Another digression from our shakedown voyage but I think you'll find it an interesting one. Today we went with Jerry and Linda to the Blue Crab Festival in Palatka, a town on the St. Johns River about 25 miles south of Green Cove Springs. Charlie and I had been to the festival last year but the sun broiled us to the extent that I couldn't enjoy my crab cakes and we left well before we'd really seen everything.

This year the weather cooperated giving us some clouds and cooler temperatures, so we were finally able to enjoy ourselves. A good thing, too, as the festival seemed a lot larger than last year. A Blue Crab Festival wouldn't be complete without - blue crabs. Just past the entrance was a large booth selling the crabs cooked every way imaginable - deviled, boiled and made into the crab cakes that Jerry and I feasted on.

There were other types of food as well: Charlie had shrimp and Linda chose a bratwurst sandwich. All the seafood we had came with fries and hush puppies. Other concessions sold all the usual festival food - funnel cakes, corn dogs, Italian ices, and there were a couple stands selling homemade ice cream, one complete with a boy pedaling on a bicycle which churned the ice cream.

After our delicious feast we walked through the rest of the festival. There were booths selling all kinds of crafts, an art section, and more food, including one selling homemade fudge. Despite my heavy lunch I couldn't resist a slice of chocolate walnut fudge - delicious.

The Frisbee Dogs were there along with the very funny Pig Races, which we've seen before but missed today. They usually race the pigs at night due to the heat but were running them during the day here since it wasn't so hot. An amusement section had all the usual rides and carnival games.

Last year we'd seen jet ski races on the river but they weren't holding them today. They were giving air boat rides, though, on an air boat whose vast noise belied its relatively slow speed. Live musicians performed continuously everywhere including a small Peruvian group playing guitar, flute and mandolin and an electric blues group.

The Blue Crab Festival made for a thoroughly enjoyable day off the boat.

To return to our adventurous shakedown voyage...

By July 17 we had both engines in and running so we left for Saba, a lovely Dutch island south of the Virgin Islands. An hour and a half later we returned to St. Thomas with no generator, no autopilot, one bilge pump down and a leak in the hose to the hot water heater. Called Don who would come the next day to sort out all the problems.

The next day at 12:30 PM we left St. Thomas with all problems fixed. An hour later we returned to St. Thomas with a salt water leak in the starboard engine. Don fixed the leak and flushed the engine. At 3 PM we left again. At 4PM the AC input on the generator burnt up so its engine was running but no AC power was being produced. Despite this problem we headed for Tortola where we arrived at 8PM hoping to get the generator fixed the next day. Without the generator we have no air-conditioning and no 40-gallon-an-hour watermaker to produce fresh water.

The following day we went into a marina so the cats have air-conditioning once again and we arranged to have a new generator motor shipped for arrival the next day. To forget our troubles for a moment Charlie and I took a long walk around the bay to the Moorings complex of charter sailboats. The complex was impressive with many boats at the dock and several large buildings for customers and staff.

As promised the motor was delivered the next day, July 20, but too late to complete installation that day so we hung out in the bar/restaurant next to the dock and heard some good blues from a one-man band. The following day after we completed the motor installation, we toured the island with a taxi driver who had lived in New York City, my home town, for 10 years and had owned a nightclub on Tortola after that. We agreed that the north shore of the island was much prettier than the Roadtown side where we were.

On July 22 we left Tortola only to return with a non-functioning autopilot. It finally engages so we leave Tortola again for Saba.

To be continued...

I see the "tomorrow" in the last post has turned into 3 days from now but it's better than a week. Anyway to continue with the shakedown voyage...the day after our guests left we sailed back to St. Thomas to get the boat problems resolved. We'd planned to be in Curacao by August 1 before hurricane season reached its peak but at least we weren't taking on any more guests. Of course we were still planning on going down the eastern island chain to Trinidad and then go west to Curacao from there, so time was at a premium since it was now July 1.

The next day we pulled into Yacht Haven Marina in St. Thomas, contacted Don regarding the engines, rented a car and did laundry. On the following day one of our crew members helped Don pull the starboard engine to see if it could be rebuilt. We also ordered a new port engine which was supposed to be delivered by the end of the week In addition, Charlie was dealing with new parts for the generator, new block and tackle for the dinghy and a new shackle for the main sail.

While we waited for the new engine to appear, we bought 4 new house batteries, fixed all the bilge pumps and amused ourselves by going to the movies and having dinner with friends. Finally on July 12 the new engine arrived along with the parts necessary to rebuild the starboard engine and Don got to work.

