A New and Beautiful Year

January 2, 2011!

Another year has passed by...  Going to have to get used to writing 2011...with only 1 zero, it’s hard to remember. Guess I’ll have to practice, got a whole year to get it right. We stayed (camped) at Cayo Costa State Park for a night. We went to bed at, shit, 7:30pm, or something. We read and enjoyed the white sand beach and then made dinner. Our neighbor mistook poison ivy for some other vine...oops, Ha! We HAD to tell him. The couple thought that poison ivy had three leaves that all came out of the same petiole. Nope, not really. They were greasy looking leaves, too. She even iPhoned it. It was poison ivy, as declared by the iPhone Gods. He went and washed up and neglected to put away the rope that was still wrapped around the poison ivy. Poor guy. Unfortunately, this was day one of a four day trip. Hope, for his sake, that he’s ok. We enjoyed the time on land. 

We then headed for Cabbage Key to stay for two nights. First night was good, docked next to another sailboat with a couple in their late 50’s early 60’s. Good conversation. They stole all the hot water in the shower, though...terds. 

Cabbage Key Restaurant & Docks, simple Cracker style house-turned restaurant. 

We spent New Years Eve on the boat, cleaning up a bit, walking around the key, getting a “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” and generally being lazy. It felt good. Sun was warm, people watching was good, and we were at awe with the other boats and the people coming and going. Expensive boats, (probably) snooty people, and some funny stuff. We stayed on board until about 6:30pm and then mingled with some other folks. It was like each Captain had to ask about the others’ boat. One of the guys we talked to was an employee for USGS, Dan. He had paddled by all the docks earlier and I said, “Nice Kayak!” He was in a boat that looked just like my Mom’s grey kayak. He mentioned later that he saw our boat and thought... “hum, they’re different...” and he looked forward to meeting us. Apparently  in a line of fancy boats, when you see our 1974 Catalina, that’s what you think. We when to dinner and had a filet mignon and crab with shrimp bisque and salad. All topped off with their famous recipe (right...) of Key Lime pie for dessert. Great stuff. A DJ helped us dance the night away. He also decided to nap for a bit, after the huge meal and woke up just in time for the Ball Drop in Time Square. We went back up to the restaurant and had champaign and danced a bit. We met up with Dan and his wife, Liesel, a lovely German woman. We stayed up til 2:30am chatting. I gleaned a few things: 

• Post cards are good to send out as a small gesture and to inspire folks. (I used to do this all the time, about 5 years ago, but have since lost the habit)
• We are inspiring to other people just in our endeavor and spirit. (Just by doing this and being here, talking to people, it’s inspiring to folks to live their dreams or something)

Sunset at Cabbage Key on New Years Eve, looking east.

Key Lime Pie and Corona with Lime, Deeeeelish!

Great Egret that sat right next to our sailboat on the dock.

Great Egret...Up close and personal.

Brown Pelican chillin' on the water

Catchin' the wind. Osprey sail too!

We had a great time and left out on New Years Day. The wind was against us a bit (coming from the south). We got to Captiva Island and set anchor by a channel. A few waves and it was a bit choppy with passers-by, but over all it was a good spot once night fall came on. 

Our next day (today) was pretty good. We hit some smooth sailing, but the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway) was really busy with boats and lots of people out on a Sunday. It kicked our asses with the waves and totally killed our momentum (us only having a 9 horsepower motor, and barely gassing it to save on gas). Pisses me off how fast people go! Anywho...We made our way to the end (on the Gulf side) of the ICW and the beginning of the Okechobee Waterway. Which has a bunch of locks to help folks cut across Florida. I read later that the last section of the ICW was called the “Miserable Mile” which was actually 5 nautical miles long, because it was a very tight squeeze, with lots of traffic, and very shallow on either side of the channel. We hit some BIG waves (wake) from huge yachts and speed racers. 

We’re going to stay a few nights at Glover’s Blight, a cool little area surrounded on 2 sides by Mangroves, one side by a marina and large resort, and one side by a channel that leads out. It’s super fancy and we’re sitting here listening to crickets and live music from the restaurant. Should be a good anchoring. 

