Coastal Cruising: Bay Breeze & Aquavit

Our new AC is broke! Maybe gremlins have infested Bay Breeze?   Our sailing friend Terry put it this way;  “Everything on your boat is broken, you just haven’t discovered it yet.”  ...Seems like a pretty accurate aphorism.   Our plans to begin cruising for the next several months came to a sudden halt when our newly installed AC failed, our refrigerator failed, and Helmsley, our trusted autopilot, suddenly quit saying “drive stopped”. All within a day. So instead of heading down to the Keys, we packed up and limped back to our trusted boat yard, Sailors Wharf, for repairs or to exorcise the demons that are meddling with our comfort amenities. Sailors of yore didn’t have these technological luxuries, but we are fair-weather cruisers that depend on these systems.  Monument to commemorate the first round trip airline flight in 1914 at the St. Petersburg Pier    Fortunately we had a couple weeks of fun adventures and comaraderie before bailing out on ...

“ There’s nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing than messing about in boats” - Kenneth Grahame ....When you have a good old boat, there's a lot of messing necessary Calypso on the St. Marks River on her way to have a little work done.   With AQUAVIT in storage in Maine til next summer, and Bay Breeze at Sailors Wharf Boat Yard in St Petersburg waiting for us to begin our spring cruise, we are working on getting  Calypso spruced up: new sails, roller fuller, paint job and some fiberglas touch up of the rub rail flange. Calypso is a 1964 Pearson Ensign daysailer, designed by Carl Alberg, 23 ft in length, 3 ft draft and 3,000 lbs. Calypso is number 627 of the 2000 or so made. Floorboard Repair The floorboards in our Ensign were worn and tired.  After 60 years stainless steel screws were corroded and not holding. Rust popped up some of the teak plugs, also called “bungs”. Mostly, the wood was in decent condition with only a ...

  Prepping for the next cruise. Bay Breeze on the hard AQUAVIT in storage AQUAVIT is hauled and tucked away in heated storage at Journey's End Marina in Rockland, Maine. We’re pleased to be establishing a relationship with Journey's End Marina, a large professional operation. Then, in the spring, Journey's End will launch and take AQUAVIT to our seasonal slip at Safe Harbor Marina. Then, we'll resume cruising coastal Maine. Now, we’re anxious to get on with our next cruising plans. In a couple months, we'll cruise in Bay Breeze along Florida's coast. Recently, we visited Bay Breeze on jack stands in storage at Sailors Wharf in St. Petersburg to check on the service schedule before they launch. Bay Breeze will be washed and waxed, and, with electronic upgrades and washed sails, be ready to cruise again.  One of the Ensigns we saw in Maine Until we take off again, we’ll be working on Calypso, our Pearson Ensign. While in Maine we noticed several Ensigns moored alo...

A spectacular sunset from our dock at the Safe Harbor Marina in Rockland   Down East to Mount Desert Island   When the weather window opens you go through it. Such was the case for leaving Rockland to take a short cruise over to Mount Desert Island and poke around a bit in Acadia National Park.    It’s a mere 35 miles from Rockland to Southwest Harbor as the crow flies, but the navigable route is more like 50. A good bit of it is stressful through fields of lobster buoys. We broke up the trip by staying at Isle au Haut. There is a narrow channel at Isle au Haut that is called a “thorofare”. These cracks in the rock islands provide shortcuts between the larger water bodies and provide safe sheltered places to anchor.   We picked up a free guest mooring ball to spend a quiet night off Flake Island across from a private club.  Only 92 folks are full time residents of Isle au Haut and their livelihood is tied to the sea and summer vacation homes.  Hal...