Southbound Saint

The End

2008-04-24T11:38:00.001-07:00

November 19, 2007 - Freeport, Maine:

April 23, 2008 - Red Hook, St.Thomas USVI:

At the risk of invoking the world's most overused cliche hippie mantra....
"What a long, strange trip it's been."
____________________________

I flew home yesterday. Many of you out there may be wondering why.... a few of you have actually asked. Well, on the amazing journey of the past five months, all three members of Team Audax have learned much about themselves; from each other, from strangers..... and from the sea. One of the many things I have learned about myself, is that I just plain wasn't cut out for long, multi-day, offshore bluewater passages. This is not a speculative assumption; I learned it first hand during the four day bluewater passage from South Caicos to Puerto Rico. That was only four days, and it went very smoothly, with pleasant conditions. The trip home from the Caribbean back to New England entails being hundreds of miles offshore for over 1000NM, which at 6kts boat speed equals about two weeks at sea. I can't do it.... the four day passage to Puerto Rico was about the limit of what I could handle. I never would have suspected this about myself. It's quite humbling..... and that's a good thing for me. I learn by doing. As my dad used to say to me as a kid: "It's gonna hafta hurt before you'll learn!". Truism, that.

So now I sit at Chelsi's house in New Hampshire, typing up my final blog entry, and I'm trying my best not to cry. Led Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy" is playing in the background, and Chelsi's two dogs are whining because I'm typing instead of entertaining them. What an incredible journey this has been.....

A few years back, Adrienne and I were hiking the Morse Mountain trail, and Adrienne accidentally and unknowingly dropped her cel phone on the ground. It was found by another hiker later, and this hiker tracked us down and returned it to us. This kind stranger was none other than Team Audax founder John "Triggs Huntington" Herrigel. We became acquaintances. He attended the 5th annual St.Jean Holiday Bash. In the spring of 2007, John asked me over to his house on York Street to discuss.... stuff. During this discussion, in an unrelated tangential comment, John made reference to "....this boat trip I have coming up in the fall....". "What boat trip?", I asked. A fantasy was born right then, right there, that day on York Street. He informed me that he and his longtime friend Jordi (who's family, ironically enough, owns the Morse Mountain property where the cel phone was lost) were planning to somehow spend the next winter cruising the Virgin Islands on a sailboat. I had been fantasizing for years about doing the exact same thing.

Bam!

What resulted, is the adventure chronicled in the blog you are now reading.
So, now that it's over (for me)... where do I start? It's overwhelming. hhmmm.... how about a tribute..... to....

TEAM AUDAX
When John, Jordi and I were discussing this adventure over spaghetti / fresh bread dinner in the cockpit during my final night aboard, we all concurred the following:
The fact that three totally different guys, with three male egos, three different backgrounds, and three different life agendas were able to co-habitiate on a 38ft sailboat for five months without punching each others' lights out, is just plain INCREDIBLE. Think about it, people.... what are the odds?? It's a true blessing. Open mindedness, willingness to compromise, and an open forward communication style all teamed up to make it possible. Add to this the following yin/yang balance: Jordi and I are two opposite styles of people, which we have openly acknowledged to each other, with mutual respect. On the spectrum of plan-everything-in-advance vs just-go-with-the-flow, Jordi is at one end, and I am at the other. Throw John right in the middle to oscillate back and forth between the two ends of the spectrum as the swing-vote, and what you get is the perfect yin/yang balance in the Team Audax mojo. X=0. It just plain could NOT have worked out any other way. What are the odds of getting this combo by luck of the draw? They are astronomical. There is a Higher Power at work here, folks. I truly believe this in my heart.

JORDI ST. JOHN
Like the younger brother I never had. I have a lot of respect for this guy. He is very ambitous, meticulous, thorough, with a saucy competitive streak that can get him in trouble but is fun as hell to watch. Reminds of me when I was his age, when Ski Instructor Certification and attending as many Phish concerts as possible were my burning ambitions. He has his Captain's license, and was made for a career on boats. He's a natural, and he would make the best ever delivery/charter captain, if he chooses to do so. I have no doubt in my mind that he will excel in whatever he chooses as a career (I hope it involves boats), just as he has excelled at nordic skiing, the Spring Summer and Fall Days competitions, beating Josh and John at tennis, and last but not least, the card game of "hearts". I know this epic journey has solidified a strong bond between us which has only just begun. "Zat was a spicy-a-meat-a-ball!" will always make me chuckle. Love ya, Bro!

JOHN HERRIGEL
Like the other younger brother I never had. John and I had so many deep Ego vs Spirituality discussions that we could burn them on CD and sell them as a career. And I mean sell them to Comedy Central, not Oprah. We have both embarked on the same spiritual journey, at roughly the same pace, with similar ups and downs, guided by our new spiritual quasi-mentors Ekhart Tolle and Michael Brown. This has produced a very special bond between us that will never be broken, regardless of where our respective journeys take us. Did y'all know that John Herrigel is a serial entrepreneur? That's right. He once started his very own ice cream business! And sea salt, too! That's right! That kicks ass. His newest post-cruise endeavour has lots of potential to be "the big one", and I wish him the best of luck with it. "That's a good call." Love ya, Bro!

S/V AUDAX
Our favorite lady. She has treated us so well. I have no doubts whatsoever about her abilities to carry my brothers home safely. Much love and thanks to this sassy lady. More cruising to come in the Gulf of Maine Summer - see ya then!

My two new brothers, and two new additions to Team Audax are undertaking a HUGE adventure with the bluewater passage home. Think about it: over 1000NM, 12 or so days at sea, hundreds of miles offshore with no land in sight. That's huge. (Follow all the action at http://www.caribbeanendeavour.com/ ) If there were ever a suitable context to invoke the term "Godspeed", this is it:

GODSPEED, TEAM AUDAX!

Last, but certainly not least, words cannot do justice to the huge amount of GRATITUDE I feel. I feel so very blessed to have experienced this adventure of a lifetime. There is simply no way that my mortal human mind could have orchestrated such an incredible experience. I truly believe it could only have been created by a Higher Power.

So, from the bottom of my heart:
THANK YOU John!
THANK YOU Jordi!
THANK YOU S/V Audax!
THANK YOU to all the friends and family who visited us in Caribbean paradise and/or faithfully followed the blogs!
THANK YOU God!

Sincerely, with much love and gratitude,
Steve M. St.Jean

[NOTE: This IS, in fact, my FINAL blog post. Hence the title of this entry: "The End". A very special thanks to all the loyal readers out there - you truly made the blog worth writing. I appreciate all of your comments and/or emails along the way.]

My Final Cruise: "Amandalie"

2008-04-22T10:32:00.001-07:00

At John's Chatham NJ 10th year high school reunion, he was reuinted with his old friends, Amanda and Natalie. He invited them down for a Caribbean cruise aboard S/V Audax. They accepted. Jordi was delivering a Beneteau 50 from Florida to Boston, so it was just the four of us. I collectively refer to Amanda and Natalie as "Amandalie".

They treated us to dinner at our favorite posh poach - Peter Island Resort! Gold Stars CAN be BOUGHT:

They did well at the Hooters Top Ten. Although, I was dissapointed at how quickly they downselected. I don't think they put much thought into it:

We DESTROYED Foxy's. They weren't ready for Amanda's pro-caliber dance routines. Neither was I:

Reuniting with Jordi! Welcome back, Bro!:

I finally made johns birthday cake, ten days late. It was still pretty yummy, even though it was made with olive oil and chocolate milk ingredient substitutions:

The Baths.... this time, in the SUN:

Dagnyandymattrosie

2008-04-17T08:41:00.000-07:00

Cool new guests over the last week! John's friends Matt, Rosie and Andrew. Also, Jordi's mom Dagny.

Our tender fuel cell was stolen in Cane Garden Bay, Tortola. We got a new one in Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda. Here, Andy can be seen dancing with it:

Andy surfs! Well! He brought his board. I brought him to Josiah's Bay Beach on Tortola. He surfed. This is not him in this pic, as HE took it. But trust me, he's good. The cab driver tried to get $120 for this trip. We gave him $80:

It RAINED. All day and all night at The Baths and to Peter Island. The FIRST and ONLY extended precipitation of the whole trip!:

Chili dogs below, as it POURS on us at Peter Island:

A day-after-Foxy's induced power nap:

Matt and Andy play the "rate the Hooters Girls" game. They did well - way better than Rodger and Jillian:

The Baths in the pouring rain. It was fun and refreshing:

Jordi's mom, Dagny St.John. A very special person whom John and I were fortunate to have on the boat. A very Present and spiritually grounded individual. We had some great deep discussions as well as a few laughs. She is a medical intuitive, and performs energy readings "through the ether". See http://www.dagnystjohn.com/ for more info:

Poaching vs. Legit

2008-04-11T12:10:00.001-07:00

POACHING: The "art" of attempting to utilize various amenities of a resort, without actually paying to be a legitimate guest at said resort. Subject amenities may include, but are not limited to: showers, beaches, beach chairs, swimming pools, wi-fi, tennis courts, coffee etc.

LEGIT: The status of being an actual, welcomed, paying guest at a resort. This allows one to fully enjoy all amenities listed above, with pride. No stealth aspect or shame involved whatsoever.

Rodger and Jillian Herrigel, aka "The R & J Train", aka John's Parents, treated us to two days at the PETER ISLAND RESORT! Just plain awesome.

That's right! I'm in the POOL! Room 113 - Herrigel! In your face!!:

Poaching entails hiking to and from Sunset Point, packing your own food & drink. Legit guests get a ride to and from, and food and drink is provided:

Look at the smile on Jillian's face. She was SO PSYCHED to be at the helm under full sail. She marveled at how the boat "tips over" when the sails power up. She's a natural. I see a sailboat in their future:

They got the "pimp pad" aboard Audax. Livin' large:

Peter Island Resort:

They gave us a ride to a private beach on the far side of the island, and delivered "picnic lunches" at the time of our choosing. I never saw a "picnic lunch" like this:

The lobster pants make a triumphant return. Two nights in a row. That's right!:

I laughed at these signs. That's right - in your face. Herrigel - room 113. Check it:

Rodger and Jillian try their hand at picking the Audax/Hooter's Top Ten. There were very few overlaps. As a matter of fact, Jillian picked #52 (D.F.L.) "Elisamonique" as one of her TOPS. We had to stop and go to dinner.... good thing.... tempers were flaring within ten minutes as John and I defended Brodine and Mandy respectively:

They loved Matouk's! True Audax crew:

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU Rodger and Jillian!! Your generosity knows no bounds. Pleasant memories that will be with me for a lifetime. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. THANK YOU!

"Goatie"

2008-04-07T08:43:00.000-07:00

So, it all started out as the usual textbook Peter Island hike, with our latest guest, Kelly. Remember her? We met her and her friend Lisa at Cinnamon Bay, St.John. Kelly liked the boat so much, she just had to come down for another visit! She flies for free; she works for Delta.

There are lots of wild goats on Peter Island:

Just hikin' along, when we heard.... on the side of the road.... "baaaa, baaaaa, baaaa!!". LOOK! It's a baby goat! Awwww.... cute. But also a bit sad. It appears this lil' guy has lost his family:

We all stood and looked at the cute lil' baby goat. I even tried to verbally soothe the lil' guy... "hey buddy, wassup, lil' fella?" etc. Bad move. The baby goat then ran up to us, and assumed that we were willing to be his new family. Cute, but sad. And, probably not the best move for the goat and his chances of reuniting with his real family.

His persitsence was amazing. He clung right to us, right at our ankles as we hiked along.... for miles! He never even hesitated. Kept right on the pace. We became concerned that he would follow us too far away from his goat family. Oh well.... we hike on. We got to the Sunset Point adirondack chairs, and set up the tables and chairs for a timer photo. It was VERY windy, and the strong breeze would blow the camera over onto its back during the timer countdown. This resulted in a great photo of the sky directly above:

It happened twice. We were laughing pretty hard:

So then Jordi has the idea that he will reduce the timer time from 10 seconds to 3, to hurry and take the pic before the wind blows it over. He didn't cut himself quite enough time, and this resulted in a very funny pic of him not quite making it back to his seat in time, musical chairs style. More laughter. Nothing like a good laugh:

We scrap the timer attempts, and just go for the standard long-arm technique:

Yeah, the baby goat is still with us. At this point, we have developed quite the rapport with our new lil' buddy "Goatie". Jordi named him. He gets credit for the originality. So we decide to try and ditch Goatie, so that he has a chance of reuniting with his real goat family. Here's the plan.... I'll toss him down a bank with an established goat path on it, and we all RUN as fast as we can down the road and leave him in our dust, and he'll stay on the goat path. Great plan, huh? Here's how it worked out: I toss Goatie and we run as fast as we can. Goatie is back on our road in two seconds, passes Kelly in short order, and catches me and Jordi shortly thereafter. Kelly then snaps the following pic. We were all lauging SO HARD that we were crying, and our abs hurt. This was SO FUNNY!! I seriously have not laughed so hard in a LONG TIME. To tears:

We did eventually manage to successfully ditch Goatie. We hope he made it back to his family! We had fun with you, lil' buddy!

_____________________________

UNRELATED SIDE NOTE: I was online at Village Cay Marina in Tortola, when I saw a man wearing a Hodgdon Yachts T-shirt! And I just happened to be wearing the EXACT SAME SHIRT! So, I greeted the fellow, and it was Tom Hampson! I collablorated with Tom on the helmpod for Windcrest! Small world.... especially for cruisers. Just running into him is freaky enough, but the fact that we both just happened to be wearing our Scheherazade shirts? Too freaky!:

New Guests, New Islands

2008-03-30T13:57:00.001-07:00

Back in Road Town, after cruising to Anegada (new island!), Virgin Gorda (new island!), Peter Island and Norman Island with Bob "Beebo" Tusso (new guest!).