About this time the female member of our young crew started to get a bad attitude but refused to discuss it with us. Not exactly helpful, especially considering our continuing time crunch. We monitored the weather constantly; lots of tropical waves but no hurricanes so far. In addition, I slipped getting off the boat one day and ended up in the water between the boat and the dock. I was fine except for a very bruised butt and a cell phone and PDA that were now toast.

To be continued.

Currently here in Green Cove Springs we're celebrating the return of our friends, Jerry and Linda, to Florida after 6 years cruising in the eastern and southern Caribbean. They're back here for the same reason as we are - make enough money to continue cruising. How they found their boat S/V "Summer Breeze", a 44-foot Gulfstar, is one incredible tale.

Originally they had S/V"Heartland", a 34-foot True North, on which they sailed until 2004 when Hurricane Ivan struck Grenada. We had been in the same marina with them and left for Trinidad the day before the hurricane struck Grenada. Jerry and Linda were on a visit to the States and were due back in Grenada the day after the hurricane struck.

Until we went to Trinidad we were watching their boat for them and so stayed longer in Grenada than we normally would have with a hurricane in the vicinity. Ivan was forecast to turn north; however, its actual course was almost due west. When we awoke Monday morning and Ivan was scheduled to pass 70 miles to the north of Grenada, we quickly decided to go south. As we sailed to Trinidad we heard that the storm was already north of the latitude for Trinidad and still well east of our position. We had a smooth sail and the seas didn't start to build until we reached the entrance to the Chaguaramus anchorage in Trinidad.

Ivan hit Grenada dead on the next day with the eye passing directly over the marina we had been in. In Trinidad we only had 25 knot winds although when the wind changed direction on Tuesday night our anchors broke loose and reset themselves, fortunately without incident except it took Charlie 1 hour to pull them up on Wednesday morning.

Since the airport in Grenada was closed we told Linda and Jerry to fly into Trinidad and we'd sail back to Grenada. The four of us made the trip on a boat laden with groceries and fuel donated by the cruisers in Trinidad. The Trinidad Coast Guard was monitoring all vessels going to and from Grenada since some of the boats bringing supplies to Grenada had been attacked by pirates. We checked in with them a couple of times. During the night while Jerry and Charlie were on watch they saw a small boat rapidly approaching. Both men went for the weapons we carried on board, and apparently the speedboat saw this because they backed off at the last minute. We sailed the rest of the way without incident.

Grenada, formerly a green island, was now a totally brown one with not a leaf to be seen anywhere. Of the 40 or so boats that were in our marina, only 4 were sitting on their anchors; the rest were piled on shore or jammed into the brand new floating docks that had broken loose. Unfortunately an aluminum sailboat had smashed broadside into several boats, including "Heartland" which was now minus over 3 feet of her bow. She wasn't taking on water since the boat that rammed her was now propping her up, but she was declared a total loss by Jerry and Linda's insurance company.

Another security incident I should mention occurred while we were in Grenada. There were numerous reports of looting and we had heard gunshots during our stay, so we weren't surprised when one of the locals swam out to our boat from shore and tried to board. When Charlie pointed a suitable weapon at him, he said he just wanted to make sure we were OK and left quickly. After that incident no more looting occurred in that area since the locals now understood cruisers were armed. A good example of why it doesn't pay to have a victim mentality.

Back to Jerry and Linda who are now minus a boat. We suggested that they load everything they wanted from "Heartland" onto "Blue Star" (thank God for 5 cabins!) and return to Trinidad with us. So after 5 days in Grenada, the four of us returned to Trinidad where Jerry and Linda ended up staying with us for 6 weeks until they bought "Summer Breeze" which had been sitting on the hard in Trinidad for over 4 years because her owners fell ill and were unable to return to the boat. With a bit of elbow grease and getting rid of all the stuff her owners had left behind, "Summer Breeze" turned out to be in great shape. Even her fuel was still good according to Jerry, a mechanic by trade, who fired up the engine using the original fuel. The rest, as they say, is history.

Tomorrow we'll continue with our shakedown voyage.

On our way to St. Thomas one of our guests caught a fish so we had fresh fish for dinner that night. After a rough night passage we arrived in St. Thomas and docked at the old Yacht Haven Marina. Amazingly our guests had actually slept on the trip over and were in good spirits. However, the air-conditioner on starboard had quit, and the starboard engine would not start. Since it was Sunday, nothing was open so we couldn't fix anything.

Next day our guests guests went snorkeling with our crew. No sooner had they left than we were on the phone and lined up a mechanic to fix the engines and generator and a guy to fix the air-conditioners. The A/C guy found leaks in the system and would fix them the next day when the mechanic would be there also. We rented an 8-passenger van so our crew could take our guests on a tour of the island the next day.

