Brand New Sails!!!

Location: Key West, Fl 

Weather: Rainy and windy with Tornado warnings to boot.  yuck. 

Update: This week Ben Sperry of Sperry Sails in Marion, Mass came down to install a brand new complete set of sails for When And If.  They are 9oz. cream fabric with maximum UV protection. And they look amazing!!! Please check out our photos from Tuesday's sail. I posted an entire album on Facebook.  Check it out and tell us what you think.

We invited crew from the schooner Adirondak II and Appledore to come help us try them out. It was a fun, successful day, We are VERY psyched about our new sails. Sperry did a great job and the boss is happy. (We're comin' for you, Juno) 

   

Key Wierd...

  Location: Key West, Fl

  Weather: It's been mostly sunny and in the 80's since we arrived. Very nice.

     A few thunderstorms here and there.

  Update: Our first week in Key West has been interesting. Key West is a colorful community. This tropical US oasis is full of vibrance, not to mention thousands of tourists, flamboyant gays, and crazy street vendors. Some would go as far to say "this is where crazies go to go pro." and "The US was stood on it's side and shaken, and all of the loose nuts and bolts fell to Key West."

But, mostly it is a pleasant, accepting community.  There is a large boating community, liveaboards, fishermen, and several Schooners.  There is an entire wharf dedicated to Schooners. Upon arrival, we were greeted on the dock by other schooner bums wanting to lend a hand, locals offering knowledge on anchoring, shopping, and places to eat, and just plain admirers come to look. Over-all, (if you ignore the occasional drunk encounter) Key West is a very friendly, fun place to be. 

   We are currently out on the hook (anchored) in a very pleasant location. There is quite a tidal rip through the harbor, but it seems no matter what the wind/current direction, it stays fairly calm out here, which is great news! 

   We have made a few friends and because we are on a boat, a schooner no less, (which is the cool thing to be around here) we have immediately been accepted as locals.  A  rare feeling for our lifestyle. We have tried to explore some of what being a local Key Weirder means, but mostly we are just sitting out in the anchorage working on When And If.

  This week we have managed to sand and prep almost every bit of above deck varnish. (minus the spars)  We have applied one coat of Epiphanes high gloss so far with hopes of applying a second coat today.  Just a few hatch trims left to prep and maybe next week we can tackle the spars. The boat is looking mighty shiny with her new paint and fresh varnish. "The best looking boat in the harbor" once again. ;)

   Well, speaking of work, it's about that time. 

  Thanks for reading.

  Cheers!

 

The Florida Keys

 Position: 24.33.21N

                  81.36.86W 

Weather: 80 degrees N winds at 10-15kts

                  Seas 1-2 ft  Beautiful Sailing conditions!

Update: When and If is currently sailing at a lovely 7kts, broad-reaching down hawks channel. 

It is a beautiful day for sailing! 

   Our trip through the Keys so far has been a fun time. Our first day out of Ft. Lauderdale we made a good 60 miles and anchored off of Turtle Rocks in North Key Largo. It was a very rolly night as the wind was blowing on-shore and we only had a shallow reef to hide behind. A front passed through and kept us awake all night with lightning and thunder. It was high-time to leave in the morning as we motor-sailed 30 miles down the coast to the southern tip of Key Largo and anchored behind Rodriguez Key, a much nicer spot.  We spent the Thanksgiving holidays with Family and friends. Seychelle is from Key Largo. Her family was very happy to see us. *A huge thank you to Snappers Restaurant for letting us park our dinghy and use their dock.* (mm95 oceanside. great seafood ;) )

   We sailed on Saturday from Rodriguez Key straight down Hawks Channel to Bahia Honda Key. It was another 60 mile, beautiful day. 

   Hawks Channel is this deep water (10-30ft. deep for the keys) channel that runs the entire length of the Florida Keys from about 1 mile offshore to the inner edge of the reefs. The water is calm and the winds is constant. 

   There are only a hand full of places that we can anchor with a 9ft draft and still be moderately protected. Bahia Honda Key has got to my favorite. The entire key is a state park. There is camping, a nice beach, BBQ pits, and deep water.  To get to the anchorage you have to sail through a break in the ruins of Henry Flagler's railroad bridge. It is one of the only remaining segments of what once was a railway from Miami all the way to Key West over 100 years ago. It's a great spot and not well known by any other than locals because the break in the bridge is not shown on the charts. 

