The Sail Home
After buying Bamboo on September 12, 2006, It was time to take a trip to Melbourne, FL and sail her home to Daytona.
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If you're looking at this photo thinking, " Here's a guy totally ate up with with his boat", you'd be right! I just love everything about this 89' Catalina 25. Large enough to be a real boat, small enough to really use and only burn A SMALL hole in your pocket. Bamboo has a larger cabin than I expected, an actual head instead of a port-o-potty. a Wing Keel which I think is outstanding, allowing the boat a fixed keel but drawing only 2' 10", and the vibrating hum of a Swing Keel in motion is conspicuously absent. Beautiful forward and aft stainless steel stanchions, a bimini top, brand new mast with internal halyards and new rigging.
The weather was good, winds from the south (at our back) at 10 to 15 and although it's early in the trip I already thought I had died and gone to heaven. Sugar seems to be thinking the same thing! Brought my buddy Marty to help me. It was his first time sailing a boat but he did really well.
t was an uneventful sail. And what I mean is nothing went wrong. We had a 10 to 15 at our back with a moderate chop on the Intercoastal and a sunny warm day to sail by. My 58 lb. Golden "Sugar" has been on a lot of small power boats and took to Bamboo immediately. The sea legs did take a bit longer for her to develop but now is able to walk the rail to the front deck and go below without a problem.
Had to Raise the bridge at Titusville. I enjoy all the newer 65 ft. fixed bridges and the ease of passage, but still fun to make the folks wait every now and then! We sailed by NASA's V.A.B. (Vertical Assembly Building) at the Kennedy Space Center. Always fun to see. What a HUGE structure! It's really a privilege to live close (Daytona is about 50 miles north) enough to see all the launches. You should have seen the Apollo's go up!
(1)Kind of looks like we're about to be swamped but actually Marty just zoomed on this rather large power boat approaching us from astern. (2)Sugar decided she'd had enough excitement and settled down for a siesta.(3)Marty and I also got tired of the excitement and put down the cameras. We motored through Haulover Canal, raised the last bridge and sailed Mosquito Lagoon 10 more miles north before dropping the hook for the night. Got up early the next morning and motored the last few miles to my brother Brad and his wife Phyllis's house on the river in Edgewater. It's awful nice to have a free place to moor your boat and the ideal shelter in bad weather situations! Thanks guys! (4)Another shot of Bamboo
OK, we're safely home and quite tired. Time for a nap (Yawn!!)
My brother Steve and his daughter Erika joined me for the day's sail. Steve is an experienced sailor, Erika had only been out once before, with her dad on my boat. And of course I wouldn't be sailing anywhere without my best bud, Sugar.
Away from the dock
We were dealing with a 14 year old girl, so I don't know why I was surprised that we didn't get to the dock until 10am. But that's O.K., we still had plenty of time. I decided to have Steve stand aside and let me single hand Bamboo away from and back to the dock. I had to turn the boat around in a 50 ft. wide canal to navigate out into the main river and then to the channel. In the past two months I had gotten quite accustomed to dealing with the rudder and outboard (8hp Tohatsu) simultaneously and so got her away from the dock nicely. Once to the Intercoastal Waterway we were greeted by the swift out going tide that I had expected. We also had a North wind at 10 to 15 mph so our trip south 9 1/2 miles to the inlet would be much shorter than usual. I believe the hull speed on a C-25 is somewhere around 5 1/2 knots, but between the current and the brisk wind my GPS registered 10.4 mph at some point along the way. I handed the tiller over to Steve and went forward to shoot some video. Erika went below to grab her dad's camera (she was our photographer for the day) and Steve tried out the "Tiller Tamer". He seemed very pleased with it, raising his arms above his head and shouting, "look mom, no hands!
