Cape May, NJ

Here's that posh 31st floor Ritz-Carlton pimp pad in Manhattan:

John netted $150 for the boat kitty last night via some legal blackjack victories at Trump's Marina Casino. I take back everything I said about Atlantic City, NJ. I love it. I'm going back right now, actually. Screw the Caribbean. My take on Hooters still stands, however.

Lovely sailing conditions as we sailed south from Atlantic City to Cape May NJ today. Sunny and breezy. We have a slight issue with diesel fuel leaking into the bilge when the tank is full and we are on a heeled starboard tack. Second time that has happened. No biggie. We just won't top off until that's sorted out....

Nothing else to really report. Just went and got provisions in Cape May and we're gonna cook up some vittles: fresh locally caught swordfish and asparagus. Nummies. We've been really good about cooking on the boat and not eating out. We're on a budget, ya know! We may actually go out socailizing tonight... we'll see... will shenannigans ensue? Stay tuned to find out. Same bat-time, same bat-channel.

S.O.L. in A.C., NJ

Holed up in Atlantic City, NJ. Still. Cory came in last night and took us out to Ruth's Chris Stakehouse downtown. That was awesome. Thanks, buddy... Team Audax loves you!

With all due respect to the locals, it baffles me that this place (Atlantic City) is a "tourist destination". It's kind of a shit-hole. That's just MY OPINION. I'm from Maine, so my local beauty bell-curve is skewed, let's face it. If anyone out there is looking for casinos with elderly people in nylon leisure suits and bad jewelry sitting at slot machines smoking cigarettes between huffs on their oxygen tanks, THIS is YOUR place!!

It's looking like the weather is lightining up... it blew a GALE yesterday and last night... SO GLAD to be made fast to this dock. Maybe A.C. ain't so bad after all.....

We're gonna try to split tomorrow morning for Cape May, NJ, re-check the weather, then round the Delaware shore to the Chesapeake Bay, then into the I.C.W. aka "the ditch" where we no longer have to worry about weather windows.... just shallow silt beds and low bridges. Hope y'all are well.... jeez: if you're reading this, shoot me a frickin' email already will ya?? Show a brotha some love, peeps!! stevestjean@hotmail.com

NYC to Atlantic City, NJ

Had the first official Audax social Saturday night! Then we all went to a GREAT Vietnamese restuarant in Manhattan... so yummy. Left NYC Sunday morning, and planned to steam all the way to Cape May NJ. Started out as a GREAT evening, even steaming (wind on the nose). Mild temps, stars & moon... then everything changed. The clouds blew in around midnight, seas built and we were losing speed. Forecast was for it to build, so we decided to ditch into Atlantic City, short of our goal. Then we had some... umm.... shall we say "very tense" navigational challenges around the inlet to Atlantic City. Shoals all around, blank spots in the chartplotting software charts, inconsistencies between the paper charts and the real world nav marks... yadda yadda. It SUCKED. Not fun. But we made it in, tied up at Trump Marina, and stepped into the largest collection of huge-ass bird shit I've ever seen. Yummy. Slept. It appears that seas and winds are impeding our forward progress for.... possibly the next few days. I'm sitting in a Hooters at the Trump Marina Casino/Hotel. I didn't see Tony Soprano on the docks and I don't see Donald Trump anywhere either. What a jip. Cory is coming in from Philly tonight to take Team Audax out to dinner..... sweet! That should boost morale. Morale has not been high recently due to the above... but it's all part of this big adventure!! I just cooked broccoli and burgers on the boat which boosted spirits... my burgers are better than Hooters'. Ironically enough, I'm at Hooters for the Wi-Fi. Really. I hate Hooters. I feel bad for the girls who have to wear those silly looking uniforms, and the food actually sucks. Chillin' like a villain until dinner with Cor-dog tonight.

Team Audax loves you all......

Stars & Stripes in the BIG APPLE!!

I'm in a luxury South Manhattan 31st floor townhouse overlooking the Hudson River and Jersey City, as I eat stroganoff and watch helicopters fly by the windows.... another hooky!! We sailed through Long Island Sound through the night and it was frickin' COLD!! Hit Hell's gate around 8am and morale went through the roof. Woot woot! Tied up at South Cove Marina right by Ground Zero and here we are. The Big Apple. Thank you Jim Sullivan and his lovely wife for their hospitality as I type this in a warm, scenic dry luxury environment... on Jim's computer! My wireless card seems to have pooped its pampers. Not the best e-luck, hence the hiatus in posts. Here's some pics of our new ENSIGN I installed, as it flies proudly through Long Island Sound into NYC....

