Our visit with Daniel

Dear Friends and Family,

We survived the cold front last weekend spending nearly five days curled up in Sanibel. We managed to sneak out Friday evening to stock up on some groceries, as we were down to the bare minimum and didn't even have any spam to save us. For nearly 20 hours on Saturday we rocked with 30 mph winds. Our anchor held strong this time as well as my tummy. I made an apple pie and homemade beef stew on Sunday to help heat the cabin. The smells were wonderful in such a small area. For two days our lows were 36 degrees and our highs were 61 degrees. We handled it well, but mornings were definitely the hardest.

Monday morning we ventured out to what we thought would be a few hours to shower and do laundry. Jimi had planned to clean the pickup, so he could sell it. After completing our list of 'to dos' and a couple of beers on friend Gary's boat we finally got back to Sanibel about 4pm. This schedule brought us an extremely late lunch and dinner consisted of cheese and crackers about 9pm.

We find ourselves going to bed earlier and earlier every night and likewise waking earlier. I guess it is to be expected with such a lifestyle.

Jimi picked Daniel up from the airport on Tuesday. He is here for one week. We ventured out in the dingy on Wednesday and explored an secluded stretch of beach. We found several coconuts, cracked a couple open and ate them. We need to do some more research on proper storage though.

 


Thursday we went to Sam's Club and Wal-Mart to provision. Check out our provisioning list on our blog.  http://dogbonegraphics.com/blog/?p=3126   The back of the pickup was completely full. We unloaded at the park taking up two large picnic tables. Jimi and Daniel hauled items to Sanibel in the dingy while I stayed at the park to remove all cardboard, even the mac-n-cheese boxes had to be opened and the contents placed in zip lock bags. Twenty five pounds of rice and forty pounds of flour had to be broken down into smaller and more manageable containers. I wrote the contents of all canned goods on the tops of the cans, so if the labels fall off we will still know what everything is. Once on Sanibel we had to store everything, which wasn’t easy. We still have a few things without homes, but we’ll figure them out.

Friday our friend Ray boarded and we went on a long sail leaving about 10 am and returning about 5:30 pm. We raised the main sail for the first time, the mizzen sail and the genoa sail all at the same time. We reached 7.2 nautical knots and at times reached a maximum heel of 20 degrees; however, our average heel was more like 12 degrees. It’s not so bad being on deck in the cock pit, but it’s kind of gnarly below. I managed to cook lunch for the guys taking advantage of our gimbaled stove, which looked like it was about to lay on its side. It was weird to see the stove so tilted, but really the stove remained level and the boat was leaning. We had fun, but at the end of the day we were all beat and went to bed early.



Daniel is having a good time and we are real glad he’s is here.

Here is a link to the video Jimi made of the outside of Sanibel. He hasn't had a chance to make the inside video yet, but he will, so stay tuned. Click here for the video http://dogbonegraphics.com/blog/?p=3116

Until next week……

Love everyone,

Lorie & Jimi

Provisioning

Today we went to Sam's Club and Walmart to provision. We only bought non perishables that will last us for four months (17 weeks).

All  cardboard had to be removed before we boarded Sanibel; everything down to the macaroni and cheese had to be removed from the box and placed in individual sandwich baggies. Toilet paper had to be bagged to keep the moisture out and the names of the canned food had to be written on the tops with a sharpie, so when the label falls off because of moisture we'll know what it is. Nearly everything had  to be placed in zip lock bags to either break into a smaller container or to keep it dry from the salt water air.

It was a  long day. When all is said and done it took us ten hours going non stop.

I'm beat!

4 Month Provisioning (17 weeks)
Mac and Cheese	12 boxes
Corn chips	5 bags
Hot coco	1 box
rice	25 lbs
pasta	12 packages
red sauce	9 cans
white sauce	9 cans
peanuts	13 lbs
peanut butter	6 large jars
coffee beans	6- 12oz packages
Ritz	15 tubes
trail mix	3 large bags
graham crackers	3 boxes
breakfast drink	1 box
cream of wheat	3 boxes
hot tea	1 box
soups	18 cans
canned peaches	4 cans
canned pears	4 cans
canned mixed fruit	4 cans
canned mandarine oranges	4 cans
canned corn	8 cans
canned peas	8 cans
Canned asparagus	8 cans
canned green beans	12 cans
canned tuna	6 cans
canned chicken	5 cans
bisquick	4 boxes
Salsa	4 jars
cereal	2 boxes
mayo	3 bottles
ketchup	3 bottles
mustard	1 bottle
Dry Milk	9 gallons
Instant potatoes	1 box
flour	40 lbs
sugar	5 lbs
baking powder	1 can
baking soda	3 boxes
salt	1 large container
pepper	1 large container
Johnson's Baby shampoo	30 oz
mouthwash	1 bottle
toothpaste	4 tubes
Ibuprofen	3 bottles
Olive oil	1 large
instant yeast	2 medium packages
Toilet paper	36 rolls
Paper towels	12 commercial rolls
Powdered Gator-aid	1 large container
Heavy duty Freezer bags (gallon)	4 boxes
Heavy duty Freezer bags (quart)	4 boxes
Vegetable oil	1 large container
corn meal	1 package
Oatmeal	2 containers
Vanilla	1 large
Food saver bags	1 economy package
Kleenex	3 boxes
Cat Liter	32 lbs
Camping egg holders	1
Granola  bars	box of 60

Calm day for some masthead pictures

Sanibel Video Tour Part 1 The Exterior

Happy Valentine's Day

Dear Friends and Family,

Checking in with another update. I’ll write weekly again until we lose our internet and I am un able to do so.