We were dealing with a 14 year old girl, so I don't know why I was surprised that we didn't get to the dock until 10am. But that's O.K., we still had plenty of time. I decided to have Steve stand aside and let me single hand Bamboo away from and back to the dock. I had to turn the boat around in a 50 ft. wide canal to navigate out into the main river and then to the channel. In the past two months I had gotten quite accustomed to dealing with the rudder and outboard (8hp Tohatsu) simultaneously and so got her away from the dock nicely. Once to the Intercoastal Waterway we were greeted by the swift out going tide that I had expected. We also had a North wind at 10 to 15 mph so our trip south 9 1/2 miles to the inlet would be much shorter than usual. I believe the hull speed on a C-25 is somewhere around 5 1/2 knots, but between the current and the brisk wind my GPS registered 10.4 mph at some point along the way. I handed the tiller over to Steve and went forward to shoot some video. Erika went below to grab her dad's camera (she was our photographer for the day) and Steve tried out the "Tiller Tamer". He seemed very pleased with it, raising his arms above his head and shouting, "look mom, no hands!
A short while later we found ourselves sailing past the Ponce Inlet lighthouse which meant we were just about to the inlet. I've been out that inlet many times but this would be the first on Bamboo, and two weeks prior we had made an attempt but the outboard quit on us just as we got to the "standing soldiers" (a group of large and close waves that stay pretty much stationary about half way out on an outgoing tide). luckily we had the main up and were able to come about quickly and sail back in and away from disaster. I found out later a slightly pulled kill-switch shim was the culprit (it's good when a problem is solved cheaply:). LESSON LEARNED; Always have a sail raised when going out the inlet. O.K., back to the story. Today the northwest wind had blown the inlet flat and we were able to sail out without the outboard, but the waves breaking over the jetty were a sure indication things were a bit messier beyond. In fact, the forecast 2 to 3 ft seas with 10 mph north west winds were 4 to 6 ft seas with 15 to 20 mph winds. Time to get out the puppy PFD! Steve said it best when he told people later that we were just a little out of our comfort zone, but that it was really a great day. There was plenty of spray over the bow, some making it back to the camera's lens, and plenty of "rockin and rollin" as the strong wind whistled through the sails, stretching the jib halyard enough to cause a little sag in the sail. On the northward leg Sugar had to stay on the cockpit floor it was "rockin" so good. I noticed something rather sad as we battled our way north against the wind and waves, so many condos have gone up in the last few years I could no longer recognize the Daytona Beach coast line. Still it was a beautiful sight. We now were about 7 miles north, 5 1/2 miles off the coast and it was almost 2 pm, time to bring her about and sail the down wind tack back to the inlet. Things settled down considerably then, Sugar found a nice place to chill and watch the waves go by, Erika soaked up the sun, I grabbed the video camera while Steve surfed us down the waves and told stories about an offshore sail on a 1920's Hirschoff Racing Sloop that was SO fast that when the bow of the vessel cut through a wave and came out the other side it threw the water it had gathered into the air as high as the lower spreader, past the cockpit and back into the ocean behind the boat leaving the occupants high and dry! He's very animated when he tells a story too, it was great hehe! After a very pleasent sail back to and in the inlet we proceeded to motor the 9 1/2 miles back to the dock and finally tied up about 4:30 pm. I had no problem with the single handed docking, it's nice to have that accomplished and out of the way. Everyone had a great time, no one got sick and there were no incidents. Definitely a victory! Let's go do it again!!
Sailing with Bob Jack
July 21, 2007
After posting on a thread at the Catalina International Association web site A guy by the name of Bob Jack emailed me and told me how much he enjoyed the post/pictures and that the Ponce Inlet area was his old stomping grounds. Upon further discussion we discovered that both of us had owned C-22's in the early-mid 80's and actually knew of one another's boats at the time. He and my dad used to race the Sunday regattas.
We talked about various adventures on our 22's and how much fun they were. He also told me about meeting his wife here and that they were coming to Daytona for her 30 yr. reunion. "Funny", I said, "mine's coming up too". You guessed it, we were both going to the same reunion. I asked how long it had been since he'd been out Ponce Inlet and he told me he hadn't in a sail boat for a long time. So I invited him to go with me the 21st of July while they were up for the reunion.
So I met Bob at the reunion, drank a few beers and shot the breeze, it was a good time! I was a little worried about the next day's sail though, the weather man called for a 60% chance of showers and thunderstorms. It didn't look to promising.