We’ve got chores to do tomorrow: laundry, charge computers, phones, etc. and head for the post office to pick up our generator. Hopefully this will solve some of our electrical/energy issues. We’ve run low, sometimes, on juice to run our lights and our electronics. It’s time to change that. 

I’ve felt pretty tired after these sunny days (in the 70’s). The sun feel hotter and probably is. I feel constantly sunburnt or perhaps windburnt. I’m learning everyday that I have new sore muscles. The constant work of pulling ropes, pulling the motor or working it, and most of all, general balance! It’s totally kicking me in the butt! I definitely feel sore in some place, everyday. It’s a good feeling because I don’t get out onto land to stretch my legs or exercise much, no hiking lately. Although, anchoring and going ashore for errands...that’s hiking. That’s what we’ll be doing tomorrow. We’re gonna kick back tonight and watch The Wire (TV show on HBO), and then get up early to run around. Until next time...Good night. 

All Nighter

December 29, 2010

Can’t believe 2010 is almost over! Glacier’s Centennial year! Been sailing (living aboard for 15 days...17 days of sleeping on it. Challenges seem to come and go, but they’re still remembered each time I start a new day. I’m having issues remembering that I CAN do this. In fact, I have! I get nervous when the boat gets going fast. It’s like you have control of a train and if you let go, there could be a wreck or it could just run out of steam. 

Haven’t had any major set backs. We had a kinked fuel line, and Dub fixed it just in the nick of time. We’ve spent just about as much time on land or anchored out for a while, as we have been sailing. Dub’s itching to head south, as am I because the weather has been unseasonably cold. Freezing temps almost each weekend. What happened to my warm Florida? Oh well, Patience. 

Dub sailing on very choppy Tampa Bay waters (Sunshine Skyway bridge behind him)

Stayed up all night in fairly choppy weather because we couldn’t make it into a channel. Too shallow and the waves were rocking us so much that we were hitting bottom. We headed back out into the Gulf and went south. Not a good idea to try and go into an inlet in the dark. The best idea from there was to head south...and actually head south all night. The wind from the North was blowing us in the right direction, which made for easy sailing south. It was ok sailing at night, just taxing being up and being cold (a freeze warning was in effect...brrr!). I stayed up until 12:30-1:00 while Dub slept. Then He took second shift til 4am. It was ok, just strange to only see lights. You didn’t have a landmark to point at, it was just lights. I never thought I would say it, but I was wishing for more lights. Light pollution is nasty, but they help when navigating. I heard several Dolphins surface for air, 2 or 3 Loon calls and 3 shooting stars! A night to remember. 

Near Boca Grande. I never welcomed a sunrise so much! 

So we made it to Boca Grande, a beautiful wide and deep inlet near Charlotte Harbor. Traveled about 60 nautical miles from Manatee River outlet (in Tampa Bay) to our new location. We’re staying on the south side of the inlet at Cayo Costa State Park. We’ve kayaked out to this island before, but never anchored our boat and gone ashore. A totally different feeling. It’s nice to be off choppy waters at sea! Camping tonight, Cabbage Key tomorrow!

The beautiful beach on Cayo Cost and the view into Boca Grande, the area we had just sail in from. 

A stray, forgotten feather caught my fancy on the beach, scattered among the sand and flora.

Sailboat Pictures

 Knot a Clew

The name fits for now...

The V Berth (great storage!) 

Head on the right (bathroom) & a closet on the left 

(miniature version) 

The Galley

(kitchen area, to be renovated) 

The previous owner had a fridge in the empty space and now we need more shelves and counter space!

The Salon

Nice wood table that drops down to create a bed, 

and a great bench for day sailing convenience. 

The Cockpit

The top slides back pretty far to reveal a great open ceiling. Nice for extra sun or star gazing at night!

The Cockpit has a tiller (not a wheel), so it makes it a bit roomier! Plenty of storage too!  

Jamie at Sunset, 

First night at Sea!

These are mostly the BEFORE pictures, the AFTER pictures will come soon!

Today I sailed!

