VII C's

November 2007 - January 2008

By: Scott Stillman

Friday 11/24/07 

Well we've found our boat.  She is aptly named VII C's.  That is our dream.  

After viewing we were dead to the world but couldn't stop talking about all the neat stuff, the size, the price.  Today I talked to our broker Michael Harris.  

An aside about Michael.  If you are in the market for buying a boat send him an e-mail.  He setup our viewings on the last log. He made suggestions that helped us on our trip.  He did a great job with negotiating our deal.  Came down for the survey and was very patient with my stupid questions.  

We Negotiated hard back and forth with Bruce the previous owner.  I think over all we finally got a fair deal.  

After we agreed on a price and stuff staying with the boat we setup a survey.  

Wednesday 12/5/2007

I drove back to Florida after work on Wednesday Dec 5th for the survey.  I arrived at grandpa's in Dundee, FL Thursday morning and crashed.  Friday morning early I got up and drove to Ft. Pierce.  We, by we I mean the surveyor and his apprentice, Michael, my broker, Bruce, and Me, tore VII C's apart.  I mostly got in the way and asked stupid questions, but hey I was paying so they were nice.  After going through all the components, we lifted her out of the water.   

The Surveyor had this $25k infrared camera that can tell if the hull has cracks or is permeated with water.  Our only contingency was that the hull was structurally sound.  She passed with flying colors.  There are a lot of little things wrong but nothing we didn't know about.  We accepted the contract.  Yea US.  

The next day grandpa came out and we went out for a day sail with Bruce showing me a lot of the idiosyncrasies.  

After our sail I headed back to Texas.   

That's when problems started.  My banker told me not to worry he would just deposit the money into our bank account for the boat and upgrades.  We negotiated on the boat with out financing contingencies, since I already had the money part in place.  

Well it turns out when you are buying a boat over 40 feet special stuff needs to happen.  I started having Kittens.  After doing back flips for several days we finally closed on Friday, December 14th.  

We Own VII C's!!!  Go team Stillman. 

Saturday, December 15th, 2007

Jennifer dropped me off at the airport after we spent the day with grandma in Fort Worth.  I arrived late at grandpa's to pick up all the stuff I had left on the last trip.  See, I knew it would work out.  I got up at the crack of dawn and headed to the boat.  

1st priority was to make sure the water stayed on the out side. :)

2nd Priority was air.

3rd coffee

4th check in.

That morning there was a tornado 20 miles north but the mother ship was fine.   

Monday December 17th, 2007

So the reason I was having Kittens was that I had already dropped money for the down payment, electronics, survey, haul out, etc.  If the deal fell through we would have been set back years, but it all worked out in then end.  We got a good interest rate and enough money to do most of the upgrades we wanted to do.

The Electronics guys show up bright and early for a quick 2-3 day install.  I had ordered a chart plotter, radar, autopilot, VHF radio, and hookups for the laptop.  

They finished Saturday December 22nd late.  They did a great job but since they were there I didn't get a lot of the organizing done that I wanted to do.  I spent the time learning the new systems, provisioning, and staying out of the way by adding this and that to their list and supervising. :)  

This is the sunset I went to bed to every night.  

I was hanging out on the boat piddling when a young couple walked by.  We started talking and pretty soon we were sitting around in the saloon having a party.  Kelly and Tony from Myrtice www.myspace.com/tonyandkellysailing were headed to the Bahamas on there little Newport 30.  He is 23 and she is 21 heading out for an adventure.  In some ways I'm really envious.  Young and free.  Well, they left to go to bed they are heading south early to get to a jumping off point to go to the Bahamas.

Sunday December 23rd, 2007

Jennifer is coming today.  I'm so excited.  I tried to get everything set so that she would have a good trip.  We'll see.  

In our original plan we were planning on leaving this afternoon but we decided to organize today and leave in the morning early.  

I took Jennifer around the bay today in our new dinky.  Our dink is cool.  I have been looking for our new Dink for several days now.  Finally I ask the lady at West Marine if they will take half the asking price on the floor demo.  She said yes.  Holy crap.  With my new boat owners 10% discount we've go a $3000 dingy for about $1200.  Plus $100 coupons for our next purchase.   Go team Stillman.  