We met at Adventure Yacht Harbor Saturday (7/21) morning at 9am and readied the boat. Here's a pic of that. You can see Sugar overseeing the operation:)
July 21, 2007
After posting on a thread at the Catalina International Association web site A guy by the name of Bob Jack emailed me and told me how much he enjoyed the post/pictures and that the Ponce Inlet area was his old stomping grounds. Upon further discussion we discovered that both of us had owned C-22's in the early-mid 80's and actually knew of one another's boats at the time. He and my dad used to race the Sunday regattas.
We talked about various adventures on our 22's and how much fun they were. He also told me about meeting his wife here and that they were coming to Daytona for her 30 yr. reunion. "Funny", I said, "mine's coming up too". You guessed it, we were both going to the same reunion. I asked how long it had been since he'd been out Ponce Inlet and he told me he hadn't in a sail boat for a long time. So I invited him to go with me the 21st of July while they were up for the reunion.
So I met Bob at the reunion, drank a few beers and shot the breeze, it was a good time! I was a little worried about the next day's sail though, the weather man called for a 60% chance of showers and thunderstorms. It didn't look to promising.
We met at Adventure Yacht Harbor Saturday (7/21) morning at 9am and readied the boat. Here's a pic of that. You can see Sugar overseeing the operation:)
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On our way to the inlet. No messing around with sails, we put the pedal to the metal (OK the plastic to ..... the other plastic) and didn't waist time so as to hopefully get out before it started clouding up
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Soon we rounded the last turn, raised the sails and out we went! Here's Bob at the helm
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The cool thing was, the sky wasn't showing those early signs of an impending thunderstorm. ALL the fisherman were out fishing the rocks of the north jetty as you can see behind Bob. Please excuse the washed look of some of the pics, my camera was set wrong
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Here's a pic of the east end of the north jetty
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It was the perfect day, nary a cloud in site, 5 to 1-0 kt. winds, 1 to 2 ft. seas. The bell-buoy (picture) was clanging very mildly. I'll bet it makes a racket on a 6 to 8 December day!
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Oh, also on the way out I took a pic looking south and again it's washed out a bit but all those little dots in the water are surfers at the New Smyrna jetty. Probably 50 of them!
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Here's a pic looking south west at New Smyrna Beach from a mile or two out.
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Ahh, it was a great day but was time to head back in. The fun wasn't quite over though, we were able not only to sail OUT but also to sail back in the inlet and even all the way north back to the marina, a rare thing! Here's a picture sailing back in the inlet
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A pic of "Disappearing Island" PACKED with boaters (and the Marine Patrol cruising by keeping an eye on everything)
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A picture of the marina as we approached, my slip is last on the right, next to a Catalina 30, And lastly a pic of the dock. I'm going over tomorrow to take Bamboo out and back to the private dock where I normally keep her, I'm going to miss having her at the marina, it was great to go down on a week-end night, get a bite to eat at Boondock's and then go sit on the boat with friends, etc. ....... sigh ...... but I'm sure I'll do it again next year.
Three Days and Two Nights
October 26 thru 28th, 2007
It may not sound like much, but it was a much anticipated slice of heaven for me.
The plan was to sail about 20 miles south to Edgewater the first day, Drop the hook at "Blue Hole" and Dinghy in to my brother's for dinner and a few beers.
I got to the boat at 8:30am on Friday 10/26, got Sugar aboard and off we went. It was a cloudy, there was a 15 to 20 mph NNE wind and a medium chop on the ICW. We rounded the #46 red marker to enter the channel, raised the working jib and shut the Tohatsu down. If I would have raise the main it would have just covered the jib and I was moving a lot of water so left things alone. Here's a pic looking north at the South Daytona area. Because of a pretty swift incoming tide I was only making about 2.5 kts. but was in no hurry. By 11am we were nearing Ponce Inlet and I snapped a pic of the "Inlet Harbor Restaurant".
October 26 thru 28th, 2007
It may not sound like much, but it was a much anticipated slice of heaven for me.
The plan was to sail about 20 miles south to Edgewater the first day, Drop the hook at "Blue Hole" and Dinghy in to my brother's for dinner and a few beers.