One of our guests was Charlie's grown daughter, Lisa, who was celebrating her birthday, so we all piled into the 8-passenger van and drove to Red Hook where we caught the ferry for St. John, one of my favorite islands in the Caribbean. After a delicious dinner there we returned to St. Thomas for cake and champagne aboard "Blue Star".

The following day while our guests were blissfully touring St. Thomas we played host to Don the mechanic who fixed the generator, at least temporarily, and gave Charlie advice on what to do with the starboard engine. Parts had arrived for the port engine so Charlie was able to get it running. As promised, the A/C guy fixed the leaks in the system so we could continue our trip.

The next day, after running errands and returning the van, we sailed to St. John in the afternoon and went diving. Charlie, a certified PADI dive instructor, gave one of our guests a great introduction to the sport. Next day we sailed over to Cinnamon Bay, St. John which I fondly remembered from a certain spring vacation fling in my youth. From there we moved on to Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands and investigated Foxy's a famous cruiser bar and restaurant run by a local musician appropriately named Foxy. Not much happening at Foxy's so we returned to the boat for dinner.

In the morning we sailed to Marina Cay, Tortola, and anchored there in the afternoon. A boat vendor selling everything from T-shirts to fresh produce pulled alongside our boat and our guests had a great time sampling his wares. Our passengers were all leaving the next day so we had a wonderful farewell dinner ashore.

The next morning Charlie and I had an unfortunate incident with the dinghy when we were taking our dog, Star, ashore. We ended up stuck on a reef and had a very hard time getting the dinghy off especially since neither of us was wearing shoes. Ouch! While Charlie took Lisa and her friend to the airport I snorkeled with our crew and the remaining 2 guests. In the afternoon we took these guests to the airport in Road Town. That night we and our crew collapsed in bed after an early dinner, relieved that our guests had had no inkling of our boat problems.

To be continued.

Continuing with the saga of our shakedown voyage, we were still in Grand Turk getting fuel so we could leave the next day. This was without doubt the hardest time we've ever had fueling the boat. We had to take the dinghy ashore filled with empty fuel cans, carry the cans to the gas station, fill them, carry them back to the dinghy, take the dinghy back to the boat and put the fuel in the tanks. As it turned out we should have made one more of these fuel trips but we decided we had enough fuel to get to San Juan, Puerto Rico, our next stop.

The next day, June 17, we left for San Juan and one of our crew caught another fish. That fish was the only highlight in what was otherwise one of the roughest passages we've ever made with wind and waves on the nose. Because of trips like this we now watch the weather more closely and never sail on a schedule.

June 21 we docked in San Juan, running literally on fumes and totally exhausted, but since our guests were coming aboard the next day, we did laundry, got fuel and cleaned the boat. We also made the acquaintance of a couple aboard a large fishing boat who normally divided their time between Alaska and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, but had come east for a major fishing tournament. We had a very spicy dinner aboard their boat.

We could still operate the port engine only when necessary, and the parts we had ordered had not arrived in San Juan. In addition, the generator quit so now we had no air-conditioning, watermaker, hot water or refrigerator. Despite this we picked up our 4 guests as scheduled. Our boat has a total of 5 cabins and every one was now filled, with the cats remaining in the center cabin. Thanks to the ingenuity of our crew and us, at no time during their week aboard did any of the guests realize that anything was wrong with the boat. Because weather was brewing we decided to set sail immediately for St. Thomas.

To be continued.

Before continuing with our shakedown cruise I should mention a surprise we had in Ft. Lauderdale. You may recall the handheld VHF radio we'd given to the people on that small fishing boat that lost its engine. Well, it turned up in Ft. Lauderdale with a lovely note saying how much they appreciated the radio since it was the only way they kept in contact with the tow boat until they were rescued.

Once in the Bahamas some of us dove down to work on the boat and discovered one keel had sustained some damage probably from our antics in the ICW. The damage won't sink us though so we'll keep going. A more serious problem is the oil leaking out somewhere around the water pump on the port engine. Because of the leak we can only run that engine to keep the refrigeration going.

Tonight Star finally peed - first time since Ft. Lauderdale and an event which took 5 minutes to complete and half an hour for Charlie to clean up. Of course it happened just after Charlie went to bed. The next day we took Star ashore in the dinghy.

Continuing south, now it's our male cat, Tiki (short for Tequila), who has a problem. He's refusing to eat due to motion sickness, so I take him out of the center cabin and introduce him to the rest of the interior of the boat - and to Star. Tiki starts to eat normally.

