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Last post before we leave

In 12 hours Dave and I will be heading down river. Dave and Noelle got as much of the stuff done at their buliding as they could but they ran out of time. There was tons of stuff to move, sort, and get rid of, and most of it is done. Some of it I hope will be finished up by some friend of ours. The rest I will deal with when/if I return from sandy beaches to the Minnesota winter.  Noelle was to fly out this morning but the airport in Belize was closed because of Hurricane Rita. She will fly out in the moring a few hours before we leave.

Tonight Lori, Jane, and I went out and had dinner. Part way through it Jane gave me a bunch of photos that had been laminated and put together on a big ring. Many had text put on them. It was like a little story book of photos of all of us. I will take it with me and have something to look at while I am gone.

[editor's note: This is Lori writing: I am sad about being away from Donavan for 7 weeks, and happy that he can be a part of this adventure. I will feel lost without Dave and Noelle around, but excited for this new chapter in their life. I just had to make some note about feelings, as Donavan has decided to keep his feelings shoved down deep inside of himself. :) ]

Bettie's is ready now we need to be

Today I spend a full day at the boat, finished all he loose ends I think. I also loaded most of the food for the whole trip and 40 plus gal of drinking water and more of Dave and Noelle's stuff for Belize. I cleaned the boat, topped off the water tank. So Bettie's is  ready as she is going to be.

Here is some photos from today

A BlurbBit

BlurbBits for this Entry w/Location

Bettie is the last boat out of the harbor

Today when Dave and I arrived at the marina, Bettie was the only boat there. We ended up moving her South about 16 miles to Wabasha so that the marina could winterize.We filled up Dave's truck with stuff for the boat--cushions, supplies, etc.  After we got Dave's truck unloaded we headed out of the harbor and down river to Wabasha, where Bettie will sit until Friday morning, when we depart for Belize. Dave motored the boat down and I spent a couple of hours unpacking things and putting everything away. Surprisingly I was able to get things packed in better than I thought. On Tuesday I plan to go back down to Wabasha and finish up the last of the wood work and haul another load of supplies, food, and water for the trip.

I am a little bit out of it right now. My body has been hurting over the past month or so, and was finally able to get a massage. My brain may not be firing on all cylinders right now. We leave in four days and every moment is going to be used to get as much preparation done as possible. Dave and Noelle are working hard to get everything packed and sorted, and will be working down to the wire. It sounds like there's a number of people going to see us off on Friday morning in Wabasha. I will send out directions and information to everyone who has let me know that they're interested within the next day or so.

The trip down river today seemed like a tease of the adventure that will be happening over the next two months. Both Dave and I are ready to be on the river and heading South.

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 Bettie P
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6 days till we leave and no regular job for 2 plus months

Today I wrapped up all of my jobs, so no regular work for the next 2 months Yea. I have always had a job as long as I can remember, even when I was a little kid I worked on the family farm.

We will keep busy when on the boat part of the trip. I do plan to relax some in Belize. One of the things I am planning to do while in Belze is learn how to scuba dive. There is lots of great diving near Caye Cualker.


Tomorrow I am going to a funeral for Lori's Grandfather. On Sunday Dave and I start to load the boat. We think we have 2 truckloads to haul down and load on Sunday, plus finish up a few loose ends.

Dave doesn't know it yet, but I'm bringing a passenger. Earlier this year this person was supposed to go to Germany and travel around Europe, but for various reasons it didn't work out. After some discussion with Lori and Jane, it was decided that we needed to send Flat Jane on the adventure with Dave and I. I'm not sure that Flat Jane will be much help with sailing, cooking, or much of anything, but I'm sure will add some fun to our adventure as she travels along with us to Belize. It is unclear at this point if Flat Jane will be returning with Lori and I to the Twin Cities, or staying in Belize and traveling further on the Bettie P.

T-12 days, and we are as ready as we are going to be

Bettie is as ready as she is going to be. Today Dave and I spent the day wrapping up everything could. The new anchor roller is on. Dave sealed the final stanchion. We fitted the rear part of the Bimini with the light in case we need them at night. Dave just has the middle section to do this week along the last of the cushions. We brought the pair of 17' sea kayaks down and loaded them up with the mast, along with a bunch of other stuff. I began to stow away some of the gear and tools and trying to look at what can go where. I finished up a few thing on the engine.

There is lots of work to be done in the coming days and nights.  On the next trip down on Sunday, we plan to bring most of what will go on the boat including some of the food and water and then on the 27th and morning of the 28th we will bring down anything that is left.

Bettie may not be as done as we would like her to be but she is ready to head down river. The stuff that is left can be done while motoring down the river.  We are as ready as we can be, too.

knee update and send off

My knee is getting back to  normal, well, my normal anyway.This morning I was hardly limping. So I think my knee will be as ready as it can be for the trip. I will be bring two braces along with me and use as needed. One thing that I was thinking about last night is we don't have an anchoring light now with the mast down, well we do have but it's not helpful at all hanging off the back of the boat. So we will be doing some type of mini mast to put an anchor light on so other boats see us at night on the river.

There are a few poeple that for some reason want to get up in the middle of the night and see us off the day we leave. If you are one of them let me know so I can get you the details on our departure.