I got to the boat at 8:30am on Friday 10/26, got Sugar aboard and off we went. It was a cloudy, there was a 15 to 20 mph NNE wind and a medium chop on the ICW. We rounded the #46 red marker to enter the channel, raised the working jib and shut the Tohatsu down. If I would have raise the main it would have just covered the jib and I was moving a lot of water so left things alone. Here's a pic looking north at the South Daytona area. Because of a pretty swift incoming tide I was only making about 2.5 kts. but was in no hurry. By 11am we were nearing Ponce Inlet and I snapped a pic of the "Inlet Harbor Restaurant".
In a few minutes we were crossing the inlet and headed for New Smyrna Beach. The North bridge is a bascule that opens every 20 minutes and of course I got there as far away from an opening as possible (I guess Murphy was aboard). The South bridge is a 65 footer so no waiting there. There were some boats moored just past it that I took some pics of, and one sunken, sad to see....
But onward and southward! Here's one of the many million dollar homes that went in a few years ago. Quite a few Catalina's in the area, mostly 22's ................. and several folks passed me up in there stink potters headed away from the cold I'm guessing.
Got to Edgewater about 3:30pm, found a nice out of the way spot to anchor and relaxed for a while. By the way I'm using a fortress (aluminum) anchor and it did a wonderful job in the sand.
Now on to the Dinghy test. I'd been wondering how Sugar (60 lb. Golden) would do getting in and out of the inflatable and had considered making some sort of step for her but someone on the forum was saying their dog pretty much jumped in and out of theirs without much problem. When I took Sugar to shore for a pee break this proved to be the case. A little later we got back in the inflatable and headed to the bro's for dinner. That's a C-25 in the background there, looks to be an 89 or there abouts. Later that night we motored back to Bamboo and Sugar took her spot on the bow and marveled at the 10-15 dolphins that were frolicking/feeding until it started raining and I called her in. Kind of nice, a moderate rain at night. Nice and cool, no bugs and I had this fan I bought from Wallyworld w/ built in battery. went all night! I think I like a fan I can stow verses one anchored somewhere, even if it is a slim line style.
Now on to the Dinghy test. I'd been wondering how Sugar (60 lb. Golden) would do getting in and out of the inflatable and had considered making some sort of step for her but someone on the forum was saying their dog pretty much jumped in and out of theirs without much problem. When I took Sugar to shore for a pee break this proved to be the case. A little later we got back in the inflatable and headed to the bro's for dinner. That's a C-25 in the background there, looks to be an 89 or there abouts. Later that night we motored back to Bamboo and Sugar took her spot on the bow and marveled at the 10-15 dolphins that were frolicking/feeding until it started raining and I called her in. Kind of nice, a moderate rain at night. Nice and cool, no bugs and I had this fan I bought from Wallyworld w/ built in battery. went all night! I think I like a fan I can stow verses one anchored somewhere, even if it is a slim line style.
Saturday morning we got up around 8am, made some coffee, had a bacon and egg breakfast and were heading south by 10am. As we neared the Mosquito Lagoon we passed a fish camp with some folks out fishing on the seawall and some odd boats, which really aren't odd around here. Here's a pic of one ....... what was he thinking? Also a Cat 22 where the owner should be slapped! Clean that thing up man!
And then on to the lagoon. Pretty place. great fishing, camping and cruising. Here's a guy in the distance push poling the flats for Red Fish, and a guy clamming. They feel them with there toes. As I got closer to Haulover canal I could see the Shuttle Launch pads through the haze.
A half hour later I was at the canal. Cranked the Tohatsu, raised the bascule and headed out the west end into the Indian River Lagoon, where for the first time I was on a beam reach and raised the main!
At this point I look to my north and east to see rain headed my way and also there was a storm ahead of me headed away from me but looked like I could still intercept it. BUT missed both. Dropped the sails after a while and motored in to the Titusville Marina where the stiff east wind was causing quite a ruckus! Rented a slip and proceeded to cook up a 1 lb. lobster tail with asparagus and a baked sweet potato on the side. Ah, this is the life!
The BB-Q did have it's difficulties in the wind ............ Frank Hopper should be proud of the way I stowed that jib, eh?
Had a great nights sleep, woke early Sunday morning, bought a cup of coffee and left for home. Didn't waist any time because I knew there was a lot of motoring against the wind to be done! Here's a pic leaving the Marina and of the prevailing winds
