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The Passage

Dec 2007 - Jan 2008

By: Jennifer Stillman

Thursday 12/27/07 10:20 am EST

Well here we are on our third day of sailing. It has been a very interesting ride so far. Currently as I write (I'll type this later), we have the port engine going and the Genoa and main out. I am sitting on the port bow sprit enjoying the ride. We have very little wind right now and the waves are probably 3-5 feet. We do expect to get more wind later on today.

Let me now go back and tell you how our journey began.

We have been dreaming of owning a boat for a couple years now. My family celebrated my grandpa's 80th birthday the day after Thanksgiving. Well, Scott and I decided to take the week for an extended road trip to look at boats.

Originally we were going to DC to look at three boats, but right before we left two got under contract while the third headed south. So we enjoyed a nice visit with Scott's sister Tracey and her daughter Tamara instead.

We caught up to the third boat in Oriental, NC. I can't recall her make or model, but her name was Savannah. She was an okay boat, but we weren't in love.

Prior to this trip, we had had our minds set on a PDQ 36. So while we were in the Oriental area we looked at two of them. Again, the love wasn't there.

We then drove overnight to Stuart FL to look at a Fountaine Pajot. See we're looking at diferent types of boats. The owner kept us there way too long and she didn't have the separate shower stall that I dearly wanted.

So, we drove North to Fort Pierce to look at another Fountaine Pajot. She was on the hard in the boat yard, and we weren't impressed with her either, but we did like her bimini.

I was ready to give up and call it a day, but I looked back over the pictures of the Kelsall 42 and decided we should take a look.

First impression of course was Oh My She's BIG. But the features the the VII C's provides far outweigh the fear of her size. We were in love.

Scott daydreamed about her all the way back to Texas. That week after Thanksgiving Scott was putting in an offer. The owner countered, we recountered stating that everything stays on board. He agreed with the stipulation that he could keep one fishing pole. Well considering that there were like seven on board we could accept that.

That following week, Scott drove back to Florida to be there for the survey. We went into the survey knowing that there was a lot of stuff wrong with it, but if the bottom was sound, we would accept the boat. And big surprise, we accepted the boat.

Yeah, the starboard engine is now going too and we're now moving at 3.6 knots per hour. We are currently twelve miles south of Miami heading towards Key West. (Yes, we'll turn (tack) eventually.) I'll get us back to Today in a little bit.

So, Scott drove the car back to Texas, and it took about a week to get the financing settled, but finally we are the proud owners of a 1986 Kelsall Kelly 42 named VII C's.

To avoid Florida sales tax, the boat has to be removed within 30 days. So Scott hops a flight to Florida to get her electronics installed. She had non when we bought her. The previous owner only used a handheld GPS, not us. The installers said it would take two to three days to complete. Six days later we were the proud owners of a chart plotter, autohelm, and radar. I know I'm forgetting stuff, but these were the big three.

So, I finally fly out to the boat on December 23rd. I had an extremely early flight out of Hobby Houston and Scott picked me up in Orlando. We then drove to Fort Pierce and provisioned in Wal-Mart. $200 later we believe we're ready to start our cruising adventure. We decided it'd be better if we left after a good nights sleep, so we hung out in Fort Pierce on our boat for the afternoon/evening. Of course, Scott had to take me for a ride in our brand new 10 foot dinghy. He was so proud of his purchase.

On Christmas Eve morning, we finally pull out the mother ship together and take her to the fuel dock. 24.6 gallons of diesel, 8 gallons of gasoline, and two bags of ice later we were finally ready to start our adventure.

From the marina we had to travel two miles to get to the ocean. While I was taking down the fenders (the objects that prevent the dock from putting dents into your boat) the belt on the port alternator shredded. Thank god for two engines. I finished bringing in the fenders, then we put the sails up. And we finally reach the Atlantic Ocean.

That was probably our first mistake. The seas were 8-10, and with Scott working on the engine below, he quickly got seasick and of course, monkey see monkey do, I got sick too.

Scott did successfully get a new belt on the alternator, and everything is good to go. We decided that since we were both sick, we did not need to try our first overnight sail. We pulled into West Palm Beach and anchored. It only took us a couple tries, luckily it was dark and nobody could see us. Yeah us!