Last Thursday night was our first trying experience on Sanibel. 50+ mph winds swept through Charlotte Harbor. Unbeknownst to us it knocked our anchor lose and we drug several hundred feet towards the bridge, which our mast does not clear. When Jimi got up to check on the anchor he realized our position and took action. He started the motor moving us back to a safe distance and began to reset the anchor. I was doing fine laying in bed as we bounced all over the place. I felt like I was in a snow globe and someone was shaking it.  I got up to use the head and that did it for me; I was queasy. The TV was flopping back and forth, so I held on to it until I could get myself together enough to secure it all while I leaned over the galley sink throwing up. After a few minutes, I was fine and I  secured the TV with the first thing I could find – Jimi’s apron.  I went above to the cockpit with Jimi for a while before going back to bed. Jimi stayed in the cockpit rest of the night monitoring our position. It was a rough night, but we weren’t in any real danger. Now, at least, we have a ‘story’ to talk about. J Jimi has since hooked up an anchor alarm. If our anchor moves , an alarm goes off and we’ll know something is up.

Molly is doing so well, we are impressed. She climbs the companion way stairs to go out. She hangs out in the cockpit, walks the perimeter and likes to stare out the bow (sometimes the stern). She jumps and investigates all over the cabin like nothing. She going to be a great boat kitty.

We got to shore on occasion trying to make the best use of our time, dingy rides, and dingy fuel. We take our trash every time we go, collect more fresh water to keep our tanks full and try to think of everything we can or need to do on shore when we go, like pick up a few staples, do laundry, take a hot shower, go to the bank etc. Everything we need right now is within walking distance of the park where we park the dingy. Even though we still have the truck, we haven’t used it much.

Jimi still works of stuff now and then, but not like before. We are on island time now and he can finally relax. He’s ready to head south now, but we can’t just yet. Daniel is flying in to see us on the 19^th of February and we are super excited about that.

The computers Jimi purchased to run on 12volt are not performing as needed, so he purchased a Dell from someone off Ebay, however, sadly it arrived damaged and we must return it. The is disappointing since we are on a strict timeline. It will all work out in the end.

Our time for internet and phones is quickly coming to an end. We’ll disconnect everything sometime in early March. We’ll be sure to let you know when it happens and will then keep in touch via email, Facebook, and our blog as often as we are able.

Speaking of our blog: We think the spammers have been removed from our blog; however, he’s still troubleshooting and he’ll want to install a cool theme like we had before.

Jimi is making a video giving everyone a tour of Sanibel and how things work. I’m not sure when he’ll have it finished, but we will be sure to let you know.

A cold front is coming through today, so we are buttoned down on Sanibel for at least today and tomorrow. Jimi has several projects he wants to work on and I can finally get started with some of my own.

My matron of honor Tammy left two bottles of Champaign here, which we were going to toast when Jimi and I moved aboard. Unfortunately , Tammy has been unable to come back to Florida, so my ex-neighbor Monica willingly volunteered to spend the day with us so we could toast our future with Sanibel. Here are a few pictures. Tammy, this is for you – we missed you!

Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Floating!!

Love everyone,

Lorie & Jimi

Anchored

Dear  Friends and Family,

Here we are with a quick update of our progress and whereabouts.

We motored Sanibel from the dock at All American Boat Yard on Monday to the Charlotte harbor in Punta Gorda, FL. Our friend Ray came with us to offer his help and support. As we motored, we used out autopilot, which worked well and kept us right on course. The 25 mile trip took about 4 ½ hours in all. We are anchored and doing well. Some of our systems are having problems, but they just need some adjustments and tweaking. We are still organizing and reorganizing, which is to be expected.

We are just about a quarter of a mile from shore, which makes for an easy dingy ride. There is a place here for us to park our truck, as well as free water, and lots of places to get groceries and whatever else we need.

The water has been calm so far. Jimi said it got pretty rough  our first night, but I slept right through it.  A rocky boat is soothing for me and I don’t mind it one bit. We’ve been cooking on our gimble stove and we tried out our new grill once. Despite minor things like getting used to minimal electricity after dark, limited fresh water and no hot showers, etc. all is well.

Molly is doing well. She didn’t like the engine noise while motoring. She stays below mostly and is comfortable with moving about the cabin, eating, drinking and such. She likes to explore the deck at dusk and sunset, but otherwise is still a little skittish up above. She’s coming around though and soon enough will be well acclimated.

We’ve updated our SPOT location, however, our blog website has been taken over by spammers. So, if you go to our website you will more than likely be told “Congratulations, you’ve won. Take our survery”. We urge you not to do it, as we don’t know what will happen. Our host company and Jimi have tried to fix it with no luck. Jimi still works on it, as time permits. We are hopeful to be able to get it back eventually. More to come.

We’ve also experienced some issues with running our computers on 12 volt. It’s not happening. I am currently sitting at a public park plugged in to a 110v outlet and this is how  it will have to be until we can figure something out. I’ve still got my Cencorp phone with data and can use that to some degree. We’ll keep you posted on this issue as well.

Here are a few pictures: Image 3 is the lock we had to go through to get from the fresh water canals to the salt water ocean.

Image 6 is Jimi at the helm talking with our friend Ray.

Image 7 is Lorie.

Image 10 is Molly laying in the forward berth during the journey.

And image 14 is the chart plotter Jimi used to get us where we are.

Tomorrow we are expecting 9mph winds steady and are planning to pull the anchor for a day sail. It should be fun.



That’s all for now.

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi