12-29-12
Today Joanna gave me my "prison" haircut for the trip.  No need for a comb now!  Getting all packed up to travel.

"Rosie...Rosie...we need a bath!"

12-28-12: This will be us for the next few weeks.  We won't be heading down the Ulanga but surely we will have a few adventures along the way.   Just call me Charlie Allnut.  Let's hope I don't have to get out of the boat and pull!

12-25-12 - MERRY CHRISTMAS! A great time with family, especially little Crawford on Christmas morning.  Got a few boat "necessities" including some great books to read along the way.

12/21/12 - Well, the Mayans were wrong and we are all still here! With Christmas almost here it's time to savor our shore leave and get into a traveling mindset.  By the way, we are creaky Cruisers in body only.  In my mind, I am still a teenager (albeit a much wiser one) and hopefully will get a chance to act like one during our journey. We have done all we can to geezerize the boat so hopefully we won't creak much along the way.  You'll know me when you see me.  I'm the guy whose days of leaping joyously from boat to dock are long gone! But I still have a big smile on my face while we are cruising and the sundowners still slide smoothly down my throat.

12-17-12 - And now a few words about the captain: I went fishing for steelhead trout yesterday and some nice fish were caught. So obviously I enjoy being on the water!  I have been sailing since 1987, on the Great Lakes up to 2001.  Since then on the east coast mainly in NC waters with one previous trip down the ditch to Florida.  Professionally I was a school teacher for 32 years at good old Sandy Creek Central School in Sandy Creek, NY. I taught 6th grade, 2nd grade and coached a lot of hoop in what was a wonderful career. These days I run a bed and breakfast in Pulaski, NY called Woodlawn Bed and Breakfast.  Check us out on the web at woodlawnbb.com and on Facebook. If you like to fish for trophy salmon and trout, then you need to look us up!  we are a mile from the Salmon River, a world class fishing destination!
***I am married to Joanna (the admiral).  Info about her is in an October post.

12-13-12: This is the view of Northwest Creek from the marina. Peace and tranquility!

12-12-12- Just spent a week in NC getting the boat set up. It was a busy week of putting up sails and canvas and getting the boat ready to travel. Lookin' good!  CrossRoads is a 1985 Irwin38.  That means she is 38 ft. long and a little over 12 ft. wide.  The fact that she is over 25 years old means we sail an antique boat!  But she has been well-cared for and will stand us well as we travel.  She weighs in at 10 tons, but I am sure is more than that right now all loaded up for the journey ahead. She is 54 and 1/2 ft. tall and draws 4 and a 1/2 ft. of water.  Those two numbers set a limit on where we can go but we still can travel most places without problems.(Most ICW bridges are 55ft. or taller.) 

We keep our boat at Northwest Creek Marina in New Bern, NC. It is by far the best marina on the east coast and a very safe hurricane hole. It is the starting place for what will be our 2400 mile journey.  january 4th of 2013 is the shove off day...just a few weeks away!

11/26/12- Why we sail south!
I just spent the past few hours cleaning up after 10" of snow from an early season storm. It was fun working outside in the snow but even more fun to think of the fact that not too long from now we will be basking in the warm sun down south.  Next week I will be on the boat setting it up for the trip.  I have stuff packed to go and hope to be on my way to NC this Saturday.  

November 14, 2012

Can I handle this?
 I have been planning for this trip for well over a year and working hard to get ready.  I am excited about the journey, but also a little worried about whether I can handle the burden of command. This is not our first trip down the ICW, so I have experience from 2006 to call on which is a great comfort.  I also have my faith in the good Lord to bless the journey ahead.

However, I am not as spry as I once was (<---that's being kind) and it can be draining and stressful having to worry about boat systems and weather and navigating and keeping my family safe.  And so I worry about the stress of command wearing me down. The alternative of course is sitting home by the fire, but that doesn't contribute much to a life well-lived, and hopefully I will have plenty of time to hang out by the wood stove down the road.

So I gotta overcome inertia and do this now while I still can.  The good news is that we won't have a "schedule" and so can travel at our leisure.  I hope that this will allow us to soak up the ICW along the way, as for us the journey really is the destination.

In 2 weeks I head to North Carolina to take the boat out of hurricane storage mode and set up to go. Time marches on!

Deck Hands

We have 2 other members of the crew, namely Scamper and  BJ.  That's Scamper on the left.  She loves to hang out in the cockpit at night and catch bugs.  BJ is a lover, but is also a fearless protector of the family when it comes to invaders like mice. They are both good travelers and are much fun to have along.

The Boat

Here is a photo of CrossRoads, our 1985 Irwin 38.  She draws 4.5 feet and has a bridge clearance of 54.5.  She is a comfy boat for coastal cruising and a veteran of the ICW. Her home base is New Bern,NC.

The Admiral

Here is a photo of Joanna, my mate, and the most important member of our crew.  She is a great sailor and can handle our boat in the tight spots.  Also a great cook, computer expert, highly organized, and I might mention, my wife of 44 years! (We got married very young! :-). 

10/21/12  Food
     Part of cruising is provisioning and we have been working hard to cover this base.  One thing we have been doing is canning.  On our last ICW trip we spent a lot of time and effort re-provisioning as we traveled.  This can be inconvenient at times as we like to anchor out for days at a time.  This and the fact that the cruising refrigerator only holds so much means that we often run short.  This trip will be different. 
     My talented wife has gotten good at canning a variety of products.  Today I helped her do a number of jars of applesauce, which I really love.  But more importantly she has been canning meat as well.  She has done chicken, hamburger, and stew beef and we plan to take along a supply of each.  I must admit I was leery at first to eating meat from a jar, but I have quickly come to love the convenience of having a ready made supply at our fingertips.  and it is TASTY! Plus, we can buy a quantity of meat on sale and save really big.  What's not to like about that?
     So while we wait and prepare here at home we provision for our upcoming journey.  Pretty cool!

If you meet us out there this winter in some secluded anchorage, we'll have you over for dinner.  Chicken or beef? 

Waiting...

06 October 2012 Countdown is on... Sort of in a waiting mode right now. We run a B&B from May to November so it will be early December before I can get to the boat, unwrap her from hurricane season mode, and begin final preps. In the meantime I do what i can, like work on varnishing the washboards. They are coming along although I must admit I am not the greatest at brightwork!