Sunday 10/9/2011

Today Dave and I tried to split the mast with no luck. We decided how to mount the new anchor roller for the bow of the boat. Dave has a pattern to work from. We did fit the aft part of the Bimini so Dave can make the canvas top for it. We will still need to make the center part after the front and rear are mounted. Dave has finished 9 of the 14 seat and cushions. It will be nice not sitting on the wood tops of the benches. We are working on storage ideas and planning food for the trip. We would like to get as many non-perishable items as we can for the most of the trip before we leave. Next Sunday we plan to bring the sea kayaks and strap them on top of the boat and mount what ever stuff Dave has ready.

90 cc of fluids out, and Cortisone Injection in

Through out this year I have been pushing myself and working hard so I can go on this adventure. OK, I may not be 20 and have a body without problems. One of the things I have been concerned with through out this year is my knee. Some day I will need to have it replaced, but I am too "young" for that I am told. This week is the 3rd time since 2005 my knee has swollen up to the point that I was unable to walk. This time I haven't been able to walk for the past two days. Part of me is glad it happened now, and not somewhere it the gulf. Today the doctor drew 90cc of fluid off the area just above my knee, then did a Cortisone injection. If everything goes as it has the past two times, I should be able to get around in the morning well enough to go to back to work.
Also, we did hear that the mast was taken down on Monday, although it was set to come down tomorrow. Dave has been working on new seat cushions so Sunday when we head down to try and split the mast we will bring them with. We are starting to finalize things that need to be done before we leave for Belize in 21 days. I did find a foam topper for my bed that I hope lets me sleep better than I have been, so far on the boat.
 Most every day and night is either booked with something, or will be soon, till we leave. I would really like to be done with "work" now so I could be getting ready to go full time, but money gets in the way of that. Bills suck.

Jane riding Beau #2

Posted with Pixorial for Android!

This a test post off my phone so I can send video on the trip. This is part of Jane's third riding lesson

Noah's Ark (kinda)

Today I had planned to do some sailing and to start prepping the boat for the mast to come down. When I started to layout how I was going to support the mast temporarily, until we built the permanent platform that it would rest on while going down river, it seemed as much work to do a short platform as a tall one. So I just did a taller one and skipped the temporary platform. I ended up pulling all the sails and the boom and decided not to sail. I spent all day until dark working on it. Lori and Jane came down late afternoon and supervised and played with the water bugs. I had planned on spending both days working on the boat, but my body needs a rest. In the last week, I have moved the contents of my storage locker to Dave's garage shop, which took 20 pick-up loads, but finished it late last night.

The boat is ready for the mast to come down. Next week Dave and I will see if we can split the mast or if it's going to have to be transported as is. The way I built the platform does allow us to strap the kayaks up on top of the platform out of our way, or we could still tow them, also.

t minus 30 days and counting

We should be sailing down river in 30 days. I am not sure how everything is going to be done when we head south. I was hoping we might see some fall colors on the river but looks like most will be over as we head down river.

Departing the marina and departing for Belize may not be the same day...

Last Saturday, Dave and I went down to the boat and met up with his dad, sister, and brother-in-law. We did not think we would have much wind but it did pick up and we had a nice afternoon of sailing.

Dave and I both returned to the boat on Sunday. I happened to stop in the office at the marina and was talking to one of the ladies who works there, who was asking about the trip. The marina owner was also there and talked to him briefly as well. One of the questions that came up again was regarding what day were we planning to leave, which is October 28. That date has been set up since early Spring. 

I walked back to the boat, and Dave and I worked on some of the stanchions. After a little bit, we discovered we had a wrong fitting. As soon as we figured out which one we needed, Dave dropped the tool in the water. (We have quite a collection of tools and gadgets under the boat in the muck at this point in time.) The marina didn't have the part in the store, so the gal sent us out to talk to the owner of the shop. The owner immediately told us that we had to be out of the marina before the departure date, and continued as he normally does to tell us about all the things that he thinks we don't know about. After that discussion, we did manage to get some work done. We finished installing the new mount for the outboard motor and tested it. I also cranked Dave up the mast to where the split is to see if we could separate the mast. Dave believes we can, but we won't know for sure until the mast is down.

As of today, Dave spoke again with the marina, and now we have to leave 5 days before our departure date. We don't understand why we have to be out, since the owner isn't leaving until November 15. We're currently looking into our options. In the mean time, next week, I plan on removing the sails and prepping the boat so the mast can be taken down. Hopefully Saturday I'll get one last day of sailing in before that happens.  We're starting to set things up for packing, like the kitchen supplies, etc.

Both of our schedules are completely crazy, trying to get everything done before our departure. One of the things I did get taken care of in the last week is securing life insurance so in case I die, Lori can only be mad at me, instead of being mad and having to move. I have every intention of getting to Belize safely and fairly certain that I might get on the plane to come home [insert Lori rolling her eyes here].

I have not posted in few weeks

Lori and I on the boat summer 2011

Both Dave and Myself  been busy getting lots of different stuff ready before we can leave on the trip.  Lori and I did make a couple of trips down to the boat for work and sailing. We had some friends down a few week ago and had a great time. That weekend I spend  half the weekend repairing my truck.
 