Sunset at sunset point, Peter Island:

How did this cat get way up here? He didn't look too psyched, and he doesn't like crackers and cheese:

There's S/V Audax at "The Baths", Virgin Gorda:

Me and "Beebo" at The Baths. This is right before he took a heroic Navy Seal style digger in the waves, trying to keep our bags dry as we loaded the tender amid breaking waves. Very Seal-esque move, indeed. Check out that SHIRT!!:

Anegada! Looks JUST LIKE the Bahamas! The island of Anegada was the inspiration behind Iron Butterfly's psychadelic 70's hit "Anegada Da Vida":

Funny little story..... Jordi and Josh are tight with the guys that own the "Hooters" restaraunt franchise. They gave Jordi a deck of Hooters girls playing cards. I flipped through them, making a comment about one in particular. This segued into further comments by the other guys, and so on.... before it was all over, about an HOUR later, we had the entire deck (all 52 girls) narrowed down to the TOP TEN, reality show style. Political alliances were formed and smashed, there were heated debates, but also many many laughs. It is our pleasure to present to you... the TOP TEN Hooters girls from the 2006 edition playing cards!:

David Coates (new guest) snorkeling mishap involving a Sea Urchin:

David Coates, Scot Herrigel (new guest) and Jordi:

Beebo and John, Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor. Yet another great sunset:

JOIN TEAM AUDAX!

2008-03-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

Hey there, all you wanna-be Caribbean cruisers:

Here is your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to JOIN TEAM AUDAX!! My position on the team will be up for grabs as of APRIL 23rd. The team needs an experienced, enthusiastic, not totally broke, sailor (possibly two) with a thirst for week-long bluewater passagemaking.

Your duties will entail goofing off in the USVI's and BVI's, helping prepare S/V Audax for the trip home, and then sailing her from the VI's to Bermuda, and then from Bermuda to New England, in the mid May to mid June time frame. This is not a paying position; you can expect to get yourself down here, and feed yourself for the duration. You will be doing it for the sheer thrill and experience, both of which are guaranteed. Doubt it? Read this blog.

For details, questions, and to throw your hat in the ring, please contact:

John Herrigel
jherrigel@greentreemaine.com
www.caribbeanendeavour.com

and

Jordi St.John
jordistjohn@gmail.com

Good luck to all candidates. It ain't easy bein' me. ;)

NOTE: This vacant position is NOT a result of any sort of "falling out" behind the scenes! We're all good, and still tight. Everything is Irie, mon. No problem.

Surf's Up!! (and a special bonus treat)

2008-03-22T07:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the infamous Bomba Shack Full Moon party. You know, the one with the mushroom tea. The one everyone asks about when you say you've been to Tortola. In an effort to get S/V Audax closer to the Bomba Shack, we pulled into Cane Garden Bay to grab a mooring. As it turns out, there was a killer NorthEast swell, which rendered Cane Garden Bay way too rough to spend the night..... BUT, WOW did we get a treat when we got there!! There was set after set of awesome waves breaking around the Eastern point of Cane Garden Bay, and the EXPERT surfers were out there rippin' it up. So we grabbed a mooring, Audax rockin' and rollin' in the swells, and just watched the surfing in AWE. It was incredible. These were BIG WAVES, and they were breaking on JAGGED ROCKS. This was EXPERTS ONLY surfing, for sure! The sets just rolled by S/V Audax, one after another. Other waves would break all around us in the shallower spots outside of the bay's entry channel. It was spooky how close these big standing/breaking waves were getting to our boat. We eventually got spooked and sloooowly steamed out, watching as much of the surfing as we could.

I have to say, big wave surfing is cool even when you watch it on TV. Seeing it in person, close up, was just unreal. I highly recommend clicking on every one of these pics, and keep in mind, they were all taken from the cockpit of S/V Audax!:

________________________

SPECIAL BONUS TREAT - This is for the "Eight is Enough" St.John St.Patty's day crew. Check it out! It's the "Iron Chef of Mounding Maj"!! (a.k.a. Patrick, who felt obligated to get wasted, since he's Patrick and it's St.Patrick's Day)

Sung to the tune of Rocky Raccoon, of course!:

Suzchelsjoshbrynethan

2008-03-18T10:02:00.001-07:00

Here's all the pics I owe you from the Suzette, Chelsi & Josh week. Bryn and Ethan are still on, and Scott (John & Bryn's brother) gets on today and we head for Virgin Gorda. Crazy busy crazy busy gogogogo crazy busy......

Beach naps rule. Long Bay beach, Tortola:

Suzette jumps for joy. Ssshhh.... don't wake us up!:

St. Patty's day, Woody's, Cruz Bay, St.John:

"I like big butts and I cannot lie. You other brothers can't deny: When a girl walks by with an itty-bitty waist and a round thing in your face, you get sprung." Chelsi and her infamous Ghetto Booty at the Willy T.:

Cruisin' around Tortola in a rental car:

This is what Suzette looks like when she wants to lay out in the sun, yet doesn't wanna get any sun on her. Like a hermit crab peeking out of its shell:

Suzette learns sextant navigation from John. I offered to show her GPS / laptop chartplotting:

Cane Garden Bay, Tortola:

What a pain in the nuts. Do I have to do this again?:

St Patty's day, Quiet Mon Pub, Cruz Bay, St.John:

Washing vomit off of bedding. The morning after a late night of dancing at Foxy's, Jost Van Dyke. 'nuff said:

My Chelsi impersonation:

RUDE!! Wait, that's not my middle finger. It's my ring finger, with my new dragon ring on it!:

Peter Island Resort. POSH. One of my favorite hangouts, for sure:

They call me "pack mule":

MAN OVERBOARD!! This is not a drill, this is what you've been trained for. Next time we'll see if we can do it with sails up:

I'm working on my levitation skills. Right now I can only get about 6 inches off the water, but that's enough to really trip people out wherever we go:

We got lei'd in Cinnamon Bay, St.John:

Josiah's Bay, Tortola. Good break. Surfers. I got slammed by a wave while body surfing:

This guy was kind enough to advise me on the proper ways to touch Chelsi. He was a big fan:

John's monkey impersonation. Seconds later, his foot grip slipped and he landed hard on his nuts on the tree trunk, just like the classic comedy shows. "F*CK that SH*T!!" he exclaimed. Chelsi laughed herself to tears:

Let us all climb the mast and jump off the first spreader. I've got the top spreader in my sights, we'll see......:

Rebuilding the forward head pump. This earned me a gold star:

This is the SAME CAT that somehow got aboard in San Juan, remember?? Now he's trying to follow Chelsi and I back to our hotel room. This is on the second floor, even. Nice try, El Cato, but you smell:

"Team Audax Family Fun Day" turns into "Team Audax Family F*ck Day". Not the funnest day we ever had. Long story. You can see the enthusiasm on my face. (leftover pic from pre-guest cruise):

Cane Garden Bay, Tortola:

French toast and fried plantains, Cinnamon Bay, St.John. The night before, as I was recovering from stinging fire ants on my feet, we were informed that tarantulas had been known to inhabit this room as recently as the night before. Great. I HATE tarantulas, to put it mildly. Thanks to the rest of the team for performing a thorough search before bedtime. None were found:

Bomba Shack, Tortola:

The Sugarloaf vs Sunday River battle rages on:

Jordi expresses his disapproval of Chelsi's incessant papparazzi photography practices. Beach Bar, Cruz Bay, St.John:

Bryn Herrigel (aka Honey) and Ethan Bean (aka E-Bomb, Beef and Bean):

The Might Audax and her fearless crew, as seen by the rest of the world:

WOW! Good post, huh?! I finished just in time to go meet Scott Herrigel for the next round of shenannigans. Off to Virgin Gorda..... here we go again!! Later, dudes!!

Eight is Enough

2008-03-16T10:54:00.001-07:00

Another half-assed lame post. Sorry. We're in Road Town just to provision up for our next cruise. John's sister Bryn and her boyfriend Ethan "Beef and Bean" overlapped with Suzette and Chelsi for two nights. If you've been keeping track, that's five total guests, plus Team Audax, for a full complement of eight. "Toyt".

We made it work for two nights, and we had a blast. We did Cruz Bay, St.John for St.Patty's day and that was a blast. We also hit the Cinnamon Bay beach and campground, a Team Audax low-budget favorite. Suzette and Chelsi left this morning...... THANK YOU, LADIES for your generosity! They bought dinners, drinks, provisions etc.... and we are thankful. We all had a blast, lotsa laughs and funny little stories. I'm hoping to have time - maybe Tuesday - for a full-on legit post with pics and stories. We're off to Peter Island and Norman Island with Bryn, Ethan and Josh now. Go go go.... here we go again.... Please don't lose faith in this blog. It will get better soon, I promise. Until then, hit up http://www.caribbeanendeavour.com/ which should be S.O.P. by now since Johnboy is so much more consistent with his posts. I bet he'll post pics of "Eight is Enough"....

LATER!

Next Round of Guests

2008-03-12T13:29:00.000-07:00

This pic is borrowed from Kate & Erin's cruise. Similar type of deal this week......

Josh, a long-time close friend of Jordi's who replaced Molly at the last minute when she bailed:

Suzette (L) and Chelsi (R) - Suzette is a close friend of Chelsi's who came along with Chelsi when she was invited to cruise with Team Audax for a week. Chelsi is one of my close peeps from back home. You may remember her from my recent Orlando / Busch Gardens / Daytona 500 excursion:

Welcome aboard, Josh, Suzette and Chelsi! We are mid-cruise as I type this from my usual wi-fi spot Le Cabanon in Road Town, Tortola, BVI. So far we had a goof-off night in Red Hook St.Thomas, cruised to Jost Van Dyke (a trip to Foxy's that some can't even remember), then Peter Island, Norman Island, and now here we are. I'll hold off on posting the full report until it's all over this weekend. Chelsi takes a SHLOAD of pics, so it's gonna take a while to compose the next post. Until then, head on over to http://www.caribbeanendeavour.com/

We are having a blast for sure. Sun, swimming, and lots of laughs and comraderie.
Later, Y'all!!

One Night in Red Hook

2008-03-05T11:25:00.000-08:00

I met a local charter crew here in Red Hook yesterday. A captain/chef couple who live on a nice 40ft cat.... they will remain nameless. Turns out they are moored right next to where Audax is anchored. They said "If you hear loud music coming from our boat later, c'mon over". OK. So, last night, I was feeling social, Jordi was not, and John was in Charlotte Amalie with Erin. Sure enough, around 9pm I heard the loud music coming from their boat. I fired up the tender and headed over. They invited me aboard for drinks, music, and small talk. We listened to their Ipod shuffle, I had a nice cold Diet Dr.Pepper, and we chatted for about a half hour. You may be asking yourself "So what? Why is this noteworthy?".... Well, the two of them were completely nude the whole time.

So I split and headed into town to "Duffy's Love Shack", the local party spot. It was jumpin' with spring breakers. I ordered a Diet Coke, and commenced to people watching. A few minutes later, I was approached by a 30-something, very drunk, and very gay man. I don't mean happy gay. I mean gay gay. He got right up in my grille... "Oh my god... you're so hot... you're so cute.. etc.." He was well within my personal space and very touchy-feely. I backed off and very tactfully deflected his advances. He was very, very persistent. Each time I would fend him out of my personal space, he would creep back in. On about his fourth advance, he actually put his arm around me and went in for a kiss.... and I don't mean a peck on the cheek. "WHOA, BUDDY!! I'm straight! I'm flattered, but please back off!" etc etc. I physically manhandled him back out of my space, this time with much more conviction. I drew the imaginary Brady Bunch masking tape line between us. "Do not cross this line!", I said. A tear formed in his eye, he said "I hate you", and he stumbled off into the crowd. Sweet. I dinstinctly remember thinking to myself: "Holy shit... if he pulls that crap on the wrong dude in here, he's gonna get a smack. He's lucky I'm open minded and chill.... some drunk frat football type might not be so nice." As he staggered into the crowd, I saw him run the same schtick on a more macho, younger, fratty looking kinda dude. Uh-oh. He was fended off once, but the prey was PISSED, and had his posse in tow. Uh-oh. Drunk gay dude goes in for the kiss. Uh-oh. WHACK!! His prey punches him HARD in the side of the head. Uh-oh. Gay dude falls into some nearby college girls, saving him from hitting the deck. All hell breaks loose, bartenders and bouncers are swooping in and it's a mess. I'm outta here.

On to Fat Boy's across the street. They have a great free wi-fi connection, so I'll go check my email. I'm at the bar, showing this blog to a couple of very attractive local girls to my left, and to my right is a very drunk woman verbally accosting the bartender, making enough of a scene to throw off my mojo. (So much for the email, huh?) I disregard the crap to my right, and get back to the much better situation on my left. Then we all hear a "thud".... that distinct sack-of-potatoes kinda sound of a human body hitting the floor. We look... it's drunk woman. She's passed out drunk and is lying on the floor behind me. Uh-oh. I get off my stool and her boyfriend and I help her up. Bartender shuts her off and politely asks for her to be removed from the premises. The boyfriend helps her walk out..... "So, where were we, ladies?"... back to the blog. About ten minutes later, the boyfriend comes back in, with blood all over the front of his shirt. Drunk woman has fallen on the sidewalk outside, split her head open, and he needs an ambulance. Good Lord. Shortly thereafter, the blog fan girls' group of male friends arrives, assesses the situation (me), and quicky extracts them. They were not to return, although I did get a 45 minute explanation of Dianetics/Scientology from one of them shortly before leaving. I packed up and headed back out to S/V Audax at about 1:30am.