December 16, 2010

Today I sailed

This is officially the fourth night on the boat. We spent two nights on the boat at it’s original docking (where the owner had it at his buddy’s place). While it was there we spent six days cleaning and fixing it up. The motor got fixed and added to the transom. I cleaned the interior a lot. Dub power washed the exterior. We fixed up wiring and added a new toilet. We did ALL kinds of other stuff that I can’t remember and don’t care to. We spent a lot of time and cash to get’er ready to live on. 

We motored out of the canals, past houses and many other nice looking boats. We watched the tide, but apparently didn’t end up on the good side of the tide. It was going out and we were sitting deep--keel sticking down about 4 feet. We ran aground. We tried to get her loose, playing around motoring to reverse us. It didn’t work. We waited about 3 1/2 hours. Low tide came and went @ 1:30pm We watched the water coming in pretty quickly. High tide was @ 7 something that night. Luckily about 2:30pm we were free. We made our way around to the channels (we were only a few hundred yards from the channel markers when we hit bottom...so it was torture). Eventually we headed out on the channels West! To the Gulf! We motored against the wind and finally made our way to open water. The gulf is actually very shallow. We ran aground at 4 feet and the channel that is marked was about 6 feet. The “deeper” areas (2-3 miles out) are 7-10 feet. Not too deep. We decided to anchor up at sunset. Not a cloud in the sky. Probably the clearest sunset I’ve ever seen! It was a good night’s rest. 

We woke to another crystal clear day, which isn’t all that good when you need wind to sail. This time there was warmer weather (upper 60’s). Mother nature delivered. Only thing was, not much wind. It came and went all day. Eventually it came up quick and a bit stronger than before. I got a bit scared because the boat leans (heels) a lot and you start to go almost 5 knots (about 6 mph)---which is actually kinda fast, for a sailboat (a 27 footer, at that). Water splashing and sounds you’ve never heard before...but it was cool. 

Tonight we fall asleep a bit shy or our destination (Anclote Key). We’re just northeast of it, by maybe one nautical mile. Not too bad for crappy wind. I swear the water was like glass. 

I’m feeling like a lot of realities are hitting me. Our distance from land. Our motor (which is currently not working...to be continued), the strength of the boat, how reliable it is (and all it’s parts, rigging, mast, sails, keel, tiller, etc.) When we started going fast I wasn’t sure I trusted her. “Knot a Clew” was roaring, but would she hold? I expressed to Dub how I felt and we pulled one sail (the jib) in a bit to reduce the speed and pull. That worked and we played with the sails a bit more. I was sailing! It felt great at a slower speed and I was excited. We switched on and off all day. Dub spending a lot of time in low wind and me cleaning the remainder of the cabin. I put our food in order and organized some things. Pretty simple day with it’s challenges and over-comings. Hell, I’m staying positive, but this is a bit scary sometimes. 

Good night. 

New Adventures!

December 4th, 2010
New Adventures Part I
It's December and we've had a huge change in plans. Since it's not that enjoyable to write about failures, I haven't written much lately about our experiences...We started off biking (full gear packed) from Dub's Mother's house. It was a good start, we rode 43 miles that day. Unfortunately, the wind and a bit of denial were against us. 20 mph winds pushed us back in time and when we finally decided to stop we were still about 2-3 hours from our camping destination for the night. We called Dub's family and they picked us up in the dark about 8 o'clock pm. Dub's knee was hurting excessively from tendonitis and we came to the full realization that this wasn't going to work.


Over time we decided that this weather was only going to get worse, and healing tendonitis was now the goal. We focused on Florida. Back up plan #1 was to head south and buy some R & R time at our family home in Daytona Beach. So that's what we did. Here we are, over a month of rest and relaxation, still in Daytona. We've had some great experiences learning to scuba dive, play with surfing, rescuing a green sea turtle, swimming with manatees, diving wrecks and reefs, and generally enjoying the Sunshine state!


Long story short, we have jumped head first into our sailboat search. We've now embarked on another adventure of a different kind. We're going to master the wind and water.


Our search began months ago when Dub was working for the Grand Canyon and scanned the internet for sailboats. It was hard to look face to face at any sailboats when you're land locked. Now we're fully able to travel and check 'em out in person. We left out on Monday afternoon, for Fort Lauderdale. We stopped in on a gentleman from New York. He was selling a California 27 boat. The boat was in pretty good shape. Nice and clean, nice layout. Gallery on one side, benches on the other. Very, very clean. We said we'd talk about it. Asking price was $7,000, but he'd take $6,500. That’s about our limit on the budget, so who knows.


