May 20, 2021

Anchored near Ft. Peirce, where there were 40+ knot winds blowing and a large sailboat anchored so they the about 50 yards from me. Luckily all anchors held. The morning still saw 20+ winds and didn’t think I wanted to try and pull the anchor with my close friends nearby. I cooked a nice breakfast, eggs and hash – yummy, expecting to stay put all day when, low and behold, my sailboat friends cruised by while I was eating. Yippy, yippy! I quickly got everything ready and pulled outta Dodge. It was still windy but hit a narrow protected area of the ICW and it was everything I imagined cruising could be. Cool breeze, great views, few if any boats, totally no stress. Of course that couldn’t continue. I hit an open area on the Indian River and noticed a pretty good sand bar on the right so I veered to the left. Rookie mistake! There were also shoals on the left and ended up go out of the channel. Luckily, I was able to bounce through and go back to deeper water. No harm, no foul, more bruised ego. A little later an annoying alarm went off on the engine console however the engine was still humming along. It looks like an injector is acting up so one more thing to investigate and fix. Finally made it to an anchorage a little North of Melbourne FL at a beautiful spot off of Banana Island.

I left Wednesday, May 19 for my trip North and anchored in Ft. Pierce FL.

As I expected the first day was a little rough. There were strong winds that challenged my captain skills and only embarrassed my self a couple of times. The first was passing a tug and was over-correcting my steering so I looked like a drunken sailor. I was expecting the police to catch up to me and give ma breathalyzer test. No damage other than my ego, that’s life. In Hobie Sound I ran aground because my auto-pilot Follow-Up lever stopped working with the rudder pointing to starboard. The steering wheel did work but not before I ran aground. I turned the auto-pilot off and on (old programmer trick) and it started working. Not sure if it was an auto-pilot failure or something I did to jam it. I need to keep an eye on that. I managed to wiggle my way back into deeper water and continued on. The rest of the journey was uneventful and needed a couple of tries to get the anchor set. Anchoring single-handed is a little harder than it looks. Finally got it and am happy to relax.

I am no longer waiting for a haul-out. Not gonna happen. Yacht Tech, who is working on my boat, said the boat yards are backed up with no end in sight. I talked to some others and this seems to be the case. So, on to plan b, c, whatever. I had the boat detailed and looks beautiful.

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She won’t look this nice again for some time but it is nice while it lasts. At least we’ll be heading out in style.

I am getting a few remaining maintenance items done and then start provisioning and preparing to leave. Shooting for May 11 give or take a day. I need to be North of Cape Hatteras by June 1 to comply with my insurance policy. The plan is for 20 days to get there with some slack built in for weather, etc. You can follow me on a website called VesselFinder where you can find Terrapin’s location.    

TERRAPIN, Pleasure craft – Details and current position – MMSI 368181310 – VesselFinder

The website shows automatic identification system (AIS) locations for boats with a registered Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI). Similar to FAA aircraft identification system.  Terrapin’s MMSI is 368181310 if you go to another site. 

I will update the map on the home page as time and internet connectivity allow.

A home for my home away from home.

I have been staying at The Bluffs marina since the beginning of the year. It is a “Dockominium” marina so it is a little different from my limited experience with other marinas. Not quite the amenities or atmosphere of other marinas but much, much better. At least for me. I ended up here because I had no choice. When I bought Terrapin in December, the Bahamas were shut down along with the rest of the world. All of those folks who normally left for the Bahamas and other destinations were staying put. Marinas were full and slips were at a premium. The marina where Terrapin was when I bought her wanted a full year lease or take a chance of being booted out. To make this tale a bit shorter, The Bluffs was the only marina close to North Palm Beach I could get into. North Palm Beach area being most convenient for my training and boat work to take place. What do I like about The Bluffs? The marina employees are great, it is really quite, the neighbors are good folks and I can take walks to the beach. What don’t I like? The #&*$ fixed concrete docks! I need a ladder to climb in and out of the boat at low tide and duck under the cockpit cover while doing it. That and I need half a foot of tide otherwise I run aground just in front of my slip. Small issue but was a surprise the first time. I will miss my home away from home when I leave and would like to come back next winter.

I was told the hull color looked like “celadon” with color code #ACE1AF. I have it on good authority, the former owners who painted the hull, it is actually Sherwin Williams “great green SW 6430” with color code #abb486. If you are going to paint your boat, house, car, whatever and wanted to know, now you do. All of the comments I get are very complimentary and love the color. I have heard, on channel 16 no less, and read a couple of comments that were less than favorable. As some very smart told me “that is why they make red hats and green hats.” I guess I am in the green hat category.

Oh yah, still sitting and waiting…

Oh boy, my first BLOG post!

I closed on Terrapin on December 15, 2020 and moved on board at the end of December. I hired an awesome training captain, Bernie Francis, who moved Terrapin to The Bluffs marina in Jupiter on the 30th. I thought this was going to be pretty straight forward. Get trained, get some work done on the boat and do some exploring of Florida until the beginning of May when I head North for hurricane season. Ho boy, was I ever naïve. The training went off without a hitch and I started contacting folks about getting work done around the end of January. That screech you hear is the brakes locking up on progress. With the boat buying frenzy and usual busy season, everyone was backed up. The last two months, going on three, has been sitting around hoping someone will show up and work on the boat today. The way things normally work is they call you in the morning and say they are showing up in a half hour. Who needs a schedule or appointment! Yes, some of the folks working on the boat were very good about letting me know ahead of time. Others not so much. I have had quite a few items completed except the last and the biggest one, haul-out. This is to put the boat “on the hard” at the boat yard so the bottom can be painted and other work requiring the boat to be out of the water can be completed. It seems like every week for the last six weeks the word is “next week” – and here I sit…

On the other hand, this gave me the opportunity to get quite a few of my projects done like creating this website.