Thanksgiving in Mystic, CT

First off, sorry for the delayed posting. Haven't been able to hit wi-fi recently.... I'm actually typing this off line as we steam West in the Long Island Sound toward NEW YORK CITY!! We departed Newport, RI on Wednesday morning and sailed to Mystic, CT. Jordi's aunt Kay lives in Mystic and works at the Mystic Historic Seaport Museum on the water, and we were able to dock there for free-99. Yet another Hookie! Our slip in Newport was free, dinner on Rodgie & Jilly, breakfast on Rodgie, and now the Mystic Seaport hookie. We love it! We arrived in Mystic early enough to hit the West Marine store for various supplies, then groceries. We had Mystic Pizza at Kay's and hit the racks aboard Audax. The next morning - Thanksgiving - we did some work on the boat: boom vang, flag staff, outboard / tender stuff, and I unpacked finally. John played with his new toy: "The Shlong". The Shlong is a big ol' amplified internet antenna which is supposed to pick up wi-fi from a two mile radius. It has yet to perform with any success, so we'll see about that. Then we went to Kay's for football and a great Thanksgiving dinner. Nummies. Back to Audax for ninites, and departed Mystic around 930am bound for NYC. The breeze in Long Island Sound was HONKIN' today... we sailed with reefs, but then we just bagged the sailing altogether as the breeze grew to 30+ consistent out of the cold North. We altered course to hug the CT shore to minimize the chop. It's COOLD. Great sunset and now a full moon. we have begun our 2 hour rotations at 6pm and I just made some coffee... mmm. That's it for now, folks. I hope I get to cut/paste and post this in NYC if y'all have not given up on me. Sorry for the delay.

!!! OUTTA HERE !!!

I'm writing to you all from Newport, Rhode Island, so WE FINALLY SPLIT!! Here we are Monday morning, minutes before departure at 7:50am:

It was very nice to see my family the night before at Lise & Greg's 25th wedding anniversary party... congratulations, Lise & Greg!! 25 Years!! Woot Woot!! Thanks to Chip & Renee for letting me stay at their house the night before, and especially giving me a ride to the boat at 6am with all my stuff!! Thank you Chip and Graham!! Why am I yelling?

Morale was VERY HIGH as we depart Strouts Point, South Freeport:

Documented proof - Strouts Point getting smaller off the transom:

At the helm, still beaming. Lovely conditions:

At the helm about 24 hours later, not so nice conditions:

Here's the cliffnotes... Departed Freeport, heading for the Cape Cod Canal... it was breezy, cold and SNOWED a bit before dark. The seas picked up a bit and rolling swells throughout the night caused general nausea all around. No actual vomiting, but not exactly a Jimmy Buffet song, either. We rotated 2 ours sleep / 4 hours helm & nav shifts until we arrived at Cape Cod Canal at 7am. I skipped the canal to go get my first actual sleep of the trip. I wasn't able to sleep during my night naps... but still relaxed. Chilly and damp but breezy conditions today in Buzzard Bay as we sailed at 6-8kts all the way to Newport Harbor around 4:30pm and here we are. S/V Audax and her systems performed flawlessy. Dinner in town tonight with John's folks and then.... SLEEP. There's more to write, but I'm tired and hungry, so it ain't really flowin'.... more of just a straight up update for all our loyal readers. Over and out for now.

Rico & Beans

I neglected to mention in my last post, a couple of significant items that took place late Friday night: I went to L.L. Bean and bought some SUPER WARM Polartec "expedition weight" poly-pro thermals, and some much needed soft luggage to pack all my stuff in. Then, I handed Rico off to my good friend Diane. Rico is my 12(?) year old 20lb cat I've had since 1998. Almost ten years. I love him. He's my big buddy. I'm so lucky to have Diane to take care of him while I'm gone! She is a veterinary tech and true animal lover... Rico is in GREAT hands.... THANK YOU, Diane!! Here's some pics of my big buddy so you can all see how handsome he is:

I'm gonna miss you, Big Buddy!!

proVISIONs

Friday: Phil Shelton http://www.worldvoyagers.com/ came aboard to get our radar and autohelm up and running. I dabbled with various nick-nacks. Then I went and SOLD MY CAR...again. (long story) The money went right from me, directly to John. Then most of it went from John to Phil. That was kinda funny. We chuckled. Spirits are lifting and morale is improving all around. Feels good, cuz I've been stressed out lately... I'm not used to stress, really. Stimulating, yet I can think of more pleasant stimulus. I digress....

