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so it's been about 6 months so time for another update. i will level with you. we haven't done much on the boat this winter so there isn't a whole lot to update. this will be brief.

so what have we been up to? for the past 11 weeks I was taking an oracle dba course over at northeastern so that has chewed up alot of my time. jamie's tenure at boston boat works has ended (for the benefit of his health) and is now employed at boston duck tours as a captain. he's been working on his character, stuffing his head full of history, and learning to drive a huge amphibious wwii vintage "vessel". pretty cool. and to boot, there are 2 other duck boat captains living on the same finger pier in east boston that we're on. and they're a rowdy bunch.

our winter accomplishments are minor but our plans are big. jamie got the single side ban radio to work using the upstairs neighbor's dog runner. (we've been tempted to use the dog as a tuner. heh.) seems to work well but still need to get ham radio licenses to really tinker. we have a new electrica panel ready to install and have been trying to decide on a new water heater. much to think about.

one of last year's final annoyances was that we still have leaks in the deck! we're thinking it must be the sail track. jamie wanted to perform some deck open-heart surgery to remove the metal bar in the deck but i talked him out of it. remove the top pieces and plug up the screw holes with dowels. much easier and we won't ruin as much teak. we just need to find a clever way to remove the seized and snapped-off bolts in a few places.

so what are our plans (to date anyways)? boat is paid off in may. we will haul-out sometime in early summer to do bottom paint, thru-hulls, touch up the paint where the fenders rubbed through this winter, and the rudder trim tab (thank you phil!). not sure on the timing of that yet but we're thinking of doing it around here (boston) somewhere. maybe marina bay. we're still planning to move aboard this summer but keep our lease through august. we still have much "stuff" to shuffle around. my school debt will be paid off in august and then there is a bit of old debt for jamie to work out. jamie's job lasts through november so we'll be here at least that long. i'm thinking we'll be here for another winter to build up a nice boat fund. we still have to pay for summer storage and radar so those will be the big ticket items. at least we'll be aboard!

and the other thing to let you know about is that i'm starting a live journal for rubicon. i will still update this page from time to time and send it out to the newsgroup but we've been pretty bad about keeping it current. this live journal can be updated from anywhere with a web browser so i plan to keep it as a day-to-day journal with more... shall we say, "emotional" updates. it will have updates on how pissed off we get at seized fittings, how the boston harbor lobstermen can be scary (well, their catches anyways), the dirty looks we got from the boston police escorting the lng tanker in, and how much of a hang over we have from the beer and epoxy fumes. i guess its more raw and unedited. if you forget we have it or don't want to look at it very often, i'll still be sending out quarterly? updates. the link to the journal is as follows (and added to the site navigation):

http://www.livejournal.com/users/voyages_rubicon/

september on the boat was beautiful. great weather and much work done. engine aligned, bow rollers on, binicle tightened, new sail covers made, cusions reintroduced, running lights working, new mooring pennant made and spliced etc.

on sunday, oct. 5th, we left harpswell for rubicon's only voyage of the year at dawn. we had tried to go 2 days before that but the wind was blowing out of the south up to 40 kts. glad we waited. sunday was no picnic either. seas were 6-8ft and wind out of the south gusting to 20kts changing to the west. it was a good test for rubicon to see how she handled big seas. for the most part she cut through them. only a couple times were the fenders on the port side deck were afloat. a dodger and winter waterproof boots would have been nice. at one point we were taking water in the durades and the charlie noble. good to know and to fix this winter. we had up the stay sail to ease our motion and motored the whole way.

for the first time we really used our chartplotter and cross referenced it against our charts. all was dead on. good for the confidence level. we arrived at the isles of shoals about 5:30pm with an our of daylight to spare. we were very pleased about the fairly uneventful trip. only a few really deep water lobster pots to look out for. we had a beer each, put on a ceramic plant pot on the coleman stove to dry us out and hit the sack. the isles of shoals were pretty rough with the wind coming out of the west but it was still beautiful. rocks with some hauses on them. i have no idea how they stay out there during the harsh winters.

we left the next morning at dawn and scooted by the isle of shoal light. winds were lighter and off our stern. we put up the jib and stay sail and cruised around cape ann. after that point (and a huge tug and barge passing), the wind died. beautiful and warming. we made a b-line for boston's north channel and arrived around 4pm.

i will admit that boston harbor is crazy. as we came in we saw a float-abago being helped off a shoal by seatow and boat u.s. and watched the tugs tooling around. boston harbor is a mess of little islands that i would not want to be in there without a chart. so many hidden shoals, pilings, wrecks, and idiots although the city itself is gorgeous. mystic island or whatever that island of trash is pretty freaky.

we hugged the bouys all the way around to boston boatworks and avoided the watertaxis. a lady caught our line on h dock and we were there. exhasted, exhillerated and happy. jamie showed me around the marina a bit. we got some flack from one of the drunk livaboards there. welcome to boston.

i have to say, after such a wonderful trip, it really felt like a shame to be stopped at this place. an unfriendly politicing city. i really wanted to keep going. it was wonderful to test our minds, our capabilities, our muscles, and our our endurance - even though it was only 2 days. ;) i can't wait for more!

now rubicon is at the boston harbor shipyard and marina and will stay in the water this winter there. storage isn't bad and there are other liveaboards around. time to do the interior!

and alas, we found more leaks... the front hatch over our v-berth and over the chart table. no idea where it's coming from ugh. the 2 places you want leaks the least.

major winter projects include: rearranging the dinette so we can gain some space, water systems, cleaning the diesel tank, completing the lassarette, updating the kitchen, redo'ing the headliner, reorganizing storage, all wiring, and possibly reconfiguring the chart table. more to be added!

splash!

so we actually splashed her! we launched her friday august 8th at the end of our vacation week. see picts here. we spent a hectic week preparing her and getting the mast stepped and ready. rigging and running rigging is an incredibly daunting task. I completely under estimated how long it would take to get ready.

so the launch itself went smoothly. put up the mast the day before, moved her and plopped her in the next day. the ignition key switch was on the fritz so that was a small ache. the stuffing box only needed a couple of turns on the cupling(sp?) nut. (for the non-nautical people the staft to the propeller needs to slowly drip so that the packing around the shaft through the hull will not dry out and burn out and cause a huge flood). jamie guesses that the stuffing box had not actually been done when we took off from fl even though it was certainly paid for. ick.