And that was my night in Red Hook.

Island Hopping II

2008-03-04T11:27:00.000-08:00

Back in St.Thomas to bring Erin back to the airport. People are always so sad to leave. We've been out island hopping some more. Since the last post, we hit up Cruz Bay, Coral Bay and Cinammon Bay, all on St.John. I can't wait to really explore the rest of St.John.... very cool place!! So here's some more pics from island hopping with our special guests Kate and Erin:

Willy T's in Great Harbor, Norman Island. The Willy T is and old steel schooner converted into a crazy-ass floating bar that GOES OFF at night. Drunken sailors everywhere, doing crazy shit. There was nudity involved, even. We kept our clothes on. A few others did not. Whip cream into various body parts...etc etc..... here's a "shot ski":

There's the mighty Willy T.:

Sun showers RULE. This was a treat. I was psyched:

Squalls. Yeah, we got hit:

Chillin' at Sandy Cay. Time slows down here:

"Raise tha roof! Woot woot!":

New friends everywhere. They always wanna see the boat, for some reason. What a pain in the nuts, huh? Meet Kelly and Lisa from Atlanta. They wanted to sail back to St.Thomas with us, but Kelly couldn't hang out with a guy who has two big tattoos:

Matouk's Calypso hot sauce. GOOD STUFF. Kate and I regularly injured ourselves with it all week. Hurts so good. At one point, Kate actually rubbed a peice of sliced zucchini on her lips for relief. Here we are, pushing our luck by dipping flaming hot cheetos into the Matouk's. Nummies:

The next Carib ad campaign:

Jordi gets an onboard haircut. Hair ended up in the tender, somehow:

The members of Team Audax have a special rapport. Didn't think I'd post THIS one, did ya?!:

See? Jordi needs a haircut. Wait, is that Sverri? (sorry, Swerve):

The dinghy ride home from Willy T's. Didn't think I'd post THIS one, did ya?!:

Cocktail Hour (5-6pm daily) aboard S/V Audax. Pate (sans accent aigu), Macadamias and fresh baked bread. See how we roll?:

Cinnamon Bay, St.John. Very cool place:

Charlotte Amalie, St.Thomas:

The trail hike on Peter Island. Peter Island is, you guessed it, another "very cool place":

Captain Kate, and first mate Erin. Only one keel hauling:

It's always special when someone makes the effort to bake (vs purchase) a birthday cake for you. It's even MORE special when they do it on a BOAT. Thanks, everyone!:

Next is overdue boat work, chill-out as the streamlined three person Team Audax until Chelsi, Suzette and Molly show up this weekend. Thanks to Kate and Erin for being the island hopping "guinea pigs". We've got the sweet destinations scouted out for the next round of guests. I'm psyched to go back for round two at a few of them..... most notably Peter Island, Willy T's and Cinnamon Bay St.John. Ya, Man.

Island Hopping

2008-03-02T10:14:00.001-08:00

Kate and Erin are in town, and we are wrapping up a serious island hopping excursion: Jost Van Dyke, Sandy Cay, Norman Island, Peter Island, Cooper Island, and I now type this from St.John. Wow. It's awesome down here. I don't have time to upload a lot of pics at the moment, but at least y'all now know where we're at...... more later!

Tortola II

2008-02-26T06:27:00.001-08:00

Remember, in the last post, when I exclaimed "This is what I'm talking about!!"? Well, I need to issue a retraction: THIS is what I'm talking about!! John and I rented a car yesterday, to really see the island of Tortola. WOW, what a FUN day. Just plain awesome.....

Behold.... the little car that could.... and did.... the DIAHATSU CHARADE!:

We visited Jordi and Kate up at Jordi's relative's mountaintop residence. The term "incredible" doesn't even do it justice. If Jordi's relatives are reading this, THANK YOU for your hospitality on this day. What a truly special little spot on the world you have created for yourself. You are truly blessed..... just awesome:

Yes, that's a swimming pool you see up here:

This pic is an attempt at capturing the steep, curvy and precarious nature of the roads through the Tortola mountains. When I say "roads", I mean more like concrete goat path switchbacks. Our little Daihatsu amazed me all day with her ability to scale these slopes in granny gear, even with four people and ten gallons of water:

The views were..... literally breathtaking. Keep your eyes on the road.... stay left:

Roadside bag lunch with a view:

This is "Bomba" of "The Bomba Shack" fame. Ladies, give your panties to Bomba, and you shall be blessed. Not my idea, his:

This is the Bomba Shack Mission Statement. Click on it to enlarge it and read it. It's pretty cool:

The Bomba Shack is the home of the notorious Mushroom Tea Full Moon parties. We just missed the last one, but as you can see.... we get another chance every 28 days. Look closely.... a Sunday River sticker!! Where are my Sugarloaf stickers when I need them?! I'm a bad Sugarloafer since 1977. That's right, even though my allegiance lies with the 'Loaf (and the 'Bird), it was still cool to see this sticker:

Today, Jordi and Kate rejoin Team Audax, we sail back to St.Thomas to pick up Erin, then it's off ISLAND HOPPING for the next few days. SWEET!! Jost Van Dyke.... Virgin Gorda.... Norman Island..... Peter Island.... Anegada.... hmm.... choices.... choices..... who knows what the wi-fi deal will be on this adventure, so we may be looking at a multiple day blog hiatus, folks. Please be patient and stay tuned. Team Audax loves you all, and appreciates all of our loyal readers.

St.Thomas USVI > Tortola BVI

2008-02-24T08:40:00.001-08:00

I'm in Road Town, Tortola, BVI. Two days ago I flew from Miami to St.Thomas USVI, then took a cab from the airport to Red Hook to reunite with Team Audax. The next morning, Jordi and our special guest Kate showed up and we cast off for the steam to Tortola. During this trip, it became quite evident: WE'RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE. Steep mountains, hillside villas, and chartered sailboats everywhere! Just getting familiar with the town now... kinda quiet since there's no cruise ships in town right now. Many businesses only open when cruise ships are in town. In fact, I'm typing this from a bar that is CLOSED. See? Here's a shot taken right from where I sit as I type this post. You can see my laptop power cord bootlegging its way into the closed bar...... and a couple hot chicks I met here:

This is the backyard at the Gordon Compound, Coconut Grove, Miami. Major props, once again, to Stephanie for her hospitality! Thanks, Steph! You rock!:

This is Steph's cat Rerun. She denies ownership of this cat, since Rerun sorta adopted HER. Rerun pretty much lives outside at the Gordon Compound, and she feeds him and leaves him water. He was my little buddy when I would hang out on the deck.

Road Town, Tortola, BVI:

THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!:

That's Red Hook, St.Thomas, in the background. I'll go back there soon. Jammin' nightlife scene there:

Van Halen....

2008-02-21T06:37:00.000-08:00

....sucked.

Van Halen: BankAtlantic Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008:

SETLIST:
You Really Got Me
Show Your Love
Runnin' With The Devil
Romeo Delight >
Magic Bus >
Romeo Delight
David Lee Roth harmonica / megaphone solo
Somebody Get me a Doctor >
Mississippi Queen >
Somebody Get me a Doctor
Beautiful Girls
Dance the Night Away
Atomic Punk
Everybody Wants Some
So This is Love
Mean Street
Pretty Woman
Alex Van Halen drum solo
Unchained
I'll Wait
And the Cradle Will Rock
Hot for Teacher
Little Dreamer
Little Guitars (sans intro, which was attempted during Eddie's solo)
Jamie's Cryin'
David Lee Roth monologue about partying in high school >
Ice Cream Man
Panama
Eddie Van Halen guitar solo
Ain't Talkin' About Love

ENCORE: 1984 > Jump

They sucked.

PREFACE: Last year, Van Halen was close to embarking on the David Lee Roth reunion tour, when it had to be postponed, due to Eddie Van Halen entering a rehab for alcoholism / drug addiction. Eddie then issued a public statement to his fans, on his website, saying that he felt it was the best course of action because he wanted to be able to deliver 100% performances out on tour, and felt his performances would be compromised if he attempted to tour before getting sober. Now, fast forward to yesterday afternoon. I had lunch in "The Grove" (Coconut Grove, Miami) and met a very friendly local who is very well "connected" in the music biz. So well connected, in fact, that his identity is intentionally omitted here. He told me that he was backstage at a recent Van Halen show, and how Eddie was sloppy drunk and played like shit. This saddened me. Bummer. I hoped it wasn't true, and gave the situation the benefit of the doubt. Maybe Eddie had one off night, or my "connected" new friend somehow misinterpreted the backstage goings-on.

So, on to the show: It did not take long... just a song or two... to deduce that it was.... "off". As a band, they were very "loose" - the opposite of "tight". David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen were taking way too many improvisational liberties with their vocals and guitar chops, respectively. The timing was off, hence the "loose" non-tight feel. Now I will itemize....

DAVID LEE ROTH (vocals): Not up to task. Rather than singing vocals melodically, the lyrics were chanted in monotone, most often way off cue, and sometimes omitted entirely. There were attempts at vibrato, which just made his voice cut out in a quick rythmic fashion. He sounded as if he may have been OK during the first few shows of the tour, but his voice just became fatigued over time. It was definately a chore for him to work the lyrics through the show. To quote Stephaine Gordon: "Dave's not doin' 'em any favors!" - I concurred. Visually, he was his showman self. Vegas cabaret meets vintage rocker. He obviously trained long and hard in the gym for this tour, as he was lookin' super ripped and fit.

EDDIE VAN HALEN (guitar): Big disappointment. His timing was very loose, right from the get-go. Tone was OK, leads were missing flash. He was not very animated, but hey - the guy has a fake hip, so we'll let that one slide. I couldn't help but wonder about what my friend at lunch had told me.... was Eddie drunk? It appeared as if that certainly could be the case, but I was not certain. Another "benefit of the doubt" scenario. But then came his solo. There were butchered attempts at "Little Guitars Intro" and "Eruption", but his solo consisted mainly of extented whammy bar dives, and Hendrixesque feedback wails and percussive tremelo dive improvisations. The more I watched, and waited for him to pull it together into something impressive, the more I realized: He was obviously quite drunk. Trust me, people, I know the signs. The huge jumbotron screen behind him was NOT doing him any favors. Frustrated with sloppy attemps at flashy leads, he retreated aft to his wall of faux EVH stacks and fell to the ground for another extended set of whammy bar feedback dives. Obviously, an intentional time killer for him. At this point, Stephanie turned to me and said "Am I supposed to be impressed by this?" No, Stephanie, you're not. And neither was I. I was cringing inside and felt sad for Eddie as I watched in disbelief. When his solo was over, he walked up to the front of the stage, shrugged his shoulders and looked at the crowd with a look that said something like "..oh well... I tried...". It was sad. The show went on. His playing got worse. He kept messing with his guitar cable, which was getting snagged on his monitor / effects pedals as he attempted to leave the confines of stage left. As he tugged hard on the cable over and over, in a red-faced tantrum, he would actually stop playing. At one point, Eddie actually fell onto his mic stand, toppling it over as he landed on his effects pedals. Trust me, folks, this is NOT part of the show. Those Custom Audio Electronics pedals are expensive. Not very proffessional, in my unproffessional asessement. It all culminated in the encore of "Jump", when the wheels just finally came off the bus. It's a damn good thing that song is centered around a keyboard riff (played from backstage by who knows who), because this keyboard riff served as the glue which held a song together that otherwise might have been aborted entirley. It was that bad. At the end, Eddie was clearly drunk and frustrated - hopefully at himself. He threw his guitar backstage; and I mean threw it FAR. He was by the drum riser, and from where he stood, backstage left was about 25 feet away. It crash landed backstage and immediately let out that harsh electronic "HUMMMM" that fans are never supposed to hear. We all heard it... loud and long. He staggered forward for his obligatory "thank you" bows with the band. He then yelled something into Wolfgang's ear, as he did throughout the night, and they all walked off backstage right. As Eddie walked offstage, he accidentally staggered into one of his faux EVH stack amps, almost knocking it over. He then punched one of the speaker cabinets (ouch - that's gonna leave a mark) and intentionally knocked the stack over to finish the job. OH, to be a fly on the wall backstage after that show! I can only imagine!

God bless you, and good luck to you Eddie. I sincerely hope you find the help that you need.

WOLFGANG VAN HALEN (bass) & ALEX VAN HALEN (drums): Major props to these guys. They held down every song, so that it could remain identifiable, despite each song being butchered by Dave and Eddie. This is a rhythym section's mission in life, and they did it well. Again, props. A true "the show must go on" mentality, which I think is very proffessional. They were obviously not really enjoying themselves, particularly Wolfgang, who had minimal to no stage presence, and was clearly void of any enthusiasm.

In conclusion, it was no big surprise. I've always thought - in my opinion - that Sammy Hagar is ten times the performer that "Diamond Dave" is, and Eddie's personal woes are no real secret to anyone who is as obsessed with guitar rock as much as I am. Eddie is a legend (at least to me, anyway) and it was sad to watch. I'm not mad, as a music consumer. I'm sad as an Eddie Van Halen fan. Get it together, bro. I'm rootin' for ya.

"Remember that we deal with alcohol: cunning, baffling, POWERFUL. Without help, it is too much for us."

A Multi-Sensory Experience

2008-02-19T15:03:00.000-08:00

Words cannot do this justice, but I gotta at least try. Watch the above video. Now, let me add the following: When the pack zooms by, the sound is DEAFENING. Hurts so good. About 1.6 seconds after the main pack passes by, you get SLAMMED with a burst of racecar-generated wind containing the strong smell of combusted race fuel, and just a hint of burnt rubber. This wind burst also pelts you with tiny little chunks of debris such as track dirt and greebles of molten race tire rubber. It's just plain awesome. I giggled a little every time they went by at speed. A true multi-sensory experience of sight, sound and smell. I loved it.

