We Are Headed Home!

If you follow this blog then you know that we've been away from Storyville for the last eight months. We've been in Texas caring for my mother, but the time has come for us to return to our boat and our life on the water. We will be flying back to Grenada tomorrow and we will see just how sad our boat is after eight months of neglect. We will get her right back into sailing shape though!

In fact, we have been sitting here on dry land thinking and dreaming of improvements for Storyville and we decided that we would ship a box back with some of the wonderful things that we have been collecting over the last months. Troy had a great idea. We would purchase a dock box and fill it with goodies and ship it to Grenada. I thought that was a great idea as well since we do need more storage space on deck and a nice dock box would definitely be an improvement over the ice chest that we are currently using for deck storage. The idea was great, but the project seemed to grow it's own legs and get out of control quickly.

We ended up with the largest dock box that would fit on Storyville's aft deck, it's 72 inchest wide! We must thank our friend Bob on s/v Wyndigo. His boat is a sister ship to Storyville and he is currently based in Kemah. He kindly allowed us to use his boat for measuring and even for a trial run with the dock box.

Of course, with the bigger box, came more "stuff" to fill it up. All kinds of stuff, like new kayak paddles (which were desperately needed) and even some new carpet squares to replace the carpet in our aft cabin. We even added things like treats for Luna and a new food chopper for me. We stuffed it so full that I can't remember what all is in there. Luckily, we made a list!

Troy had to make a crate to ship the dock box in. We wouldn't want that pretty shiny box to get all beat up on the cargo ship! Like I said, this project took on a life of it's own.

One of the main reasons for this idea was so that we could get a new water maker with a higher output. We love our Spectra but we love water and the 4 gallons an hour that we were getting made it difficult to keep up with the pace of our water consumption. We have only heard wonderful things about Cruise RO Water and Power. They were very helpful in getting the unit ordered and shipped to us and we are can't wait to get it to Grenada and installed on Storyville.  We will be able to make 30 gallons a hour - yes, that's right, from 4 to 30. What a difference.

I guess it's a good thing that we need to get a bottom job for Storyville soon. We may have to raise the waterline!  I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story:

She's out of our hands and off to Grenada to meet us after our arrival. We will have some busy days ahead but we just cannot wait to get back to our life on the water!

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
It's always our self we find in the sea.
~e.e. cummings

We Love Boats

We've been land locked for over seven months now and I can't tell you how much I miss being rocked to sleep with the gentle sounds of water lapping at my hull just a foot away from my head. Or waking up and enjoying a cup of coffee in my cockpit as life floats by all around me, or having a sundown rum drink in the cockpit in the late afternoon and doing the same thing. If all goes as planned I will get to experience those things again soon as we are planning to return to Storyville in mid November.

We've been making good use of our time on shore and have several improvements for Storyville when we get back to her. More on that later......

I just to get this blog up and rolling again and ready for some adventures in paradise!

As I was going through some of my personal papers I came across this article that I wrote in 2007 for a local sailing magazine:

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WE LOVE BOATS!

By Deana Jones

"If a man is to be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most." ~ E.B. White

It has occurred to me that I may have an obsession with boats. I mean, most people either like boats, or they don't like boats. Or, they may be somewhere in between, you know, take 'em or leave 'em. Me, on the other hand, I think it may be a little more serious. Don't misunderstand, I realize that there are others out there, just like me, but we usually try to hide our obsession from the "outside world". They just don't understand.

For instance, my husband, Troy and I currently own four boats. One sailboat, two kayaks and one dinghy. Our sailboat is a 37' Morgan Out Island named Different Drummer. You should see us when we head out for a sailing destination - the kayaks on the deck of the sailboat and the dinghy following along behind! We have our own fleet with us wherever we go.

Another clue regarding my obsession would be the fact that we live on our boat, the sailboat of course. We have a perfectly nice home, but we choose instead to stuff ourselves into the small living space on Different Drummer. We even like it!

When I'm not boating, I'm usually thinking about boating. I just can't wait to get out there on the water and see what adventures are in store. Troy is just as bad. He is usually working on boats, or talking about boats, or thinking about boats, sometimes even dreaming about boats. You get the picture.