so at high high tide they launched us and we proceeded over towards the mooring field and snagged a mooring. dad and mom rowed out in the yard's punt after us. dad suggested we cruise around the mooring field to test the engine since she hadn't been really run since being in the driveway back in brunswick the year before. we poked around and went to turn around just beyond the last mooring and crunch. we were hard aground! my worst nightmare and fear for the past 3 years. we blasted our horn 5 times and dad and mom headed over. fortunately a guy called from the shore and asked us if we needed to be pulled off. with a resounding yes!, he and his sister got in his ski boat and headed over. after trying to pull us a few ways and using a water ski bridal they somehow managed to pull us off the shoal. 12tons/ 22k lbs via ski boat! truely awesome. the lady, cathy was a local lobster lady and her brother joe was only there visiting. they really saved our butts. if you see some bright yellow lobster bouys in the potts harbor area, steer clear!

after being towed off, we grabbed a mooring and cathy and joe gave us a ride through the basin and the tide mill along where we would need to take rubicon out at a following high tide. apparently the shoal we had hit comes up a couple of feet above the surface of the water at low tide. thank goodness they pulled us off while there was still water! jamie and i came back later in the day and rowed all through the basin and through the tide mill just to figure out how to get out. we investigated where we grounded and only found paint on the shoal of mussel shells and rock. yes it was 2-3 feet above the water... we would have been waaay over on our side. so bad.

the next morning we came an hour later and met up with capt. jay and my dad in jay's boat. after some tinkering and bleeding of the fuel system, jamie, jay, and dad got the engine going. (a bad gasket on the fuel filter the night before had put air in the system.) joe and cathy then appeared and we were off. our piloting the day before and being lead by cathy and joe brought us through the basin flawlessly! dad and jay then lead us through potts harbor and through the cut by haskell's island. we waved goodbye to cathy and joe at that point and motored over to the yacht club and put her on a mooring. phew. uneventful, the way i like it.

since then, we successfully docked her this past weekend and have been setting things up. the jib is on, the hatches are on, and things are getting organized. swam under her this past weekend and only found only scraped paint. solid boat. the only weird thing is that our depth sounder thinks its 2ft then 145ft then back. that will take some investigating.

i think next weekend we'll be taking her for a little sail around harpswell sound. things are good so far - had the scary stuff out of the way! still need to learn how to splice that yacht braid...

first question first: yes, she is going in this year. when? we're hoping next week (1st week of august). the mast is scheduled to be stepped on tuesday. we need rope, need to put together the rollerfurler and need to deal with one last major leak.

so for the most part we slacked off this winter. marriage and lots of snow will do that i guess. in general things picked up this spring. at the end of winter, jamie broke his collarbone teaching me to snowboard up at sugarloaf so that put a damper on things as well as being unemployed. around april or so, jamie completely gave up on the techie thing and landed a job at boston boat works over in east boston as a marine mechanic. his position has since changed to rigger although the globe called him an assembly specialist. anyways... working at a boat yard has its perks. jamie's view.

let me see if i can put this in chronological order, we did the following:

• jamie poured lots of epoxy in the bilge to solid up the fiberglass.
• we put the deck hardware back on and added many many backing plates thanx to elwyn!
• we gooped the cockpit so there will be no more black goop getting stuck to your shorts (this was all done in an effort to keep the decks happy and try inside).
• jamie made a new panel that contains 3 shiny new gages - it looks out of place but we still need to paint the inside of the cockpit footwell.
• i varnished the hatches
• we ordered new rigging and a new rollerfurler. the rigging has been mostly assembled using lovely sta-locks.
• we had the jib repaired and a new uv cover added. we're gonna slowly convert all the uv covers to cadet grey.
• dad and jamie put the bow sprit back on, prepped the mast for painting, put the bow rail on and put the boomkins together.

our most recent project was painting the mast. we had some lovely epiphanes paint that we had used on the bow sprit and on the sides of the cockpit and didn't think much of how the paint behaved - dried very slowly and you could gum it off with your nail. So we painted one side of the mast with it, came back the next day, and we were horrified to see that the paint had dried in such a way that it had the texture of fake leather seating. ugh! So we spent a day scraping it all off and reprepping only to put a think layer of spay paint on it. a very wasted weekend. the next weekend we picked up a can of something like petit paint and slapped that on and now she's beautiful and gray. it only took 2 weekends. Stepping her next tuesday. yay! picts

the other major major major issue going on is the lower gudgeon holding on the rudder. we had been noticing that water was continuing to drain out of it even though the majority of the boat was dry. just for kicks, jamie stuck a small pry under the edge and was able to wiggle it! he could do that to the middle one too! only the top gudgeon was actually holding the rudder on! ugh. with that discovery jamie stated those fateful words that she can't go in the water with that problem. i think i watched 3 years of hardwork flash before my eyes. jamie picked at it some more and was able to mostly take the lower one off! one of the bolts had been mostly eaten through by electrolysis. i think it's safe to say that our boat is not grounded well at all! anyways, jamie thinks he can replace the bolts and dry out the wet fiberglass in time for launch next week. it will be tight but we'll see. it is safer to fix it now than to run the risk of loosing the rudder! picts

in the mean time i am working with a sign place in bath called sign loft to get the name put on the sides. out of the places i called they were willing to paint the name on, were email savy, and have a great sense of style. i'm looking forward to the final drafts of the name and hailing port.

i am also working on getting the vessel documentation changed. our name has changed and we have a mooring in harpswell, me so it doesn't make sense to have the homeport be portsmouth, nh.

jamie's working on securing the last bits needed to put the mast on and get her in the water. so many things to remember! why do spreader booties cost ~$30 each? ugh.

next week both jamie and i are off. we're gonna try to squeeze in all the boat work as well as a summer's worth of activities. yet another year of no summer. we'll also be taking the first week of september off to enjoy rubicon while she's in the water.

our grandios plans are to get her in the water and get the systems figured out. then we'll take her down to boston boat works for the winter and work on here. this winter is all about the interior and we'll need lots of time for that. it will be a relief to not have to drive to maine every weekend and work ourselves silly. going to maine just for pleasure will be the best! at this point, i'm willing to pay the boston prices to get her done and ready for spring. we'll keep our lease another year and move aboard slowly next spring/summer. again, these are the grandios plans. ::grins::

time for another semi-annual update.