Dave this week got a huge order from West Marine, some of it we will take down this weekend. This week might be the last weekend we  can sail the boat, as the weekend of the the 1st of Oct I need to un-rig all the sails and get the boat ready for the mast to be taken down that week. We are 5 weeks from our departure date there is tons of work to be done, but we will be ready one way or another. I am planning to stop working on the 21st of Oct.

We will be down 2 shorter days this weekend  to try and rap up a few things on the boat.

The boat is almost ready to go, now we need to get ready.

This last Sunday both Dave and I were able to get down to the boat to try to finish some of the work that needs both of us there for it. One of the main things was installing a new auxillary outboard motor. After working on it, trying to adjust it, we realized that we were going to have to build a secondary mount because of the angle of the stern of the boat. Right now the motor doesn't even touch the water even though it's mounted at the right height. Dave plans to work on that next week. The ice box is finally finished. I wrapped up the wiring and the last mount for the auto pilot. Now we need to calibrate the auto pilot and connect it up with the chart plotter. I started some of the cleaning. We worked on the biminy (the cover that goes over the cockpit area) and we think we've got it laid out how we want. Dave needs to bend up some more pipe for the biminy and alter slightly the ones he's already made. So as of now, with the exception of sealing up some of the front stanchions on the boat and putting on the final rubberized coating in the aft cabin, all the re-building is done. We still have some of the upgrades but the list is getting short, which is good, because between now and the time we leave at the end of October, Dave and I have one weekend left that is open for both of us.

This weekend I'll be going down Saturday morning to the boat and Lori will be joining me Saturday evening and Sunday. We plan to do some sailing. On Saturday I plan to do the final wiring connecting the chart plotter with the auto pilot.

Over the next month there probably won't be a lot of blogging because over the Labor Day weekend Dave, Noelle, Lori, and myself will be visiting friends in Iowa, which we've done for many years and always look forward to. Dave has some trips and I have some work weekends scheduled for September, as well.

I am not sure who is more stressed about the trip--Lori or myself. One of the hardest things will be not being around home with Lori and Jane. Some people who know me, know that I stress about timing and completing things. I know it will be a mad rush over the next two months before we leave. Dave has mapped out the days and anchoring spots from Lake Pepin to Mobile. There's not a lot of good places to anchor, so we'll have some pretty long days over a three week period, and there won't be much relaxing during that part. Depending on the seas, the trip between Mobile and Caye Caulker, Belize, may provide more of an opportunity for relaxing.

I'm still really excited about the adventure. It's been a lot of fun actually, working on the boat and learning everything that we've learned so far. Right now one of the parts that is the most stressful is the financials. I've been putting money away since the Spring but have missed a lot of days of work this year, off and on, because of weather and clients and waiting, etc. It should be fine but it's going to be extremely tight to make sure all the bills get paid while I'm gone. So if that's the worst thing I have to worry about, life is pretty good.

76 days and counting

We are down to 76 days before we leave on the trip. We have lots of work to do before then. The boat is very close to being ready for the most part. There is still a number of details we need to work out before we can leave.
Today Dave was racing. I was at the boat by myself. I worked installing the auto pilot. Somehow I could not find one of the parts that mounts to the wheel. Otherwise I think it is ready for some testing. I also put the first coat of varnish on the new woodwork.

Tonight I am working on the calendar till we leave.  It is going to be a full 10 plus weeks.  Dave has I think 4 weekends out of town. I have couple myself plus 2 weddings.  I have a number of my own work projects that I need to get done before I leave.

Another Sunday, Another Work Day on the Boat

Another work day at the boat. Today Dave and myself got a number of things done. I installed a new head and it should work lots better than the old one. We tried to save parts from the old one, but nothing was worth saving, so it was off to the dumpster for it. We installed the wood tops in the icebox that Dave had made and sealed this week. So the only wood working to do is trim pieces and varnishing.
We also pulled and tested the new coaxle cable for the speed sensor. Dave had brought the new autopilot down during the week, so we laid out where it all goes. It has a motor that mounts to the wheel, its own compass, a control panel, and circuit board. All of them mount in different areas of the boat. We  rough pulled most of the wire. Next weekend I hope to get it all running. The location where we want to mount the control panel is a bit tough to get the wire to. We ended up spending about an hour to get the wire 3" in the space between the deck and the ceiling of the aft cabin. After all that effort, we found that the panel would not mount the way we had planned. However, we think we have a way to make it work and look good too.

The turtle is in the middle of the photo, swimming away.

While Dave and I were working in the rear of the boat I heard a big splash. I looked behind the boat to see a huge turtle swimming near the boat. His shell was over two feet long and in total he was about 3 feet long. We also had a bald eagle fly right over the boat, about 50 feet above our heads.

This week Dave will be working more on the interior and he will be racing his car this coming weekend, once he has a new clutch installed. I plan to spend one day at the boat next weekend, wrapping up some of these projects.