I took Jennifer out into the ICW to see what our dink would to.  I opened her up and got up to plain in about 3 seconds.  After playing around for a bit we drove around the anchorage so that I could introduce her to Kelly and Tony but they had already headed south.  

Monday, December 24th 2007

We got up early, stowed everything, released the dock lines and headed around to fuel up for our trip.  I didn't tell Jennifer but this was only the second time I had undocked and docked the mother ship.  She was impressed by my abilities.  I could tell.  

Fueled up with ice, water, diesel, and gas we headed out of Fort Pierce on the way to Texas.  I did a 180 from the fuel dock and head out of the Marina, take a right down the ICW for about half a mile then turn Left for the Fort Pierce Cut into open ocean. 

Leaving FT. Pierce

We put up the sails but the current is against us and the wind is almost on our nose so I revved up the engines to about 2400 RPM's.  I'll get into why it happened later but for right now all that is important to know is that I ripped the belt off the port engine.  

Dead Belt

I went almost an hour with out breaking something.  I'm so proud.   I shut down the port engine and sailed out of the cut heading for Key West.   

We sailed out on a broad reach, that means the wind was coming from an angle behind us, with 8-10 ft quartering seas.  Not so bad until you start changing an alternator belt upside down in the engine room with diesel fumes to breath.  

Go down stairs and find extra belts, come up stairs and lie down.  Go down stairs and find tools.  Need 9/16 wrench.  Can't find 9/16 wrench.  Get pliers.  Pliers suck.  Lie down.  Loosen nut.  Lie down.  Loosen second nut.  Lie down.  Throw up.  Lie down.  Place new belt in place.  Throw up.  Lie down.  Tighten first nut.  Lie down.  Tighten Second nut. Lie down.  Start Engine.  Head for West Palm beach.

Working on  the engine in quartering seas sucks.  

We sailed into West Palm Beach and anchored around 10 PM.  No yelling, no screaming, yea team Stillman.  We survived our first day's adventure.  

BED

Christmas Tree

We got up, then had breakfast under our Christmas tree, got all settled, pressed the button to start the port engine.  Nothing. Uh oh.  Turned the key and pressed the button to start the Starboard engine.  Nada.  It tried to crank but was dead.  I left the alternators plugged in.  I found out later that that wasn't the problem, but who knew.   

I got on the internet and started looking for anyone open.  Nothing.  We decided to get in the dink and drive around the bay looking for anything.  Finally we talked to the sea tow guy.  He reminded we that Bruce had a membership with Towboat US so we gave them a call.  He showed up and tried to give us a jump with out luck.  We put the volt meter on both batteries and one had given up the ghost the other was close.  2 new batteries for us, but not on Christmas day.  As a Christmas Present the Tow Boat US guy didn't charge us for the few hours he was there.  So I upgraded our membership to say thanks.  

Anchored in West Palm Beach

So we settled in for a quiet Christmas with just the two of us when ...

Kelly and Tony motored in and anchored 30 meters away.  We spent a few hours with them then hit the hay.  

Wednesday, December 26th, 2007

We got up early.  Motored over in the Dink to the dinghy dock, and walked 15 blocks to the marine store.  The whole 15 blocks was a crack house.  People sleeping in the bushes.  Dealers signing us to buy.  We were in the wrong neighborhood.  

We made it to the marine store in one piece and got our two starter batteries.  I started asking the owner if he would call us a cab.  Not only because I didn't want to be molestered (Southpark reference), walking back, but batteries are heavy, when a local crab boat captain offered us a ride.  I'm convinced he saved our lives. :)  He dropped us off then the security guy gave us a ride in his golf cart back to the dinghy dock.  There are some very nice people in West Palm Beach, not the crack dealers the other ones. 

Back to the mother ship and installed two new batteries and she started like a champ.  All before 9:30am.  Yea us.  By 10am we were sailing out of the cut south to Key West.  

