Sailing Miles

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  Bucket List: Elbow Cay Lighthouse in Hope Town, Bahamas We docked the dinghy, with a stern anchor out, right at the lighthouse dock for our free self-guided tour. The woman in the gift shop was very friendly and informative. The light in this ligh thouse is the only one in the world that still runs on kerosene and is hand-cranked! We saw the block-and-tackle they use to bring up the kerosene to the pressurized tank. OSHA has no jurisdiction here... 101 steps to the top. It's fascinating to us that a cochlea   is a naturally occurring geometric shape. Part of the beautiful way God made order in the universe. According to the brochure, "The lighting source is a 325,000 candlepower "Hood" petroleum vapour burner. A hand pump is used to pressurize the petroleum (kerosene) which is in the heavy green iron containers below the lantern room. The fuel travels up a tube to a vapourizer within the burner which sprays into a preheated mantle. Pressurized camping lanterns oper

 While we were spending the five nights anchored in our "only one night" anchorage off Lynyard Cay (it was that fantastic!), we went up to Sandy Cay to snorkel twice. Both times were amazing.  I mentioned before that someone said it's the best snorkeling spot in the Abacos.  The good part of hitting it first, is that we did actually enjoy the best snorkeling spot in the Abacos.  The bad part is that it will all be downhill from here. We had learned that the Pelican Cays Land and Sea Park maintains a couple of moorings near the reef.  They were not rated for a 50-foot boat, and besides it is easier to grab a mooring from the dinghy.  We took the 2.5-mile ride on two consecutive days to enjoy the reef. The water is that amazing clear water of the Bahamas.  Heck, I think I've bought bottled water that is not so clear.  We shared a mooring with a family that was taking a sabbatical for a year and cruising the Bahamas and Caribbean on their trawler, Seven Lambs. The waves

An update on SV Miles on Facebook

The chainplate project is coming along. It's almost a bummer to cover up all that shiney stainless steel. Good thing, too. We FINALLY have an ETA on our new mast to be delivered. Whoo-hoo! We may lay eyes on it at the boatyard just after the Fourth of July holiday. Of course we then need to attach all the goodies to the mast, then put it in the boat, then turn it a few times. It's nice to not continue wondering, though.

  Well, that's a bit different. Looks fun, though. Some printing on the side said "XTender." We were really hoping this was some restored tender for a huge ship, although it looked pretty up-to-date. We found that a company called XTender makes custom boats. This may be one of their builds.

Buying a large boat, and learning all the systems, can be nerve-wracking. Especially if she is an older boat, and many of the "learning experiences" involve repairs or upgrades. Our trucking experience has taught Cindy and I to be vigilant about changes in how things work, a change means something may have broken. For instance, if black smoke suddenly starts billowing from under the hood, something may be amiss. That visual clue is a message that we need to check something out. The changes also include if a new sound pops up. Neither one of us could abide a new rattle while we were on our sleeper break. That noise had to be discovered and stopped! It might be simple, like a zipper tapping on a plastic closet door, or it could be serious, like a chain slipping of the chain-hanger about to go under a drive tire. The worst-case scenario is what keeps us up, I guess. We can even sleep with a sound going on, as long as we know what it is. When we got to Florida in our 1989 Ste

After Miami (No Name Harbor), we sailed to Carysfort Reef, where we spent two nights. Really fun, we were more than five nautical miles from land, tucked in next to a lighthouse that was built in 1852, and operated until 2015. We snorkeled, Steve had a cell so he could work, we completed a few boat projects in the plumbing department, and fixed a couple of things that broke. Today we had nice sailing weather, although the seas were a bit big. We sailed outside the reef line, then cut into Hawk's Channel. We got an early anchorage at Rodriguez Key, near Key Largo. Click here to see the full Facebook post.

Click here to see a Facebook post about going up the 65-foot mast.

NOT the Miami dolphins. Atlantic spotted dolphins, we think. They didn't actually introduce themselves. Our first day two-handing our boat went well. A few challenges, but that comes with the territory. We were thrilled with our choice of weather windows, and we made better time than we anticipated. Click here to see a You Tube Video of our dolphin day.

We actually spent Christmas at Brunswick Landing Marina. We had a chilly night or two, but did not get shut down on I-80, due to winter weather. (Like we have spent many a Christmas.)

Our second day was also amazing. After we took the time to look up the weather, the tides, and picked out our "A", "B", and "C" anchorage plans, we got a bit of a late start, and ended up at our "B" anchorage, in Johnson Creek GA. We saw dolphins again, and began playing with different sail configurations. What we DON'T know still amazes us. Our anchorage helped us learn about our boat. As we have observed since then also, our deep keel make us current-bound, instead of wind-bound. We often are facing a different direction than anyone else in the anchorage. That night we had wind blowing 25 mph, with gusts up to 42 mph. The anchorage is also known for fast currents. All this made for little sleep during the night. We were glad that our mentors, Jamie and Behan, had recommended buying a range-finder. We, at least, knew that we were not too close to shore.  We planned out our next day before going

We had closed on the sale of Miles on October 28. We had several projects to complete before we could start our trip around the world. Of course we needed to move aboard, also. We additionally drove two loads of stuff down from Colorado, visited family and friends, received a safety award, went boating on the Tennessee Driver, quit our jobs, and dyed our hair blue (first time with hair dye for both of us.) Kind of a busy time. By my birthday on December tenth, it seemed like we could continue working on the boat forever, and not go anywhere. We had heard that it happens to boat owners. Our Buyers Agent, Richard Jordan, mentioned that boatyards are places where dreams go to die. Wow, that's sad. We didn't want that to happen to us! We made a list of the critical safety and operational items we needed to finish before we left, and found that we had completed them. Whoo-Hoo! We could go boating

Over the Rode My wife, Cindy, and I are over-the-road truck drivers. We drive team. Team driving means that one of us is always driving and one of us is a lways sleeping. Over the last thirty years of criss-crossing the United States and Canada, we have accumulated a huge number of "remember when" moments. As in, "remember when we went hiking on Snoqualmie for the first time?" Or, "remember when it took five hours to cross the George Washington Bridge because of construction?" Or, "remember when the blizzard closed I-80 in Wyoming on Christmas?" As we drive now, every mile of interstate brings up memories from the hundreds of other times we have been there. We often feel sorry for the people who vacation around the United States and Canada who fly from city to city. They don't get to experience the country mile by mile like we get to. Airplane vacationers don't know that the Texas bluebonnets start blooming in the south, then wo