Fun Times in Florida

2008-02-19T12:47:00.000-08:00

As you may already know, I am on a "surgical strike" in Florida right now, to see the Daytona 500 and Van Halen. Chelsi was in Orlando for business, so we went to Busch Gardens and the Daytona 500 together.

Then I took a Greyhound bus from Orlando to Miami. I do NOT recommend traveling by bus. Spend the extra money and take a plane like normal people do. As I say to myself whenever I am in WalHell... "Oh, the humanity". Feeling down on yourself? Having a bad day? Think life isn't fair? Frustrated because you can't find your favorite pair of shoes, or you get bad cel reception sometimes? I have an easy solution: Go hang out at a Greyhound bus station... you don't even have to book travel. Just go hang out at the station for, say, 30 minutes or so. Check out the people.... listen to their woes. Smell the smells.... watch the filthy toddlers run about unsupervised. Absorb the scenery. When you leave, and get into your clean SUV headed back to Starbucks, Dr.Steve predicts you will be overwhelmed with gratitude and will have forgotten whatever insignificant problem you were fretting over beforehand. "Oh, the humanity".

I digress...

I am now at Miami Steph's, really diggin' her hospitality, and just chillin' out, preparing myself mentally for Van Halen to give it to me in the earholes tomorrow night. Here's some footage of Orlando adventures with Chelsi. Thank you, Chelsi! You rock!:

Funnels, anyone? (no, we didn't):

Our seats had a great view of pit road:

Hi, Junior! Yup, he's waving right at me! We go way back.... he's yelling "Hey, Steve!" as I snapped this picture.... look closely:

Hi, Chels!:

Hi, Tony! (booooooo):

Hi, DJ!:

Busch Gardens parking lot. We didn't wanna carry the camera all around the park, but we wanted documentation, so..... this is what you get. That's the coaster "Montu" in the background. For those who haven't been to Busch Gardens in a while, they have some GNARLY-ass roller coasters now! The Python is gone, The Scorpion is there but antiquated, and there are other newer scarier ones now.... really intense ones. We rode them all:

Here's the view from her condo balcony. To quote Chelsi - "You should see the balcony at the condo..... you can see where the people go boing boing boing..." - She was referring to the bungee slingshot ride in the background. Her quote was to reverberate throughout the weekend:

Fishies in a pool outside a Japanese restaurant we went to. They are really packed in like.... umm.... sardines:

Funny Daytona 500 story - During the race, Chelsi was asking why everyone kept boo-ing Jeff Gordon. I couldn't really explain, for two reasons... A) It's a long story, and you couldn't talk every time the deafening pack of cars raced by and B) You have to be very careful when you talk about drivers controversially in this environment, lest you incite a riot, or at least a drunken verbal tirade from a hardcore fan. I'm not joking.... they take this stuff SERIOUSLY down here. It's like a religion. So... as we were walking back to the car after the race, Chels says... "NOW can you tell me why everyone boo's at Jeff Gordon?". I couldn't right then, due to reason B above. But I had an idea... There were two hardcore local semi-intoxicated race fans walking right in front of us. I tactfully and carefully tapped one on the shoulder... "I have a question... could you please explain to my friend Chelsi here why everyone hates Gordon so much?"

His reply (in a thick southern drawl): "Cuz he's a f*ckin' faggot."

We laughed our asses off. I could not have summed it up any better with twenty minutes of college vocabulary. It took a local who talks good.

Puerto Rico III

2008-02-16T04:54:00.001-08:00

! Revolucion !

2008-02-14T16:45:00.001-08:00

I was walking around checkin' stuff out today, and I came across what appeared to be a roadside tent colony of protesters with policia surveying them from the outskirts. I entered the tent village reminiscent of many a Phish show..... "habla Englais?" I asked around.... A young, english-speaking, local activist was only too proud to tell me all about what was up:

Old San Juan is loaded with many very old, historic waterfront fortresses, which locals are quite proud of. Apparently, many a historic battle have taken place at and around these forts. Well, these forts, and the waterfront property they reside on, are national parks, and are immune to and proteceted from development..... or so everyone thought. Apparently, the abutting Hilton Caribe Resort has somehow bought their way around this law, and a very historic peice of fort-related waterfront property is now under development. Million-dollar-per-unit luxury townhouse hi-rise condos. Good ol' fashioned American corporate greed and textbook corruption at its best.

Well, the Peurto Rican people are not standing for it. Their tent-city blockade is WORKING! Construction has stopped as the legal / publicity circus comes to town. I love it! In your face, Paris!! Power to the people!!

UNRELATED SIDE NOTE: As I type this, I'm at Sizzler for the third night in a row. It's Puerto Rican White-Trash Hell Night here at Sizzler. The place is jam packed to fire code capacity, there is a line out the door to get in, and half the people are wearing bright red for some reason. Some strange local tardition, I suppose. There is a little kid directly adjacent to me right now who is crying his eyes out cuz his parents won't let him come "play" with my computer. Good thing.... touch my laptop with those melted ice cream covered hands, and I'll GIVE you something to cry about. I ain't no GQ editor by any stretch, but damn, these people make some "interesting" fashion choices. Oh, the humanity....

El Cato

2008-02-14T15:43:00.000-08:00

So, this morning at about 3:30am, Jordi goes up on deck to pee off the rail. John and I are woken up by Jordi exclaiming "Holy shit, you guys.... there's a CAT on the boat!!". This would not be so freaky if we were tied up a dock. We're not..... we're too cheap for that. Team Audax anchors for "free 99" just outside of marinas so we can use their facilities without paying. Yeah, that's right. That's how we roll. So the closest land is about 50 yards away. Somehow, a cat found his way onto S/V Audax during the night, as we slept.

Soon, all three of us were out in the cockpit, in our underwear, marveling at this lil' bastid. He was scurrying about the weatherdeck, in a panic, meowing his ass off... incessantly and loudly. His wails did not even cease for bowls of tuna and fresh water we procured for him! At one point he scaled my back like a tree, and I have the scratches to prove it. Everybody.... on three.... ".....cat scratch feverrrr..." [ed: Ted Nugent copyright issues] At another point he did a swan dive off the bow into the water. I gave him a 7.5 due to low degree of difficulty. He then climbed up into the tender and back onto the boat..... all on his own. FREAKAZOID! So we did the photo shoot, and then I volunteered to ferry El Cato to shore. We emptied out the anchor locker on the tender, and stuffed him into it. I shoved off, scouting for a suitable new home for this scrawny, young, frightened, wet and now shivering cat...... SCORE! I see boats that say "Policia" on them. It's a little marine cop shop. Surely the po-po could take care of him, or at least cart him over to the SPCA. I pulled up to the dock adjacent to the 5-0's.... best not to startle uniformed people with guns.... and I threw the lil' bastid out... Roger Clemens style. Sorry, cat lovers, but I didn't want him jumping back into the tender. He was fine..... he landed on all fours like cats always seem to figure out how to do in mid air. I dumped his tuna on the dock and sped off. As I departed, I looked back and he was scurrying around, still meowing to beat the band. G'night, and good luck, El Cato. At least eat the friggin' tuna, will ya? That's three lunchtime sandwiches on Team Audax!

[Disclaimer: If "El Cato" means something totally offensive in Spanish, I apologize. I had no idea, believe me. No habla espanol.]

The Spider's Face

2008-02-13T15:28:00.000-08:00

So, Maimi Steph, Nancy and I were walking back to Steph's condo in Provo last week when we saw this spider in the stairwell:

That's a pretty big spider by my standards. This prompted me to ask the ladies "have you ever seen what a spider's face looks like?" They didn't seem interested in discussing it. In fact, they seemed more interested in distancing themselves from this spider. But I was being serious.

Consider this, if you will: Most people hate spiders, and are scared and/or freaked out by them. Especially large ones, it seems. The part that I've always found ironic about this, is that they are scared by the spider when it is feet away from them, only able to discern the general shape of it's legs, thorax and abdomen. If they would only look closer... much much closer, they would see the scariest part of the spider..... THE SPIDER'S FACE. Spider faces must have been designed by God for one purpose, and one purpose only: to instill fear into the heart of man. They have anywhere from six to eight eyes, and sharp, powerful, fangy jaws. Sometimes large, venemous fangs at that.

As I began to explain this phenomenon to the ladies, they walked off.... back to the spider-free confines of the condo. I had to take a close-up photo to demonstrate my point, and they sure as hell weren't too psyched to make any close-up eye contact with this puppy. So, I gently and tactfully moved the spider over to a brigher light (I knew the camera flash would surely draw the wrath of the spider fang) and positioned my camera as close to the spider's face as the camera could get and still maintain a good lens focus. I was able to snap the folllowing picture, thankfully in one take:

If you look closely at the above photo (by clicking on it), you can actually see a silhouetted reflection in the spider eyes of me taking the picture. Look at the two largest eyes on top. See what I mean? The Spider's Face is BY FAR the most instinctively frightening feature of the spider, but most people never even get to see it. Mull this over as you lie in bed tonight. Picture The Spider's Face as you fall asleep. Sweet dreams.

Puerto Rico II

2008-02-12T15:09:00.000-08:00

So, now I'm at Sizzler. Great wi-fi, a seat with an electrical outlet, and a cost effective "all you can eat" buffet. "All you can eat", huh? They obviously don't know who they are dealing with here. I can hyperextend my stomach like a boa constrictor's jaw. A sail bum oasis. hhmm... 500nm from South Caicos to San Juan... four days at sea. I'll do my best to summarize without leaving anything out.....

The weather window was perfect as predicted by Chris Parker. Thank you, Chris Parker. Four days is a BIG window to ask for and we got it. The only aspect even remotely resembling a flaw would be the squalls, but let's not get greedy, eh? One 200nm Stbd tack North East out to sea, and one 300nm Port tack SouthEast to San Juan:

No real gnarly conditions to speak of, except for one intense squall which hit on my solo night shift. It was an intense one, but Otto hung tough right through it, so I could stay pseudo-dry under the dodger. Thanks to the radar, the sails were reefed in preparation. I still can't believe John and Jordi both slept through it. It was a doozie. Speaking of sleep....

Major props to John and Jordi who came up with an AWESOME new 3 hours on / 3 hours off / "overlapping swingman" watch schedule which KICKED ASS. We were all fully rested all four days and nights, and I am still fully rested as I type this! Amazing. Thanks, guys. Good work. And I still don't understand how the schedule works.... I just know it DOES.

The menu: FRI - hot dogs, steak fries and canned green beans (John). SAT - beef stew, hash browns (Steve). SUN - beans & rice (Jordi). MON - fresh bread, spaghetti o's with fresh carrots (Jordi and John respectively).

Mechanical failure #1: We either got dirty fuel in South Caicos, or put too much cleaning agent in our tank which loosened up too much debris in the tank at once. We clogged our primary fuel filter twice en-route, enough to stop the engine. Twice. We were glad to be in a "blowboat" and not a "stinkpot". We had to conserve the third and last filter by sailing and only sailing for the entire last day and night. The winds co-operated, thank God. The race was on.... we had to sail-and-only-sail to Puerto Rico before our weather window closed and the wind and seas intensified.... we just made it.

Mechanical failure #2: Self-induced. Our rudder post stuffing box seeps water into the bilge. This annoys us. We attempted to tighten it up en-route, which made it worse. DOH! Live and learn.

Thermodynamics. We started the trip packed with ice and drinking cold drinks. Ice melts faster on board when the engine raises the mean cabin temperature. We were drinking lukewarm drinks by mid-trip. By the end, the drinks were actually warmer than the outside ambient temperature, due to the afforementioned engine heating effect. I stocked up on my life-giving elixir known as Diet Coke before we left. I should have noted the dust on the cans.... they were WAY OLD. Expired Diet Coke tastes like a seltzer water with some unpalatable sythetic chemical accidentally spilled into it. And I drank them in a warmed-up state. Gross. huh? Only for the first few.... kinda like Milwaukee's Best. You get used to it. They had the caffeine which my neurosynapses have come to require in my old age. And our milk spoiled. No more cereal.

This is a NOAA weatherfax we recieve on single sideband radio. These puppies and Chris Parker's Caribbean weather broadcasts determine when, where, and how S/V Audax makes her moves. Or..... stays put:

Feeling dirty? Tired? Unkept? Smelly? Liberal applications of this stuff in strategic spots on your body can change your whole outlook. A real morale booster. It's just like a shower! (yeah, right) Chris Bartlett has been raving about this stuff for years, and I have scoffed. I DON'T SCOFF ANYMORE. I'm now a big fan:

See the "schmutz" in the bottom of the sight glass? It stopped our engine twice:

Jordi navvin' up a storm. Not literally. (Bad choice of words):

This is a SQUALL. A delightful little concentrated dose of gale force wind and torrential downpour. Avoid these if possible. Luckily, these show up quite well on the radar at night:

Who's THAT? He was with us on this trip for sure. Wassup, HP?!:

Lots of "chill time" when you're on a 38ft boat for four days:

Look who's back! Always a welcomed greeting:

Thanks, Johnboy, but I think I'll just look at the GPS if you don't mind. I, too, used to have that "thirst for knowledge". He's also trying to learn Spanish in two days:

There He is again. G'night, HP!:

YES! YES! I love America! And the colonized territories thereof! YES!! Today I had McDonald's, Starbucks, Sizzler, and found these gems while ducking into a convenience store during a downpour earlier today.... coincidence? I think not. I bought four:

Cruise ship mania, Old San Juan:

I fly outta here for Florida this Friday, for the Daytona 500 and Van Halen. Very much looking forward to those.... let's see what kinda shenannigans I can get into here in San Juan before then.....