so rubicon looks a bit different now. she got quite a make-over this summer and is now super shiny and gm black. jamie spent all summer sanding, painting, redoing, re-gooping much of the outside. projects included: refinishing the hatches, re-installing and finishing the engine, re-gooping the portlights and de-leaking many of the screw holes in the cabin, painting the cabin roof and sides, painting painting painting... and she looks great!

with summer being so brief and our own agenda going on (we got married in october), we decided not to put her in the water. it was getting to be that we could half-ass alot of the final things to get her in the water, but then we'd have to revisit those things and she'd only be in for a couple of weeks. we really wanted to have her at the dock during the wedding but it just didn't happen. we're hoping to have splash in early next spring.

so what does she look like? our friend bill (the artist) did a very beautiful job painting the boat. we couldn't have asked for better. if you need a car, or boat (or airplane) painted, look him up! the color is gm black - that's right marine/automotive paint. its cheaper and easier to touch up. we painted the cabin roof, sides and gunnels a light gray. it looks white against the hull. jamie also found some gold sign paint and painted the scribe work and a line that runs the length of the boat. she really looks great.

picts of sanding, painting, and goldleafing

so what's next in store? we're trying to think of what projects to tackle this winter. i'm thinking the electrosan and the wiring. we'll see!

time for an update!

hmmm, i think i last left it as jamie having lost his job... jamie's been quite busy these days up in maine, between working on the boat and fixing computers. me? i'm just plugging away at work her in boston. it's not so much fun with him so far away but at least we're both getting things done.

engine update: well the engine is almost back together. i think the final diagnosis on the engine was that it was a combination of the engine overheating (the 2 thermostats in the intake manifold were seized) and the head gasket leaking. with much careful measurement we found that the head had been decked previously - and unevenly at that - hence the head gasket was leaking. we shaved off the slightest bit of the head and found that it needed to be leveled out. after much back and forth getting parts from a place out in michigan, we're only missing a few gaskets, and then she'll be done! yay! she's painted, rebuilt and looking beauteous. our thanx go out to dad and cotes machine shop in bowdoinham.

decks: after much back and forth with ideas, we've come up with a final plan for the decks. (no, we're not going to take them up!) we've removed all of the bungs, screws, and nasty black gunk in the seams. (no more nasty polysulfate/sulfite or whatever gooing to our shorts anymore.) jamie's injected tons of penetrating epoxy in all the screw holds and in the seams. next step, we're going to drill out the screw holes and put mohogany dowels in their place. apparently jamie knew of a fellow who did that to his vessel and the decks lasted for 10 years or so. i figure if they last 10 years, that'll be enough. if we still have rubicon at that time, then we'll just sand them down and fiberglass over. our final step will be to do a little sanding then coat the entire desks in epoxy. it'll wear off soon enough, give it a uniform look, and solidify the decks that more.

leakage: in our pursuit of getting rid of the leaks, we've come to find that very little on rubicon had enough 5200 packing and nothing had a backing plate! very scary. (i'm surprised the windlass held while we were being towed at last summer. disaster waiting to happen.) jamie's trading some computer plumbing for some backing plates with our good friend the prop doctor, elwynne.

misc: we made some new boomkins this past saturday out of red ceder up at my aunt's haus. they're gorgeous. jamie's oiled them so they should be mighty pretty. we figure we'll oil the wood on rubicon instead of varnishing - less work the better. the hatches are in process and so is the bow sprit. i've been given the task of fiberglassing and painting our dingy "the bathtub". the smallest, lightest, and horriblest to row, little boat. it'll give me some good practice for when i get to work on the real thing. (i need all the practice i can get!)

so when are we going in the water? we're hoping for sometime in july. there's tons left to do between the decks, painting, engine, rigging, etc. so it'll take a while. i'm taking 2 weeks off in august, so i'm hoping that we'll be able to sail up the coast of maine to vinalhaven... hopefully.

and now for some picts!

we finally (well, mostly dad) took apart rubicon's engine. apparently one of the exhaust valves had broken and had found it's way into the cylinder - damaging the piston and seizing up the engine. lovely. apparently alot of water had been slowly leading into the head too. so we're slowly ordering parts and will be converting it to fresh water cooling. i'll put up some picts soon.

bad news: jamie lost his job at deploy. they're closing our west coast office and brought over a unix guru - so jamie's position was rather redundant. alas. jamie's been doing some side projects and is trying to decide if he wants to do some kind of marine job, or go back to it (aka cubicle land). if you know anyone who needs a music workstation built, some networking done, or any other kind of it job - please let us know! (jaded@distemper.org)

good news: jamie and i both passed our captains exams. we're now both trained to captain a vessel up to 100 gross tons and more than 6 passengers (inspected vessels). i'll have inner coastal and jamie will have near coastal (up to 200 miles offshore) because of our different seatimes. we just need to get our seatime letters and character references together (and my drug test) all turned in to the man (coast guard) and we'll be captains! capt'n amy and jamie - kinda scary. ;) jamie had to take a few tries on 2 of the exams but i would trust him at the helm any day. me? i can pass an exam and do the navigation part - don't put me at the helm... at first anyways. ;)

jamie in his new found time has been busy with projects, building machines, and renovating the bowsprit and the hatches. things are looking good. (a little more epoxy and maybe he won't pass his next drug test.) on the vessel herself, we've been picking bungs and stuffing the decks full of epoxy. http://www.rotdoctor.com

i think that's it for now.

been a long time - guess we should let you know what's going on...

lets start with the hole in the side of the boat. well after fighting with different insurance companies for 2 months - our's, our boat hauler's, and the guys who hit us (ford motor company), etc - and some wonderful advise from uncle john, we decided to suck it up and go with our insurance company. patch, no paint. oh well.

so basically we took the money and ran. jamie glassed up the hole and we primer'd over it to keep the moisture out. we were going to use that money towards painting the boat but having the yard paint it would cost up to $6k. sigh. we'd have a nicely painted boat but we wouldn't have enough money to put her in the water next spring. i think we'll earn our boat painting merit badges next spring using paint from dad's store. (he sells car/marine paint now - go get some!) awl grip is pretty pricey.

prep for paint: so by prepping for the paint job, we took off the bow sprit and the boomkin (for those non-nautical folks out there they're the things that hang off the front and the back of our boat). well, after such prep work, we left for the week as usual, came back and there was about 2 ft of water in the bilge! damn scary with it getting cold so soon. ice is bad.