We slept wonderfully that night. Christmas morning arrives, and we will be sailing our new present today. Or at least, that's what we thought. We had done something stupid, and now the engines won't start. And of course its Christmas day, so nobody is open. We spend Christmas day on our boat in West Palm Beach.

The anchorage was wonderful, around 4-4:30 Scott recognizes a 30 foot monohull that he met in Fort Pierce while waiting for me to arrive. They are a young couple with two dogs on board (our pets did not make this trip). So we celebrated Christmas with our new cruising friends.

So on the 26th, yesterday, we dinghy over to town to purchase two new starter batteries. Disadvantage of a catamaran, you need two of everything. We dinghy over there just fine and commence our walk to the Boat Owners Warehouse. Hello, ghetto land. It was a very scary neighborhood. Luckily after we purchased our new heavy batteries, one of the local fishing captains was there and he volunteered to drive us back to the marina. Then Scott carried them about 50 yards and the Security Guard in a golf cart carried them the rest of the way to the dinghy dock.

Thursday 12/27/07 3:06 pm EST

Took a break from above, well the wind has not shown up. We furled the genoa and are only moving with the main and port engine at 1.5 knots. With the way things are going we probably won't make it to Key West until Saturday.

Continuing from above, we dinghy'd the batteries back to the mothership, plugged them in and voila the engines started. I know some of you are thinking, why don't they just use the sails? Well the answer is the starting batteries charges the house batteries that gives us power for the chart plotter, auto helm and radar. And being such novice sailors as we are, we definitely need power to sail.

Wednesday's sail went great. We kept the engines going most of the day so that we could recharge the house batteries.

This was the day for our first overnight sail. Before we left Texas, we had discussed how the shifts would work. I agreed that I'd take the 4-8 pm shift and then we alternate from there. This worked out great for me as I got about seven hours of good sleep while it was dark. Of course when the non onshift person was sleeping, we'd just sleep in the salon so that if assistance was needed they could easily get to the cockpit.

And naturally, Scott handled his like a pro. He did not wake me up. I woke him up twice. Once because a tug and 200 foot barge crossed in front of me and I wasn't sure what it was doing. The other time, there was nobody around us and on the VHF I heard "Seven Seas Navigator, come in." I freaked out, who the hell wanted to talk to me. I called for Scott, but before he got out, there was a response from another vessel and they changed channels. Well, I guess I learned a lot about night watches. I was scared at first, but it went just fine. Again, thank god for power and radar.

Now for this mornings fun and excitement. It seems that our alternators are not powering the house batteries correctly. Well, Scott was monkeying around with the engines trying to figure out why we weren't charging, and all of a sudden the starboard engine wouldn't start. He recalled talking with the previous owner and he had said that sometimes the starboard engine won't start, simply do this. Well, Scott couldn't remember what the do this was, so he was again, monkeying with a purpose while I started writing this log.

Well, he did figure it out, you have to touch two things together with a plastic handled screwdriver. Of course, I know it's more technical than that, but that's what he showed me.

He later determined that the alternator belt on that starboard engine was loose. So he turns off that engine again, waits for it to cool, and determines he doesn't have the correct socket to tighten it. I immediately start a shopping list for Key West.

Well, that's where we're at right now. Both engines going, main up, 100 miles NE of Key West traveling at 3.4 knots. We'd definitely like more wind.

I am new to this log thing, so I'll try to write when the incidents occur while they're still fresh in my mind. As we know incidents will occur. Scott has stated several times already on this adventure, "Cruising is fixing your boat in exotic locations." Well, I don't think Florida's exotic but it has been fun.

Thursday 12/27/07 4:10 pm EST

Previously I mentioned that I'd note some of the benefits of VII C's. Well the big one so far I think is that the engines are accessible from the cockpit. And then the sides can be reached from the aft cabins through a panel. On a lot of other catamarans, the only engine access is from underneath the aft cabins. On these diesel engines you're suppose to check the oil before you start them, I wouldn't want to tear apart a bunk and put it back together again on a daily basis. Yuck!

Thursday 12/27/07 4:38 pm EST

Okay, I'm back. Scott went below to get some sleep before dinner, and these damn fisher people are in my course. I count thirteen off my starboard side and I just wanted to make sure we weren't going to crash.