When I got back from selling my car, Phil had his laptop fired up and we went over SSB Single Sideband weather fax transmissions, three AWESOME weather websites, and then.... a TREAT: Phil fired up his laptop Nav/charts and went over the route he and his wife took south on the ICW. This was COOL! We were smiling and looking at each other and getting PSYCHED.

Then we went and stocked up on provisions at BJ's... thanks, Brynnie! Spirits were light and we were joking around and having fun.... in literary terms, this is called "foreshadowing". I think.

BEFORE:

AFTER: ($400.01 later)

Another Busy Day

Bruce came and tensioned the rig. I ripped off the old, dry, ripped mast boot, cleaned up the mast / deck penetration, and Bruce and I crafted a nice new mast boot. See?:

It is currently the nicest newest looking thing on the boat. :) I also Rustoleum pained the propane tanks. I went to show my car in Topsham, and took a deposit on it. That was a stress point, so I'm glad to have sold the car. Just a touch more $$ financial peace of mind to cover the sans-income time period coming up. We continued cleaning and reassembling the interior of the boat.... it's actually starting to look livable down below! Sweet! We hauled everything out of the boat to reorganize, take some stuff home, re-stow the rest aboard in an organized manner. We obviously will need to optimize all stowage space. Here's a pic of the middle of this process, and note how messy all the halyards and toppers etc look? I took care of all those.... tidying up all the running rigging just as a serious gale blew in... the fenders and docklines are getting a WORKOUT tonight.....

FINAL WEEK

Stepping the rig. Again. Had to inspect the mast step which we neglected to do the first time we pulled the rig. DOH! The step was quite corroded, but still structurally sound. Just wire brush the bejeezus out of it, spray some anti-corrosion agent on 'er. Bruce will be around tomorrow to tension the rig and shakedown sail.

V-berth:


Main Salon:


Aft Stateroom:

As you can see, staying organized and keeping everything tidy and neat is a top priority. Wait.... whos tools are whos? Don't spill your coffee on the new 8D batteries. I think I dropped a socket into the bilge. My phone is ringing.... where is it? Have you seen the duct tape? It's over by the heat gun..... WHO LEFT THE HEAT GUN RUNNING ON THE FUEL CELL?? (just kidding on that last one)

**

Today I cleaned out the propane lockers, double checked and tightened the propane locker drain hoses, and cleaned up the actual tanks. Started reassembling the aft stateroom joinery. Replaced some trim in the galley and salon..... Jordi worked his last day at his job today. Now all three of us are FULL TIME until departure. How long will it take? When can we leave? STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT, CUZ WE DON'T KNOW!! STOP ASKING, PLEASE! hahahaha....

Reality Strikes

Today has to be my last day at Hodgdon Yachts. (For those who may not know, this is where I have been employed as a CAD designer since June '05.)

My previous plan was to continue working at Hodgdon up through Thursday 11/15, but after a heart-to-heart with Team Audax, and a brief summary of everything remaining to be done on and around Audax before departure, it doesn't add up. In order for Team Audax to accomplish everything we need to depart on or around Sunday 11/19, I need to be devoted to it FULL TIME until then. It's absolutely AMAZING how many little loose ends and random tasks come out of the woodwork when you prepare for a safe voyage such as this. Here's a PERFECT example of what I'm talking about:

Just yesterday, we snagged the propane tanks (coffee, anyone?) off the vessel to go get them filled. Not that simple. They are old and of an odd size to fit in their deck lockers. Most propane places won't touch them for liability reasons.... but I have a "hooky" at a local hardware store who will fill them for us IF I wire brush all the rust off them and Rustoleum paint them to look pseudo-new. So I gotta do that..... and I gotta take Audax's four fire extinguishers in for inspection and certification which has expired. That is just two examples of about a hundred things we need to do in the next six days..... see what I mean? Full time job.

Thanks and farewell to everyone at Hodgdon Yachts, and I hope to see you all in June.

Serious Progress!!

This is encouraging! There has been some serious progress made aboard S/V Audax this week! There has been a crew of guys GETTING BUSY down at Strouts for the past three days. Rather than plagiarize, I'll just direct you to:

http://www.caribbeanendeavour.com/

You can read all about it there. NICE WORK, GUYS! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

It's starting to look more and more like an 11/19-ish departure could be a REALITY! (Ssshhh... dont jinx it.......)

In the "RED ZONE"!

"Red Zone" is a football analogy referring to the last ten yards on the field before a touchdown. Team Audax is now within two weeks of scheduled departure of 11/19. (conditions permitting, of course)

This past weekend was productive. Johnboy has been a man posessed on the phone, coordinating, organizing and sequencing the talented labor pool who will hopefully and most likey team up to make Audax safe to cruise. Major props to John for forging onward in the face of one discouraging discovery after another. You GO, boy. Special thanks to Bruce "Haji" Scwab, Phil Shelton, Sverre "Swerve" St.John and Chris "Suider" Bergey. Serious collection of skill and knowledge there..... John's gonna wind 'em up and let 'em go. And we hope and pray for the best.

I have a good vibe that the era of bad news and discouraging discoveries is now over, and a new era of forward progress and optimism has begun. Can you feel it? I can.

Friday Haji took inventory of this huge project and never wavered. Just grabbed a pen and a pad and hit the ground running. He's like the Tasmanian Devil with this kinda stuff. Go Taz. Saturday was the big storm. Sunday we all went to work. I assumed the task of removing the pulpit / bow rail which was blind-lagged into the weathered teak rail, (you gotta be shittin' me, right? I know) and properly attaching it with bolts and nuts through the hull/deck joint. Now it can actually support the weight of a soaking wet sailor, which is a pulpit's main purpose in life.

10.31.07: West Point to Freeport

West Point to Freeport: Temps in the 60's, 10-15kts breeze out of the South, calm seas. GREAT day. Since we were headed due east, then due North, this made for a lovely beam reach then down run respectively. Tied up at Strouts Point Marina around 3pm or so.

The happiness generated by our first two days of sailing in GREAT conditions was tempered by some bad news: Strouts Point can NOT do the work on the boat which they were originally supposed to (we'll just leave it at that), and the list of work to be done has gotten LONGER as we made many little discoveries en-route. Here's the bottom line, folks: We have HUGE amounts of work to do to the boat, not enough time to do it all, and a very insecure roster of qualified proffessionals to actually perform the work with an acceptable level of quality. Not to fear, Johnboy is on the case! We made distress calls to our good friend and sailing Zen master Bruce Schwab, and a few other gurus who may be sympathetic to our plight. We are NOT giving up. Over the next few days, much will be revealed, and some very important decisions will be made. We are all maintaining a positive mental attitude, and hoping (and I'm praying) for the best.

"Eyes on the prize!"

"Keep the faith!"

"Audax on three.... one, two, three... AUDAX!!"

Stay tuned. This coming weekend should be quite interesting.......

10.30.07: Rockland to West Point

Above: Smiling John at the helm, with Knight's Marine Services behind us. This is where Audax sat in her cocoon, in a state of suspended animation, for three years. She has awoken.

Rockland to West Point, Phippsburg: Sunny, 50's temps. Winds 15-20kts out of the South / SouthWest, gusting to 25kts. Seas 2-4ft. We stayed pretty hard on the wind all day, rounding up on occaision when the wind gusted to 25kts. On-the-wind is not Audax's preferred point of sail. She's really happy cracked off to a tight reach, and liked a nice beam reach even better. In the first two pics above, the wind is honkin', and we're doing 8-9kts boat speed on the wind. The big genoa is super powerful, so serious weather helm was an issue all day when we were on the wind. This would explain why Jordi can be seen behind me, manning the mainsheet. We were playing the main ("dump it! dump it!") most of the day, when the breeze honked. Arrived at West Point Yacht Club (don't look for this Yacht Club on your charts) with daylight to spare, and were treated to sodas and pizza at the Herrigal compound. Thanks to "Jilly".

Sharky, Pocahontas & The Astronaut

Team Audax goofed off last Saturday by dressing up in silly costumes, jumping into a Limo, and heading up to Damariscotta for Vanessa & Drew's family Haloween party. What a great time. I was a shark, Jordi an astronaut, and John was either an "indian cheif" or Pocahontas depending on who you ask. Good times. Thanks again to Kate for the last-minute costume improvisation.