...time passes...

other things we have been working on:

• rudder - we've been stuffing it full of epoxy and fiberglass. part of the starboard side had delam'ed
• bow structure over the boat - didn't happen. we build a 14ft structure over jamie's hearse and gave up after that. shrink wrap is good.
  
• woahs with jamie's truck - changed both front brakes/rotors, fan belt, and other annoyances. thank you tony from read's!
• bilge - must try to keep dry, bit of ice in there now but nothing too scary.
• engines - we pulled apart jamie's engine from the winslow after the old man had returned it. had the head tested and it was perfect. grrr. anyone interested in purchasing a rebuilt 18hp yanmar gmf? we have yet to pull apart our 30hp yanmar. we suspect it might be a bearing. we're planning to repair it and get at least one more season out of it. raw water cooled is something not to be desired.
  and while i'm at it, anyone interested in a 1947 winslow cutter? $1k obo.
• decks - and our current project is de-leaking the decks and the cabin roof. i have become desiginated bung remover. amy, queen of bung! what we're gonna do is remove all the screws and instead of lifting the teak deaks (in effect splintering what's left), we're gonna fill the holes with cold weather epoxy. we'll then fill the gaps and bung holes with a graphite and epoxy mix to get that nice black lined look.

so pretty much this year has been designated as the year of status quo. we're gonna stop all the leaks, fix what's broken, and basically get her back up to where she was (insurance company style). we figured we should save our dough and spend it on a new engine next winter. ($8k can be spent elsewhere this summer.) we figure we'll go up every weekend, camp out on the boat, actually try the shower, and fix little things here and there. i think it's a pretty reasonable plan.

oh! and in other news, jamie and i have started our captain's course. we're both going for our master's inland considering the requirements are almost the same for a 6pack license with a few more tests. very worth while. we've both learned a ton and hope we'll feel alot better going into a port at night - or at least we'll be able to determine what's about to hit us!

first exams are tomorrow! nav general and the rules of the road. wish us luck!

and in other news, we've finally picked a date for the wedding - october 13th at the orr's bailey yacht club (pending availiblity). it will be a very unconventional wedding - i'll be wearing white but that's about where it ends. expect to be dancing and drinking - we'll provide the transportation. and all we would like for our wedding (besides an emergency life raft) is for you to show up! not bad eh?

geeze, i almost forgot! we bought the name dasboat.com! pretty cool huh? better than lagparty... yet not as cool as dasboot.com. you like it. i know you do. the guy who is sitting on rubicon.org has been uncooperative so we found something better - and this address will span the lives of several boats.

and thank you joe for the radio antena for xmas!

off to study! -amy

i believe i left off with that we found a boat hauler...

the boat hauler would be there at noon tomorrow. gotta take down the mast today. the yard made a call to a local steel company and they brought over a big blue crane. joe, jamie and i had been busy dissassembling all the rigging and trying to store everything below neatly and quickly. we did an amazing amount of work - there's a ton of bits and pieces and damn clevits pins to remove out there in the hot sun. we got her all prepped just as the crane arrived. the local "does everything and more" guy harold, rode up the crane and attached a strap around the middle. after a bit of swaggling, the mast was up in the air and crashing thru a nearby pine tree. i have some little mpegs of moving the mast. i'll post them soon.

a little bit about our mast: measured to be 47' long, 2 sets of spreaders, all cables still attached (stays), and the jib was still attached. the rollerfurling is permanently attached at the top of the mast. needless to say it's a damn heavy mast. the heaviest our boat hauler had ever moved! and it's only aluminum.

joe and i finished up the afternoon by taking down the radar, bimini top, throwing out the fiberglass flaking antena (both joe and jamie got glass in their hands), and packing everything below in such a way as to not get trashed while during the move. jamie, being the only one old enough, rented a car and we got a room a the local motel 8. shirly or shelly, the line backer of a woman at the desk made sure to count joe as a child so we wouldn't get charged extra. we took a brief tour of myrtle beach, hated it (too much like ass vegas), and hit an americanized japanese restaurant. it was pretty good except that they screwd up jamie's order. joe and i were done with our meals by the time jamie got his food. joe was very good with his chopsticks too. no seafood you understand - none!

we arrived back at the boat around 10am, nice to sleep in, and quickly finished any left over packing tasks. with the help of harold and his crew (and their patched together skiff), we moved rubicon over to the travellift area. we had to make sure we did it at high tide or we'd just get stuck in the mud. the travel lift area was a combination of cement, logs and iron i-beams. we took note of the number of burn marks around the yard and hoped for the best. harold moved the travel lift straps under the boat and chained them together to insure that the boat wouldn't slip. and rubicon began her ascent. up up creaked the travel lift - a homemade looking deal of iron and a diseil tractor engine. up up she came and all the crew from the yard gaped at the amount of boat under the water. rubicon has a full keel - a rarity that far south. there's almost as much boat under water as there is above. draws 5'6".

jamie and joe then jumped off the boat but i wasn't interested in the 6' jump over the 30' drop. they swung rubicon and i gingerly climbed off the bow sprit. the crew grumbled rubicon up out of the pit and over part way thru the yard and we awaited the boat hauler to show. he was running a bit late - showed up about 3ish.

putting rubicon on the truck was pretty straight forward. the hauler lined up the truck and then the lift moved over and plopped her down. then tim, the boat hauler, began putting together the largest set of construx we had ever seen. the truck was what they called a cradle - you build all the supports around the boat as opposed to just using hydrolic arms. the process takes longer but your boat is in better hands this way - especially for the long trip she still had to make.