Friday December 28th, 2007

We are anchored in Key West.  The last few days were mostly uneventful.  We had our first two all nighters.  We talked about shifts before we left and setup the following:

4-8 pm Jennifer

8-12 pm Scott

12-4 am Jennifer

4-8 am Scott

I figured out that if I wanted sleep I needed to sleep more than just 12-4 am.  I also Started making Breakfast during my shift so that I could crash after we ate.  

Jennifer handled her shifts like a champ.  She woke me up a few time to ask some questions or have me look at something, but she did great.

Thursday morning I realized that the house batteries weren't charging.  At first they would slowly, but by Friday afternoon the best I could do was maintain.  I got on the radio and started calling marina's.  

New Years is the busiest time of the year in Key West.  I though it would be busy but not this busy.  Not only did no one for a hundred miles have a slip, you had to check in and get a time to get gas.  So we limped into Key West.  As we made the turn the first anchorage we saw as full of boats that had no right floating.  Evidently Key West is a place where old boats go to die.  Scooting widely around the scary anchorage I saw a multi-million dollar 100+ ft Ketch anchored off the Coast Guard station.  So we anchored next to them, turned off everything, watched the sun set, then hit the rack.  

Saturday December 29th 2007

One of the Marina's offered to lift me onto the hard, take us out of the water and put us in a boat yard.  Big Money.  Another marina suggested a diesel mechanic.  I gave the mechanic a call and scheduled a time for me to pick him up later in the morning, at the dinghy dock.  

Dinghy Dock

I got the dink set up and was about to head into town when I heard a bird whistle.  Actually, I heard the whistle for a while but it finally registered that it wasn't a bird.  We met Rita from Louisiana who is a Katrina survivor, go figure.  Rita has made it as far as Key West since Katrina, and probably won't make it much further.  She is recovering from a broken hip, smokes about a carton of smokes a day,  is living on a 25-29 ft gutted out sail boat, and someone stole her dinky.  I gave her a ride into town.  First I had to lift her down into to Dink.  Then I had to role her onto the dinghy dock.  To each their own.  She seemed happy.  

I had an hour to kill so I set off to explore.  Key West is very cool when you are in a good mood.  Key West, when you are annoyed, pissed off, hot, and frustrated is not a good place.  Two cruise ships had just let out.  10,000 fat annoying people were in my way.  

I picked up Michael Blair from Blair Marine.  If you are broken down in Key West give him a call.

On a 20 year old sail boat most things are jerry rigged.  With me looking over his shoulder he patiently tried and tested out the alternators, regulators, isolators, etc.  After several hours with out being able to diagnose the problem, but teaching me all about electrical systems, we decided to replace.  Replacements can be here on Thursday.   

After Michael left I called and talked to my dad picking his brain about alternators and how they work.  Then I called Jennifer's dad but wasn't able to get through, but I was able to get through to Jennifer's brother, who is a mechanical genius.  I also called Bruce, but was unable to get a hold of him.  

We then Dinghyed into town and bought a full set of tools, US and Metric, after Christmas special, very nice.   We then had dinner, then back to the powerless mother ship and to bed.  

Sunday, December 30, 2007

I didn't sleep well.  All I could think about was we're not going to make it home.  Then I started thinking about our problem.  Well up the next morning Jennifer and I took two new belts out of storage, and replaced them with our new tools.  Then we spent the next hour tightening down the belts.  With fingers crossed we started both engines and set the engines to 1400 rpm.

BACK IN BUSINESS

The Batteries charged in less than an hour.  

Bruce had told me not to over rev the engines while charging, but I never asked why.  Well, Michael showed me how the pulleys had been replaced with smaller pulleys.   This means you can charge the  batteries using less energy.  It also means that the higher rpm you use the more friction.  Thus at 2200 the belt fries or glazes over.  Both the regulators and Isolators are bypassed.  We'll just have to deal with that later.  

We called Michael to clear our bill.  He only charges us for two hours, I think he spent six.  I kind of see it as a personal seminar on boat electronics.  

We then spent the rest of the day buying every belt in Key West.  We still had two extra, advanced auto parts had Four, then we walked over to NAPA.  NAPA is not open on Sunday.  Shitty death.  Six belts just didn't make us feel comfortable.   So we decided to come back early in the morning to see what NAPA had.  