We started boating on Lake Livingston on a pontoon boat. That was lots of fun - fishing, swimming, just hanging out on the lake, but something seemed to be lacking. Then one day Troy confided to me that he had always wanted to try sailing. Little did we know how that would affect our destiny. We took a moonlight sail on a sailboat maned Blue Marlin through Leisure Learning. We didn't know what to expect, but we really had a great time. The bay was beautiful under a full moon. I think we were both hooked on sailing that night. A little while later we decided to take sailing lessons.

We took our first lessons through Bay Area Sailing School. It was lots of information to take in at once, I felt overwhelmed and thought I would never understand how to sail, much less what to call all that stuff on the boat! Who knew there were no ropes on a sailboat? That each "rope" had its own name according to its use? Anyway, the school did a great job and before we knew it we were ASA certified sailors.

Troy, being also obsessed with eBay (that's another article for another day), found a 21 foot Ericson for sale and it just happened to be in Kemah, Texas, and it just happened to be in our price range. We are a little nervous and undecided about buying it, but my obsession took over and I clicked the "confirm bid" button and, ta da! we bought our first sailboat, sight unseen. She was a great little boat to get started in. We sailed her all around Clear Lake and spent every weekend scrunched up in that tiny cabin - loving every minute of it!

Eventually we (really, me) started wanting more space. I mean, if we're gonna spend every weekend on the boat, I would like to at least stand up when I'm in the cabin. Is that too much to ask? Troy found an old 27 foot Balboa on a trailer at Lynn's Sailboats on I-45. She hadn't been in the water in about 13 years. She had been sitting on a trailer somewhere in west Texas. She needed lots, and I do mean lots, of cleaning and TLC. Troy gave her a nice bottom job, we cleaned her up and named her Storyville. I like to think we brought her back to life. We sailed Storyville all around Galveston Bay and Trinity Bay and had a great time. In fact, Troy claims to have had the best day of his life on that boat, but that's another story too. Maybe he'll write about it some day.

Well - here we are - life is good and we are spending every weekend on Storyville. If course, given the fact that we are both obsessed with boats, we (in this case I mean Troy) are always looking at boat ads and going around to various boat brokers and looking at the boats for sale. By the way, that's what you call entertainment for someone obsessed with boats. One day Troy tells me that he found a boat for sale and it was such a great deal that we just had to take a look. We took a few of our other "boat obsessed" friends with us and went to see Different Drummer. We fell in love at first sight. We decided on the spot that we just had to make an offer. The broker told us that there was already an offer pending, but he would take our offer as a back up. I guess it was fate, the other buyer couldn't get financing, so Different Drummer now belongs to us.

Five years after the obsession began here we are living aboard and loving it. If course, given our obsession, who knows what the future will hold. Troy sure had is eye on a Morgan 41!

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What a story to look back on. Another six years have gone by. We ended up with the Morgan 41, named her Storyville, sold and gave away all of our belongings and took off for the cruising life. We've been gone for 3 years with 2 1/2 of that time spent on our boat, on the hook. Storyville hasn't been tied up in a marina in 3 years! What fun we've had and we are looking forward to more of the same when we get back to Grenada to be reunited with Storyville. And, yes, we are still obsessed with boats.

Friends Having Fun

Since I'm landlocked for now it's sometimes difficult to look at all of the wonderful Facebook posts and blog posts that our cruising friends are posting day after day. Just taunting me with pictures and statuses (apparently that really is a word - statuses) of the fantastic places they are visiting. Places that Troy and I had planned to be visiting on Storyville right about now. They are all making plans to meet each other down island and talking about the next fun thing on their agenda. That's OK though. I can't stop looking and I'm living vicariously through them.

Since I'm suffering through this, I thought that some of my readers might like to do a little suffering too. Many of you (especially my sailing/cruising friends) already follow some of these blogs, but I wanted to remind everyone about some of the awesome people that are out there cruising and doing a great job of writing about it and sharing it with others.