next and most difficult was the heavy heavy mast. we rounded up some of the hill billy crew who wasn't too liquoured up at the time, and had them help us move the mast over on a crate tote and the back of a barely running pickup. the mast was too long to fit on the outside of the boat - 47' - so thru a process of heaving and ho'ing we squeezed it under the boat and up on to the upper part of the truck bed. barely legal. amazing how as time went on our recruited crew disappeared into the wind. harmonica and banjo music following. funny how after we paying our bill that they all seemed to disappear... in the end it was just me, joe, jamie and tim working on the beasty.

at about 7pm we left tim and headed to the airport arriving 20 minutes after the last flight to atlanta - the only place that had a connection to boston. ugh. another nite at motel 8.

up at 4am we piled into a cab and back to the airport. thru atlanta to boston... and then we got a phone call in the altanta airport. damnit.

problem: since the boat was an oversized load, tim could only travel during daylight hours. that nite he stopped at a rest stop and went to sleep. another trucker in a delivery truck parked near him, forgot to set his breaks, and went into get something to eat. well, his truck rolled back and hit our boat putting a 1 foot gash just above the waterline, portside midships. ugh. tim was very thorough and all over the guys case - got all the insurance info as well as a police report. alas nothing we could do. figures something would happen just as we thought we were all set.

finally we got up to boston, stopped briefly at home, and then headed up to maine. hehe - never told the 'rents that we were coming. we showed up on the front steps to the delight of mom and dad. we were safe and the boat was on her way home to harpswell.

the first nite in a real bed and i was missing the gentle rocking of the rubicon. alas. needless to say i slept in that morning and the menfolk went striper fishing. rubicon was scheduled to show up in yarmouth around 3pm. finestkind yacht yard didn't have a travel lift so we had to stop at a middle point at Yankee Yacht Yard, to get it off the trailer. dicky barret had been scheduled to pick it up on dicky time (whenever he got to it). we met tim, they took it off the trailer and into the lift (paid $400 for barely turning on the lift), and the gave tim a good dinner. he was headed to bath to stay with family. tim is a former mainah.

went striper fishing. me and joe caught big fishes: my largest was 41", joe's was 39". Caught about 15 fish total including all the pisswackers. much better fishing than in the south. picts!

we buzzed back to boston and threw joe on a plane to fl. phew. trip over. dicky finally moved th boat to finestkind on monday. and it was back to werk for us.

so for the time being we're fighting with insurance companies to get the hull repaired. patching and painting over the hole just doesn't seem right. we can't put her back in the water until next year and a patch job isn't going to be very pretty, alas. i was hoping to get some sailing time in up in the deep maine waters. we'll probably wind up with patch and prep for painting sometime this fall. how does a black hull with red sails sound? it will most likely be out of our pocket. more expenses.

so a final status: she's up in harpswell maine at finestkind. gonna register her in portsmouth, nh otherwise the sales tax on her would cripple any attempts to refurbish her this winter. jamie's looking to build a structure over her once she's out of the main shed from repairs. needless to say we'll be up in maine working on everything from redoing the interior to restoring the decks this weekend and all through the winter. she's a beautiful boat - i look forward to a time when we might cross the atlantic in her. life was so nice and simple. it really is a better way to live.

so where are we? maine! we made it! well, sorta... actually we're in boston right now.

so where did i leave off? i think it was just before georgetown...

so we headed carefully into the sound before georgetown and headed up to the georgetown landing marina. the marina wasn't really in town, it was before 2 fixed bridges up a river on the back of the city. we docked, passed off the lines to the surfer/stoner dock hands and went restaurant hunting. sunday in sc: can't buy beer and we couldn't find a restaurant, doh. hit wendy's. the georgetown marina was a nice simple place - big into fishing - the local fishing records were well documented on the side of the office. nice clean bathrooms and friendly (stoner) staff. it was a pleasant stay. we slept well (no bugs) and got a bit of local knowledge to make sure to go around the right red day marker. joe complaint of a weird stench in the morning that i didn't notice til we left. was it a local sewage treatment plan - or was it just joe?

ah monday. we started heading up the icw beyond georgetown. water was calm, current strong, and the icw was pretty much a flat straight river - until marker 54. we had been making decent time, hoping to pass myrtle beach and hit southport/willmington, nc areas for the nite. joe heard it before either me or jamie noticed - cah-clunk cah-clunk - and quickly shut off the engine. we restarted it, cah-clunk, and we quickly shut it down for good. sounded like the engine wasn't getting any oil but the oil pressure was fine. jamie had just put in a couple of quarts at beaufort too. hmmm. sounds like it ceasing up. poo. we dropped the anchor and called seatow.

seatow showed up about 30 minutes later - just long enough for us to have a beer. they showed up in a small whaler looking thing and twin 150 horse power mercurys. we wrapped their tow line around the windless and were off. the seatow guys were a couple of pilots from georgetown and were doing this on the side. they safely towed us through what became the incredibly shoal bayou. joe and i were waiting to see some of the characters out of deliverence. banjo and all. jamie still needs to see that movie.

the pilots very carefully took us through a narrow swing bridge and swarms of jetskis up 15 miles to hague marina in myrtle beach. there had been a marina about a mile back from where we broke down but talking diseil engines to them was a bit shaky. that and we needed a travel lift incase we... sigh... had to end the trip there and truck her home. hague marina had a lift and was an authorized yanmar dealer. perfect. we actually made decent time that day. 7.5 knots by seatow.

the guys from seatow pushed and pulled us into the "slip" at hague - 4 posts and a little walk way. we got half way in and were stuck in the mud. less than 4 feet of water at low tide. the pilots quickly did the paper work and were on their way. they had to be back to bring in a huge tanker that drew 27 feet of water into georgetown - that's the biggest ship they can bring in there. jamie headed off to the office and got us an appointment with the mechanics in the morning. our fate rested with them.

without much to do, and tired of boat food we hoped into the courtesy car and went to joe's restaurant. the courtesy car was a diesel datsun/nissan maxima. this thing was awsome. cah-chink it was on, cah-chink it was off. we buzzed around in it and were amazed at how well it ran and the amount of pickup it had. the neighborhood kids never knew what hit them - except that it was loud.

joe's restaurant was the local diner/cheap eats. eveything southern, cheap and cash only. we got quite the looks being in there but we ate well. came back a couple more times durning our stay.

after munchings and crunchings, we headed back to the boat, made highballs, learned a few knots from the annapolis book of seamanship, and fell asleep.

