Tuesday, July 9, 2019

June 17-21, 2019 Rapid City and Aberdeen, SD

Sunday, June 16After church with my siblings, Dave and I drove to Rapid City, SD to see our son, Peter.  He wasn’t able to attend the party in Pierre.  We had a small pizza party at our hotel room with some of our sailor friends that knew we were in town.  The main reason for being here was to see Pete, so we were trying to lay low. 
a new victim for Dave to train

Kyle, Kaden and Morgan Killion Wehrle


Mary, Marlene, Tami, Jackie, Tracy
 Monday, June 17
Pete joined us for breakfast then we spent the day driving through the beautiful Black Hills.  Pete spent the night with us at the hotel.  After some long discussions about life in Rapid City, he decided to move to Georgia with us.  He can spend the summer on the boat while we are away and decide if he wants to make it a permanent change to a new location.

Dave, Mary, Pete at Lake Pactola

stopped for a favorite

homemade pizza rolls

Saw these in SD at a  gas station/truck stop
 
Tuesday and Wednesday June 18-19
We borrowed a pick up from a friend and spent the day loading his belongings, sorting to keep, give away or toss. 
Thursday, June 20
My Friday morning coffee girlfriends were able to get together today to meet at Black Hills Bagels once more.  We met at 6:30 am, as usual.  Then we took off for Aberdeen and my sister Janice’s home.  Pete drove his car there to determine where to sell it.

coffee girls-seated Marge, Barb and Tracy, standing Mary, Yvonne and Connie
We stopped in Pierre just in time to catch Don, Linda and their grand daughter Memphis as they were heading to a program and lunch at the Senior Center in Pierre.  We made it to Aberdeen in time for my 3:00pm appointment with my knee doctor.  This was my one plus year follow up after my knee replacements in 2018.  All looked good.
We had a fun dinner with local relatives, including my sister Bev from Oklahoma.  Marie Crawford made a “cream can dinner”.  She put a steamer in the bottom of then can, then layered potatoes, corn, onions, cabbage carrots and sausage in the can.  She poured in 3 beers and put the can over the burner for a turkey fryer.  It cooked for 2 hours and was delicious.  Through out the evening, we made arrangements with an employee of our nephew-in-law to sell Pete’s car!  My dad always called that “good old American Know Who”.




concert for me and my sisters
 Friday, June 21
We had planned to leave for Wisconsin today, but had to finalize things for Pete.  Dave and Pete went to the UPS store to ship his belongings to our mail service in Florida.  Janice and Jim pitched in and helped clean out his car.  Can’t thank them enough. 
My good friend, Nancy Sundstrom, came over from Groton to visit, which got me out of some of the work. (thanks Nancy).  Then we had a nice dinner of SD ribeye steaks and fresh garden asparagus. 

Monday, July 8, 2019

June 13-15, 2019 50th wedding anniversary in Pierre, SD

Thursday, June 13
We flew from Brunswick to Minneapolis today.  We arrived about 5:00pm, picked up a rental car and headed to Aberdeen, SD.  As we left the city, we changed plans and went directly to Pierre, SD.   My oldest brother and his wife were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. 

Friday, June 14
We had a “party bus” pick us up at our hotel, along with all my siblings and spouses.  The bus had stopped at my brother’s to pick up his family and a couple relatives.  We went to the Cattleman’s Club restaurant for dinner.  We had amazing prime rib.  We miss SD beef. 
Then we all rode the bus to the Oahe Dam on the Missouri River.  There we had a champagne toast and watched the sun set on the river.
Some of us continued the party at the American Legion which was on the Missouri River, but in town.  Beautiful setting.

fun family

Dave, Don, Bev

Bobby and Sherri, Brad and Katie, Glen and Heidi-Don and Linda's daughters with. husbands

Dave always has a story for Garrett and Claire

must be the kid's table

my brother Don with all the women in his life-Sister Bev, grand daughter Memphis, wife Linda, daughters Katie and Sherri,grand daughter Claire in front,  back-sisters Mary and Janice, sister-in-law Barb, daughter Heidi

dancing on the bus

illegal champagne off of the bus

Memphis checking out the river

daughters giving toasts and having fun
Saturday, June 15
Today there was an open house at the Senior Center from 2-4 for Don and Linda’s 50th anniversary.  Great to see some of our relatives, Linda’s relatives, and family friends.  Then mostly family went to Don and Linda’s home for a catered BBQ dinner.
 