   I must go back to sailing now. We should be in Key West in 2 hours. 

   Until next time..

   Cheers!

 

A few photos

   Here's those shots I promised of the hauling and painting. All said and done, two new coats of Brightside on the topsides and a fresh slathering of anti-fouling on the bottom and we are ready to launch in seven days. Key West, here we come. 

River Bend Haul-out days 3, 4, 5 I think

    All is going very well at the River Bend Marine Center. I am pleased to report that we are ahead of schedule! Yes! That never happens. We have prepped and applied 2 coats of fresh, new, shiny black polyurethane paint to the topsides, both port and starboard. We feel very accomplished. It is quite a task for only two people, and not one that many yacht crews will take on. And only in 4 days. 

  Tomorrow  we will work on the boot stripe and the cove stripe, and the bottom gets painted Thursday. 

  I just figured out how to upload photos directly to the blog, but the connection is painfully slow. I will try again. You can still view the "Haul-out" album on facebook.

  

  Cheers!

River Bend Marine Center - Day 1- 2

 Location: River Bend Marine Center - Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Weather:  80 and sunny. 

Update: I sit here completely exhausted from a hard day's work, barely able to move my finger tips, it feels, or keep my eye-lids up. Here's how the day went. 

8:00 am - Safely maneuver When And If from our docking space to the lifting slip. Not an easy task with less than 80 ft of turning space and 6 people yelling different instructions at you, all of which think they know exactly how it is you are supposed to maneuver a 50 ton, full keeled schooner and none of which actually do. 

I know Seychelle and I look young, but we are professional yacht crew and we are good at what we do. Every once in a while we run into people who want to treat us like children and not professionals. This place is full of them. Needless to say, it was a frustrating morning.

10:00am - When And If  is blocked and snung in the Southeast corner of the yard.

We procure some scaffolding from the resident painter and spend the rest of the day building a platform to work from around the entire boat. Tough job, but it will pay off in the end to have all the prep work done right. 

Day 2 - Saturday - 

Decide to work through the weekend to take advantage of the good weather and the fact that the yard staff are not around. Make a Home Depot run for a few supplies and manage to sand the entire port side. Feels pretty good. 

Check out Facebook for a few photos of today and yesterday. I will keep posting them as work progresses.

 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vineyard-Haven-MA/SV-When-And-If/24782432236?ref=ts

I hope the link works. 

:)

Ft. Lauderdale

Location: Ft. Lauderdale, Fl

Weather: Sunny, cool, Northwest breeze. Very pleasant. :)

Update: We had a lovely sail today down the south Florida Coast. Condos as far as the eye can see and fishing boats everywhere. The water is deep right up to the beach so you can actually sail so close that you can see the people swimming on the beach.  Much more fun than the South Carolina coast.  It was blowing about 15 knots out of the West. Perfect for a beam reach with no fetch or wind chop that close to shore.  

   Now I have to say, Ft. Lauderdale is wild! It is "The Venice of America." Narrow, deep rivers and canals extending throughout the entire city. We managed to navigate our way a few miles down the New River to our destination, The River Bend Marina. There are so many canals and sharp snake turns in the river and no channel markers past the first mile, it is easy to make a wrong turn. Heaven forbid if you do, there is definately not enough space to turn around. Then you have the worry about meeting the Jungle Queen, a huge river cruise passenger ferry that takes up the entire channel and doesn't slow down. Oh, and there are 5 lift bridges to go under as well and the charted depth is only 6 ft. in places. (we never saw less than 10, phew!) This all makes for a very exciting afternoon. 

   The best was the bridge tenders. Although they were very quick to open for you, they all use different, far from standard operating procedure for radio communication. My personal favorite... 

"SE 3rd St. Bridge, SE 3rd St. Bridge, this is the Schooner When And If approaching. requesting a lift. over"

"keep a' comin"  

uhhh... and just as I was going to call back, because I thought it couldn't have possibly been the bridge responding, we look up and see the lift start to open. Amazing ... radio skills that is. 

   Viewing the houses that are on this river is quite an experience. Multimillion dollar homes with pool, patio, jungle gym, lawn decorations, fountains, huge trees, private canals, docks, and your very own yacht parked outside. 

 So, we are all set to haul at 8:00am tomorrow morning. I'll post pictures and keep you updated as to how it goes. 

 Cheers!