Friday, August 16, 2013
Leaving Fairhope Alabama
Our friends and boat neighbors in Fairhope, Ken and Karen Kruse, who live on a beautiful Panda sailboat named Watermark, took these pictures of us as we were setting sail.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Excitement in the Anchorage
Monday evening 8/12 a squall passed over the anchorage and Leap was struck by lightning. We had just come on board and were heading down below with our provisions. The storm was building and the thunder and lightning show was spectacular. I had just commented on how close the strikes were, and saying we made it below in the nick of time. It is quite the sound and feel to be struck. We were just fine as we do not touch rigging or metal during lightning storms. Also heard two other boats were struck.
We do have some damaged equipment:
Windex - wind indicator located on top of the mast
VHF antenna - do not know if it effected the VHFradio, cannot tell if it works without the antenna
Running and stern lights. Anchor and steaming lights survived
2 fans
Manual bilge pump switch
Regulator
We do have some damaged equipment:
Windex - wind indicator located on top of the mast
VHF antenna - do not know if it effected the VHFradio, cannot tell if it works without the antenna
Running and stern lights. Anchor and steaming lights survived
2 fans
Manual bilge pump switch
Regulator
The bits and pieces of the Windex we found on deck after the Lightning strike.
Assorted pictures of the storm passing over.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Isla Mujeres
We have arrived in Isla Mujeres and will spend a few days exploring. Hope to have some pictures to share eventually. We are also watching the weather so as to chart our anchorages along the way south and watching for favorable sailing winds.
Wifi palapa with Charlie at the table.
At our anchorage in Isla Mujeres.
Our windscoop in action. We have one for each hatch and they do a great job of directing breeze down below. We made them out of a salvaged tent we bought at a garage sale while still in Fairhope.
Below are pictures from in and around Isla Mujeres
Lobster shack established in 1683 (above)
Great music coming out of this restaurant/bar
This sculpture is on the beach.
One of the coffee house wifi stops. The coffee is from Chiapas and we had great iced coffees and enjoyed a bit of relaxing in their very comfortable surroundings.
Monday 8/12 we came in to El Milagro Marina in Isla Mujeres and met with Julio who helped us finish the rest of our paperwork. The check in, while in Progreso was incomplete and needed to be finished here.
For 5 pesos per person, per day, we can come into the marina and enjoy the wifi, pool, bicycles, kitchen, showers and meet fellow cruisers. Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Sunsets and Clouds on Gulf of Mexico Crossing and Isla Perez
Crossing the Gulf of Mexico
We departed Fairhope AL on Sunday July 28, 2013.
Most of the trip was calm, light wind sailing days mixed with doldrums and motor sailing. We had a few evenings of fabulous sailing averaging 6 to 7 knots. In the 6 nights, 7 days of sailing we had one night that we wish we could have stayed at the dock or had a protected anchorage.
We have auto pilot which is a blessing, especially on the quiet days. We named him Otto Auto and on occasion he just quit and we had to offer him a beer and time off. Having Otto Auto allows one of us to sleep and the other to stand watch without always standing at the helm. However he will run into things as he does not veer from his course, so a vigilant watch is imperative. There are freighters, oil rigs, cruise ships, fishing boats and now, closer to Mexico, the occasional atoll and reef to sail around.
We had a couple days of repairs at sea, which is not uncommon, according to fellow cruisers stories and thankfully for us they were calm days, so the repairs went as smooth as could be, considering. First incident involved the alternator belt having a melt down. We have spare parts, however, we have to dismantle storage compartments to get to the engine room which creates chaos in the cockpit. We were able to drop sails and just gently float along as we did the repairs. Once Charlie got the alternator belt on we started the engine and heard clunk,clunk.... what the heck was that? Turned off the engine and tried again, same thing.
Opened the engine compartment which means dismantling the companionway and low and behold three of four bolts had fallen out of the transmission and were laying in the bilge under the transmission. Whew! Easy to fix, another thing to add to the engine check list.
Our second repair was the steering cable. On Saturday August 3rd as we were anchoring at Isla Perez the steerage gave way and we are not sure what the cause was. So instead of fishing and snorkeling we had work to do. We have spare cable on board but it is a bit smaller and will need to be replaced when we get to port. We took the day to disassemble the steering column and again empty storage compartments so we can reach the steering quadrant. With much standing on heads, crouching in small spaces, improvisation, trial and error we were able to rewire the steering. We departed Isla Perez at 8pm hoping to head for Isla Mujeres but the wind had other ideas and after being pounded around for awhile we changed course and headed for Progreso, MX arriving Sunday August 4th around 6pm.