Spiders, Sewer, and Storms

Lori and I had planned to go down to the boat on Saturday morning, but ended up going down Friday night, getting there around 10:00pm. Upon opening the boat up the smell of sewer filled the air. Dave had told me that there had been some back up in to the bowel of the toilet when he was there up Wednesday. Being that it was night, I worked some on it but mainly opened windows and got the fans going. Lori and I shut ourselves up in the forward cabin with the fresh air blowing in and spent the night on the new cushions Dave finished. In the morning I tried to see what was going on and why it would back up. I found that the bilge was full, the pump was not working, and it also smelled like sewer. After some testing I found out that the pump had failed. I got a new one at the harbor store and installed it. Later in the day I talked to the harbor owner and he said that a bad Joker Valve was the problem.  He thought it was caused be using the wrong antifreeze when the boat had been winterized before Dave got the boat. Dave is getting a new head (toilet). We also pumped out the hold tank that was full. I cleaned out the bilge area with the wet vac, and scrubbed and washed it out, too. We may have had lake water leaking though the head valve, filling the tank, and the bowl over flowing in to the bilge. I spent a few hours cleaning and pumping everything out. I also got the last drain line installed on the lav sink. Now the whole system is working. The main fresh water tank is smelling good, which was another problem caused from the antifreeze. We have run bleach plus a number of full tanks of water though the system at this point now. Hopefully after the new head is in we will be done with the plumbing system.


By this time, it is late Saturday afternoon  so we decided to get out and sail for a bit. We headed up river a few miles to have grilled chicken kabobs on the lake. 

This is the way to grill...





...as you watch this.

As the sun was setting, we looked for a good place to anchor for the night. We found a cove near Old Frontenac, where there were two other sail boats already achored. After two tries to set the anchor, we settled in with enough space between the other boats. I checked the weather once again and it sounded like a storm may pass near us. We got set for the night and just before going to sleep I checked the radar, and yes, the storm was heading our way in the next hour or so. I was awoken by the lighting around 12:30. I went on deck to check that every thing was okay, right when the winds came in, rocking and rolling the boat, with the rain soon after. Much of the lighting was going horizontally across the sky, lighting up the whole lake around us. The wind kept changing and turning, and at some point the distances from the other boats looked as though they were changing, too. I checked the GPS mark I had made on my phone when we set the anchor, and we were well within the area with the amount of anchor we had out. I got dressed with my rain gear so I could stand outside and watch the other boats, as well as our location. I think one of the boats pulled out farther into the lake till the storm passed, but it was hard to tell. The storm passed over us in about 25 minutes, and as the winds slowed, the skies suddenly became completely clear. We watched the storm head off to the the SE, and enjoyed the star-filled sky.




In the morning after coffee and cereal we headed back to the harbor. We did not even try to put up the sail, as it was calm. When i pulled the anchor up I could not get all of the muck off of it until using the water hose at the dock. After docking, Lori packed up our stuff while I cleaned the boat some more. I did a little more work before we headed home, taking apart the counter top area by the ice box. We think it will be the last wood we need to replace.  

Throughout the weekend many spiders were seen on the boat, in the boat, at the dock, in the grill, and most every where, of all sizes and shapes. That is not so much fun.

 Neither Lori nor I got much sleep the past two nights, but it was still a relaxing weekend.

Lori took a photo of flowers growing on a log in the middle of a pond, along side the road near the boat, and said "bloom where you are planted."

Last Weekend

Last weekend Dave and I took our last class, ASA 104. We drove up Friday afternoon to Washburn, WI, which took a little over 4 hours. We met the instuctor for dinner at a small cafe, then back to the boat to get set up for the weekend and meet the other student. In the morning we had strong winds coming from the North. Lookng at the radar we saw a storm heading our way so we stayed at the dock till it passed over us, and did the classrooom part of the the class. As we looked to head out, the 30 mph winds had the boat tight on the dock. The boat is hard to turn when motoring in the harbor, so we spent some time on how best to get out without hitting the sea wall after pulling out of the dock.

In the end, the instuctor had us with 4 lines (ropes) on the boat as we got ready to back out. One of the lines ran from the front port side of the boat, around the front of the boat to the aft of the boat, and around the dock to the other side, then back to the starting point on the bow of the boat. In other words, there was a bunch of rope that looped from the front of the boat down the length of the boat, and then around the dock. The idea was to use the rope to stop the boat from hitting the sea wall, which was just South of our dock. Dave was at the helm. Because of the wind, the boat was tight on the bumpers on the dock. Backing up and pulling out of the dock was going ok at first. But after we had just cleared the dock, I saw that the long rope had snagged on the dock. Dave had started to move forward at that point, and I was able to get the line off the boat, but that meant we had about 70' of rope that we or another boat could get caught in their prop. Luckily a guy was at the dock and pulled it in.  Now to get out on Lake Superior.

After leaving the shelter of the habor the waves got higher as we headed out to the lake. Becuase of the weather, all of us had harnesses on and were tethered in. As best as we could tell, we had about 8-10 feet waves with some bigger, plus we headed almost straight in to the 30 mph winds. The instuctor wanted all the dock lines removed and stowed. There was one on the very front of the bow. I crawled on my hands and knees to remove it.

