Daily Archives: May 4, 2012

The day dawned placid and serene, without a breath of breeze on the bay. In the midst of all this quiescence my heart rate was already elevated because deep in my psyche I knew that today was the day. The day we planned to extricate Escape Velocity from D-8 at Sunset Bay Marina, executing a classic pivoting maneuver utilizing EVs twin screws set 21′ apart, and a large fender and line, with Marce at the bow. Safe to say I had never done this before, I had never been at EVs controls before. The theory is to use the outboard diesel in forward and, in a delicate balance, run the inboard diesel in reverse. Pivoting on a large fender.

Now, I’m an old single screw mono huller with a preference toward long keels. Oh, you can accomplish a weak approximation of this using spring lines and alot of shoving. You’d better hope the breeze isn’t against you or you aren’t going anywhere. I had no idea how Escape Velocity would react but I was about to find out in the worst place possible.

Not as I expected. Hemmed in front and rear by some seriously expensive fiberglass, we had a narrow escape. It was a thing of inches. Much back and forthing. Izzy “Adventure Kitty” Katzenbaum found all of this spinning about not very amusing.

After I collected myself, we practiced some maneuvers and found a nice spot to anchor and after moving a second time we got it right. Launched the dingy and quickly found that the Honda will definitely stop running if the little “key” thingie isn’t FIRMLY inserted into the safety thingie. Picky, picky. We were able to get back to the mother ship by running on the battery and quick thinking by the skipper.

After a spot of de-naming by 1st mate, it was back up on the davits for the dingy and still another anchor windlass jam. This won’t do!

After a relatively simple docking for fuel I informed 1st mate that we weren’t
going straight in to dock. We are going out here till my heart stops pounding. For the piece de resistance we added a hair raising pirouette between dock D and C inches from multi million dollar yachts to a gentle docking at good old D-8.

Absolutely giddy, we celebrated at Duffy’s with a few mojitos and another trip to West Marine.

Looks like we’ll stay at Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart for two more weeks trying to organize and get Escape Velocity shipshape.

No need for Lawyers, guns or money. This time, at least.

Fair winds Escapees

We’ve been aboard Escape Velocity exactly one week and it’s been wonderful and hectic. Every three minutes or so I have to pinch myself that we’re really here, that this is really our home. And every other two minutes I’m reminded of how much we have to learn. But that’s the fun part!

Two days into our new life we welcomed our first guest. My sister answered our pleas for help in the initial unpacking and organizing and we’re so glad she was here. All work aside, it was important to Jack and me that we share our accomplishment with our near and dear, and they don’t come any dearer. In our darkest days of planning and saving, and especially in the many setbacks and disappointments, Nancy and Dave have been there for us, with a timely visit to Pittsburgh or an invitation to NJ, a Facetime conversation when we couldn’t be together, and always, always, unconditional support. I don’t know what people do who don’t have the kind of family I have. Lucky me!

We were on the boat for a total of four days before our truck arrived and in those four days I got so used to life aboard that I couldn’t imagine what else we could possibly need to make life any better. But oh, then the truck arrived, and there were my Global knives, our coffee pot, our bikes! And unfortunately, so much more.

When we started on this journey we had no idea what we’d need or want on a boat, and we acquired a lot of stuff through the years that now we see we won’t need at all. Like the two full unused bolts of upholstery batting bought at Joann on sale because we thought we’d need to reupholster the seat cushions. Nope. Or the heavy duty battery charger bestowed on us by another boater, and who can turn down free stuff? Or the cute stainless steel Force 10 barbecue we liberated from an old derelict boat about to be chopped up and burned. Or the teak veneer, lumber, trims and plywood leftover from Spellbound and that we’d need to restore a fixer. There’ll be a Craig’s List extravaganza as soon as we get organized. Maybe we’ll at least recover the cost of shipping it all down here.

We also took a lot of things off the boat that were left by the previous owner. Nice stuff, too, but things we didn’t need. Luckily, there’s an exchange table set aside in the laundry room at the marina and as soon as we added a hand mixer or insulated glasses or dishes or utensils they’d be snatched up by another boater. Recycling at its best!

In between unpacking and sorting and organizing our first load of boxes we managed to live the Schulz life, which involves visits to the local cafe for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up, and the minute-to-minute appreciation for where we are right here and now.