Note: To be directed to the great blogs mentioned below, just click on the yellow link

Our friends Rene and Stacy on Pipe Muh Bligh and Patrick and Lucy on Illusions are still in Sint Maarten. Apparently they've taken up residence there. Just kidding, I think they will be moving on soon. I wanted to mention Pipe Muh Bligh because, not only are they wonderful friends (we've been cruising with them for the past 2 years), but Stacy kept a great blog at one time. I say this because I don't remember the last time she made a blog post. I am hoping to accomplish 2 things by mentioning her: 1) I can see if she is reading my blog!, and 2) I can shame her into starting up her blog again. You know I love you Stacy!

And then there's our friends that are charting beautiful catamarans in the Virgin Islands. There is our best friend Steve and his fiancé Deb on Alternate Latitude. They keep a blog about their charter business in the Virgin Islands. If you ever want a dream vacation, give them a shout. Tell them that Storyville sent you and you might even get a discounted rate! We also have a wonderful friend Shane on Guiding Light who charters there and keeps a great blog detailing his charter adventures and his life aboard.

Everyone who cruises, or dreams about doing so, has probably already read Zero to Cruising's blog. We met Mike and Rebecca in The Bahamas 2 years ago and even though we had different sailing plans, we managed to cross paths again recently in Sint Maarten. We are hoping to see more of them when we make it back to Storyville in Grenada. Mike keeps a great blog and he manages to post really often - follow along and dream of living their life.

Even though we've never met Brittany and Scott, we've followed their blog, Windtraveler, forever. Brittany is a great writer and I love catching up with almost daily blog posts about their life cruising with the sweetest baby, Isla. It's the story of a family afloat on this big blue marble. They are also headed for Grenada and we hope to meet them one day soon.

Another blog that I love following is Turf to Surf. One couple, two cats and a monohull on the move. Tasha is a wonderful writer and they are just starting their cruising adventure. They fell in love with the Dominican Republic and are busy exploring that beautiful island that we fell in love with as well.

Our friends John and Jolanda on Joho are world travelers and have created cruising guides along the way. Stop in for a look at their blog and guides. We met them in Sint Maarten last year and cruised together back to the British Virgin Islands where we parted ways only to meet up with them again this year in Sint Maarten. I love it when we get to reconnect with friends!

There are so many great cruising blogs out there and several ways to find them. Click the links to take a look, but be warned! Cruising blogs can be addicting:

• Sailing Blog - Powered by Blog Nation, Click their link over to the right to give Storyville a boost
• The Monkey's Fist - Collecting Cruiser's Perspectives
• Networked Blogs - For a great list of cruising blogs

I have a list of blogs on the right side of this page. Almost all are friends who are cruising or living aboard or some mixture of the two. Some are still actively writing their blogs and some have given up on that venture. All are still interesting to read, especially if you ever dream of cutting those dock lines and setting sail.

I leave you with two of my favorite sailing quotes:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
--Mark Twain

To reach a port, we must sail - sail, not tie at anchor - sail, not drift.
--Franklin D. Roosevelt

Feeling Left Out!

Troy is in St. Martin/Sint Maarten with Storyville while I am back in Texas with my mom and family. Since we made the decision to stay in Texas for the next several months, it fell on Troy to make sure that our boat/home finds a safe berth for the upcoming summer and fall. That's hurricane season and a dangerous time for an unattended boat to be floating around in the Caribbean.

After weeks of talking to other cruising friends and sending many emails to boat yards and marinas, we decided that we would leave Storyville on a mooring in Grenada. Troy and our friend Damon will make the crossing next week and then Troy will spend the next couple of weeks securing a mooring and making sure that Storyville is ready for whatever may come while she is there all alone. Fortunately for us, many of our cruising family will be spending the summer in Grenada and will be able to keep any eye on Storyville for us.

It's killing me to see Troy and Storyville set out for the open ocean without me. It just doesn't seem right. Since the day we bought Storyville Troy and I have crewed her together. We've never made a passage without each other. After cruising for 2 years and making many overnight (and sometimes longer) passages, I can say that I'm never worried or scared. I trust Troy and I trust Storyville and I enjoy the time that we're out on the water. I think this will be the most worrisome and scary passage for me - the one that I'm not on. I won't have contact with Troy for several days and I will be keeping up with him though our SPOT device.
 