The bow was moving up and down about 15' so when the boat was rocking downwards, the deck of the boat was nearly level with the water.  After a number of tries we decided to let it be.  We had pre-reefed (dropped the sail part-way down the mast) the main sail to the 3rd reefing point, but the main line to raise the sail was clipped to one of the side rails. The main boom is high on this boat compared to Dave's, so the top of the sail when all of the way down can't be reached from the deck. The mast does have fold down steps to climb up and connect the line. So up on the steps I went, and lashed myself the the mast. To make the connection I faced the aft on the front side of the mast and reached around. In the somewhat short time up there, the pitching of the boat caused the mast to slam into my chest repeatedly.

Now we are ready to sail. Dave is still at the helm.  The wind pushes us so the wind and the waves are on the starboard side, and even with the wheel hard over, we are not able to turn into the wind. After a little debate between Dave and the instructor on why, we dropped sail and motored the rest of the day. We got to Bayfeild after 5 plus hours going less than 1.5 knots per hour.  (At the same engine speed on Sunday, we were over 6 knots per hour.)  We took turns at the helm, and simply standing behind the wheel and riding the waves was a lot of work.

In Bayfield, I was able to dock the boat just fine. By this time the wind had calmed down some, and the protection of the habor made the docking a lot easier. The original plan was to anchor off one of the islands but the weather forecast kept changing. After a short relax, the instructor started making dinner for the rest of us. I ended up falling asleep sitting at the table and woke with a plate of food sitting in front of me for a little while. All four of us were completely exhausted from the day. Shortly after dinner, most of us curled up and fell asleep. At least one of the lights got left on all night. It was nearly 8:00 a.m. before I got out of bed, and hadn't slept well the three previous nights. So eleven hours of sleep was nice.

Dave and I then headed up to one of the cafes in Bayfield, WI and got a real breakfast and coffee. About 9:30 a.m. all four of us were ready to head out.  The water was nearly like glass with some light winds. We practiced a number of man overboard drills and were able to do some sailing, before heading back towards Washburn. We also did some anchoring with two anchors. After that the wind had died down to nearly nothing. So we motored the rest of the way back.

We pulled up to the gas dock and refueled, and had the waste tank pumped out. After a fair amount of discussion with the other student on how to back off the dock, he did end up clipping the dock with the anchor. He backed the rest of the way out to the lake, where I took over. In order to re-dock the boat, I had to pull in and do a 180-degree turn with the boat. It's pretty tight quarters with this size of boat (35'). I didn't quite listen to the instructor's instructions on how to dock the boat, but was able to pull it in and dock it just fine. I found out later that the other student was in a similar class and both times while docking, hit the dock boxes with the boat.

The instructor asked us whether we wanted to take the test Saturday evening or after we docked on Sunday. Neither Dave nor I were sure what parts of the book we were supposed to study. I had not looked at the book since the 103 class over a month ago, so we opted to take the test on Sunday afternoon with the plan of reading on Saturday night. Dave was able to do a little bit of reading, but I couldn't keep my eyes open. Before starting the test I was completely prepared to fail it, thinking I could re-take the test in a couple of weeks. The class requires a grade of 80% to pass the written test. I ended up getting 80%. Dave fared a little better, but at the end of the day we both passed.

One of the things the instructor pushed regarding the Belize trip was that we have an extra hand for the stretch across the Gulf of Mexico, so Dave ordered an auto-pilot to assist the two of us. Lori and I will be on the boat this coming weekend to do more work and more sailing. Dave will be off racing.

Long weekend

We both passed the 104 class. Rain, thunder, 30 mile a hour winds to no wind. 8-10 foot seas to glass its been along weekend. Now a 4 hour drive home. More details later.

Donalee

This is the boat we are on this weekend. Windy this morning. Rain is on the way.

First night on boat

Tonight we started the 104 Class. we are docked in the harbor but in the morning we head out on the big lake. It sounds like we might have some rain at wind.

More later if I have cell service.

time is going by fast and slow

Dave and I still have lots of stuff to get ready before the trip. We leave in a little over 3 months there  is only 4 weekends from now till the end of Sept. that both of us are open to work on the boat. Plus all of the things other than the boat we both have to do, and not sure how all of it is going to get done. On top of that there are days I would love to just leave now and can hardly wait to get going. It looks like there will be some work days without the other person. I think Dave is going down to the boat midweek next week, and I am planning to go with Lori the following weekend. I know when we set sail we will we be as ready as we can.

fear about sailing??????

I was looking around the net tonight and came across a sailing forum. It talks about the USCG statistics for boating in 2008.

http://www.sailnet.com/forums/general-discussion-sailing-related/61716-how-afraid-should-we-sailing.html

http://www.uscgboating.org/assets/1/Publications/Boating_Statistics_2008.pdf

It is really strange how statistics can make thing look. Below is a quote:

"So, taking these statistics into account, am I correct in surmising that,

[IRONY ALERT] statistically speaking, any sailor's best chance at survival is to get 10 or so hours of some informal training on how to sail, take a 40' vessel into the open ocean in rough to very rough conditions, wear a pfd, don't drink, stay on the boat (regardless of make or year), sail REALLY fast, and, in all probability, you'll be just fine?