!! Puerto Rico !!

2008-02-12T08:40:00.000-08:00

(Those first two exclamation points are supposed to be upside down. I removed the "1/!" key from my keyboard and flipped it over, but that didn't seem to work.)

We made it!! We dropped hook in San Juan, Puerto Rico this morning at 2:50am. One hour and ten minutes shy of exactly four days at sea.

This post is strictly informative. I am at McDonald's eating some of the best food I've ever eaten in my life. There are no electrical outlets around, and I'm about to run out of battery juice, so..... we made it. Entertaining / pictorial post forthcoming...... there will be lots of stuff to write about, so stay tuned.

For those who just can't wait to hear all about it, check out www.caribbeanendeavour.com - I bee-lined it for the shower, Johnboy bee-lined to post an update. Priorities. ;)

The Big Jump (I mean it this time)

2008-02-07T07:08:00.000-08:00

So, here's the deal: We've been doing Big Jump prep stuff and chillin' out here in South Caicos Island. Our weather analysis - thanks to some personal attention from Chris Parker - has concluded that we are jumping off at 4am tomorrow (Fri) morning! Finally.... a conclusive decision that we all feel good about. We're ready. The boat is ready. I even changed the engine oil today. Since we have wi-fi on the boat, and I had some chill-out time today, here's some pics for y'all. Enjoy:

See Audax waaay out there in the bay?:

Fishing skiffs, South Caicos Island:

Even the dogs are on island time around here. Check out the nuts on this sucka, huh? (you know that's the first thing you noticed. Don't kid yourself.):

This is Steph T. Not to be confused with Steph G of Miami Christmas Tour fame. There are two Stephs now. This was taken during a snorkeling expedition, right before we got poured on. You can actually see the squall coming in the pic:

Nancy and Steph G at Turks & Caicos club. MAJOR PROPS to these two for their hospitality in Provo! Team Audax loves you!:

This one is for Steph G. What a fun day that was, huh? Thank you again!:

Me and Jordi performing surgery on "Otto":

Steph T did John's & my laundry hours before we split outta Provo. Thank you, Steph T!:

Johnboy changing a zinc:

Super Bowl at the Shark Bite, Provo. Dorothy, Bill, Johnboy, Nancy, me:

More Otto surgery:

South Caicos Island from the cockpit of Audax:

More Otto surgery:

Good times aboard Rumrunner. Bill, Johnboy, Jordi, Dorothy, me, Steph T:

OK so, this will be the last post for about four days. This time I really mean it. We're outta here at 4am, offshore for 500nm.... hopefully all the way to San Juan, Puerto Rico. That's the plan. We'll see how it shakes out for real. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers until then. Can't wait to tell you all about it from either Puerto Rico, or maybe Dominican Republic if need be. Godspeed, Team Audax!

BLOG FODDER: I just realized by looking at the above pics, that I've been wearing the same shirt for four days, sans shower. No showers available here in South Caicos, so we've been "Joying it". This entails bathing in the ocean with Joy dish soap. Did that today, and changed my shirt. I suspect I will take a sponge bath at some point during the next four days at sea.

South Caicos Island

2008-02-06T15:21:00.000-08:00

Surprise! We pulled into South Caicos Island just to fuel up, ice up, provision, and study the weather window for "the big jump" to Puerto Rico. Of all places, this anchorage has a wi-fi signal right on the boat! Never would have guessed it here, but.... sweet. So, y'all get an interim update. So we fueled up, got ice, most of the provisions, and we're gonna get lots of sleep tonight, and analyze the crap out of the weather projections tomorrow. Then it might just be set sail on the big jump mid-day tomorrow. I'll do a quickie post like this one - since I can - when we leave.

Exciting times on Team Audax: had a rough anchorage last night in the middle of the Caicos Banks. This is not recommended, but we didn't make South Caicos before dark, and you need daylight to sail across the Caicos Banks due to all the coral heads. We also had to fix the autohelm today. Team Audax is functioning smoothly, focused on the task at hand: Get to Puerto Rico safely in the upcoming 3-4 day weather window we will hopefully be blessed with. C'mon Chris Parker..... we're counting on ya, buddy. (Chris Parker is the single sideband radio weather guy)
Sorry, no pics today, kids. I gotta hit the hay to put some extra sleep in the bank for the big jump.

BLOG FODDER: I almost lost a few fingers on my left hand last night during a rough anchor deploying in which I also held Jordi by the belt as he hung over the pulpit while the bow intermittently submerged itself. (ed: run-on sentence) That was a tense situation. We were overdue for one of those, right? We are also currently dealing with a flea infestation here aboard S/V Audax. All of our legs and ankles are all chewed up. Raid and Lysol tonight.... we'll see what happens. Maybe these are Puerto Rican fleas looking for a free ride home. Look at the bright side: Better than cockroaches, right?

The Big Jump

2008-02-04T15:11:00.001-08:00

Today we took on fuel and water, and provisioned. Jordi flies back tonight. Early tomorrow morning, we set sail for Grand Turk to top off on fuel and look closely at the weather projections. Then, when/if the conditions are right, we make The Big Jump: Grand Turk to Puerto Rico... 300nm to the South East. We may have to ditch out due South and head for Dominican Republic, if the conditions are not treatin' us right. Time will tell. So as usual, you will not be seeing posts during this time offshore. It has been a pleasure blogging from Provo TCI. Fun place for sure. We definately logged a few campfire stories on this island. ;)

Where will the next post be from? DR or PR? Stay tuned to find out!! (gimme 3 or 4 days to get there first)

P.S. - That SuperBowl kicked ass. What a game!! Yes, that's right, I rooted for the Giants. Email complaints to whocares@notme.com

Provo IV: "Roughin' it"

2008-02-02T10:44:00.001-08:00

Stephanie is in town. Remeber Stephanie from Miami? She has her own advertizing company: Gordon Media Group. http://www.gordonmediagroup.com/ Her specialty is upscale Caribbean travel ads. She's all hooked up down here. She's in town for business and a little "downtime" as well. I am fortunate enough to reap a few benefits by association. She is staying at the Turks & Caicos Club for a week as she pseudo-works. She twisted my arm, and I agreed to tag along as she roughs it in these accommodations.

Today, we went to the beach right in front of the condo. I saw a Hobie Cat. "dingdingdingding!!" rang my fun detector. I asked Stephanie "Do you think anyone can just get on the Hobie Cat and take it out as they please?" She replied "Sure, I don't see why not..." That was all I needed to hear. I promptly donned the PFD, and casted off. The breeze was honkin'. This was gonna be FUN. Seconds later, I was haulin' some serious ass, up on one pontoon, fully hiked out, spray in the face, I was laughing out loud... "yeeeehhhaaaa!!" The only qualm was the nagging thought: This is too good to be true.... this can't be legal. I stuffed the bow a few times, almost got blown over a few times.... still laughing. Still haulin' ass. Uh oh. Two dudes in uniforms are casting off the beach in the condo skiff. Yup, they're headed right for me. Here they come.... they get as close as they can; I was movin' about twice their speed, on a beam reach for the beach. They point to the beach as I speed by them, spray in my wake. I beached her, and waited for my punishment. They motored the skiff ashore alongside.... "Uh-oh.... did I break the rules?" I asked. "We don't let guests out alone when it's this windy - I have to go with you..." he replied. DOH! OOOPS! Slightly embarassing, but totally worth it. File under: "funny little blog fodder".

The Meridian Club, Pine Cay. Stephanie had to go conduct business there, and I got to tag along as her assistant. Shlepping her bag and taking pictures. The Meridian Club is a 12 room / one cottage resort on the private Pine Cay. Top notch service and accommodations, zero crowds, minimal civilization. "Detached from civilization, but not roughing it" was the description that occurred to me. How much does it cost? "If you have to ask, you can't afford it."

This picture is not downloaded from a website. I actually took it during the tour. It's the view from the bar balcony. Traditionally, the guests (max of 26 in number) meet here for happy hour daily. Very quiet, low key, mellow chill-out vibe. The kinda place Dr.Melfy (sp) should have prescribed for Tony Soprano....for a month. It's even nicer than the Bada Bing:

Aboard the Meridian Club shuttle. They have two. They haul ass, as you can tell by the wake. It's a Parker cuddy with twin 200hp Yamaha four strokes:

Here's our (oops, I mean her) condo at Turks & Caicos Club:

Johnboy cooking dinner last night! He's good. Steph also brought her friend Nancy with her, and the four of us enjoyed chicken & artichoke fettucini d'herrigel. His signature home made bread as well. Ben & Jerry's for dessert. That's what I'm talkin' about. What a HUGE treat after you've been living 38ft boat for 2.5 months. Nancy has eluded the camera eye thus far, but not for long. Her and John are out fishing with Rumrunner Bill as I type this.

Team Audax Family Fun Day. The day before Jordi flew home temporarily, and Steph became his pinch hitter, Team Audax rented bicycles, rode them all around Grace Bay to "The Hole" and went to a great sushi lunch. I splurged a bit at the sushi place, OK I admit it. But it was the perfect amount for my bicycling induced hunger, and it was fresh and delicious.

"The Hole". Yup, you guessed it. It's a hole. At the bottom is some green water and empty Heineken bottles. Maybe a shoe or two, and black burned out logs. The phrase "Oh my God... this is incredible..." did not enter my mind. That happened about 30 minutes later when I took my first bite of sushi.

On a deeper side note, I am BESIDE MYSELF WITH GRATITUDE these days. This is all just so incredible. It's surreal at times. What did I ever do to deserve this adventure? I don't know. But I ain't gonna mess with it. It's just too good. This journey has taken on a spiritual tone for me personally, and it is my belief that my good fortune comes as a result of seeking a new relationship with God that I never had before. HP's got my back. I can feel it. I could write volumes about "Ego vs Spirituality" and related sub-topics.... but I better save my server space at blogger.com for things like poopyjuice. By the way, just because I make a reference to "Ego vs Spirituality", does NOT mean that I claim to have eliminated Ego from my life. Not even close. I have, however, begun to get it under control, or so I think.... as my "fellows" all know, it's "progress, not perfection". Peace out for now.

Provo III

2008-01-29T12:59:00.000-08:00

These are our new friends Bill and Dorothy, and their Alden 40 "Rumrunner". Rumrunner won the Boat of the Year at the 2006 Annapolis Boat Show. Dorothy is holding up the cover of the magazine which announces this achievement. They are quite proud. They should be, she is a stunning vessel. Bill's "dream boat". As I type this, John and Jordi are out snorkeling on the "tender" rafted up alongside, as seen in the photo. I was gonna go, but I just had to come do a post for y'all. Who loves ya, huh?:

Check out this fishy I caught. I had him almost into the boat, then he snapped my 20lb test. I should have used 40lb test. I had to jump into the water and wrestle him into the boat by hand. He kept poking me with his pointy thing. Don't worry, I'm OK:

SOLIDARITY: My dear friend Vivian back home is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatments. She went and got a pre-emptive short haircut at a fancy NYC salon before she started. My long 'fro.... "It's too mach, it's TOO MAACH!". So this cut is for you, Viv. I went as short as I could go and still actually have hair:

Here's the view from the cockpit of S/V Audax where she is anchored just outside the entrance to Turtle Cove Marina, Providenciales, Turks/Caicos. The beach is the Eastern end of a seven or so mile long beach spanning all the big resorts:

Boat work day. I signed up for cleaning and oiling the teak rail. She's so dry and weathered that she could easily soak up two more coats of oil..... no worries, it was kinda fun. I suppose I can do it again. Then again. I needed some sun on my back, anyway..... and a good excuse to rock out to some METAL on the ipod. I ALMOST forgot how much I love to crank metal. Almost. Sorry, Mom.

"Doing" Provo...

2008-01-26T11:54:00.001-08:00

Let's examine the above photo, shall we?

* The weather is not so good today. I'm wet.

* I have my running shoes on because I've been walking all around provo today on a quest for an ATM, lunch, and Wi-Fi.

* I'm wearing my glasses cuz I seem to be having contact lens drama down here... the wind, sand, salt combo, I guess?

* I have my Ocean Planet shirt on to represent: I was talking with an Aussie girl last night whos face lit up when I told her I was good friends with Bruce Schwab. See, Haji? You still have "star power"! She knew all about OP, Vendee, 5-oceans etc etc....

* I have my backpack with my laptop in it, trying very hard to keep it dry. This required running at times.

So..... we did the town with some locals last night. The Shark Bite for happy hour, then a full moon party on the beach at Horse Eyed Jack's, then over to Danny Bouy's for latenight. Good times. Gotta hurry up and post this before my computer battery dies.... having fun! Good adventure day today with bonus excercise... Bye for now!!

Provo!

2008-01-25T08:26:00.001-08:00

We're in Provo! No, not Provo, Utah. Providenciales, Turks/Caicos. Nothing to report, no pics yet. Just letting y'all know where I'm at. We got in last night, after erroneously circumnavigating the island, went provisioning this morning, now we're gonna go goof off so we have some pics and stories for blog content.

"Ya, man. No problem."

"Riding a front"

2008-01-23T11:30:00.001-08:00

So, we "rode a front" from Rum Cay to Mayaguana. Let me explain. Attempting to cruise a course to the SouthEast as we are, is a challenge in a sailboat, due to the facts that the the prevailing tradewinds are almost always out of the SoutEast and a sailboat cannot sail directly into the wind. As a matter of fact, this route is referred to in the cruising community as "The Thorny Path". Therefore, whenever the winds clock around to Easterly, or East by NorthEast, or maybe even true NorthEast, these are good times to "make tracks". Unfortunately, when the winds come around to the East or NorthEast, this is usually related to a low pressure system moving across somewhere nearby. Low pressure = bad weather = foul conditions = not fun sailing. So, as you may have read, we decided to ride the East by NorthEast winds generated by a front as it passed by to the North of us. We left Rum Cay at halftime if the AFC Championship game, and set sail for Mayaguana, 120NM to the SouthEast of us. We ate Jordi's birthday cake, which John had baked for him, as we left. Sunday was Jordi's birthday.