Why Grenada? Well, we had intended to spend hurricane season there anyway, because it's a beautiful island with many fabulous anchorages. The biggest advantage is that is considered to be south of the "hurricane belt". Having said that, Grenada has been affected by hurricanes in the past and, undoubtedly, will be hit again. The most devastating being Hurricane Ivan in 2004, when the 130 mph winds (Category 3 hurricane) decimated the islands nutmeg trees and therefore the nutmeg industry and 90% of the islands homes were lost to the storm, which killed 39 people on the island. Interestingly Grenada had not seen a hurricane in 49 years prior to Ivan.

Looking at the statistics, it is clear that Grenada is more likely to be affected by tropical storms than by hurricanes. We can't be sure that we're doing the best thing for our boat and home, but we are trying to make sure that she's in a secure place while preserving the cruising kitty so that we can get back to her and resume the cruising lifestyle that we love. 

Never a ship sails out of the bay
But carries my heart as a stowaway.
~Roselle Mercier Montgomery, The Stowaway

The Hard Decisions

My family - Mom is front row left

Every now and then in life we come to a time where we are forced to make a tough decision. Sometimes, the decision really isn’t even in our hands at all.

We left Storyville in Sint Maarten in March to fly back to Texas for a visit with our family. Just before our already scheduled trip my mother had a minor stroke and ended up in the hospital and then, in an assisted nursing facility. She is now at home, but the stroke and other underlying health issues left her with short term memory loss. The other health issues have also affected her ability to get around easily. As a result, she needs live in care at all times. She is also dealing with some personal issues that, due to her memory loss, will require assistance. My daughter and my sister have been doing a wonderful job taking care of her, but after seeing her condition and realizing that it probably would not get much better, Troy and I decided that we need to be here to help with her care, and, for the moment, my place is here with her.

She has a nice big house with plenty of room for us, so, we made the difficult (but obvious) decision to secure Storyville and return to Texas for an extended stay to help with her care.  I’m not sure how long we will be here, but I do know one thing:  our cruising days are not over.  We are not done living the fantastic life that we have made for ourselves. Our general plan is to stay here through the summer and help get mom situated as best we can, then we will re-evaluate and hopefully be able to return to Storyville.

Troy flew back to Sint Maarten and is making the decision about where to leave Storyville for the next several months. Because she will be alone during hurricane season, this is a very difficult decision for us. We are currently leaning toward sailing her down to Grenada for the season where she should be safely out of the hurricane belt, of course, those who pay attention to these things know that Grenada is not always safe from storms, but we will just have to pray for the best.

I’m just thankful that we have so many friends that are willing to drop everything and fly to a beautiful Caribbean island and go on a fantastic sailing trip in order to make sure our boat stays safe.  We are fortunate that we have friends like that. (Yes, this paragraph was just a little on the sarcastic side, since I really wish it was me making that trip).

The pity party is over though, because, although I’m sad to set the cruising and sailing aside for a short while, there are some wonderful benefits to staying here in Texas (besides the incredibly hot summer that I’m sure I have in store). My beautiful daughters, my grandchildren, my sister, my nieces, aunts, friends, mother in law and sister in law all live here. I feel very loved in Texas! I can’t wait to spend time with them all and especially time spoiling my grandkids.

I just hope I have some friends in Kemah reading this, because I will definitely need some sailing time! Hint, hint. You know who you are!

Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; A mother's secret hope outlives them all.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Cruising with a Dog

I'm hardly an expert on this subject since we've only had Luna aboard Storyville for about 3 months, but I thought I would give my perspective on what it's like to cruise with a puppy. We've been cruising for over 2 years now (wow, time does fly when you're having fun!). Our last dog, Harley was already 12 or 13 when we started dreaming about going cruising on our boat. By the time we actually cut the dock lines, he had already gone to live with my daughter because he was over 15 and the boat life was just too difficult for him.