It seems the most dangerous sailing out there is sailing a small boat on a sheltered body of water in calm conditions. Could that be right?
Surely that's not it.
[IRONY ALERT]"

Big weekend coming up

This weekend Dave and I taking our last Sailing class. We will be sailing out of Washburn WI near the Apostle Islands and Madeline Island.  We are taking the 104 class Bareboat Chartering Standard. We board the boat Friday night and stay until late afternoon on Sunday. One of the nights will be spent out on lake Superior. This will be the closest thing to open water we can get before hitting the Gulf of Mexico in the Fall. I believe it is Dave and I plus one other student and the instuctor that will be on the boat. The boat is 35' so just a little bigger than Dave's. It is called the "Donalee."

Bikes, trains, automobiles, and the boat

This last weekend was full of boating, camping, biking, and the beach. On Friday Dave, Noelle, my Mom, Scott, Jane, Lori, and myself met early in the morning at the boat. We took it down the lake 10 miles to Pepin, WI, and docked at the Marina, where we had lunch at the Habor Veiw Cafe. The food was outstanding. We did try and sail some on the way back, but with no wind that is hard to do. Dave let Scott be the helmsman, and no one died. After returning back to our marina, my mom and Scott took off to meet some friends of their's, and we headed off for the campsite to meet up with Ed and Beck. Dave, Ed, and myself all had our motorcycles so we could do some riding. Ed was our cook for the weekend, and, as always, did a fabulous job of planning and preparing our meals.

After dinner and the day on the boat all of us were really tired. None of us got much sleep at the campsite. We were supposed to camp at the state park, but currently our state government can't get their stuff together, so the park was closed. We found another campground in Lake City. It was in a nice grassy area with some big shade trees, which were very much appreciated this weekend. One of the things about being located in a river valley is many times there are trains on either side of Lake Pepin. There are two main lines that the trains run on about every ten minutes. Being that we were in Lake City, and there was five rail road crossings in the city, the train laid on its horn for a couple of minutes about every ten minutes. That, combined with the hot temperatures, made for less than desirable sleeping conditions.

After Ed got breakfast made for all of us on Saturday, we made our way down to the boat because there was wind projected for the day. And did we have wind. We ended up with some gusts over 20 miles per hour. At times, the boat was traveling almost 8.5 miles an hour. While that may not sound fast, it's basically as fast as a sail boat will travel. I think both Dave and I enjoyed the wind and maneuvering the boat. Our passengers may not have all shared in our enjoyment, as things slid from one side of the boat to the other. I made the mistake of putting our sandwiches into the cooler that had lots of melted ice in it. So after sliding around for a while, we ended up with soggy sandwiches for lunch.

After we finished up our lunch, we started to head back to the marina and we tried to sail wing and wing, where the sails are on opposite sides of the boat. It is somewhat of a dangerous maneuver because if you have shifting winds (and we did) the boat can accidentally jibe. The boom was almost fully extended on the port side, a little shift in the wind, and swung hard over to starboard. Dave was trying to pull the main sheet in to slow it down a little bit, but luckily ducked and the boom missed his head. We found out later that one of the shackles got bent from this maneuver. With still heavy winds, we got back to the marina, which is normally completely still because of the burms around it. This time I'm at the helm, I tried to come in very slow, and about half way in to the slip, the wind started pushing me towards another boat. So I ended up reversing out, backing up-wind, and then coming back into the slip. I came in a lot better, but a touch too fast, and ended up kissing the dock with the bow of the boat.

We headed back to the campground where Dave, Ed, and I took off South on motorcycles around the lake through Wabasha into Wisconsin North up into Red Wing and back to the camp. Beck stayed at the campsite to hold down the fort, while Lori and Jane went to a movie in an air conditioned theater. Later in the evening Ed cooked up another meal for us, and had a fire and some popcorn and roasted marshmellows and everyone was off to bed, but not necessarily sleeping. It was still, humid, and in the 80s at 10:00 pm. So Jane, Lori, and myself had a hard time getting to sleep.

Despite the trains, we did get more sleep, until the rain came at around 6 a.m.  It started out pretty light, and then got heavier and lasted over a couple of hours. So breakfast was served in our pop-up camper that we pull behind the motorcycle--5 adults and one child. The rain cleared off. Dave headed back to the boat to get some work done. Lori, Jane, and Beck headed to the beach for a quick swim. Ed and myself held down the chairs in the campsite, until the girls returned. Mid-day we packed up and headed home. It was another long tiring weekend, but had a great time.

Great weekend on the boat

Lori and I spent the last two days on the boat . The temps were in the upper 80's both days. Saturday night we anchored on the lake. We had some light winds on Saturday we sailed down to Pepin got some ice there. It is about 10 miles down river on the lake. then we motored back up about 1/2 Way where we spent the night. At 4:30 am the anchor drag alarm started going off. After checking everything out we were fine. I needed to change the settings some. The lake was nearly like a sheet of glass. The wind changed overnight from north to south, and it looked like we were floating down river, but with that very slight south breeze, it only made it look like it.  In the morning the wind was nearly zero so we ended up motoring back to the harbor and picked up Lori's brother Brian. We did try to do come sailing but still no wind. So we cooked some food on the bbq grill and relaxed  before bring Brian back. Then off to DQ for quick treat then back the boat for more relaxing and naps. Tonight we plan to watch another movie before retiring for the night. In the morning we head home. But we will be back on Friday again.