Anyway back to the benefits of VII C's. The boat comes with four cabins, but currently we have one cabin, a pantry, a garage, and a closet. With the electronics people taking so long to finish, Scott was unable to unpack. Thus when I arrived, I unpacked the gym bag and stored my two small suitcases next to his.

Another awesome benefit that Scott and I quickly found was lazing around on the foredeck. You can always find shade under the genoa and you can lean back on the saloon windows, just be sure to watch out for the lines.

Compared to other catamarans our galley is awesome. We have two fridges, a freezer, and tons of space for cooking utensils and food. This was a major drawback for the PDQs and Fountaine Pajots we looked at.

The navigation station in the PDQ was in the starboard hull and you had to pull the table up if you needed to get further down the hull. Ours is next to our saloon table. It's fixed and has another autohelm next to it. We both love it.

Friday 12/28/07 12:03 am EST

I have now started my next night shift. We have finally found some wind! We have genoa up, main up and the starboard engine going. We're traveling at 5.6 knots. We have the enging going so that we can keep the radar on without draining the house batteries.

The wind came at about 9 pm, and with that there was a quartering sea. Scott had asked me to sleep in the cabins so that he can piddle in the saloon during his shift. I probably got 1-2 hours of sleep. With the Sea the way it is there were a lot of bangs and booms coming from the hulls.

Anyway, let me get back to my last shift. The 4-8 shift is exciting and a bit nerve wracking. The main reason being that the moon doesn't rise until much later, hence it's really dark. But the stars are so numerous and beautiful, it's awe inspiring.

I started watching a movie during my last shift, I'm unsure if I like doing that during my watch, it makes the time go by faster, but I feel that I neglected my watch duties. We'll see how this shift goes.

Another thing about my 4-8 shift is that the sun sets too. Today it was a panoramic display of color.

Also, Scott makes dinner. As many of you know early in our relationship I accidentally gave him food poisoning, so ever since he cooks and I clean. Tonight's meal was spaghetti. I did not mention this but this was last nights meal too. It may be cumbersome with the amount of dishes to use, but we both enjoy the meal.

During Scott's 8-12 shift, he heard a call on the VHF for the Seven Seas Navigator. See I wasn't losing my mind last night. He says it's a cruise ship.

Friday 12/28/07 8:09 am EST

I woke up at about seven this morning and really did not want to get out of bed. Scott states that if we maintain 4 knots, we'll get to Key West by dusk. Yeah, another anchoring in the dark.

We currently have the genoa and main up, with both engines going and we're moving at 5.4 knots.

First task this morning was to refuel, we did this yesterday too, but I forgot to mention it. We have a unique diesel holding system. There are two 30 gallon tanks connected to the engines. We also have two 20 gallon back up tanks. When the two main tanks get low, we use a Bahamian filter to move diesel from the 20s to the 30s. Our tanks are underneath the dinghy, so we first have to move the dinghy, then open the cover over the tanks. Set up the filter system, and I plug in the power and the diesel moves. Not very exciting, but with moving the dinghy back it takes us about a half hour.

Friday 12/28/07 5:56 pm EST

We have arrived in Key West safely. We really need to pull into a marina so that we can charge the house batteries, but apparently all the marinas were booked up seven months ago for the holiday weekend.

So, we're anchored out in 25 feet of water where there are a lot of speed boats going by. We will be rocking and rolling tonight.

At least it was still daylight when we got the hook down.

We had both engines running all day so that we could keep up with our power usage. After anchoring we turned off all of our sailing electronics, left the engines on and charge the house batteries. So far, no luck.

It'll probably be dinner, movie on the portable DVD player and bed for us so that we don't use any more power.

We'll assemble the dinghy in the morning and see what kind of damage we can do to Key West (Or Vise Versa.)

Monday 12/31/07 11:35 am EST

We are finally leaving Key West. We have both engines going and the genoa up. There is very little breeze.

On Saturday, we had a boat mechanic come out to look at the power system. His solution was $1,000 to replace both alternators. We initially said okay, but Scott thought about it overnight and wondered if he got those belts on real tight, would it do the job?

On Sunday morning, he fiddled with the belts while I laid on the saloon. We had a lot of wind Saturday night and I was feeling a little motion sick, but I wasn't going to take medicine for it when we were at anchor. Anyway, Scott had me help him tighten the belts and voila we are back in business.