We decided that, even though we are both dog lovers, it would be difficult to cruise with a pet so, sadly, we made the decision to leave without a canine companion. I'm sure it was the right choice for us at the time. We already had so much to learn - a whole new way of life. One that we pictured to be carefree, with even less responsibilities. A pet just didn't fit into that scenario. We did learn a lot in those 2 years and while the cruising life is sometimes a carefree one, we quickly learned that there are still many responsibilities, just different ones than we faced while living on land.

About the time we hit our 2 year cruising anniversary, I started planning and dreaming about having a puppy on board to share our adventures. Maybe scheming would be the better word since I still had to convince Troy that this was a good idea and I knew that it would take some pretty smooth talking! I strategically waited until one night after happy hour and a few rum and cokes to bring up the subject. I was pleasantly surprised when he didn't just dismiss the idea outright. We actually had a great discussion that first night about the pros and cons of having a dog. It went something like this:

Deana - "I've been thinking that maybe we should consider getting a puppy"

Troy - "A dog is so much responsibility"

Deana - "Yes, but what else do we have to spend our time on?"

Troy - "A dog has to be exercised and taken for walks every day, even if it's raining"

Deana - "Yes, but more exercise would be good for all of us"

Troy - "But dogs are messy and they shed"

Deana - "But they’re fun, remember Sampson (a Border Terrier that belongs to our friends on s/v Virtue and Vice), he doesn't shed and he's a really cool dog"

Troy - "I only want a dog if it's a really cool one"

Deana - "Of course our dog will be really cool!"

After that, I knew that I had my foot in the door. We spent many hours that first night talking about the pros and cons of having a dog and we finally agreed that it might not be so bad to have a puppy to love. Before he could change his mind I started doing research to find us a puppy that would be the best fit for us.

I brought Luna home to Storyville in early December. She’s a Border Terrier, she is a great size for a boat dog (she should be somewhere between 11 and 15 pounds), she doesn’t shed and, of course, she’s a really cool and adorable dog with a great big personality!

We’ve had loads of fun taking her to the beach, hiking trails or even just walking her through town. Yes, having a dog on board definitely adds another level of responsibility to our lives but I can tell you that it’s so worth it. We’re looking forward to enjoying many years with her.

We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults. Heaven has accorded this to us in the uncritical canine attachment. ~George Eliot

I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive. ~Gilda Radner

British Virgin Islands

We made a really quick trip through the British Virgin Islands this time. We had originally planned to spend a little more time here, but we got caught up in the US Virgin Islands while waiting for parts to repair the windlass and Troy's guitar. Since we got to spend 2 months here last year, we figured that we had hit most of the “must see” places. One anchorage that we never made it to last year though was Cane Garden Bay. So, we had a quick sail over from Francis Bay, St. John to Great Harbor, Jost Van Dyke where we checked into the BVIs, then headed right back out and sailed over to Cane Garden Bay and met up with Steve on Alternate Latitude. What a beautiful little place, the beach is picturesque and the sunsets are spectacular. We spent a day and a half there enjoying the scenery.

On Wednesday we decided to head on up to North Sound in Virgin Gorda where we met back up with our cruising buddies on Pipe Muh Bligh, Island Dream and Illusions. Steve had to head back to St. Thomas where he is getting his charter business started ---- Gotta make a plug for Steve here, remember if you book a cruise with him you will get 10% off by mentioning “Storyville”.  You can book a cruise by clicking HERE ---- and the other boats are now in North Sound waiting for a weather window to cross the Anegada Passage to St. Martin/Saint Maarten.  Looks like we are all set to leave tomorrow mid morning for the 18 hour (more or less) crossing. Be sure to watch our SPOT for location updates.

We've seen some beautiful sights here in the Virgin Islands. What a fantastic place to visit and sail. My photography doesn't do it justice, but here are a few photos for your enjoyment:

Luna on lookout!

Sunset at Cane Garden Bay

Storyville anchored in St. John

 

Deer on St. John

British Virgin Islands as seen from St. John