We lined up another boat just in time for the "no-see-ums" to come out and eat us alive! At dusk the guy came up and we had already seen the "Stars and Stripes" boat. Quite the fixer-upper. No thanks. That evening we dinned at a seafood place ad somehow in the commotion we forgot to pay our bill, oops! We'll be sending them an envelope with some cash. Should cover the Dolphin/Mahi Mahi sandwich, 10 shrimp and the 2 Coronas. It was good-Tack's, I think was their name.


We spent a few hours looking up a place to camp for the night...nothing. Then we thought about a hostel. Nope, $70. So there we sat on the side street in Miami Beach, trying to decide where to stay...
-Hostel and go explore the Miami Beach night life?
-Drive around for a hotel that we could afford?
-Find a cheap hotel near the interstate?
-Drive about 2 hours to the Everglades and save some money camping.


Ok, the plan was to camp, so we took Route 1 through ALL of urban Miami, down to Homestead. All the while questioning where to stay. We're poor decision-makers sometimes.
We pulled up to Lone Pine Campground at about 11:30pm. It was sprinkling. We decided to quickly put up the tent. Rain picked up and we froze still: should we put up the tent or sleep in the car--one more decision..couldn't do it! We put the tent up in the only 20 minutes of rain all night! Here we are: soaked from the waist down, hoping to craw into bed. Well, we dried up and slept soundly in the sticky humid Everglade's air.


The sun woke us up at about 7am. By 8am we need to get OUT of that tent. Humidity and dampness were not our friends with the sunlight. We doused ourselves in repellant and braved it outside. Now, more decision-making --boo. We packed up and went back to Miami and saw another boat #5 (this was the fifth boat we'd seen). A Catalina 27, 1970's or something. We got our kayaks out and paddled to the boat. Christina and her friend were whistling at us and we made our way aboard. Little did we know, she was living aboard. Kinda interesting. Boat was nice and we seriously thought about getting it. Now more decisions...buy it, don't buy it? Stay in the area for another night? Head home? Visit folks in the Everglades? In Tampa area? OK- We headed west to look at more boats. Stopped over at Shark Valley Visitor Center and asked for my friend Eric from Glacier. By luck, we found him - with out using cell phones or any other modern conveniences. We grabbed some beers and enjoyed the warm evening in the Everglades.


The next day started with a great breakfast of Bagel with Peanut Butter, Fruit and nut muesli with Pineapple, Banana dried cranberries and dried apricots with Pine nuts. TASTY! We made our way west towards the Gulf Coast. We zig zagged up to Fort Meyers and dodged a closed Interstate. We were headed for Boca Grande. We heard through the grapevine from some folks up in King’s Bay that there was a man by the name of Danny who had a nice sailboat for sale. They told us... “Oh just ask for him at the Hudson’s General Store.” So we risked embarrassment and asked for him. No Luck. Then we went looking for a marina. No luck. We found some parking next to a few private docks and saw about 6-7 sailboats anchored out in the channel. We parked across from the Pink Elephant Restaurant. They allowed 2 hours for parking. Dub got his kayak off the car and went to ask if anyone knew Danny. Jackpot! We found him-- I call it luck, for sure! Dub climbed aboard to look at boat # 6. No thanks, but it was a fun man hunt!


We wandered north through marinas and small waterside towns, headed for Seminole, Florida. We arrived to Brooke and Mike Certa’s house at about dusk. Nice place! We met the new baby, Eddie! We went out to eat at this amazing Tapas place (not to be confused with topless). Lobster, humus, smoked artichoke hearts, ceviche, and lots of wine--even a bottle hand picked from Napa Valley. The corking fee allowed us to BYOB. We stopped at Sloppy Johns’s Bar on the way home- crazy place with a lot of junk- even a mountain goat on the wall. They had a fire going inside too- crazy! We enjoyed ourselves!