we awoke to the mechanics banging on the side of the boat. i opened the hatch and had them look at the engine. the engine had ceased up so bad that not even they could start it. the engine would need to be hauled out of the boat. it could be done in a week but we didn't have the time left. doh. gotta truck the boat home.

joe and i sat quietly has jamie tried calling boat haulers. it became a game of tag. no we don't haul long distance anymore but these guys probably do. round and round. it finally came down to one set of haulers that could do it early next week for $2.6k or do it tomorrow for $2.8k. we took the tomorrow date. deep water marine out of north carolina would be there with a cradle at noon tomorrow. time to get a crane to take down the mast.

ok, so i'm too tired to finish this tonight. instead of bumming thru the rest and not giving the details the attention they deserve, i'll finish this tomorrow. here's the gist: trucked boat to yarmouth, has a new ding in it from where a truck hit it, boat will be moved to finestkind yacht yard on monday, flew back to boston on thursday then drove up to maine to go fishing, caught a 40" striper. details tomorrow.

this is a mighty update. my applogies for not updating yous sooner. i was saving my updates for until after we stopped for the evening but when you come in so late, and are ready to pass out in your bed, updating the website isn't a top priority. our current location is mcclellanville, sc (btn charleston and georgetown on the boring icw).

before i get into recent activities, i need to mention a few notable events in st. augustine.

1st, capt. john: this was the guy with a medium sport fishing boat next to ours at the oyster creek marina. he was very friendly, very southern, had tons of advice, was a chef at the local restaurant, liked to hear himself talk, and had a few too many in him. nice fellow, tell him we say hi if you ever go in there. he can hook you up with cheap diesel.

2nd, plumbing: our head on the boat is an electro-san system. you poo, pump, turn on the system, it pumps out whats in its system, and turns the new stuff to soup until you flush again. well the system is located under the forward vberth - the system has tiny pin holes in the top. if the system isn't run when you flush, then the forward vberth fills with grey water. after cleaning out from under the vberth twice (we didn't know how to use the system properly ::shrugs::), jamie switched around a couple of pipes. the system is alot simpler now... and we don't us tp when in port.

now on to the update:

we went out thru st. augustine and headed up to brunswick, ga. finally! another state. fl is incredibly long. our trip out in the atlantic was relatively uneventful. we decided to go in around brunswick. he's where the fun begins: as night falls we hook ourselves up with a marina in mom's book of marinas on the intracoastal waterway (yes, i have been mispelling it all this time): the golden iles marina. to get in there, we need to go down in thru a narrow inlet and then across a sound up to the marina. as we passed the end of the last pair of bouy's to get into the sound, we tried to cut across the sound and errrt stuck in the mud. the current had totally pushed us up into a shoal - and we shouldn't have cut that bouy. it was a pretty hard landing and it was real dark. too many different flashing lights around to be able to really figure out where we were - except for that damn flag pole that we could pretty much hop out and walk to. mom had on her life jacket. we were wondering if she thought she might go be swimming in 2 feet of water. one call to seatow and they were on their way. before they got to us, we managed to back the boat off the shoal. seatow arrived and we had them escort us over to the marina. i have to say i'm now a believer - if you're going to be in shoal areas get seatow! like aaa for your boat except they're there in 15 minutes - not 2 hours. friendly and helpful. we even used them to try to find a marina near savanna.

so we finally landed, dealt with the grumpy dock hand who had waited for our arrival. we basically "looked like we stepped off a raft" (joe) and everyone there treated us like it. it was a snoot snoot new money place showing off their big boats trying to make up for what they lacked elsewhere. we were quite used to saying hello to everyone since folks in fl were so nice (yes even i overcame my usual cold boston ways), we were quite suprised by how high their noses were in the air. they wouldn't even look at us or ackowledge our hellos. if i were you i would steer clear of the golden iles marina in brunswick, ga.

my parents last day with us. after a heavy sleep we got up and headed out of brunswick, destination savanna. its a straight shot. seas were calm and we put up all the sails for a while. rubicon is quite majestic when her red sails are up - almost makes up for the diesel smoke off the stern. the trip up to the savanna inlet was quiet. the alternater belt broke again but we're diesel and our batteries were fully charged. not an emergency situation.

going into savanna: (here's where the fun begins.) along the up to savanna, joe, dad and i plotted out how we would enter the harbor. this included angles and distance and a few coordinates that were printed on our charts. (these chart books have been invaluable - you can tell which pages we've used by the pensil marks, grim, and suntan lotion. if we didn't have them, we'd be so screwd.) we plugged our course into the gps and set on in. well we didn't count on quite the tanker traffic and the course we had plotted went right down the shipping lanes. we were sharing a narrow channel with huge boats and huge shoals on either side. we had hailed seatow and they directed us to a marina we thought was on the way to savanna - it was actually farther up a different river. (after our day on the icw (intracoastal waterway) i didn't mind running aground - just not when your 5 miles out in hectic seas with a setting sun (or in the dark for that matter).) as we went in, a booze cruise, the morning star hailed us. we had turned too far to port and were headed in to a river where we probably wouldn't make it under the bridge. we were trying to go between two narrow submerged jetties and having a bitch of a time with that. the morning star suggested we head to harbor town instead and even talked us through the sound. our dearest thanx to the morning star.

lesson: there's nothing like local knowlege. unfamiliar boat in unfamiliar water, yikes. thank god our boat has san fransisco on the side - yes we've been out to sea that long... hence we look like we just stepped off a raft...

we headed into harbor town, hilton head. it was totally another world. its a small circular harbor with shops and restaurants all around - not to mention million dollar boats. joe felt right at home. as we pulled up to the fuel dock (the only overnite transient docking), we had a crowd looking down on us from the restaurant wall. i couldn't beleive what we had walked/motored into. disney land for rich people. there was a children's concert going on on the otherside of the harbor - cheers and lots of kids running around. some little girl from the wall was complimenting us on our boat and telling her father that our boat wasn't too small. hehe. we treated ourselves to a good restaurant dinner and my parents tried to find a hotel room. booked solid. they spent one more night on the boat and we said goodbye around 7am when we got kicked off the fuel dock.