We caught a cab back to the Marina, had dinner then back to the mother ship, and to bed.  

Monday December 31, 2007

If you look below we were anchored just north of "A" which is the marina.  We needed to go to "B" NAPA.  There is water between them so we took the Dink.  Yea us.  Instead of walking for 2 hours we were there in 20 minutes and back before an hour.  We only got 2 belts though.  We will have to make do with 8 belts.  

View Larger Map 

When you are relaxed Key West is a very cool place.  Except for the sports fish captains.  Sport fish Captains in Key West Suck big ones.  They don't honor the Anchorage, even though there are channel markers, they blow through weaving in between the anchored boats digging big hole in the water going over 20 knots.  Being in a cat it was annoying.  I actually saw Rita the Katrina survivor's mast hit the water once.   

By 9 am we were out.  Heading mostly north.  There is supposed to be a front blowing across in two days and we wanted to get north of it.  

We motored out of Key West for the day with no wind.  

Picture of me taking a picture of my reflection

A few hours after we left Dolphin buddies show up.  

Dolphin buddies show

As we had our shift change at midnight we saw the fireworks from Key West just on the horizon.  Very cool.  

Tuesday, January 1st, 2008

We're all going to die! I just down loaded and looked at the NOAA weather fax.  Holly CRAP.  The storm blew north instead of south.  Damn NOAA weather guessers.  They are calling for a gale, 45-50 knot winds and 15-20 foot seas.  I decided we're going to reef the sails and start heading toward Sarasota.  

Wouldn't you know it that as soon as we reef (take down most of the sails) the wind hits.  

Reefed sails

The storm built most of the night and we couldn't make any head way.  I slowly changed our expectations south until the last port was Naples.  As we get closer and closer to the coast the wind started to let up.   

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

Approaching the cut into Naples I saw there were 10-15 foot breakers in the channel.  I almost decided to motor the 10 hours up the coast to the next protected cut in Fort Meyers, but what the hell.  I'm a good surfer.  I timed it correctly and motored in between the waves surfing the last 50 feet or so into the cut.  Safe at last.  I woke Jennifer and we motored about a mile and a half to the city marina, where we fueled up and asked for a slip.  

Pulling onto the T-head after 3 tries, I was tired, I broke the port light.  Shitty death.  I'm getting better it took me 3 days of sailing before I broke anything.  :)

Being as it was only 10 am we decided to go get breakfast.  If you are in Naples there is a very cool dinner just off the city marina that I highly recommend.  We ate breakfast there for the next two days.  

We also decided to rent a car.  Everything is just too far away and I have family I wanted to visit.

Thursday, January 3rd, 2008

We got up to visit the Wilkerson's, and do laundry.  We also visited Kelly and Lani.  We had a very nice visit.  We caught up, told stories of our adventures so far, and had a good Chinese lunch.  Chinese good.  mmmmmm.  Back to the mother ship to recover and bed.  

Friday, January 4th, 2008

We headed over to West Marine to cash in our coupons that we had to use by the 11th.  We finally decided on a BBQ grill and trim tabs for the dingy.  We then returned the car to Enterprise.  Not only does Enterprise pick you up but they also deliver.  So, back at the mother ship, I fixed the broken port light then decided to test her out.  Shitty death.  Luckily the marine store at the end of the pier had a, one, replacement bulb.  And low and behold it worked.  Yea team Stillman.  We cut the dock lines and headed out.  

What A difference 2 days makes.  We surfed in out of 15 foot seas.  We sailed out on 1-3 foot seas.  A lone dolphin swam out with us doing jumps over the bow.  Very cool.  

The 72 hour forecast said that we would hit an occluded front.  

Occluded fronts occur when cold air is replacing cool air or vice versa at the surface, with warm air above. A cold occlusion occurs when cold air shoves its way under cool air at the surface. Warm air aloft is usually to the west of the surface front. A warm occlusion occurs when cool air rises over cold air. The warm-cold air boundary is often east of the surface front. Both types of fronts are usually associated with rain or snow and cumulus clouds. Temperature fluctuations are small and winds are gentle.