The next day we got up, headed to an open market, with arts, crafts & food and visited Tom Whitworth. It was nice catching up and then we headed to see our next boat, #7. One hour north to Hudson, FL. Found our way to the place, checked it out (Catalina 27, 1974). It looked good! An interesting owner who’s Austrian and living here in the U.S. Good guy, little paranoid. He’s our age, so it was neat to see someone who could afford a sailboat. So we left to head back to Daytona. We made it home in the evening and talked about all the boats we saw. #7 will do! Needs some cleaning up, but we can do it!


New Adventures Part II
Reality Sinks In


We decided to “celebrate.” In a way we were really excited about the purchase of a new sailboat (only new to us, not really new). Then we started to realize what this meant. The cost, what to do with it when the summer season came along, where we’d go, how much we knew, etc. Let’s face it, our experience level is Novice! We’re definitely the newbies and we’d be happy to admit that. So, we did...to ourselves. Then we got scared. A light bit of regret came along and before long, we were coming down from our celebration high. We continued the mantra...We can do this, right?

The Great Divide

Today I sit here, looking out my window, green fills my view. I've waited patiently for summer's peak to arrive. I sat here months ago and viewed colors of grey, white, brown and black. The plants have quickly grown and burst into color. The wild rose is in full bloom next to the black cottonwoods in my backyard. The grass is still un-mowed and is gaining height. Summer is here with it's full blown strength. Life and death is now apparent on the landscape, as the spruce budworm fills the Douglas Fir trees and threatens their life. Life is evident in the new shoots of the chokecherries outside my door. Green is everywhere.

View from Divide Mountain

The next month or so, here in Glacier National Park, is the best time of the year. The mountains are shrugging off the remaining snow, glaciers are being discovered as the snow from last winter is melting, and mountain passes become accessible for hiking.

Tiny alpine plant: Purple Mountain Saxifrage (a new flower for me!)

I took the opportunity, a few weeks back, to climb a mountain. I became a mountaineer for a day. I risked scuffing my hands, a few scrapes, and gained everything. On June 27th, I left work on time...which was a feat in itself...! At about 6:15pm, I was starting my climb up Divide Mountain. Some Blackfeet tribal members say this peak has more significance than the sacred Chief Mountain that is well known for its spirit quests and spiritual values to several tribes. I agree that Divide has more significance than Chief, especially for me.

Sunset in the St. Mary Valley from Divide Mountain

I view Divide Mountain as a very real dividing line between the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and Glacier National Park. I view the mountain as a strong hold of the edge of the mountain range (as it sits the farthest east in a chain of mountains in the St. Mary Valley). I view Divide as a separation between waterways, as it starts the Hudson Bay Divide and sends water to the Gulf of Mexico (to the south) and to the Hudson Bay (to the north). I also view Divide as a comfort of coming home. It welcomes me from afar and I can see it for several miles before I actually reach Glacier. In the begininning of my season, upon arrival, I look for Divide to mark where I'm going and it calls me in.

Jake and Michelle on top of Divide Mountain, taking it all in!

The view at the top is perfect...I only wonder what it looks like during the day. We hiked up, leisurely, on the western slope or the "scenic" route.

Stopped at the old fire lookout on the shoulder of the mountain. Then made our way up, up, and away.

We watched the sun set and let our eyes grow accustom to the darkness on our way down. We safely arrived at our vehicles at about 11:15pm. What a trip! The photos speak for themselves. I plan on hiking this again, several times! The scrapes and torn up hands are worth the reward.

Me, on the top of the world!

View to the north

Brutal Blessings

I don't have much to say, just a few quick thoughts about Glacier and it's blessings and hardships. It can be beautiful, breathtaking, bountiful and blessed. But it can also be brutal, bruising, and breaking. When you're here, you walk a fine line. I feel strange every time I have to talk to a group of visitors about safety...how to deal with bears, how to walk on a trail that's uneven, how to stay away from slippery rocks near waterfalls, and to watch every detail possible. I also feel wonderful telling visitors how the park's beautiful and amazing. Fine line that you could cross. Are we destined to break all the rules we set for ourselves? How do we straddle that line and not fall over the edge? It's a wild world out there and we want to explore it...How is it that I'm lucky enough to survive through the brutal Glacier and view the beautiful Glacier?