Many days of work now time to enjoy the boat

Dave and I worked yet another day on the boat on Wednesday. We wrapped  up some of the work but looks like we are getting close with the main part of the rebuild. Dave finished up the main part of the bimini. So I will test fit it in the morning.

This weekend Lori and I get a long weekend on the the boat with just the two of us, plus maybe her brother for a while on Sunday. I do have a few small things to work on like installing the new TV/DVD player and some cleaning. We are both really looking forward to the weekend, with some sailing and lots of relaxing.  

Rebuild nearly done

Dave and I spent another day working on the boat. Dave worked on the motor all day. We had a hard vibration at the engine speed we will be using going down river. He found it was out of alignment and when he started to line it up he found some of the bolts for the motor mount stripped out. He was able to reset everything so it is a lot tighter and straighter. We did take it out and ran it for about an hour.  It is a lot better, but still has a little vibration and should be just fine. Dave did find some more wood that we need to replace from around the motor near the galley. We brought it back to cut out a new piece.
I worked on the 12 volt electrical stystem most of the day till I ran out of parts and wire. I finished reinstalling the navagation station and mounted the GPS. Now we can use it both above and below deck. I started to get more cleaning done inside the boat. After all the work gets done, everything needs to be cleaned top to bottom.

In the next few weeks we should be able to wrap up most of the boat rebuild, we hope. Dave still has lots of work in order to make all new covers for all of the cushions and replace and add on to the biminey (cover over the cockpit area)

This coming weekend Lori and I plan to spend the weekend on the boat. The following weekend my mom and Scott will be driving through and we are planning a day on the boat with them, Dave and Noelle, Jane and Lori, and myself.  It will be a full boat, but should be fun. Later in the weekend we have another set of friends coming down to camp with us and do some motorcycle riding, and boating.

another day of work on the boat

Dave and I spent another day on the boat today, but no sailing. Dave spent all day working on leaks from the rain. We found two more problem areas so he took both of them apart and resealed them. I worked on electrical all day. The stereo is in now and I finished all but the last 110 outlet. Next time I should be able to wrap up most of the electrical  work.

I am starting to look at what time we have left before we head South. The summer is flying by already. So right now we are just over 4 months from when we plan to sail. It is going to be very busy the next 6 months. Part of me is looking forward to the 2 weeks after we get to Belize when I will have NOTHING TO DO. It has been over 40 years since I have had more than a few days off in a row with no schedule. I will be able to just relax and do nothing if I want to.

don't fall asleep with blog open

I slept  about 10 hours last night, normally only 6-7 hours. Part of what i did not finish last night was that both Dave and myself successfully did man over board drills single handedly, so on the trip if one of us happens to fall off, the other person has a chance to be able to get the other one out of the water. So hopefully Noelle and Lori can rest a little better that we might be able to rescue the other person.

Passed the ASA 103 class today

Dave an I both passed the 103 class. Now we only have the 104 class that will be on Lake Superior on the great lakes 2 days and 2 nights on the boat in mid July. The 103 class hands-on part the we did today is about handling the boat docking, anchoring and more sailing. I am sure the Marina was thinking what are those two doing now coming in the the harbor backwards a few times, in and out docking for a few minutes then back out on the lake, turning the boat in circles in front of the fuel dock for most of the day. One of the marina owners asked me if I was that scared of the water because we had to wear some type of personal flotation device: Dave and the instructor wore ones that looked like fanny packs, which left me with the big orange life jacket. They are hard to work on the boat and are hot to wear.  Dave  is going to order inflatable / safety harness for the trip. They will be a lot easier to wear while running the boat than wearing the big orange one.

Lori says: Donavan fell asleep in bed writing this blog, so I took the liberty of cleaning up the writing a bit and making the decision to post this as is. He didn't sleep much last night, and has been ridiculously busy over the past 2-3 months, so I think both the sailor boy and blog should be done for the night.

First Sailing Weekend

Lori, Jane, and myself camped Friday through Sunday a couple of miles from the boat, at Frontenac State Park. Dave went to the boat on Thursday and finished up the riggings. We found that there were some parts missing for the front sail (the roller furling) and part of it was broken. So before we leave for Belize a new roller furling will have to be installed. We thought the marina was going to adjust all of the riggings for us, and after finding out that the cost of the bottom paint was more than twice what the estimate was, Dave and I opted to finish up the work ourselves. He has a tensioning guage coming next week, so we can correctly tension all of the cables. We got both of the sails put on and they are in really good shape. The main sail has two reefing points like we were hoping it did.

After spending the better part of the afternoon on Friday we fired up the boat and took it out on the lake for a little ways to see how the prop and boat ran. The engine speed that the manufacturer recommends is about 2900 rpms. At that speed we have a little bit of a vibration going on because of the way the shaft and the engine are set up. Through the weekend the engine started to run a little bit smoother, and were able to run it a couple of hours. Docking Dave's boat in this particular marina is really easy. The marina is set down inside of burms so we have no wind and no currents to deal with, unlike the docking that we did for the sailing class on Lake Minnetonka. None of the four times we docked the boat, did Dave and I consider them successful.

