crowded beach- it was a trip. The water and beaches and weather are so incredible here. And the people are much nicer than I anticipated.

Jerry, the dockmaster here at Sabine Marina, has been incredibly accomodating and friendly. He has helped us with anything we need and recommended to eat at Peg Leg Pete's. (On our list for lunch tomorrow). With groceries, stores, restaurants, locked gates, laundry, bar, and yacht club and of course the incredible beaches, it's the PERFECT place and I recommend it to anyone! Oh, and did I mention that it's cheaper than any other marina in the bay?! If you come here, make sure to deal with Jerry- He's the BEST.We noticed people were anchoring right out front of the marina, too- It's just a few feet from the marina- They dinghied up to the marina and enjoyed the bar and music! What a great idea! Well I've got to get back to jewelry. Enjoy the pictures.