Since we've always had crew on the boat, I'm just now learning how the sails work and try my hand at working the genoa for the first time. (You'll recall I had never been on a sailboat before this one.) We have a 150% genoa and to raise it, you first determine the direction of the wind and let out the sheet on the opposite side. Then you let out a bit of the line running from the cockpit to the roller furler at the bow. Finally you grind the other sheet to shorten the line and unfurl the sail.

We're running the generator at least 4 hours a day to provide air-conditioning to the cats in the center cabin as it's entirely too hot otherwise. That cabin has 2 hatches but neither can be opened due to the waves. Star seems to be using the fake grass mat we have for him - quite a feat since he's about 12 years old and not easily trained.

After 3 days of rough seas we finally anchored at Grand Turk on June 15. By the way, we're taking on 2 paying guests and 2 family members in San Juan on June 23 for a weeks sailing in the Virgin Islands so we're really making time. We took the dinghy in and docked it at a rusty old ladder and climbed up. As we started walking, we met up with guys from Customs who gave us a ride to their office where we filled out a mountain of paperwork - love those British islands.

We also need diesel fuel but will have to use our jerry cans to get it at a gas station in town. Noticing a Peter Hughes diveboat "Wind Dancer" at the dock we start talking to a guy on board who offers to take us and our jugs to the station. We made one trip which filled the generator tank and one fuel tank partially. We still needed 80 gallons more.

Grand Turk was also celebrating the Queen's Birthday which was why mostly everything was closed. We did find a phone and ATM though. We also found a local restaurant where we had dinner. Prior to dinner Charlie discovered he'd lost his wallet, probably on the truck while we were hauling fuel. As we were eating, the guy from "Wind Dancer" appeared with the wallet fully intact.

To be continued.

Returning for a moment to our present day life here in Green Cove Springs, FL, the weather continues to be interesting. Yesterday the smoke from the Florida wildfires was so bad I kept everything closed up and Sunny had to stay in as well. You could still smell a bit of smoke since the wind was from the south so it was blowing right at the door to the salon.

In addition we've had really high water here lately, due to Andrea whirling offshore and sending water up the river. One of our many lines is tied to the stairs leading from the dock to the boat and was pulling the stairs up a bit so Charlie loosened it a little which makes it very difficult for me, at 5'2" to get on and off the boat. I keep my trips ashore to a minimum.

Fortunately we had some rain last night and the wind is now from the north so, while we're stilling bouncing a bit, at least the smoke is gone. Wind is supposed to calm down by tomorrow. Hope so.

Continuing with our shakedown voyage, you'll recall that Charlie and I, our 2 crew members, our dog Star and our 5 cats had finally made it to Ft. Lauderdale. With the air-conditioning installation starting tomorrow, we had many things to do to get ready. We rented a car, took the cats to a really nice kennel, and we finally took Star to the vet (broken tendons but nothing more serious.

May 30 the air-conditioning installation got underway. This was a major undertaking as there were to be 2 split units, one in each hull and a central unit. Due to this layout, the installation affected every part of the boat, including the 5th cabin which is in the center of the boat and reachable only from the outside. That cabin was particularly important since that's where we kept the cats. The engine rooms were affected as well since that's where the compressors were going. In addition the genset which would run the A/C and the watermaker was going in a locker in the cockpit. The 40 gallon an hour watermaker would be installed in the starboard engine room. We also had someone working on the refrigeration and had ordered new lifelines. What a zoo! One day I counted 6 workmen on the boat, all working on top of each other.

To add to this chaos our fresh water pump broke so we had no water. However, that was fixed by the second day of installation. In between trying to move things out of the workmen's way, I was trying to get our new SSB going. Thanks to the primer on the Sailmail website , I had figured out all the parts I needed and had ordered them prior to leaving CT. I was just now putting the system all together though. I also visited the cats every day which they seemed to appreciate. They did really well in the kennel even though this was the first time they'd ever been boarded.

Two days before we left Star inadvertently bit one of the mechanics on board. The guy raised a fuss so we paid him $100 and made him sign a release of liability so we could leave. We returned the cats to the boat the day before we left. On June 9 after provisioning and returning the rental car, we left and arrived in the Bahamas late that night.

To be continued.

I'll get back to our shakedown voyage tomorrow but today I'd like to give you a glimpse of our current life on board S/V Blue Star at the dock here in Green Cove Springs FL. I plan on doing this from time to time whenever something interesting occurs here.

Saturday we went up north to the Shrimp Festival at Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, FL. Now I'm not a great one for shrimp. It makes me a bit sick in fact. But you don't have to like shrimp to appreciate this festival.