a simplier life - we had heard from another fishing boat in brunswick that getting into charleston was very treatcherous - even in their boat and told us to avoid it. with that knowledge and the need for an alternator belt, jamie, joe and i headed up the icw. what a lovely day! a bit cloudy so we didn't fry in the sun (let my sun burns heal and my bug bites get better) and chill calm waters. a bit shoal but hey, it is the icw. we stopped at beaufort, ga. what a wonderful place. it just smelled right. an old historical southern town with beautiful old buildings and real working people. we were directed from the marina over to the public dock where we met rick, a vietnam vet who was down on his luck trying to live on his little boat. he gave us tons of information on where we could get a new belt as well as provisions (as well as his life story). apparently he was from englewood - where joe's from. we ran our errands (passing the national cemetary), changed the belt, had lunch and were off.

i now have to mention lady island's bridge next to the marina. the bridge attendent was uber nice and had a soft southern voice that could be used on 900 numbers. she directed us through and was asking about how we came from sanfransico. it just topped our pleasant stay in beaufort.

the rest of the day was quiet. passed through st. helen's sound and wandered up the desolate - yet well marked icw. very marshy and not much to see. i attacked our blackened fenders and with joe's help, reorganized the cabin. no more cabin gnomes putting things in places that are illogical - or in places where we'll never find them. we ended the day at sunset, anchoring out in front of some huge mansion.

i have to say that without my parents aboard, life is alot simplier. 2 to run the boat - steer and navigate, one to rest or do odds and ends. less opinions, less stuff and mom not putting on her life jacket every time we come in from the atlantic helps too.

getting up bright and early at dawn, we set out for charleston. 2 hours out but we had to go through the wapoo creek bridge. we were used to bridges opening per request and so we hailed the bridge. she finally came in after we had to blow the air horn to get some attention. she was pretty rude and told us that the next opening was at 10:30. a bit disgruntled, we dropped the hook and waited. a finger to that bridge. we headed on past beautiful charleston and were saddened that we couldn't stop. got a few picts though. the next stop was the ben sawyer bridge. nice bridge attendent but we had to wait til the hour. it openned at noon. poo. we dropped the hook, waited, told the attendent we were from port canaveral but our ship said san fransisco. passing thru, we entered the boring icw of south carolina. people are nice, water's calm, icw is straight and narrow, and very very boring. red green red green. another floatabago with stew and martha at the wheel. did i mention it was boring?

so this is where i end it. we're headed towards georgetown landing marina in georgetown sc. we'll probably be in the icw up to norfolk, va. we're working on avoiding hateras. jamie finally came to the conclusion that we'll never make the boat up to maine. i'll be happy with new york or ct. he's talking about trucking it up. we'll see. maybe sailing each weekend?

how to describe today... well, it was the complete opposite of yesterday. we woke up bright and early and found ourselves headed into the intercoastal waterway. we spent most of the day in calm brown waters baking in the sun. i think we were all alot more comfortable although kinda bored. our course was set by trying to keep the boat off the shoals. 7 or 8 feet of water in a boat that draws 5'6" eeep. we got stuck a bit but managed. learned to have bridges open for us as well.

so tomorrow we'll be heading back out into the atlantic. will probably try to come in around charlestown, ga. who knows. we were very lucky to come in at ponce de leon when we did. not another inlet for miles.

i'll post some more picts tomorrow. nite.

ah where to begin... yesterday (monday) we stayed in port: worked on the propane solonoid, fixed a huge leak in the fresh water tank (on the top crease fortunately), had walmart suck the life out of us, provisioned the boat, saw some huge snook by the docks, and jamie and i spent the first nite on the boat. all in all we did the last minute preps that we needed... or thought we did.

we finally got underway around 11am. had to return cars, get diesel, etc. we headed up the channel and went about 7 miles out to get around the cape canaveral shoals. lets just say we quickly learned how to use the auto helm and to figure out the gps(s). i think we'll be purchasing detailed coastal maps of tbis area soon. it would have been helpful.

so after being out for a few hours and rocking around (going against the wind with a green crew is a bit much ::remembers how green she and mom were - the best solution = food::) we parused our maps and found the nearest inlet to be Ponce de Leon, 43 miles...

it was dark when we got there(9pm), and most of the buoy's are not lit. we wound up on the wrong size of the jetty and had to make a quick come about to get on the correct side. scary to see the rocks up so close. hugging the channel and looking for bouys, we ran aground (in the sand) on one side of the channel. with a bit of quick manuvering we freed ourselves and breezing by the nearby coast guard station. the anchor is now plopped down in 15 feet of water. jamie likes hearty ground tackle, clink clink goes the chain. it's now 11:30. i'm tired and am about to get a quick lesson in navigation. my exam is tomorrow.

good nite from those anchored inside ponce de leon. here's some picts for your enjoyment.

um ok. so we're not off... quite yet

so our adventure begins on a powder puff plane... yes, that's right a powder puff plane.

so after a little adventure trying to find wallmart and instead finding an airforce base, we showed up at cape marine around 11 with all our painting gear. we muscled the bottom paint into something spreadable and lathered rubicon up quite nicely. no longer is her bottom red. the 'rents and joe arrive around 3:30. and then we awaited the travel lift:

scheduled launch 6pm. weather: thunder with downpours. convince them to still launch her! must launch!

so this beastly contraption brought her over to the water and set her down in. plop. oh, but wait! the engine doesn't start! ::gasp:: fortunately the mechanic who had done all the work on the engine was there to help out. apparently our 2 new batteries were dead. something had been left on which drained them. haven't figured out what that was yet. thanx to the patient, yet desperate to go home, dock hands, we walked her over to a slip and strapped her in for the nite. 3 or 4 hours of tinkering later, the batteries were being recharged from shore power. the location of the a/c circuit breaker is still a mystery.

after a lovely breakfast at Dennay's, joe, jamie and dad tredged over to the boat and began: inspecting the anchor line, setting up the gps, tuning the rigging, 5200'ing the hatches, reversing the rollerfulring (it was furled backwards), and climbing the mast. monkeyboy (aka jamie) was hoised up to check the rigging, lights, windvane, and rollerfurling, etc. his thighs are only a little sore from when they dropped him a few feet...

btw, the engine ran beautifully in the morning.

mum and i dealt with the hell which is walmart. screaming children and my wallet was lost/stolen. not fun.