The night went OK, but Monday the shit kinda hit the fan. The winds clocked around to East by NorthEast just as we suspected it would, and the seas built to about 8-10ft. The winds also built to about 20-25kts. It also got really squally. Squalls are little mini storms with big gusty winds, and downpours. The biggest squall hit during my watch, and I rode it at the helm, as Jordi and John went below to "batten down the hatches". (a phrase so often used metaphorically, but this time literally!) During the peak of these squalls, the winds gusted to 30kts+, the rains poured down, and the seas built to breaking whitecapped waves. Occaisionally, a wave would break over the bow, over the beam, or sometimes into the cockpit. When a wave broke over the bow or beam, water would drip rather heavily into the cabin, as the hatch seals on the mighty Audax are dried out and they leak. This soaked much of the interior... books, V-berth cusions, the sole (making it slippery as hell), and even an AC outlet in the galley which snap crackle popped, smoked and sparked as it shorted out. When a wave broke into the cockpit, it SOAKED the helmsman. Yes, that's me. I don't care how good your foulies are - and mine are good ones - when a wave breaks into the cockpit, YOU ARE WET. It was pretty gnarly. We were all tired, both metally and physically.

We were discussing today how in in overnight shitstorms it's like a fatigue double-whammy: Not only do the rough conditions make it difficult to sleep during your "off" shift, but when you're "on", moving around a soaking wet rockin' and rollin' boat heeled over is a physically strenuous CHORE. Double whammy. When we arrived 24 hours later at Mayaguana, we were SPENT. We dropped hook, reassembled / towel dried the interior, I cleaned up a peepee mishap I had in the forward head (more details in a later post), and finally sat down to take a breath and chill out. I cooked dinner, only because it was my turn. Over dinner we discussed it all.... we all knew what we were getting into when we left, but we also agreed that we had found our team threshhold of gnarliness with respect to "riding fronts". Meaning that we do not desire to cross this threshhold into an even gnarlier passage at any point in the future. It won't hurt my feelings if we don't even approach this threshhold at any point in the future. It was not enjoyable.

Please note: At no point did we feel unsafe. Audax handled the conditions just fine, hatch leaks notwithstanding. We never felt as if we were ever in danger. It just was not very fun. Not worth doing again. This is how we learn.... by DOING.

Been kickin' it at Mayaguana for the past couple days, waiting patiently for the seas to settle down so we can have a nice, pleasant sail to Provinciales, Turks/Caicos. Looks like we might leave tonight.....

Course Update

2008-01-20T13:37:00.001-08:00

We are currently at Rum Cay. (not really noteworthy) It's halftime of the Pats' AFC Chamionship game. We are preparing to "ride a front" through the night tonight, to one of three possible destinations: Plana Cay, Samana Cay, or Mayaguana, depending on what happens when the front hits during the night. It could be a few days until the next WiFi, so please be patient. After Mayaguana, it's Turks/Caicos....and civilization.... which we are all really looking forward to. Don't forget to keep checking www.caribbeanendeavour.com for what is usually a more detailed description of our whereabouts etc. He usually posts way more pics, too. But he dares not write about poopyjuice.

Conception Island

2008-01-20T12:28:00.000-08:00

Conception Island was...... VERY COOL. This place deserves its own dedicated post. The most beautiful beach I've ever been to, great snorkeling, and we had the whole place to ourselves! Very cool.

A Day in the Life

2008-01-19T11:03:00.000-08:00

Here is a typical day on S/V Audax in the Bahamas:

6:00am: Wake up at Island A

6:30am - 7:00am: Fire up SSB (Single Side Band radio) to listen to Chris Parker's Bahamas weather forecast while eating breakfast

7:00am - 7:30am: Get NOAA weather faxes from SSB to laptop

8:00am - 9:00am: Weigh anchor and set sail for Island B

9:00am - 1:00pm: Enjoy sunny breezy sail to Island B in 15-25 feet of crystal clear light-turquoise colored water

1:00pm - 2:00pm: Arrive at island B, drop the anchor, and have lunch

2:00pm - 5:00pm: Dingy ashore and explore island. Usually some remote, desolate beautiful island with a gorgeous white sand beach and nobody else around. Great for swimming, tanning, meditating etc.

5:00pm - 6:00pm: Cocktail Hour aboard S/V Audax. Drinks and crackers and cheese in the cockpit. Watch sun set.

6:00pm - 7:00pm: Cook dinner, eat dinner

7:00pm - 8:00pm: After dinner activities. These typically include reading, downloading/editing the day's digital photos, plotting GPS courses, reviewing cruising guides/charts, or watching movies on laptop

8:00pm - 10:00pm: Bed time, Possibly more reading in bed

REPEAT AS NECESSARY UNLESS/UNTIL ANY OF THE FOLLOWING OCCUR:
* Bad weather forces you to stay put.
* A "city" is reached with a grocery store, fueling station, showers, WiFi etc
* A fun, social place is found where we decide we'd like to hang out for a while
* Female intrusion

Bahamas Medley

2008-01-19T08:41:00.000-08:00

I slept up on deck one night last week, now everyone wants to do it:

Bahamian Zoo (please do not feed the whales):

Bahamian Wi-Fi hotspot. If the PitBulls are in their cages, just knock on the window. If the guy is home, slip him $5, and he'll slip you a card back through the window that has the passwords for his Wi-Fi. It was actually a decent connection... good enough for Jordi and I to make a few Skype calls from the boat:

Bahamian Super WalMart:

Bahamian Starbucks:

Another grueling day:

It rained on us from Georgetown to Red Shanks:

Jean-Paul!!:

Don't mess with "grill bitch":

"Mind if I chill out here while you weave your baskets?":

I had these birds eating out of my hand (literally):

Poopyjuice II: The Sequel

2008-01-19T08:24:00.000-08:00

WARNING: IF YOU ARE EASILY GROSSED OUT, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER. READING THIS ENTRY MAY ACTUALLY INDUCE VOMITING, OR AT LEAST SEVERE NAUSEA. DO NOT READ WHILE EATING OR DRINKING.

So we are in Georgetown, Great Exuma. This is the town with the marina which supposedly possesses blackwater holding tank pumpout capabilities. (if you have not read the original "poopyjuice" entry, please go back and read it now) Today was the day we were to take Audax in for her much anticipated poopyjuice pumpout. I skyped them this morning to confirm. Their response was not encouraging: ".. it will cost you $50, ya know... we may not get to it today, we're really busy...." I could sense his reluctance and attempts to discourage us. Apparently, he did not want to deal with poopyjuice any more than we did. I can't say that I blame him. So we steamed off for Georgetown Marina to see him. As we steamed in close to the marina, we figured we'd better hail him on the radio to confirm our intentions. Their response:...."it's too shallow for you to get in here with your draft, and our pump is broken anyway..". SHIT. Obviously, their reluctance to pump our poopyjuice had prevailed, and they just fed us bullshit so they didn't have to deal with it. SHIT. A sad silence fell over the members of Team Audax. I was frustrated. I, more than Jordi or John, was SERIOUSLY PEEVED at the prospect of living with poopyjuice vapors for an indefinite amount of time. I erupted. I began to yell... "When we drop anchor, I am making it my personal mission to figure out how to empty that holding tank out!! There has to be a way to do it!! I'm going to do it... I'm willing to do whatever it takes!!" etc etc, (expletives omitted)

We dropped anchor in the sheltered Red Shanks anchorage. (very breezy as a front is moving through today) John and Jordi went to work on changing the engine oil which was due. I cleared out the V-berth to gain access to the holding tank. I studied it. I focused on it. I thought and thought and focused some more. I had a plan: I would scab together whatever pieces of hose we had (for changing engine oil) and attempt to fabricate a hose which would hopefully be long enough to insert into the pumpout connection on the weather deck and reach down to the bottom of the holding tank, and then siphon out as much poopyjuice as we could. I had a plan; I went to work. I had to enlist the help of Jordi to manually hold together one of the hose connections which was not perfectly airtight, as I sucked on the other end of the hose to get a siphon going. (gross, huh?) I was ALMOST able to get a good siphon going, but not quite, and not for my lack of trying. It was very gross, as you can imagine. In the process of trying my damndest to suck enough through the hose to get a siphon going, you guessed it, I actually had a small amount of poopyjuice go INTO MY MOUTH. Yes, that's right folks, sucking a bit of poopyjuice into my mouth while trying to get the hose to siphon the tank out; you read that correctly. I immediately spit it out and declared "I'm done". Jordi watched, laughing out loud in utter astonishment. I didn't give up. I talked John into letting me use the telescopic engine oil discharge pump (instead of my mouth) to pump the tank out from the deck discharge. He reluctantly agreed, sensing my level of dedication to this task. All three of us went up on deck; two holding together makeshift hose connections, and one pumping the telescopic pump. Success. Poopyjuice flowed out of the pump discharge, into the ocean. (hey... it's legal here, remember?) Poopyjuice also flowed freely out of every non-tight makeshift connection in our jury-rigged suction hose, and through the fingers of anyone who happened to have their hands on it. It dripped liberally all over the boat and all over us.... but we didn't care, as long as it was flowing out of the pump discharge, and into the ocean. "Keep going, keep going, keep pumping... we're doing it!!" Believe it or not, we were excited at this point. But then we lost suction. On to the next phase of the mission.....

We had managed to suck out enough poopyjuice to get the level about 1/3rd of the way down the tank, which freed up two of the three tank connections to be undone. I then figured we could undo the larger of these two, and pump the rest out from that open tank connection, into a bucket which could then be dumped overboard. We knew, as a team, that once we undid that tank connection, the smell and mess would be unbelievably grotesque, and there would be no turning back. We agreed, as a team, that it was worth a shot. We methodically discussed and verbally practiced what each of our distinct roles would be once we pulled this tank connection apart. "Are you ready? Let's do it.... here we go."

The smell that filled the V-berth upon removing the larger hose from its tank connection defies words, so I will not even make an attempt. Suffice to say that we were all moaning and groaning and trying to contort ourselves to somehow direct our mouths toward the overhead hatch where fresh air was blowing in. We were all trying soooo hard not to vomit... no time for that. This surgical strike must not be foiled.... we must prevail. Jordi and I held hoses and connections in place as john pumped the poopyjuice into the bucket, and ran the buckets out to dump them overboard. SO GROSS..... so gross. After three or four bucket runs, we finally had the tank empty enough where we could undo all three connections and remove the tank. John and Jordi removed the tank and cleaned it out thoroughly while perched on the transom swim ladder. I cleaned up the crime scene inside to the best of my ability. we re-installed the clean empty tank, and now all is right with the world. We rejoiced. We laughed. We marveled at our determination, persistence, and seamless, flawless teamwork. Team Audax prevails over the poopyjuice. We were still discussing it in amazement over our spaghetti dinner this evening. As I type this, Jordi is retiring to the V-berth for a night of serene slumber, totally free of the poopyjuice vapors which plagued this same V-berth less that 12 hours ago.

NEW BOAT RULE: NO MORE USING THE FORWARD HOLDING TANK. PERIOD.
Let us all rejoice and be glad.

Staniel Cay

2008-01-14T07:25:00.000-08:00

Staniel Cay was a VERY COOL place! Have you noticed that the phrase "very cool" is being used more and more as we make progress on our journey Southward? Well, I think I can honestly say that Staniel Cay was probably the best all-around stop on the journey so far. This is the spot where some of the aqua-adventure portions of the James Bond 007 movie "Thunderball" were filmed. There is an actual "Thunderball Cave (grotto)" pseudo-underwater cave which appears in the movie, and it is now an excellent snorkeling destination. The best snorkeling I have ever seen, personally. The pics don't really do it justice. Pics never do. So we arrived in Staniel Cay, then took the tender out to Thunderball Cave for the snorkeling. There were nurse sharks and manta rays swimming around right at the docks. Awesome. Dinner on the boat, then into Staniel Cay Yacht Club for the PATS game! This was a festive night.... a late night. Lots of socializing. In the morning, we slept in and then...... went to church!! A small local Baptist congregation had a great service at 11am Sunday morning. Lots of singing. Let us give thanks and praise, and REJOICE! There was much singing, praying and rejoicing. Right before I went into the service, I pet a local stray doggie laying in the shade outside. This doggie was not very clean, and my hand smelled like dirty dog as a result. I had to walk to the beach (right across the street) and rinse the dirty dog smell off of my right hand before the service, as I knew I would be shaking the hand of many a parishoner on this sunny sunday morning. In fact, there was much hand shaking and hugging after the ceremony.

Staniel Cay is an excellent chill-out vacation destinaion. Small island, one Yacht Club, the friendliest locals ever, rental cottages on the beach, each with its own little Boston Whaler on the dock out front, snorkeling, diving, sport fishing, and festive night socials at the Yacht Club. My kinda place.... I can see myself coming back here with some special female at some point later on..... Staniel Cay is definately a BYOW kinda place. (Bring Your Own Women)

Now we are at Black Point Settlement, Great Guana Cay, Exumas, Bahamas. Not much here except for one of the NICEST LAUDRAMATS I have ever been to in my life! The only laundramat I have ever been to where there is a beach in the back yard where you can hang out as the machines clean and dry your clothes. Very cool. There I go again with the "very cool". It's a good thing.