After a really long night on yet another leaky air mattress (this must be at least the 8th one in a few years) we opted for breakfast at the Whitle Stop Cafe in Frontenac Station, and then left for the boat. We headed up river to near Maiden Rock before returning back to the marina. It's going to be doable to sail with just the two of us and maneuver the boat as needed.  As soon as we docked, Jane, Lori's 7-year-old daughter, announced "Well, nobody fell off the boat today!"

On Sunday after pancakes at the campsite, we packed up everything and Jane and Lori went for a hike and came across a caterpillar. Now Jane has a pet caterpillar in her room. Her "pet" snail Gary didn't fare too well on Friday, and there was a funeral at the campsite on Saturday afternoon. Sunday we decided to head down to the river, and I ended up being at the helm most of the day. After a few miscalculations, I brought us safely back to the dock.

All in all, it was a great weekend to be on the boat. Little rain, light winds, clouds and a sunburn here and there. We all enjoyed the weekend. Jane is ready to get back on the boat right away.

On Wednesday night, Dave and I will do the second half of the classroom part of the 103 class, and then Thursday we'll be on the boat to finish up the 103 class.

The boat is in the water

I talked to Dave tonight the boat is in the water. The mast is not up yet but will be by Friday when we get back to the boat.  We start the 103 class tomorrow then Fri- Sunday camping  about a mile from the boat.

Passed the 101 class

Both dave and I passed the ASA 101 class tonight. We start the 103 next week.

boat we took 101 class on

Bettie's ready to get wet

She is renamed

We are as ready as we are going to be. On our next trip down, Bettie P should be in the water. The past few weeks have been very busy so I haven't had as much time as I would like to post on this blog. I have been busy with work. This last week we started the 101 sailing classes, which will be done this week, and start the 103 classes next week. Dave raced his Cobra last weekend. We have been busy with the boat too.

In the last few weeks we installed the new larger fuel tank now with a fuel gauge. We installed a 2000 watt power inverter/charger, because having coffee fast in the morning is very important. We did a bunch of rewiring of the boat but have some to go yet. We are adding both 110 and 12 volt outlets throughout the boat. We started to set up the 2 GPS locations on the boat. Most of the wood work is done. We filled and tested the water system. We have sealed most of the leaks we know about on the upper deck, and have one or two more to fix. The motor was started and ran for 10 to 15 minutes. We tested some of the electrical systems and found some stuff we want to change over the summer. Dave removed all the old graphics and installed all the new ones. Yesterday the marina lifted the mast up on top of the boat, so today I removed all of the packing materials and pre-rigged the mast with some of the instrumentation, and as much of the standing rigging as I could.

The marina has one last coat of paint to apply before putting her in the water and set the mast for us, which will happen within the next week or so.

Because of classes and other things going on, neither Dave nor I will make it back to the boat until a week from Friday. That weekend Lori, her daughter Jane, and I will be camping about a mile from the boat so we're hoping to spend some sailing time over the 3-day weekend. The week after that we will be finishing up the 103 class on Dave's boat.

The 101 class was interesting, we had about a minute and a half of instruction before boarding the boat and setting the sails. The boat that we used at the class was much smaller than Dave's, but the fundamentals are still the same. After a few hours out on the water I am more excited than ever to get out on the water and sail Dave's boat and prepare for the long trip this Fall.

we moved the mast on top of the boat and pre-rigged it so they can set it when it goes in the water 

Fwd: Check-in/OK message from Bettie P SPOT Messenger

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <noreply@findmespot.com>
Date: Thu, May 26, 2011 at 5:47 PM
Subject: Check-in/OK message from Bettie P SPOT Messenger
To: donavanshomes@gmail.com


 Bettie P
 Latitude:44.90779
 Longitude:-93.64084
 GPS location Date/Time:05/26/2011 17:48:04 CDT

 Message:Were in the world is Bettie P.

 Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://fms.ws/4ubxa/44.90779/\-93.64084

 If the above link does not work, try this link:
 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=44.90779,-93.64084&ll=44.90779,-93.64084&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Bettie P

 You have received this message because Bettie P has added you to their SPOT contact list.

 Every day is an Adventure. Share Yours.
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5/11/2011

We made good progress today despite on and off rain. We got a couple of the stanchions reinstalled and sealed. I was able to finish all of the plumbing for the holding tank for the toilet and all the valves, and reinstall the seating over top of it. I also started reinstalling the nav station and it is all in place other than the top cover. We did rubber coatings on the forward cabin and the area behind the galley, so other than touch up, all we have left is the aft cabin. We're still having a small problem with seapage in an area near the bilge. We drilled a hole today and drained that area. The whole bottom is black slimy goo that we need to wash out before we can put the sealer in. The marina was able to put on another coat of bottom paint. They still have four more coats before it's finished. The boat should be ready to go in the water in about a week and a half to two weeks, as long as everything goes well.

melted light from Sunday

2nd view of light

forward cabin before final coat of rubber

nav station, almost done with finished walls

galley before final coat of rubber

starboard wall nearly done

port wall waiting for upper cabinets

5/15/2011 photo update