We are having new steering cables made and a check up on the alternator as we rely heavily on all of our charging systems for navigation, refrigeration and charging of computers and tracking, not to mention Otto Auto needs his power fix too.
The following pictures are a smattering of life at sea. Our favorites being, when the dolphins come for a visit and stay to play. Sunsets, moonrises and sunrises are gorgeous and the cloud formations quite spectacular.
One of several oil rigs
The water was so calm today that the dolphins almost look surreal. What fun they have playing with Leap. There were two females with very young ones but they stayed on the outside of the pod and I was not able to get good pictures. The young try to jump and play like the others it was an absolute joy to watch. The pod of 20 to 30 stayed with us all morning.
It was so calm at the halfway point we had a celebratory swim. Charlie rigged a line with a fender and we took turns swimming as we never leave the boat unattended when not anchored.
Otto Auto at work. Charlie on left Karen on right.
The culprit and the chaos in the cockpit.
In our safety gear following a squall.
Most of the trip was calm, light wind sailing days mixed with doldrums and motor sailing. We had a few evenings of fabulous sailing averaging 6 to 7 knots. In the 6 nights, 7 days of sailing we had one night that we wish we could have stayed at the dock or had a protected anchorage.
We have auto pilot which is a blessing, especially on the quiet days. We named him Otto Auto and on occasion he just quit and we had to offer him a beer and time off. Having Otto Auto allows one of us to sleep and the other to stand watch without always standing at the helm. However he will run into things as he does not veer from his course, so a vigilant watch is imperative. There are freighters, oil rigs, cruise ships, fishing boats and now, closer to Mexico, the occasional atoll and reef to sail around.
We had a couple days of repairs at sea, which is not uncommon, according to fellow cruisers stories and thankfully for us they were calm days, so the repairs went as smooth as could be, considering. First incident involved the alternator belt having a melt down. We have spare parts, however, we have to dismantle storage compartments to get to the engine room which creates chaos in the cockpit. We were able to drop sails and just gently float along as we did the repairs. Once Charlie got the alternator belt on we started the engine and heard clunk,clunk.... what the heck was that? Turned off the engine and tried again, same thing.
Opened the engine compartment which means dismantling the companionway and low and behold three of four bolts had fallen out of the transmission and were laying in the bilge under the transmission. Whew! Easy to fix, another thing to add to the engine check list.
Our second repair was the steering cable. On Saturday August 3rd as we were anchoring at Isla Perez the steerage gave way and we are not sure what the cause was. So instead of fishing and snorkeling we had work to do. We have spare cable on board but it is a bit smaller and will need to be replaced when we get to port. We took the day to disassemble the steering column and again empty storage compartments so we can reach the steering quadrant. With much standing on heads, crouching in small spaces, improvisation, trial and error we were able to rewire the steering. We departed Isla Perez at 8pm hoping to head for Isla Mujeres but the wind had other ideas and after being pounded around for awhile we changed course and headed for Progreso, MX arriving Sunday August 4th around 6pm.
We are having new steering cables made and a check up on the alternator as we rely heavily on all of our charging systems for navigation, refrigeration and charging of computers and tracking, not to mention Otto Auto needs his power fix too.
The following pictures are a smattering of life at sea. Our favorites being, when the dolphins come for a visit and stay to play. Sunsets, moonrises and sunrises are gorgeous and the cloud formations quite spectacular.
The water was so calm today that the dolphins almost look surreal. What fun they have playing with Leap. There were two females with very young ones but they stayed on the outside of the pod and I was not able to get good pictures. The young try to jump and play like the others it was an absolute joy to watch. The pod of 20 to 30 stayed with us all morning.
It was so calm at the halfway point we had a celebratory swim. Charlie rigged a line with a fender and we took turns swimming as we never leave the boat unattended when not anchored.
Friday, July 26, 2013
Tracking Link
Here is the link for tracking our progress. We have set it to update our location every four hours. You can select the view whether topo, aerial or road. We like aerial. If we average 6 knots we will make 144 miles over a 24 hour period, however, this is optimistic as sailing and winds are not always consistent.
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