Went down to Surprise last weekend and discovered the center solar panel laying on top of the bimini where it had ripped the canvas in several places.  Sailing plans went out the window and it becomes a work weekend. 
First task is to get panel of the bimini and then remount it.  After a trip to West Marine I have the parts and begin the install process which goes smoothly enough.  I also clear out the aft stbd cabin and test out plans for converting it into a storage area with tie downs to keep boxes coolers and such in place while underway.   I know have a plan for tie downs and straps. 
I also managed to adjust the valves on the generator getting it into running order again.  It will be great to have the generator running again. 
I am now working slowly to get Surprise into better shape and prepared for cruising in the future. 
More to follow.

April Update

Not a whole lot has happened with Surprise this year, about the only real update is I am trying to make some changes that will get me back to Surprise more often with a goal of heading to Mexico in the fall.... but not sure the timing will come together.  A lot has to happen before November for that to happen.  Its not beyond possible, but its going to be tough.  However I do need the escape I need the beginning of a new part of my life, I need to cruise.  Surprise needs to cruise, the more time I spend with boats inanimate they may be or seem I believe they have a soul its always been that way with captains and their vessels.  Surprise longs to be untied from the pier and sail, she comes alive when she gets away from harbor.  Its like that song the Blue Nose talks about how the schooner Blue Nose slips away with tide, ranging far south rejoicing with every wave.... Her bow rising free in a sunburst of spray she is always does best hard over as she will lay, I get those same feelings when I sail Surprise, she seems to speak to me when I get her hard on the wind, bounds like a race horse, wanting to run free over the horizon.  I long to let her run...to see where she will take me.  I want to put the miles under her keel and see where we end up.  I want that since of adventure, the exploration, seeing new places meeting new people.  LIVING LIFE TO ITS FULLEST!  for me, I have done my twenty years in the army lived a life I am happy with but now I want to live a new life, a life that I have dreamed of.  Its time and nothing is going to slow me down. 

Okay, updates on whats been done to prep Surprise.  The carpets that I had down below had to go, and those have been replaced, hopefully they will have longer life.  I am torn some because I like having bare decks, but on the other hand the carpet in nice to have to.  So carpet it is.  its not a lot of carpet, just a few runs. I will try to get a picture up later. 
The next new addition is new fuel cans.  The cans that I came down the Ten-Tom with got lost in the last few years so they all have to be replaced.  The replacement cans are so much better I really like them a lot easier to use than cans I had before.  The cans are No-Spill  http://www.nospill.com/index.html  They are great for use on a sail boat.  I will be fitting out my compliment of cans the the No-Spill cans.  I need at least two more possible 4 maybe even a total of 8 that would give me 40 gal of extra fuel and would double my  motoring range.  Only problem is that's a lot of fuel on deck.  Will look into the storage and see what I come up with.  I have some ideas.  Well I will close here and write more later. 
Cheers, The Captain. 
P.S. enclose pic of fuel can. 

Well, I am back, what a year it has been.  A bad one for the blog, as I didn't write in it once, that's absolutely terrible.  Thia is a situation that has to be fixed.  I am going to try and start again, so enough of the dull stuff.  Lets update on Surprise. 
No real new updates other than the purchase of the Jordan series Drogue to be used if Surprise gets caught in heavy weather, this is a link to read more about the drogue.   http://www.yachtingworld.com/features/a-jordan-series-drogue-63180  and one more,  http://seriesdrogue.com/ 
I also moved my sensors for the SIRIUS radio and chart plotter GPS receiver to the top of the radar loop,

I also sold the spinnaker and purchased a whisker pole, while I was sad to see the spinnaker go, I was excited to get the whisker pole and after using it just a few times I was thinking I was crazy for not getting it sooner.  Sailing down wind so much nicer with the jib poled out. 

So all in all its been a great year of sailing, I will post more later about Rob and I and our annual trip, this time to New Orleans.  It was great more, so looking forward to more great trips. 