My ass.  Here is a little video of our Occluded Front.  These are 8-12 foot seas.  Imagine twice that for our gale.  This movie is about 5 megs.  

Occluded Front 8-12 foot seas

Sunday, January 6th, 2008

I had a close encounter with the Carnival cruise ship Fantasy

It was my 4 to 8 am shift.  At 4 I checked the radar and noticed a blip out 30ish miles. I checked again at 5 and saw the blip was in the same direction but a about 8 miles.  That means he is headed for us at about 20 knots.  In about 20 minutes he is at 5 miles and I stick my head out to take a look and all I see are lights.  These cruise ships are lit up like Christmas trees.  But I finally make out one red and one green.  BAD.  

I get on the VHF and call out Hey you at and I read off his Coordinates this is the very small sailing vessel VII C's over.  He came back with VII C's this is the Carnival Curse Ship Fantasy, over.  He sounds like Hons and Fons on Saturday Night Live.  

I asked him to switch to channel 68 and he agreed.  

When you are sailing in the ocean everyone listens to and is required by maritime law to monitor channel 16.  Channel 16 is for Hailing and Distress.  Once you have Hailed someone you switch to a working channel so as not to disrupt other traffic.  

On 68 I'm starting to get a little nervous and say "Fantasy, VII C's.  I am a sailing vessel 3 miles off your bow.  I wanted to make sure you saw me?"  Translation in Saturday night live speech.  Your big, I'm small.  Don't squish me like a bug.  His reply :  "VII C's, Fantasy.  We see you real good, real good.  We should pass your stern at a good quarter mile. "   a little pee trickled down my leg.  We are currently 200 miles from land and he is going to pass a good quarter mile away doing 20 knots.  He's a good mile long.   I tried to take a picture of the people on the deck but the camera wouldn't work.  Shitty death.  

Monday, January 7th, 2008

After we left Naples we set the sails and sailed 6-8 knots for several days.  In the first 48 hours we made almost 300 miles.  At this rate we'll be there in a few more days.  Um. no.  That's when mister Occluded Front stuck out his little head.  It was Jennifer's shift.  12 to 4 am and I'm sound asleep.  Jennifer comes down and quietly shakes my shoulder, and says could you come give me a hand.  

Sure no problem.  I get up and slip on some shorts, a shirt, and head up.  As I climb into the saloon I feel something strange.  I climb out into the cockpit and look around.  The stars are wrong.  I'm still waking up but nothing feels right.  we are supposed to be heading 300 degrees.  The chart plotter says our course is 125 Degrees.  Then I look at the speed.  We are going 17 knots.  I look at Jennifer and she looks calm, a little worried but calm.  Then I look at VII C's and she is very firm, absolutely lost but making excellent time.  I decided not to tell her I just peed on the deck.  :o Not really but close.  

I didn't find out why until the next night but Regina quit.  The wind changed direction and picked up to about 25 knots, and the seas picked up and Regina failed us.  This all took about 10 seconds to figure out.  So I told Jennifer to release the the Genoa sheet, that's the line that keeps the sail shape, and I dropped the main.  Now Monday morning quarterbacks might have done it differently but I figured we were over powered and if I turned into the wind bad stuff might happen.  I started both engines and motored into the wind where we spent the next 20 minutes reefing.  That means I pulled lines and added other lines so that only the top of the sail suck out the top.  We then reefed the Genoa and Headed back in the correct direction.  

After everything calmed down I went below to change my shorts, really to go back to bed and realized the hatch over our cabin was open and about a ton of water dumped into our bunk.   I had to sleep on the couch.  Shitty death.  

I had to wake up Jennifer at 10 pm.  Regina died.  She started making this horrible dying noises around 9.  For an hour I hand steered tiring to figure out what was going on.  I had visions of hand searing for 4 days straight and decided to wake up Jennifer.  

Jennifer hand steered while I got out my brand new tools to diagnose the problem.  After taking apart every compartment I could get at it turns out that the chain from Regina's drive to the wheel is loose.  When we get seas in the wrong direction or strong winds she skips.  The skipping is kind of violent.  Several day of this and the bolts on the drive housing loosened and two fell out.  This caused the internal gears to miss align.  Lots of noise no action.  After about 45 minutes I had every buddy back together and working.  The chain is still loose but she is working again.  I don't want to take the chain apart in the middle of the ocean.  