The "Boiling Frog" Principle

2008-01-14T07:20:00.001-08:00

In Al Gore's swan song enviromental manifesto "An Inconvenient Truth", he draws an analogy I will refer to as "the boiling frog principle". The boiling frog principle is an analogy: If one were to take a live frog and drop him into a pot of already boiling water, the frog would be immediately shocked into jumping out of the water. However, if one put the same frog into a pot of lukewarm water, and then sloooowly and gradually turned up the heat, one could conceivably begin to cook the frog alive, because the temperature of the water rises so gradually that the frog doesn't really ever notice how hot it's getting. Al Gore draws this analogy with respect to the earth's environmental issues, and why people are not "shocked" into taking action to save the earth.... the destruction is happening too gradually.

In the case of Team Audax, we have almost (but not quite) been taking for granted just how frickin' AWESOME it is to be cruising on a sailboat in the BAHAMAS. We started out in the Gulf of Maine, in the dark of night, high seas, 20 degrees Farenheit, snowing, dressed as if we were going skiing for the day, counting the minutes until it's our turn to go below and fire up "Mr. Heater" to thaw our fingers and toes. That was about seven weeks ago. Now, as I type this, I'm wearing only surf shorts and foot flops, it's sunny and 80 degrees outside, and I had to jump in the water this morning at around 9am because I had sweat beading on my brow. If I could have bridged these two opposing and contrasting scenarios with a two hour airline flight, I would have arrived at a Bahama beach and jumped into the water exclaiming "Holy SHIT!! This is frickin' AWESOME!! WOOHOO!!". The shock of the sudden enviroment change in full effect. But the sloooow and gradual nature of our journey South has demonstrated the other half of the boiling frog principle. It has happened so gradually, that we sometimes lose sight of the following.....

WE'RE DOING IT. We're doing what Team Audax has set out to do as we departed Strout's Point Marina in Freeport, Maine, on November 19th, 2007. Back home in Maine, there are FEET of snow on the ground, and they are enduring one of the most brutally cold and snowy winters in recent memory. We, however, are sailing in lovely Tradewind breezes, through shallow calm crystal clear turquoise water, shirts off, getting tan, meeting new people, and exploring strange new worlds we have never seen. Just this morning I had about six or so small yellow finch type birds using my fingers as perches as they ate sugar out of the palm of my hand. I have never done that before. A microcosm of "mission accomplished".

Now.... somebody please turn the heat down on the pot.... it's getting hot in here.

[Disclaimer: No frogs were harmed in the writing of this blog entry. Perhaps if it were "The Grilled Frog" principle, that would be a different story. I cannot, however, make claims for Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth".]

Chart Plots

2008-01-11T11:58:00.000-08:00

Self-explanitory. Plagiarized directly from http://www.caribbeanendeavour.com/ Thanks, Johnboy! Don't forget, as always, to click on any image to enlarge it......

"Poopyjuice!!"

2008-01-11T11:38:00.000-08:00

We have a stinky little dilemma here on S/V Audax. We have overfilled our blackwater holding tank. (blackwater: peepee and poopoo) Normally, this would not be a problem. However, the aggressive boat motions of a few heavy seas sailing excursions have fatigued the hose connections to the holding tank, and they drip poopyjuice. Also, as we sail in moderate seas everyday, the boat motions cause poopyjuice to spurt and ooze out of the holding tank vent on the side of the boat. This usually sends fresh poopyjuice vapors wafting directly aft into the cockpit. Also, the leaky fittings drip poopyjuice into the bilge, making the vapors virtually inescapable anywhere in the forward area of the cabin. As a matter of fact, I can smell them as I type this in the main salon. You may be saying to yourself: "So, just empty the holding tank!".... not that simple. This vessel is not piped with a loop to pump the contents of the holding tank overboard. Ironically enough, marinas in the Bahamas to not posess holding tank pumpout capabilies, because it is legal to pump blackwater overboard anytime/anywhere in the Bahamas. DOH!! We have decided (accepted) to live with poopyjuice odors until we can find a marina who can pump out the tank. You will know when this happens, as I will be writing about it. It will be cause for celebration here on S/V Audax. Until then, consider "poopyjuice" the word of the day for today. It's kinda fun to say! "POOPYJUICE!!" It's fun.... try it. "POOPYJUICE!!"

The Lizards

2008-01-11T11:12:00.000-08:00

"The Lizards were a race of people practically extinct from doing things smart people don't do. He said that he was once a lizard, too."

-Phish "The Lizards"

Behold: The Allen's Cay Iguanas!

The Exumas!

2008-01-11T10:15:00.001-08:00

NOTE: Technical difficulties today. Limited pics. Sucks, too cuz I have some good ones I wanted to post!! Frustrating. Sloooow connection here at Warderick Wells, Exumas......

VERY COOL. Exumas are a string of little islands running North/South through the middle of the Bahamas. Most are uninhabited, with beautiful turquoise shallow water all around, and white sand beaches. The first was Allen's Cay. Home of the Allen's Cay Iguanas. Lots of boats in this anchorage, as it's a popular landing point for cruisers departing Nassau. Spent a night there, I slept up in the cockpit under the stars and breeze. Next day, we sailed from Allen's Cay South to Hawksbill Cay. Perfect sailing conditions: 10-15kts Easterly breeze, minimal seas, 20ft deep turquoise water all around..... just like you see in the cruising charter ads in sailing magazines. Hawksbill Cay is very cool.... only two other boats here, and it's a State Park with moorings just yards from the beach. Today we sail on South to Warderick Wells. I'd love to shower and get online... maybe do some laundry?

OUTTA HERE.

2008-01-08T17:36:00.000-08:00

Yeah. This happened just a few blocks from our marina. Same street. We're all provisioned up, took on fuel, took on potable water, got the weather, gonna rest up, then...... outta here tomorrow morning, bright and early. Headed for the Exumas! The Exumas are a loooong chain of tiny islands (cays) which run North/South. If the wind stays 10-15 out of the East, that'll be some GREAT cruising. I have no idea what WiFi access will be like in the Exumas, so if you don't see a post for a little while, don't trip out. You know I'll post as soon as I can. I'm trying hard not to disappoint all my faithful readers..... I'm finding that there are more of you than I thought. SWEET! Maybe I'll start getting weird on you all..... hhmm.....

Sandy Point, Nassau....

2008-01-08T05:18:00.000-08:00

Mmmmmm. Fresh bread. So.... we motor/sailed along the Southern shore of Grand Bahama Island, curved South past Gorda Cay (aka Castaway Cay) and on to Sandy Point, Abaco. We anchored off of Sandy point and dinghied in.... nothing really there at all, except for a few doggies who seemed psyched to walk the beach with us. One was really old, so we named them "Old Guy" and "Young Guy". Old Guy was struggling to keep the pace, and that was kinda sad. He also had an open festering wound on the side of his belly, and that was kinda gross. I don't think Old Guy is long to this world. We spent the night (well... until 1am) on this anchorage, then set sail for Nassau. What a sail that was!! Blowin' 20+ out of the east, us headed due South, made for a NICE beam reach. Two reefed sails, still haulin' ass at 7+ kts. Good times, but sailing in those conditions takes energy... so we we were all beat. I type this in Nassau, and we are not on the fun, glitzy side of Nassau (Paradise Island), we are on the industrial, more "ghetto" side of Nassau. It's OK... we just gotta provision up and we're outta here headed for Exumas. We hear the Exumas are splendid. What we've seen of Nassau is..... not so splendid. At least it has coffee shops which enable me to post this entry which you now read.

Two young guys and an old guy:

John taught Jordi how to make fresh bread. This excited Jordi. It was delicious:

This is Keith, our cabbie who carted us to/from Port Lucaya and our remote sheltered anchorage (Freeport):

Old Guy was not impressed with the photo session. He left:

Anchored off of Sandy Point, Abaco:

This is Gorda Cay, which Disney purchased and converted to "Castaway Cay", a private Disney-only cruise ship destination. Gotta love American Corporate Capitolism. (not):

So..... wassup?

2008-01-05T11:34:00.000-08:00

We're STILL in Port Lucaya, Freeport. The huge Northerly that blasted through over the past few days still has the seas up 8-10ft. Breezes are 20+ out of the East. If a few days, the winds will clock to Northeast and mellow to 10-15kts. The seas should be 6-8ft, which is not optimal, but doable. So tonight, we are going to steam due East along the South shore of Grand Bahama Island, taking it all on the nose, but at sunrise we will then be able to sail due South in the mellowing Easterlies to Nassau...... Freeport has been nice, but it's a 2-3 days nice, not trapped for a week nice. Morale is still high, but Team Audax is getting antsy and ready to ramble....

Ghost Town

2008-01-04T10:02:00.001-08:00

S/V Audax is currently anchored in a remote, abandoned, never fully developed, devastated by hurricanes, network of canals just East of Port Lucaya, Freeport, Grand Bahama. We are currently waiting out a killer Northerly, which has us staying put for a few days as we wait for better weather to make passage to the Berry Islands. Yesterday we went ashore and went exploring.... check out these cool pics of a HUGE, gutted-by-hurricanes, left-for-dead hotel resort complex. There was also an adjacent arboretum which suffered the same fate. Kinda creepy, yet fascinating at the same time.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2008-01-02T08:06:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year, everyone!! Team Audax celebrated New Year's Eve in Port Lucaya, Freeport, Grand Bahama Island. It was OFF THE HOOK. First, we roped our Canadian boat neighbors Ryan and Katisha (sp?) into our shenannigans. Then we hit the casino for some blackjack action.... Johnboy and Stacey were ON FIRE!! Stacey won $265, and Johnboy netted somewhere between $600-$700!! The exact number varies depending on who you ask, and how much they had to drink at that point. Then we went out to Count Basie Square where it was POPPIN'. John and Jordi drank with..... enthusiasm. I will let them disclose the rest of that matter at their discretion. You can see in the pics that it was crazy. Freeport, Bahamas has been lovely. A bit touristy, so I'm excited to get to some more rural/locals-only type ports... the natives in the Bahmas are SUPER FRIENDLY. The two ladies we had in tow were dressed to kill, and they didn't get ONE cat call all night. Nothing but 100% warm and friendly hospitality. Stands to reason that if tourism sustains your home town economy..... they got that figured out here for sure. Even the marijuahna/cocaine street entrepreneurs were tactful and polite. One tactful "no thank you" always sufficed. And for the record, it was always "no thank you". ;o)
Shenannigans? We had 'em. Here we go.....

Our new Canadian friends Ryan & Katisha (sp):

No way.... DUNCAN?! He must have spotted Stacey:

These girls were not part of any "shenannigans", but they were in party mode for sure:

Three drunk dudes on stage:

Fireworks at midnight!:

On stage.... go Jor-di, go Jor-di, go Jor-di! Kinda reminds of when I was 26:

Go John-boy, go John-boy, go John-boy:

Go Di-vas, go Di-vas, go Di-vas:

POPPIN':

Not to worry, folks.... that's a straight-up DIET COKE in my hand ;).....

Morale was very HIGH:

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM TEAM AUDAX!! WE LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!

IT'S ALL ABOUT GRATITUDE!!! XOXOXO

XANADU

2007-12-30T14:08:00.001-08:00

Xanadu Marina & Beach Resort, Freeport, Grand Bahama Island:
Sun and fun. Island lifestyle, friendly locals, and our first official boat guest - Stacey! Not many people here, empty marina... not sure why. The shower doesn't work, maybe that's why? We still like it here anyway. "Junkanoo" is a big New Years festival downtown that we will be attending for sure. I have a KILLER tan. Time is slooowing down. I'm happy and grateful. This some of the real meat & potatoes of why we made this trip....

Nice to see some locals who still dress up on Sunday. God bless 'em:

Food, drinks, music... all right here:

Team Audax (and special guest Stacey) hard at work:

Our lunch cook Duncan. Conch salad (awesome), catch of the day, and his own spicy mac&cheese with his sister's home made cinnamon raisin rolls. He was a big fan of Stacey:

West End, Grand Bahama Island

2007-12-28T18:09:00.000-08:00

We're here. Not the funnest Gulf Stream crossing... winds out of the East, and us heading NorthEast. Basically steaming all night with the breeze and 4ft seas on the nose. Not fun. However, we did decide to crack off the breeze and head North for West End instead of continuing due East for Freeport... this allowed for some really enjoyable sailing... beam reach, 7kts boat speed, sunny and hot. Arrived in West End Grand Bahama Island today around 4pm. Customs no prob, my passport gets its first stamp, move Audax to a nearby anchorage, dinner in the cockpit, and I'm hittin' the rack. I'm TIRED. It was a long night, very little sleep. More to follow.... but we're here. We made it safely. Morale is high, but we are sleepy.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

2007-12-27T15:13:00.000-08:00

TODAY, THURSDAY 12/27, IS MY LAST DAY OF CEL PHONE SERVICE.
I am on "vacation hold" for my time in the islands, which starts tomorrow. We are "jumping off" tonight! Next stop, Freeport Bahamas! Morale is HIGH.

I will make urgent calls via Skype when I need to, and otherwise, please email me at:
stevestjean@hotmail.com

If you NEED to speak with me, say so in an email and I will Skype call ya as soon as I can....

LATER!!

How I spent Christmas day....

2007-12-25T15:17:00.000-08:00

Cool Boat

2007-12-25T15:12:00.001-08:00

Christmas in Miami!

2007-12-25T14:47:00.000-08:00

I met a longtime Miami resident here in Fort Lauderdale, who offered to show me all around Miami, since Audax will not be making that trip. What fun we had! It's Christmas day now, and I have to try and remember all the fun stuff we did... hhmm... here we go.....

She took me to a Christmas Party at the Coral Reef Yacht Club where she is a member:

I KNEW there was reason why I brought my infamous lobster pants!