Thanksgiving has come and gone, all in all it was a great one.  My parents came to visit, was great to spend time with them.  I am blessed to have such supportive parents.
As far as Surprise goes, she has a new battery for starting the engine only.  This will take the starting load off the house bank and extend its life.  SSB radio is up and running, I have made a check in with a cruising net once so has pretty good range so far, but still want to do more test to see how far out I am getting.  I have removed the dingy davits from the stern and relocated the dingy to the bow, this will give the Hydrovane more room to work and take some weight from the stern and move it forward.  More importantly it frees the stern up when doing passages for fishing and also prevents the stern rail from leaving with the dingy if a wave ever swamped it.  I have a list of projects that I will work on a little at a time, I will post some of my plans later.  I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.
Capt. Bear

couple of pics with dingy on the fore deck, with a cover for it and all the hatch to protect from tropical sun.

Time for an up date since the year is almost out. 
The year started pretty good, then after my post in March I was ambushed by health problems that slowed me to almost a total standstill.  I have made it past that for the most part, still battling things from time to time, but for most part I am making it.  More on that later. 

Okay, for the big update.  I was finally able to get the SSB radio hooked up and it works.  I was wondering if it was working but once I got clear of all the interference in the marina I was able to hear stations some as far away as Hawaii, now to work on the getting the proctor modem so I can set up email. 
I did go ahead get the Hydrovane, I am pretty happy with it so far.  I have only used it once, but it worked nicely just as I expected.  It was nice to sail along with out the ships autopilot eating up battery power.  I can see it being a great addition to my gear. 
The next big thing to happen was replacing the dingy, the old one had to go, the transom was made of marine plywood and had rotted out, it cost almost as much to fix it as to by a new one, so I got one from West Marine, a RIB, has hard fiberglass bottom as well as transom.  I also moved the dingy to the foredeck and removed the davits from the stern.  This frees up room for the Hydrovane to have full range of motion, takes the weight of the dingy off the stern, makes off shore passages safer.  Having the stern free makes room for the Jordan series drogue the I am getting as well as bringing a fish aboard when we are fishing.  Nothing like fresh fish for dinner. 


I also took time off  at the end of September and first week of October for my annual sailing trip with Rob.  He came down and we spent a few days in the Marina and then motored over to Horn Island spent the night there then sailed over to Ship Island, visited the island, explored Ft. Massachusetts and the beach.  I think we saw a sharks fin.  We then motored back towards home stopping and spending the night at Petit Bois Island, taking the time to explore here, collected some sea shells had a great dinner from the pressure cooker.   Sailed and motor back to the marina the next day.  I will take time a little later post a better log of the trip.

As I get closer to moving aboard Surprise I plan to take more time updating the blog and my hope its to link it to my YouTube so that there will videos to go with the blog.  I am not sure that it will be as fantastic as some of the blogs and video logs that I have seen but I am going to try and and I am sure that over time it will improve.  I do have one helpful addition that make my videos a lot better, I bought an iMac what a great addition to video production it will be. 

Preparing for long distance sailing

Its 2014, I am so glad to be out of 2013, I just did not like the 13 thing all year.  Any how, things are moving along little by little. I have made several big decisions this year as far as preparing for future cruising. 
1)  Installed LED tricolor on top of mast, this will make more visible while sailing at night.  It gives me the red for port, green for stbrd and white stern light as well as the anchor light.  The main advantage is it places the Nav lights 50ft of the water rather than 10, a huge difference.  When I am in the trough I couldn't be seen, but now I will be visible in all but the highest seas, stuff I don't plan on being in. 

2)  I also installed an LED steaming/deck light combo.  The deck light had gotten water in rusting the connections, I tried to find a new unit and would replace the bulbs in the deck light with LEDs but that proved impossible at the time, so I replaced the whole assembly with an LED.  It works great. 

Now the biggest things.