So, Scott called the mechanic and told him thank you for your help, but we won't be replacing the alternators at this time.

We are leaving a day later than what was planned, but we now feel very confident in being able to keep our power.

We did go buy all the belts we could find in Key West.

Monday 12/31/07 5:16 pm EST

It has been a long hot day. the temperature has been in the upper 80s and there is no wind. We have both sails up and both engines going and we're moving at 3.5 knots.

It was so hot earlier, that I had Scott give me a salt water shower. Remember that when receiving a salt water shower to take off your glasses.

Scott is currently below making dinner. Since the seas are so calm, I suggested pot roast. Well, that was a bad idea, because there's no air circulation down there and he is boiling up. We've just made the decision to not have any carrots or potatoes with the roast.

We are taking a more northern route so that we can avoid a storm to our west. But with how hot and still it is right now, we're both ready for the front so that we can sail again. You know VII C's is a sailing vessel not a motor vessel.

On the nature front today, we saw jumping fish and our first school of dolphins. We don't know what the so called jumping fish were, but we'll find out later. The dolphins were about 20 feet off our starboard. I'm still waiting to watch them play in our bow wake.

Tuesday 1/1/08 3:12 am EST

Happy New Year! Well the storm is definitely coming. I truly hope that we have taken the correct path. We caught the weather report, and there is a small craft advisory from Tuesday to Thursday. We've decide that we'll reef the mainsail at sunup. I think we'll be safe.

Anyway, we're still ghosting along with both engines going and both sails up. We're currently moving at 3.2 knots. The sails are mainly flapping, but occasionally will catch a small breeze.

Tuesday 1/1/08 7:30 am EST

We had our second school of dolphins this morning. The first occurred last night while I was sleeping. Scott tried to wake me up and I told him no thank you.

Tuesday 1/1/08 3:53 pm EST

Oh what an interesting day we've had so far. Scott went below at about 8:45 am. He told me to in an hour to check the oil on the port engine. Well at 9:30 the winds and waves picked up. The genoa started flapping and Scott immediately came up.

He started to reef the main while I hand steered the boat. Well then he wanted to start the port engine, and I told him no because I hadn't checked its oil yet. At this point I've taken my glasses off because of the rain, so I'm in the port engine with the dip stick in hand and can't get the depth perception correct to get it back in. Scott asks if I'm done yet because he wants to get that engine going. After a few tries I do get it back in.

Friday 1/4/08 4:12 pm EST

Well, we are now completely under sail moving at 6.3 knots. It is so nice to not have the engines on.

I was not able to finish the log on the 1st due to seasickness. When we finally reached port in Naples, we learned that we were in 15-17 foot seas. During my shift that night I stayed on the couch watching the lap top with the radar on. Admittedly, Scott did all the work, even though he was sick too. He was trying to get us to Sarasota so that his family could see the boat, but at daybreak we were closest to Naples so that is where we stayed.

We got the boat settled at the T head (after three tries and ripping off the port light.) This was at 10:30 am on Wednesday, and we were off to find breakfast. We sat at the counter at this Ma & Pa type place, and the food and atmosphere were excellent. We ended up having breakfast there for the following two mornings too.

After making calls to the families and the offices, we studied the Naples map that the dock master had given us. We needed to go to West Marine (WM) to use two $50 coupons and I needed a new hair brush. Well WM was just too far to walk in the cold windy weather we were experiencing, so we decided to rent a car.

We've decided that we like Enterprise because they'll pick you up. And they did pick us up from the City Dock. Got the car, and drove across the street to WM. Walked around there hemming and hawing as to what to get. Finally we were hungry and decided to make our decision later. We had dinner at a place by the water, returned to mothership and crashed! (Meaning went to bed.)

Thursday morning, it was still cold and windy. After breakfast, we decided to drive up to Sarasota to see the Wilkersons. This worked out great because we were able to do some laundry at there house. It was nice to catch up with them and to see the house Kelly and Lani are living in.

After our visit with them, we stopped at Super Target on the way back to Naples. The heater that the previous owner left on the boat had died and I still needed to replace my hair brush. Two items we needed, we left with I believe ten items.

During the drive back to Naples, I kept an eye out for Friendly's. I can't believe that I've been in Florida for almost two weeks and have not had a Reese's piece's sundae. No Friendly's were found either.

We returned to Naples, ate dinner, and loaded the mother ship with all of our Super Target purchases. We then spent an hour or so unpacking and cleaning up before going to bed.

This morning we got up had breakfast and went to West Marine. At WM we decided on a portable charcoal grill and something for the dinghy's transom to hold the engine on at a better angle. I just want to let my brohter, Eric know that with our $50 coupon and his gift card we got the grill for $16. Thank you so much.

We then returned the car and had them drop us off. We then proceeded to get VII C's ready to sail again. I tackled the head while Scott worked on the port light that we broke off. I'm just going to have to wait till we get home to get the head properly cleaned. It stinks badly in there and what I need to do is remove everything and then clean the walls, toilet, ceiling, everything to see if I can remove that odor. Well, Scott was able to get the light back on the rail, and luckily he flipped the switch to make sure it still worked. And guess what, it didn't, and we don't have any spares for those. I'm thinking, oops we should've done this earlier we've already returned the car. Well, we were lucky, the small marina store by the dock had the bulb that we needed and it worked.

We then checked out at the dock masters office and away we went. No difficulties were encountered while leaving the dock. After we finally get out to sea, we have to turn around to put up the main, and we see a dolphin doing flying leaps in front of the boat. It was so cool. Of course, no pictures were taken as we were busy putting the main up, but here's one of me driving VII C's.

Well, we got both sails up, the engines turned off and we're moving at over 7 knots. That's great, but with the 6-8 foot seas it wasn't very comfortable. We changed our angle to the wind, and are now cruising around 5.5 - 6.5 knots.

We both need to be back to work next Friday. Eek! So Scott did the math this morning. If we maintain 4 knots, we'll get there in 7 days. 5 knots 5 days, 6 knots 3 days. So for now we're making sure we stay above 4 knots.

Sunday 1/6/08 8:42 am CST

We made the decision to switch time zones this morning. We currently have both sails up and the starboard engine running. Our current speed is 4.6 knots.

Our first day traveling across the Gulf came to 125 miles.

I suppose our only excitement over the past two days is that last night we caught our first fish. It was during my watch and I was inside watching the radar (and a movie), and I noticed a ship was coming towards us (12 nm away.) So I go out into the cockpit and look around and I step on something. It didn't quite feel like a line, so I grabbed a flashlight and voila we had caught a flying fish. It was only 20 minutes to the end of my shift so I woke Scott up to show him the developments. He immediately threw the fish back into the ocean, and of course this morning we wished we had a picture of him to add to the log.

Anyway, that ship I mentioned did appear to be heading straight toward us, so Scott contacted him on the VHF when we were a little closer. And the Tug with its barge agreed to alter their course. The courtesy you see on the seas. Isn't it great.

Later on, we found that we had caught two other fish. See evidence below.

Monday 1/7/08 7:24 pm CST

Okay, I know I'm not doing too well in maintaining this log, but with the motion we've been having, I'm getting seasick very easily.

Anyway, currently we have both sails up and both engines going. Our speed is 4.2 knots.

On Sunday night, during my 12-4 shift, all of a sudden Regina (our autohelm) could no longer hold her course and we were spun around 180 degrees. The wind and waves had picked up instantaneously, so we had decided to drop both sails. To raise or lower the mainsail, it is easiest if the boat is facing the wind. Well of course while doing this we are also nose diving into the waves.

Well once the sails were down and we were back inside we realized that three hatches were open. The two in the saloon didn't get too wet, but our cabin got soaked. Also, while I was closing the hatch in the saloon, I clumsily got my finger caught in the hinge. It's not too bad though, it's only a nice shade of blue.

The waves continued throughout today, we haven't eaten much due to seasickness and the increased motion when down in the galley.

I am so ready to be home. This has been fun, but I'm ready for a complete nights sleep, a dry bed, and my pets.

Tuesday 1/8/08 11:12 am CST

We are approaching our first oil rig. There shall be a lot of them on our way into Kemah.

We refueled this morning, and have barely used 20 gallons since we left Naples, so we are now running both engines at cruising speed and have both sails up. We've also decided to leave the main reefed for the rest of our journey. Our current speed is 5.7 knots.

As usual we had some excitement last night. At 10 pm Scott woke me up to have me hand steer while he tried to figure out what happened to Regina. We were not looking forward to hand steering the rest of the way home. Luckily within 45 minutes Scott had figured out what was wrong with her and we're cruising again.

Let me tell you briefly about our steering system. There is no power steering like you see in most boats and automobiles. It is a chain drive. This means that you have to have some muscle to steer her. I was very proud of myself that I was able to keep her on course while Scott was fixing Regina.

Wednesday 1/9/08 3:19 pm CST

Yet again we had an interesting night last night. Just after sunset we were hailed via a search light. Apparently they were doing seismic testing and we had to avoid them. To a girl who just wants to get home, this was a big inconvenience. But what choice did we have? So, we complied and added probably two hours to the trip.

Today was excruciatingly hot. To avoid the sun we decided to lay on the starboard side of the boat having the saloon cabin as shade. Please note that I have nine pages left in my book, and the starboard engine starts to sound like she's going to die. So, Scott immediately lowers her RPMs and starts looking for the problem. Well apparently there was some seaweed on the prop, so Scott pulls the propeller out of the water and uses a boat hook to remove the seaweed.

It would seem that everything was back in order, but Scott decided to check the fuel. Luckily he did since starboard was almost out. So we proceeded to refuel the mothership.

After fueling was complete, I decided to take my afternoon nap. I'm trying to get at least a couple of hours sleep during my off shifts. I'm concerned about going back to work though, a girl could get used to sleeping three times a day. Anyway, while napping Scott played with the sails. At one point he had all three sails up and we were going at 5.9 knots. He was all set to turn off the engine and then the wind shifted and he was unable to get the geniker flying again.

Anyway, we're 37.6 nm to our first turn into Houston, with one engine and two sails up we're traveling at 4.6 knots. I'm having doubts as to if we'll be at work on the 11th. Oh darn.

Side Notes:

1. We are now concerned as to if we have enough fuel to get back home, so we're back to one engine in the water at idling speed.

2. I finished the book before I took my nap, and of course the author left himself wide open for another book in the series.

3. No seasickness today!

Thursday 1/10/08 6:03 pm CST

It has been another interesting evening and day. Last night Scott stayed up most of the night to watch and make sure the big ships weren't coming at us. He slept for a good 4.5 hours this morning.

Then during my afternoon nap, apparently we had bad weather. I slept right through it. But the biminy died and the wind shifted. The wind is coming directly from the direction we want to go. So currently we are coasting with sails alone at 3.7 knots. Then supposedly in the morning we'll have an east wind and we can go north into Kemah.

BTW, we don't think we have enough fuel to motor in, hence we're going where the wind blows us.

Okay, below is a list of items we need replaced, fixed, or installed. They are in no particular order.

1. Biminy

2. Dinghy davits

3. Foredeck

4. Upholstery & Curtains

5. Captain's seat

6. Genoa Sun Protector

7. Main Sail tear on foot

8. Central heat & air

9. Solar Panels

10. Wind direction & speed (TriData)

11. Water gauge

12. Fuel gauge

13. Thru hull depth gauge

14. Radar addition - AIS

Friday 1/11/08 9:58 am CST

During one of my night shifts I watched the movie "Finding Nemo." In one of the scenes Dory is singing "Just keep swimming," well that's exactly how I've felt except Just Keep Sailing!

Anyway, we are no longer sailing now. Texas is on the horizon and we're both ready to be home. so the sails are down and both engines are going and we're moving at 4.2 knots.

We'd thought that we were going to run out of fuel, but there's a fuel dock right at the cut into Galveston bay, so we're motoring.

Friday 1/11/08 5:52 pm CST

You know that list I wrote yesterday, well we definitely need #12. For the past two days we've been concerned about running out of diesel. Well after we made the cut into Galveston bay, we refueled. We carry 100 gallons, we purchased 54 gallons. Dipping the stick in the fuel tank does not work very effectively while at sea.

Well we are set to arrive at our home marina at about 10 pm. Scott called them after we refueled and we have the pass codes to the restrooms and security is aware of our arrival. There is a restaurant right there next to the marina, so we're hoping they're still open by the time we arrive. Scott and I are looking forward to a good night's sleep. With the excitement of getting to our home port, neither of us has napped today.

Friday 1/11/08 9:00 pm CST

We are home.

Scott's Log Cancer Stairs Guests

Revised: August 09, 2008