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home safe and sound i thought it way past time to add my observations to rubicon's online log. actually it was my intention all along to post a few thoughts while relaxing each evening. the timing was never right, so better late than never.

teen and i (as amy calls the "-rents") arrived with our nephew, joe knott, at cape marine in port canaveral late saturday afternoon during a monsoon of a rain storm. already jamie had the bottom painted black. he must have finished just moments before the sky opened. they had started to assemble the many puzzle pieces of the dodger. the roof was up but rather than stop the rain it just concentrated it, dripping through it's lowest points.

just before the yard was to shut down, the travel lift arrived to carry rubicon to the water. a week or so earlier, tom, a mechanic and genuine nice guy had gone over the engine and readied it for a long voyage to maine. rubicon is set into the water only to find that both new batteries are completely dead. the travel lift runs out of fuel and the cape marine guys start looking at the time. they have already put in a long day and it was now 7pm on saturday night. joe and i glanced at each other. what were we getting into. a bit of rope wrangling and rubicon was in a slip where she could gather herself together for a 1300 mile journey to a new home in maine.

rubicon looks different from every other sail boat in florida. they are sleek sloops whereas rubicon is a serious looking ship built tough for offshore passages. they have steering wheels while rubicon sports a tiller. they have thin small keels while rubicon has a monster of a keel drawing nearly six feet of water. she draws a lot of water for southern waters. more about that later. they have sparkling white sails and rubicon has dark red sails. she is a serious looking boat.

there was plenty to do before heading out to sea. amy and teen sorted thru the heaps below deck and made a trip to walmart for things like cleaning supplies, kitchen equipment, towels, and all the other essentials. the list was never ending. they sorted thru all the lockers finding treasures in every bin. talk about spares! there was a back up for nearly every system on board. this boat was set up for extended cruising where parts are difficult to locate. spare engine parts, fittings, screws, pumps, spare stanchions, light bulbs, you name it and it was probably there somewhere.

jamie worked on the rigging. he found that the roller furling was wound backwards, and that some on the cables required shortening. he is very knowledgeable about the art of sailing. he even knows the funny correct names of all the ropes, wires, and sails. joe and i hauled jamie to the top of the mast to check the rigging and retrieve the twisted wind vane. ok, so we dropped him a few feet but it wasn't on purpose. joe and i worked on the electrical sytem and finally located the shore power breaker box and got the battery charger working. rubicon's engine started and sounded great. we installed the gps plotter, fixed the running lights, replaced several bulbs, and did numerous small priority projects. while filling the 120 gallon water tank the bilge pump started! the stainless steel water tank was split at the top rear seam. jamie suggested patching it using fiberglass tape and epoxy. i wasn't too sure it would hold as water would be constantly pounding against that seam. after four days of sailing it was holding just fine. the patch looks so good it may be a permanent fix. joe and i installed a new propane control solenoid for the kitchen stove. amy and teen picked up the last of the provisions. almost ready to head out after two days in the slip. off to the tiki bar.

tuesday we fueled up and motored out the channel at port canaveral. underway at last! top speed was about eight knots. big following seas gave us a hobby horse ride. rubicon was dry but solid feeling. a line caught the throttle control and suddenly took us from full speed ahead to an idle. afterwards the engine sounded as if peak rpms were lower and we had lost nearly a knot. i couldn't find anything loose or out of adjustment. later i got a little of it back by adjusting the morse control under the starbird cockpit seat. a little was gained but not enough to make much difference. navigation was done with the gps which got it's info from a laptop computer. someone else will have to explain the nav system. we all took turns at the tiller with jamie taking the longest shifts. the tiller with following seas is a real work out. next stop was ponce de leon inlet but it was dark. we learned that inlets in the dark were not easy. especially when the boats requires so much water! we grounded out inside the inlet after almost running down the wrong side of a jetty. more preparation would be required before another inlet was attempted in the dark. we moved down the channel past the coast guard station and dropped the anchor for the night. it was real hot and sticky. joe pitched his sleeping bag outside on the bow and the rest of us down below. i couldn't stand the heat and moved out into the cockpit during the night. we gave the mosquitos a feast that night.

rather than experience the trauma of another inlet, the next day we chose the intercoastal waterway. it was straight and ran right along the coast. i think all of us (except joe), were surprised at how shallow and narrow the inland waterway is or all of the florida coast for that matter. parts of the channel are only six or eight feet deep! and we bumped the bottom a few times but sand is quite forgiving. amy and i worked on navigation. she picked it up very quickly. we went over parralel rules, dividers, and time/speed calculators. soon amy and joe, a private pilot with navigation experience, were plotting courses and double checking everything. despite the heat teen cooked and kept water and drinks flowing. we drank huge amounts of water, juice, and coke. we talked about being prepared when approaching an inlet. our next inlet would be plotted with magnetic courses between each bouy. nothing was left to chance. we thought. wednesday night was spent in st. augustine. i enjoyed our stop at oyster river marina. met some very nice folks, ed, captain john, and his fishing buddy. late that night we watched millions of 2" pogies jumping onto the floats trying to elude some big tarpon.