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

We spent the day drying our bed.  Wet salty sheets suck.  So do dry salty sheets.  

New bunk until sheets dry

We are approaching the oil platforms.  The oil platforms out here are as thick as ticks on a dog.  There are about 10,000 platforms each with it's own crew ship, supply ship, and transport.  It's like sailing through a bee hive.  At around 11pm I talked to two tankers who agreed to create a VII C's Sandwich.  If you look at the picture below of the radar.  The circle is 1 mile.  One mile long tanker is a quart mile to our starboard going at 22 knots.  The other is half a mile to port going 8 knots.  

VII C's sandwich

Every night, so far, some dumb ass is out doing seismic surveys.  They  probably have a very legitimate reason for being out there but they were in my way.  For the past few days they have been transmitting "survey ship stuck in the mud is at these coordinates, traveling at 180 degrees, traveling at 5 knots, trailing 5 miles of cable please give us a 6 mile clearance."  That's cool.  Your out there working and letting me know.  

Tonight this dumb ass shines a spot light in my eyes and calls out "fishing vessel at coordinates, we are" above.  First of all if you are shining a light on me you see my sails.  Second, how come you can let everyone know what the hell you are doing like everyone else.  If I had known 2 hours ago I could have altered course, but no, you have to come shine a light in my eyes and tell me to change 90 degrees.  ASS.  I lost 2-3 hours.  

Wednesday, January 9th, 2008

While Jennifer was sleeping I decided to put up the drifter.  Earlier the engine started making funny noises and seaweed was tangled in the starboard engine.  I shut her down and set us free.  I decided while I was at it I should check the fuel levels.  I believed that they were almost dry so I transferred fuel from our auxiliary fuel tanks to our primary tanks.   Bruce made a Bahamian filter, made with a fuel pump and a racor filter.  Half way though the filter clogged up.  Shitty death.  I decided we needed to give the engines a rest and just sail.  So up with the drifter.

The Drifter is a big sail that we put up in a sock with a halyard.  I then attached the small line to the pulpit and the long line runs all the way to the back of the boat through a pulley to the back most winch.  It is a huge low wind sail.   I flew it for several hours until the wind shifted.  

Drifter Red, White, and Blue

Thursday, January 10th, 2008

We are on a beam reach going 7 knots directly toward Galveston.  We should be there in a few hours.  Or not.  As we get to with in 40 miles of Galveston I look at the Radar and see nothing but purple in front of us.  Purple is bad.  We hit a cold front.  More reefing.  This time I made sure the hatches were closed.  I Reefed and got set and hit a front (found out later it was blowing at 31 knots and 12 foot seas) with out waking Jennifer.   The Bimini died a shitty death.  I've decided that when the wind gets over 25 knots we can't go into the wind at all.  I tacked.  I gybed.  Finally I decided to just head toward Freeport.   

Friday, January 11th, 2008

All night I fought to get us closer to Galveston.   I had convinced myself that we were about out of gas so we were just under sail.  Around Dawn we were with in 15 miles of Galveston and I decided we're going for it.  We could have always turned around and gone toward Freeport.   With the wind directly out of the north we dropped sails and motored in.  Making 4.5 knots we got into Galveston around 4 pm.  Pulled up the the fuel dock and took on 54 gallons.  We could have motored another 100 hours.  Dip sticks at sea don't work.  I need fuel gages.  

After we refueled the mother ship we motored up the Houston ship channel the four hours to Kemah.

Big Ships in the Houston Ship Channel

At 9 pm VII C's  arrived at her new home. 

Kemah Board walk

We motored in and docked in the dock like champs.  Had dinner at the Marina restaurant then crashed.  

This begins the next stage of our adventures.  Playing around Galveston Bay, upgrading stuff, and fixing others.  Stay tuned to for the next few years as we get Her ready for the rest of our lives.  

Atlantic Drive / Boat Shopping     Jennifer's Log

Revised: January 21, 2008

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