3)  I now have SSB radio, not installed yet, but its ready to be installed.  I had wanted SSB radio for awhile, and I decided now was the time.  I am close enough to making final preparations to go that I felt it was time to make the move.  This will give the time to learn all about using it so I am not learning when I need it.  

4)  The biggest decision that I made this year was the purchase of Hydrovane self-steering gear.  Many said I dont need it, just use the boats auto pilot.  I agreed for a while, the read some articles about boats that lost rudders or lost the ability to steer.  I did more research and made the move to get the Hydrovane.  I can mount it off center so I can still use the swim platform for its intended purpose as well as boarding point from the dingy.  It acts as an independent rudder steering the boat, this helps balance the boat while sailing as the ships rudder helps balance the boat while sailing.  Also makes the ships steering gear last longer by taking the load off the main rudder.  Acts as an emergency rudder in the event of lose of steering.  It uses no power at all.  Saving on valuable battery power for other things.  I do plan on doing some long passages so it will pay for its self. 

5)  I am also installing solid stainless steel rail in place of  the life lines port and strbd.  This will run for the aft railing to the boarding gate on both sides.  This will allow me to relocate my life sling to a place that makes for sense for man overboard emergency.  I will also locate my life raft here as well.  

That's about it, I will need to save money for more later, and for sailing this summer. 
I am not sure if I mentioned in an earlier post but I replaced the C90 chart plotter with a more up to date C140 and digital HD color radar.  I was not concerned about the radar it ended up being a required purchase due to the C140 being digital and not talking with the analog unit that I had.  All together this is great addition to navigation on the boat.  The larger screen makes planning and navigating much easier. 
I think that's it for this post.  I will post some pics as I get them.  As I was posting pics I forgot that I installed cabin fans, they are great, really move some air around.   Thanks for reading. 
Capt. Barry

OK, its been way too long since my last post, I will give a brief overview of what has happen.
AC is still not working properly.  I have one unit that works and it works like crazy when its hot out to keep the boat cool.  During the day it just barely keeps the saloon cool.  I did get the other unit check out and it will require a new compressor.  So that's on my list of things to fix.  My only complaint is it took so long to get answers and way too much money.  Good part is I know what is required and if I have it done I have a good company that will do the work and do a good job, only problem is that its a 3000.00 $ bill for it.  So that has pushed back till next year sometime.
This year we did two trips, one short over labor day weekend, and the other the before Memorial day.  we went for another week long trip, Rob came down and Shiana went with us this time.  We sailed off shore for three days.  We started by heading for Port St. Joe Fl again, and once again didn't make it due to high winds that were forecast after we arrived.   I decided it was best to run for Pensacola and stay there we would have safe travels on the ICW and be able to avoid high winds and seas out on the gulf.  We made it into Big lagoon late at night on the third day dropped the hook and all got some sleep.  We spent two days at Big Lagoon swimming visited the beach, had some great meals and great music with Rob playing guitar.  on the fourth morning we picked up the hook and moved the wind had really picked up and we decided to move to more protected waters.  We had a pleasant sail to Ingram's Bayou, spent the balance of the day and most of the next here before heading for Lulu's for music and good food plus a night in the marina to get some AC and much needed water and wash the salt off.  We got an early start the next day headed back to Mobile Bay and Turner Marine.
All in All it was a great trip.

Labor day trip was a part sail mostly motoring trip, and plenty of time on the hook having a good time swimming and enjoy good food.  We went to Pirates cove this trip and hung out with Chuck and Bruce.
It was a great weekend.

I will try to post a more detailed account of both trips later.  that is really about all the sail done this year due to the furlough, I lost $900 plus dollars due to the great wisdom of the federal government, those clown couldn't pay me and other federal employees to work but they could all spend money on other things, the hypocrisy is beyond sanity.....so go figure.  I just hope we have seen the last of it, but I don't think we have.

I will try to write more later and post some pictures.

Capt. Barry