Memphis and Dave playing
Zeller cousins, Joe and Gail Zeller, Tom Zeller, Carol Zeller
the kids-Garrett Crawford, Dave, Jaxon Zeller-Thorson, Memphis Murphy, Claire Crawford
Siblings Don, Bev, Jerry, Janice, Mary in chronological order
Add caption
Don and Linda, Bev, Jerry and Barb, Janice and Jim, Mary and Dave

Fun weekend!  The last thing Memphis said was "I got this Aunt Heidi!"

May 28-June 12, 2019 hurricane prep and FL dinghy registration

We spent 2 weeks preparing our boat for hurricane season.  Here are most of the things we did.

Sails: laid out our spinnaker sail to dry then stored in it’s bag.
Ran halyards to the top of the mast so they wouldn’t be affected by wind.
Took down the jib sail to store in the unit along with the spinnaker sail.
Lashed the sacrificial portion of the main sail to the mast.  This is the part that is exposed to the sun when the sail is stored in the mast.  He put a line through the cringle for the outhaul and tied it back to the mast.  

I washed the salt off of the deck, cleaned the enclosure curtains to store them in the storage unit.  I cleaned the conch shells we brought back with us, one for Dave’s sister and one for us.
cleaning the side curtains for the cockpit

Pickled the water maker since we won’t be using it for several months.  Shocked our aft tank to clean it.  It had to set a few days with bleach in the tank.  Next we drain it and rinse and drain it again. Then we let it dry out before using to let the chlorine evaporate. 

Moved our outboard off of the dinghy and onto the stern.  Flushed the outboard.  Then covered it with plastic to keep it dry in heavy rain.  Ran the fuel out of the Honda generator.
Dave emptied our jerry cans of diesel into the fuel tank.  It’s best to have the tank full to keep moisture from building up in the tank.
We emptied the gas from our jerry cans into the rental car and stored the cans in the unit with the diesel cans.

We laid the Portland Pudgy, Skadoosh, upside down on the bow.  Then we laid the Zodiac dinghy over Skadoosh, which fit inside the Zodiac.  The cover for the Zodiac fit over both of them.  Then Dave lashed them down to the deck.
2 dinghies snuggled together

Tuned up air conditioner.  Put bromine tablets in the raw water screen and ran it through the unit.  He cleaned the screen of the condensation try drain and the outside screens. 

We picked up a rental car May 31.  Picked up a Home Depot rack for our storage unit.  It made such a difference that we picked up a second one.  It made it much easier to access totes.  Plus several lids for the totes were cracking. 
storage unit rack

We emptied everything out of the bilge that was stored there.  Best to have it clear if there was an emergency to deal with while we’re gone. 

Taped windows on the outside to prevent rain from being driven in.
We closed the dorades, air vents from the deck.
Closed the vents on the stern so water can’t enter in a storm.

Dave added a bilge pump for the aft section of the boat under the engine.  He spent time researching what he needed.  He ran a bilge hose form the engine to a through hull in the aft port quarter of the boat.  He installed the bilge pump and had to trouble shoot it.  Nothing works the first time on installations.  The switch was from a different bilge company than the bilge pump he bought.  Ordered and waited for new switch.  Second time was a charm.  Always another step.
adding a switch for the additional bilge pump
someone might think this is interesting
accessing the engine compartment from under the stairs

Dave dove the hull of the boat to put lanocoat on the prop and shaft.  That keeps barnacles from growing while we’re sitting in the marina.  The new paint job will keep them off of the hull.  The zincs were ok.  He noticed coffee grounds on the hull above the through hull for the galley sink and cleaned that off.  It had damaged the paint in the past. 

Put out extra dock lines, fenders and chafe gear (protects lines where they rub against the boat).  He retied our neighbor’s boat.  It has been sitting here unattended since we got here.  Dave had permission from the marina to do what he thought needed to be done. 
Covered the grill with plastic.  Covered the binnacle and table in the cockpit with a canvas cover made for them.  Then lashed the canvas down.
tucked up before trip to SD, MN, WI

Checked the Yanmar transmission fluid and oil.  Flushed the air conditioner lines.  We will shut if off while we are gone and run a dehumidifier.
Took off the solar panels and stored them in the storage unit.  Also took off the Bimini over the cockpit and stored it in the unit.
Cleaned the raw water screens once more.

dinghy registration
6-5
We drove to Green Cove Springs to register the new dinghy that we bought in the Bahamas this winter.  The DMV wanted the MSO-manufacturers statement of origin.  We weren’t given one and would have to get one from the Bahamas.  Then they said they could give us a title using the invoice, BUT we had another road block.  The state of Fl just changed a law that will no longer let us use our mail service on our driver’s license.  We were told that we would have to have an address in Florida that we use for 6 months and one day each year.  Well, we left there to talk to our mailing service.  This we new to them, too.  So they were going to research it and get back to us. 
Dave was able to go online and register our Beneteau using our current address. 
6-7
We were told by St Brendan’s Isle, our mailing service, that we should try another DMV in Florida besides Green Cove Springs.  So we drove to Nassau County in Fernanadina Beach, FL about an hour south of us.  We took in the title hoping they didn’t care about our driver’s license.  This office insisted that we have the original MSO, not a digital copy.   She said it was the “birth certificate” of the dinghy.  Well, that wasn’t going to happen.  PLUS we’re supposed to have this registered within 30 days of returning to the USA. 
Added this now to finalize the story.  7-3 continuation of dinghy saga:  We found out we could change out driver’s licenses to FL and our coast guard documentation number.  We changed that online and had them sent to us at GCS.  We picked them up on 7-3 and went back to the DMV.  We were able to register the dinghy with our new driver’s license and the invoice.  FINALLY!  

 We also helped neighbors as needed and relaxed as needed.

Pretty Nan with her pretty flowers

helping Kent remove sails



the ladies at the liquor store had a sense of humor

relaxing with dock mate Kent

Sunday, July 7, 2019

May 27, 2019 Memorial Day at Brunswick Landing Marina

We enjoyed a lazy morning on dock one having coffee with the dock office staff and friends, Fred, Pati and Gene.  About noon, we moved the boat to dock 9.  We took some time to set up power and water and air conditioning. 

There was a marina party that evening for Memorial Day.  The marina provided BBQ pork and buns.  Everything else was potluck from the boaters.  Always a great feast.  I was able to make Texas Caviar, a bean dip, with ingredients that I had on board.  Later, I played cards with several boaters in the yacht club.  Good to be back. 

This flag took a beating over 3 months
Gene, Fred, Pati, Mary, Dave

May 25-26, 2019 Day 2 & 3 of crossing from Bahamas to Georgia

Saturday 5-25
I was up to take my watch about 1:30am.  I hadn’t slept well because the boat was heeling to port, which caused me to slide off the bed in the salon area or occasionally grab the shelf on the starboard side.  I wished Dave good luck as he went below to sleep. 

We had other ships paralleling us, but no issues with crossing paths.  It was an uneventful night.  Dave figured out a good way to sleep.  When we make the table into a bed in the salon, we lower the table top and insert two cushions.  He took out those two cushions which made a well to sleep in.   There were cushions surrounding you to keep you in place.  And we use a cushion off our our bed, so you aren’t directly on the table top. 
2:00am rush hour

flying fish landed on the boat

sunrise
Dave was up about 6:30am to take over watch.  He vacuumed water from under the engine every time he changed watch.  We put up sails by 7:00am and turned off the engine.  We had breakfast, then I took a nap, but was up by 10:30am.  At 1:00pm we estimated about 250 nm to go.

Once we were in the Gulf Stream, we went from 6-7k to 8-11k with an average north east wind about 15k.  Perfect day for sailing and making time.  About 4:00pm we shortened sails since we were heeling about 15-30 degrees with wind gusts.  So about 5:00, we took down the sails and started motoring.  That helped level out the boat so I could make dinner and get some sleep.   Dave started his watch and I went below about 7:30pm.  He was nice enough to take a few sunset photos for me. 
off of Cape Canaveral 6:40pm
finally heading north


sunset
5-26 Sunday
I was up at 2:00am to start my watch with 130 nautical miles to go.  We were traveling about 40 miles offshore, so no wifi yet.  The winds were light and variable, so it was comfortable for sleeping.   We had charted where to turn NW towards Brunswick, GA and reached that waypoint at 2:30am.  We had predicted 3:00am.  Even though we were turning NW, we were still in the Gulf Stream until about 5:30am when we went from 10k to 8.5k.  Hated to lose that boost in our speed. 
12:15am

sunrise

Dave was up by 7:30am.  It seemed to take forever to get to Brunswick.  We entered the inlet about 6:00pm.  We caught the sunset at the Sidney Linear bridge.  We continued on to Brunswick Landing Marina and tied up at dock 1 by 8:00pm right after sunset with plenty of light.  It ended up being 470nm in 60 hours.  WHEW!  Good to be “home”.

Sidney Linear Bridge heading back to Brunswick landing Marina