We actually tried twice to get there. We aborted our first attempt, around 1PM, because traffic was blocked up from I95 all the way to Fernandina Beach. So after visiting the Pecan Park Swap Meet, we decided to try again around 3:30 PM. This time we succeeded and even found a $5 parking space within easy walking distance of the festival.

Once on site we quickly learned where all those cars we'd seen earlier had gone. Arts and crafts, not shrimp is the mainstay of this event. Thousands of people perused the hundreds of art-filled booths lining the streets which were all closed to traffic. Rather than the usual knickknacks that you usually find at these things, these were artists and craftspeople of the highest caliber. Wall art was made of everything from oils and acrylics to wood and metal. Sculpture of all kinds was well represented also. Every known craft was represented by more than one booth.

One neat thing about living on a boat, in my opinion, is that I can go to an event like this and really appreciate the items on sale without ever being tempted to purchase an item since I'd have no place to put it. That's not to say I wasn't tempted by the guy selling hand-carved frogs with serrated teeth on their backs and removable sticks through their bodies. The idea was to rub the stick along the teeth, producing a sound eerily like...a frog! He had crickets also. Just the thing to annoy our cat, Sunny.

Yes, there was shrimp cooked every way possible including fried, which Charlie pronounced excellent. Many other types of food and drink were also available in mass quantities. Several side streets were lined with antique and swap meet dealers, but we didn't feel the need to browse these after our earlier visit to Pecan Park. Live musicians played everywhere, including one guy that I could have sworn was an old delta bluesman until I saw him. He was white and probably only in his 20's. Quite a performer.

Next year we'll go up on Friday when there will be fewer people. The crowds made it really difficult to see things.

Some of our long-time cruising friends are coming in this week and more will arrive in June and July. Seems everyone ran out of money at the same time. A 30-knot wind suddenly blew in yesterday causing one of our canvas hatch covers to blow off into the water. According to Weather Bug, these northerly winds won't let up until Wednesday so we'll be bouncing around a bit until then.

Many thanks to the person who reminded me to post. I realize it's been a week since you've heard from me so from now on I'll actually schedule a time to post so I don't forget. Glad you like this stuff.

In Beaufort NC our crew gets the starboard engine running again, and we head out into the Atlantic, planning to sail direct to Jacksonville FL. However, heavy waves and high winds against us force us back into Beaufort and into the ICW once again.

One of our major problems navigating the ICW is depth. Remember S/V Blue Star is a catamaran and our depth finder is on the starboard hull. There may be lots of water under the starboard hull but the port hull could be almost aground. This was the situation in the small sandbar incident we had today. "Small" meaning we were able to get off the bar quickly by maneuvering with the other engine. We docked at Sail Marina for the night.

In addition to the depth problem we also have a 63' mast with a VHF antenna at the top, making for great excitement going under the 65' fixed bridges on the ICW as the antenna goes click, click, click against the bridge. Fixed bridges are my specialty. For us navigating the ICW is an 8-hour a day job with 2 people on duty, one at the helm and one following the charts and sometimes using binoculars to find the next markers. For this reason we prefer to go out to sea whenever possible.

The next day we closely avoided another sandbar and discovered there really is a Surf City. It's in NC. Some of you may remember the 60's hit song of the same name by Jan and Dean. In the afternoon a mattress we had put out to air fell into the water. Normally, not a big deal, just circle around and pick it up. Now, however, we had only 5 minutes until a bridge opening. We circled to port, retrieved the errant mattress and had it on board with 1 minute remaining until the opening. Docked for the night at Bald Head Island.

Next day we finally head out to sea with calm seas and winds from the northwest. Our crew caught a bonita so we feasted that night. Building seas in the middle of the night almost caused us our dinghy. It filled with water and flipped over as one pulley on the davits broke. We fixed the pulley and got the dinghy back in the davits. All secured, we continued on to Cape Canaveral rather than Jacksonville.

On our way we spotted a small fishing boat displaying a distress flag. Their engine had died except for going 2 knots in reverse. As they had no means of communication, we called the Coast Guard and got Towboat US on its way to them. We also gave them one of our 2 handheld VHF radios so they could keep in touch with Towboat US. We gave them our upcoming address in Ft. Lauderdale so they could return the radio to us. Of course we never really expected to see it again.

A fishing tournament at Port Canaveral nixed our plans to stop there so we continued on to West Palm Beach where we docked for the night and fueled up. The next day, May 28, we finally arrived in Ft. Lauderdale, 2 weeks after our scheduled arrival, to have air conditioning, genset, and watermaker installed.

To be continued.