jamie and i then had a brisk adventure racing to west marine to get anchor line (the exit to 95 south from 528w isn't intuitive i tell ya)..

back to the boat and a few phone calls about my wallet later, i actually did some werk on the boat. mom had cleaned alot of it, and i picked up from there. das boat is 75% clean now.

it's late. we'll determine tomorrow if we should stay here another day. i hope not but safety and comfort are much more important.

so we take off for fl tomorrow evening. so excited! it will be a nice break for both of us from being behind monitors all day - not that we're going to get away from computers all together, oh contaire!

so here's the set up:

we're bringing 2 dell laptops, one for navigation and one for net access. no, we'll never give up access. ::cringes at the thought:: so the main laptop will be running raymarine's navigator 3.0 with a slew of maptech charts. most of the chart data is adequite until we get into an actual harbor. we have chart kits of the entire east coast waiting for us in melbourne,fl. thank you west marine. the laptop will be talking to our raytheon raychart 320 (chart plotter/gps) via seatalk. jamie had a hell of a time getting them to talk together with a conversion box and home made sea talk wiring. apparently the manual that comes with the conversion box is completely wrong. we will be posting the correct wiring diagram to the site as soon as a i get a chance to use visio. (jamie thinks he'll remember how he wired it next spring when we put the boat back in the water - i know better.)

we hooked up jamie's sprint pcs samsung 3500 dual band phone to a laptop the other night to make sure we can get net access via earthlink. 14.4 for a cellphone with bad reception in watertown, ma is nothing to sniff at.

it seems everyone is ready to go. my parents drive down to boston tomorrow afternoon. jamie and i will meet up with them at home and then take a cab to logan. 'rents are flying to tampa while we're headed to orlando - both groups getting gas guzzling suvs. the 'rents and joe will meet us at the boat saturday afternoon. launch time is 6pm saturday! hopefully the 'rents will get there early enough so we can send jamie up the mast while das boat is on land. we need to fix the windvane, check lights, and reattach the rollerfurling (hurricaine laws in fl requires that the rollerfurling is unattached while a vessel is on the hard). ::is proud that she's learning the sailing l33t lingo::

jamie's been wracking his brain the past couple of nites trying to think of things to keep the person at the helm awake. his latest ploy is to get a cheap fish finder and hang it off the boomkin. dad, joe and jamie will be handlining for the big one while mom will be sunning and i'll be studying navigation. ah, such a nerd i am. celestial navigation anyone?

here's the breakdown - this does not mean that people areas stuck doing only these things, it just makes someone accountable for checking up on things

• engine - dad and jamie
• navigation - initially jamie, then me and joe and jamie
• electronics - jamie and jamie
• sanitation and plumbing - me and joe and jamie
• rigging and decks - joe and jamie
• galley and provisioning - mom and jamie
• safety - mom and jamie
• etc - jamie

we've been pretty fortunate not to hit too many snags. right now we're waiting for confirmation that our last box has arrived at joe's. ooo... as i'm writing this i just got notified that mom's epirb showed up at joe's. just got to register it with noaa now... unfortunately we were not able to get the engine aligned - all alignment folks were booked for weeks. jamie and dad will be giving it a shot on their own.

tania's done some awsome graphics which i'll be adding to the site as soon as i figure out where i'd like them to go. http://www.distemper.org/~saphire/rubicon/florida_delivery/rubicon_tania.gif

after a bit of negotiation (well, not really), joe (my cousin) has decided to join us for the entire trip. we'll be meeting up with him and my parents saturday, july 21st at cape yacht marine (800 scallop drive, port canaveral, fl 32920, usa). we'll be putting joe on a plane up in the portsmouth/boston area at the end of the trip (and after some striper fishing with dad).

about half of the major purchasing has been completed. we've purchased most of the charts (got a few to go), foul weather gear, digital camera, boat insurance, type #1 life jackets, etc. jamie is in the process of purchasing of purchasing the super ultra kickbutt software and the little box that lets it talk to most (if not all) of our electronics: raytech navigator 3.0. I'm pretty impressed that it will superimpose weather maps right over the charts! other things still to purchase are anchor chain, sail repair kit, etc. which we'll try to order and have waiting at the west marine in melbourne.

the engine was worked in this week and the mechanic commented that it was a fine sounding engine (but with a thick southern accent). belts, hoses, oil, fuel, filters, etc has been replaced or fixed. dad is working on getting us an alternator but it's pretty hard to come by. cutlass bearing will be dealt with on monday. bottom needs to be painted, zinc annodes attached, and the knot and depth sounders need to be hooked up. the knot meter was repaired and the depth sounder replaced with a better model.

right now everything is going according to plan. we haven't hit any major snags (knock on wood) so we're pretty confident we'll be as prepared as much as we can when the day comes. jamie and i have been running through the different systems on the boat, finding tasks associated with each, and will be assigning each member of the crew an area of responsibility. we should soon have an initial schedule of things to be done when we get to the boat (hooray for fumigation and bottom painting). we will be contacting patten's yacht yard in eliot, me in the next couple of days to solidify a place for the boat to be hauled. we will be shipping out a few boxes to joe on saturday. got the gps/chart plotter up and happy the other night. we'll be figuring out how to fully use it in the next few days as well as actually plotting our course.

i haven't done much work on the site lately. i've got a bit of down time today so i'll get cracking. gotta still solidify rubicon.org but i think the fellow i need to chat with is on vacation. each member of the crew will have a detailed/printable page of their area(s) of responsibility. the yahoo groups voyages_of_rubicon@yahoogroups.com is still a bit funky. i'll be harassing yahoo today about it. please feel free to send mail to it or to tell others to join. and if you want to reach both me and jamie in one email, send to rubicon@lagparty.org (gets forwarded to both).

i think that's all for now...

welcome to rubicon.org - or the suggested site for our voyages. right now our boat, rubicon is located in titusville, fl. we've reserved the last 2 weeks of july to sail her up to new hampshire - closer to our boston home. we've been busy doing the last bits of paper work and getting insurance for the boat - not to mention the few modifications/upgrades we need to make before sailing/motoring her 1300 miles. wish we could sail the whole thing but alas...

if you have any suggestions about the site, please drop me a note. there's always room for improvements - and time to learn more php!