thursday was another inland water way day. hot and sticky. we were still learning the finer points of opening those bridges. one operator scolded us because we were too slow. not much that could be done about that. jamie has it figured out pretty well now. after dark we made it to brunswick, georgia but not without incident. on the way in rubicon grounded, - hard. so hard and so shallow (2.5' on the sounder!) that we called sea tow for assitance. twenty minutes later they arrived but we had already backed off the sandy bottom. we followed the sea tow captain, a mass maritine student to the golden isles marina. it was probably 9:30pm by then and the marina rep who met us at the dock said he had been there since 6am. he made sure we were tied up and went home. the marina is sparkling with all the bells and whistles you could imagine. big fancy boats. i could only wonder what the people of brunswick, ga. do for a living to be able to afford all those beautiful yachts. on the other hand it was a snooty crowd. i don't think anyone even said hello. there was nothing to cause us to linger. we did a little routine maint, checked the fuel filters, the water tank, and jamie once again worked on the lectra-san system. i should have mentioned it earlier but the waste disposal for the toilet had been leaking since we got underway. this electronic poop eating machine had pinholes in it's cover and pumped a portion of each cycle under the forward berth. the bulkhead up there is water tight so it turned into a mini cess pool. jamie pumped and scooped it clean once again. at first he thought we weren't following the procedure for flushing causing it to back up. if i remember correctly, it's set the lectra-san timer, down on the pedal, a couple of pumps to wet the bowl and get some water in it, do duty, pedal up, and pump it dry. jamie did some emergency plumbing and now things are flowing properly. next up was an ocean pasage to savannah.

the passage to savannah was plotted and plotted again to be sure there would be no surprises. amy and joe checked and double checked. jamie added the waypoints to the laptop that controls the gps. courses were plotted between all the harbor entrance markers. once we cleared st simon island it was a sixty mile straight shot to savannah. teen wanted to be sure we stayed within the sight of land. at times land was out of sight but we convinced her that it was hidden by a light haze. the day was hot as always, and the seas were actually calm. the forecasters were right on with 3ft seas. once on course toward savannah, 60 miles at 7kts takes nearly nine hours! and more time is spent at the inlets. we arrived at the outer marker for savannah about 6:30pm. plenty of time before dark to find a berth for rubicon. the channel is wide, deep (40') and well marked. the wind was blowing in and the tide was headed out making it very rough. outside the channel markers there were breakers. the pre plotted courses were good insurance but in daylight the channel markers were easy to follow. we shared the channel with three outgoing ships. the first two were medium sized but the third was a huge container ship we met at a bend in the channel. rubicon was as far out of the way as possible, almost out of the channel when we safely passed. there was enough room for both of us after all. her wake was pretty intense. once we reached the inner harbor a friendly tour boat hailed us to ask where we were headed. with san francisco on the hull and a little indecision on the next heading we probably looked as confused as it turned out we were. the marina we hoped to make turned out not to be suitable for a large sailboat. it was suggested that we make for hilton head, sc and harbor town marina. of course we hadn't planned on that so we asked for directions. the tour boat and the marina both came back with directions. the tour boat, and I've forgotten it's name, was very helpful. thanks, captain. another forty five minutes os so we reached harbor town marina. wow! wall to wall yachts, big fancy ones. three bands playing around the shore, shops, restaurants, a private lighthouse. like joe said, we looked as if we had just stepped off a raft. they put us at the end of the fuel dock for the night.

this was to be teen and my last night with rubicon. vacation was nearly over and we had to be back to work soon. we tried to get a room but learned they were only rented by the week and were booked far in advance. i had slept on deck the last two nights and was really looking forward to a room with a bed and no mosquitoes. it wasn't to be. rubicon was in full view of the folks strolling the grounds. they stood above us surveying rubicon. i heard one man tell another that she was a real seaworthy boat built for the ocean. he really sounded like an expert, i believed him. i waited for shoreside activites to wain and the lights to dim before making my berth. sleeping in plain sight of everyone was a bit like sleeping in a doorway with out the refrigerator box. just as i settled in a light rain started. there wasn't enough room to keep all of me out of the rain so my feet rinsed most of the night. the rain was warm and i was beat and i slept pretty well. the rest of the crew was down below in the heat. early the next morning teen and i made araingements for a ride to savannah airport. we watched as rubicon motored out of the little harbor. she looked great, really great.

amy, jamie, and joe would continue on without us. we were glad to be heading home and they were probably just as happy to see us off. they had come together as a crew and would do well as a team. besides five is a crowd. we will await their arrival in maine. i hope to take joe fishing before he heads back to florida.

we had good times, boring times, hot times, and a few scary moments. i appreciate the opportunity to make this trip. i learned a lot of new things, saw some new places, got to spend time with the kids, and i always like that. that said, the cruising life is out of my system forever. i think teen has the same opinion. not to say that I wouldn't like to go for a day sail or even a weekend cruise, but count me out for wondering the world. i can enjoy it from afar thru phil and amy's log (www.worldvoyagers.com/log).

rick

in st. augustine, fl. see news.

still in port canaveral... see news.

well, she's still sitting in the yard in florida at this time. look for the first log after july 21st!