I bought a new longboard! (skateboard) This will be my transportation in the islands, since a bike takes up too much space on the boat. Skateboarding is FUN! I cruised around the beach today on it. Here's a blurry action shot of me testing it out....

I saw these kids skateboarding down the sidewalk and yelled out the car window at them "HEY.. you know where I could buy a used longboard? Will you sell me that one?" Turns out patrick works for www.onecoolworld.com a foundation that keeps kids off the street by teaching them fun stiff like skateboarding... COOL!! I'm so glad the money went to a GOOD CAUSE! Here's a pic of the deal going down....

We drove around... just checkin' stuff out....

We rode our bikes all around SOUTH BEACH. What a TRIP that place is!! Thank you Nancy (Steph's friend) for loaning me a bike that fits. Major culture shock. We got coffee at one the the hundreds of open-air cafes, and believe it or not, the main dude in the TV show "Miami Ink" (and his entourage) sat at the next table over! True story. It was so close that I didn't wanna take a picture. He didn't seem to be the most friendly chap....

The above picture was taken right after Steph took a major digger trying to ride through soft sand. What a trooper. Still smiling.

Christmas eve in Fort Lauderdale

2007-12-24T03:38:00.000-08:00

We've been enjoying lovely Fort Lauderdale for the past few days. I used to associate Fort Lauderdale with college spring break drunken beach parties. So did Fort Lauderdale. So they changed all that. Now it's more of a beautiful boats, beautiful houses and beautiful people kinda place. Diluted with throngs of Euro-blue-collar cruise ship passengers who swarm the beaches, bars and junk shops. I am now desensitized to Mega-Yachts, Feraris, Bentleys, Chanel, D&G and surgically enhanced breats on overly-tanned middle aged women. After three days here, they don't even get my attention anymore.... just part of the scenery when you walk around on Las Olas Blvd, which is where S/V Audax is at. Not to worry, we're quarantined into a transient anchorage in the normal-people-income cruiser section. A lot of Canadian cruisers for some reason. We are not taking the boat to Miami, as previously planned. We like the current arrangement too much here in Fort Lauderdale, Maimi is a bit intimidating from a cruising standpoint, and we can just as easily "jump off" from here. (set sail for the Bahamas). I am still going to "do" Miami, however: my new friend Stephanie is a local Floridian very familiar with the area, and she has offered to show me all around Miami. I have accepted her offer. Pics and stories to follow. Merry Christmas, y'all.

$$$$, $$$$ & $$$$.

2007-12-22T14:09:00.000-08:00

The ICW ride from Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale gave me a whole new perspective on how many rediculously wealthy people there are in southern Florida.

FLORIDA: Fort Pierce, Palm Beach....

2007-12-20T19:28:00.000-08:00

Fort Pierce, Palm Beach....

Left St.Augustine in some really breezy and choppy conditions... some pretty big waves heading out of the inlet. Motor sailed through the night all the way to Cape Canaveral. We had intended to stay in Cape Canaveral and maybe do the NASA gig, but as it turns out, there is really no cruiser ports / anchorages in that vicinity. So we went into the ICW instead, and made a pit stop in Cocoa for some supplies. After this stop, the ICW opened up wide, the sun came out, the breeze picked up out of the east, we spent the afternoon doing some fun sailing within the ICW! Fun sailing while listening to a few choice CD's was just what I needed to get my mind off the whole Rico bit. We anchored in Fort Pierce, and took a dingy ride into the town marina. Showers and wi-fi... we stuck around the Tiki Bar cuz it was jammin' at happy hour, and I met a few fun locals. Back to the boat for gourmet guacamole burgers. That brings us to today.... today was a FUN DAY OF SAILING. It was warm with a stiff breeze out of the South East, and we just sailed south about a mile off the beach... all the way to Palm Beach which is where we sit as I type this. We had some heavy conversation while sailing today; topics included ego vs spirituality, sobriety, relationships... deep life stuff. That was cool. We really do seem to be getting along well and getting to know each other a little better every day. It's amazing that three different dudes with different backgrounds and different mojos can coexist in a 38ft long fiberglass tube and not kill each other. Good communication and open-mindedness has kept things flowing smoothly so far.....

Thank you Mike Ternosky for the Mercedes-Benz tour of West Palm Beach. Playground of the rediculously wealthy.

Rico Tubbs

2007-12-19T13:18:00.001-08:00

Rico Tubbs was my "Big Buddy". He had to be "put to sleep" yesterday. "Put to sleep": the king of all euphemisms. He's not alseep. He's dead. I don't feel like typing up volumes of medical jargon this morning, so suffice to say that it was his time and it was the right thing to do. Proffessional cousnel concurs. Let us now mourn his death by celebrating his life, shall we? Here we go....

When the movers were packing up our apartment in Salt Lake City in September of 1998, Adrienne & I went to a neighbor across the hall to give away some perishable food items we would not be taking with us. This neighbor had a large orange cat named "Sebastian". Apparently, her purse dog did not care for Sebastian, and harassed Sebastian incessantly, which greatly diminished Sebatian's quality of life. She asked us if we would like to take Sebastian on our journey, and without too much though or discussion, we said "sure... what the hell". He's big and fat.. fat like "tubby"... Tubby.... like Rico Tubbs (Don Johnson's malado partner on Miami Vice). Sebastian became Rico Tubbs.... which quickly streamlined itself into "Rico".
Rico's first experience with his new family - Me, Adrienne and "Bootsy" our other Siamese cat (R.I.P.) - was being sedated and placed in the back of a pickup truck for a cross-country drive. Since then he has lived with us at Lise & Greg's house in Lewiston, our apartment in Yarmouth, the house we had built in Harpswell, and the current 33 Pleasant Street in Bath. Just over nine years of quality pet comraderie. For those of you who knew Rico, you know he was the atypical fat, lazy cat, but always quick to jump up on your lap and nudge you to pet him. He particularly enjoyed having his ears rubbed, which would induce loud purring, sometimes accompanied by slight drooling. We found ourselves often saying to house guests "... that's Rico, just push him off your lap if he's bothering you."

Rico loved BOXES. He loved to jump into any open box, guitar case or cooler.. whatever was available. Even if it didn't quite fit his girthy frame. I would occaisionally make him his own dedicated box with a folded up blanket in the bottom. He would use it for a week or so, then be done with it.

Rico loved SHOES. Any shoes left lying around, preferrably multiple pairs in a pile, would be laid on and slept on.

Rico loved the SUN. He was really good at finding sunny spots to lay in, and would often lay on his back in them, as if tanning at the beach.

Rico loved CHRISTMAS. Well, OK, he probably didn't know what Christmas was, but there were usually more open boxes lying around during Christmas, and he liked to hang out under the tree.

Rico would wait patiently outside the shower while someone was using it, so he could go in afterward and lick the water off the sides of the tub.

Here's a magic trick: If you can't find Rico anywhere in the house, open a can of tuna, close your eyes and count to ten. When you open your eyes, he will have magically appeared at your feet. Probably meowing.

Rico had mad hunting skills. I never actually watched him hunt, but I know he was slow, fat, and had no front claws, but somehow managed to bring home dead mice on occaision.

Rico got summer haircuts, to help reduce shedding-related house cleanings. I don't think these haircuts really did much for his self-esteem.

Perhaps some of you out there may be thinking to yourselves "jeez... it's just a friggin' cat. What's the big deal?". Well, here's an example: when Adrienne and I went through our separation and subsequent divorce, I lived alone... except for Rico. He was my friend every day, on my lap, on my bed, waiting outside the shower, even on days when I did not reciprocate his friendship. He was very special to me, and one of his many nicknames was "my big buddy". I will miss you, big buddy, and thank you for years of high-quality pet comradery.

Special shout-out to my good friend Diane who selflessly took Rico - medical woes and all - into her home during my trip. She loved him and provided him with the best possible medical care in my absence. She fed him his last meal of tuna and beef, and was with him during his last few minutes, so he went out feeling loved. I even got to say goodbye to him via cel phone. Diane says he heard my voice and nugded the phone. Right back at ya, big buddy. Tell Bootsy that Adrienne and I say hello.

"This Too Shall Pass"

2007-12-17T04:37:00.000-08:00

"This Too Shall Pass".... It's f*&%ing COLD again!! In the 30's this morning in St. Augustine Florida. Break out the thermals, hat and gloves again. See? Look at the hat:

They take Christmas SERIOUSLY here in St.Augustine:

Watching the Pats game.. or should I say the Jacksonville game... at Scarlett O'Hara's. Football? "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.":

Fueling up and eating Mac & Cheese simultaneously. Now THAT's a new spin on multi-tasking:

Hmmmm.. St.Augustine happenin's. Beautiful town! Old Spanish... stuff. Ponce De Leon. It was very warm, now is cold again. I got a haircut and shaved my beard off. Ate some great Ahi and Mahi Mahi. Two heavy things went down yesterday: We tore apart the fwd head on Audax, which was a messy, gross job. It was not functioning at all (the guts of the diaphragm pump had fallen apart) and was loaded up with poop and pee juices. GROSS. In a crazy mood, I volunteered to be on the frontline for disassembly. John went in the first time en-route and aborted mission. Too gross. It didn't take me long to.......

TO BE CONTINUED

I just got off the phone with Diane right now. Rico Tubbs has to be put down. I'm not in the mood to type anymore about details at the moment. I hope you understand. Thank you again, Diane, and Godspeed Rico Tubbs, a.k.a. "19 pounds of hairy love" a.k.a "my big buddy". You will ALWAYS be my big buddy. I love you, big buddy. Now excuse me while I go cry some more.

Savannah to St.Augustine

2007-12-15T10:11:00.001-08:00

As I sit typing this, I am in a coffee shop in St.Augustine FLORIDA. Florida is a mental benchmark for me: we made it. It's sunny, hot, and there are Christmas carols in the air. Literally... as I type this, I'm listening to Christmas carols. Seems odd while in shorts and flops with sweat beading on the brow. But that's why we're here! New and different experiences. One of my personal goals was to get somewhere warm.... and here we are. Here comes a random smattering of recent photos from Savanna from/to St.Augustine.....

Gourmet burgers in the cockpit en-route:

More swimming! As I slept.....

Boat cleaning day. I took the aft head and stateroom:

Check this out... look closely. This is where we tied up in Savannah - right in the epicenter of all the action. These are some local street performers... and what's that in the background? Could that be the Audax rig? I remember relaxing on Audax and hearing the guitar players' falsetto howls penetrating the night. His buddy with the beard sang harmony and tap danced. This was an unexpected little treat. Savannah has character galore. One drawback of being "on stage" as we were, was some locals are a little too friendly in their buildup to "....oh by the way can you spare some change for a cup of coffee?". All part of the local flavor.

Now THIS is a cruiser! I gotta talk to Hodgdon about grabbing some of this demographic market niche:

THE DOLDRUMS. This is how flat glass calm is was for two days / 150NM from GA to FL. Bo-ring! But it's better than a gale. It just got twilight-zone monotonous after a while. I hope our newly refreshed sails don't grow cobwebs on them!:

Nouveau Chapeau!:

New Christmas card photo? hhmm..:

Jordi and his brother Nat who came to visit and treated us to lunch THANKS!:

I'm navigating... watch out:

Cockpit workshop. Trying to fix the aft head electric pump before guests board.

Well, folks... Team Audax is currently ahead of schedule. We need to me in Miami by the 22nd for John to fly out on the 23rd. Gunkholing the East coast of Florida until then is just Cake. Wait... ARE we ahead of schedule? What day of the week is it? What's the date? Who cares.... I'm off to get myself a haircut here in historic downtown St.Augustine. This 'fro I've been rockin' has got to go. I'm gonna shave the beard as well. Too hot for that stuff. All good things. This is fun. Morale is high. Love you all.... peace out for now.

Savannah, Geowgia

2007-12-12T15:28:00.000-08:00

Quick update: Team Audax arrived in Savannah, Georgia today. Like 30 minutes ago, actually. No pics yet, but this city looks really cool, so there may be pics and stories soon enough... meeting up with Jordi's brother tomorrow. Stay tuned... like you have a choice. ;)

The Best Post Yet!!

2007-12-11T12:44:00.001-08:00

After my last post, John & Jordi's friend Georgia picked us up and took us grocery shopping, then to her house where her husband brian cooked us up brats & burgs while we WATCHED FOOTBALL. What a TREAT that was! Thank you Brian and Georgia!! Then we loaded up the dingy with some serious rations and had about 2 inches of freeboard left over. Luckily it was flat calm. Spent the night anchored in Charleston, then steamed along the ICW in the warm sun. Found a remote anchorage around sunset and had sunset cocktail hour in the cockpit. GOOD TIMES. The fish were jumpin', I was castin' (got skunked) the Allman Brothers were playing, the sun was setting, we were laughing, and we were telling stories about..... OK I'll stop there. We slept well and woke up to PEA SOUP fog. Steamed along anyway... navingating by GPS with no visuals until around noon when it finally burned off. Then it was sunny and warm again... I can get used to this! Steamed into Beaufort SC, anchored, had grilled cheeses in the cockpit in the sun. I broke a sweat. The inspiration hit me: without a word, I went below, changed into swim trunks, emerged from the aft hatch and.... SPLOOSH! Jumped in. Then John followed suit, and Jordi as well. The water was refreshingly cool like Popham is in July. Now I'm at the library as I type... gotta make it back to the marina by 5pm before the showers close.... LATER Y'ALL! P.S. Yes, I'm aware that I am in need of a haircut and shave. I'm waiting until Florida. So there.

Oriental NC to Charleston SC

2007-12-09T14:11:00.000-08:00

Loooong, slooooow semi-boring two days of steaming. A little bit of nice sailing, but mostly super calm with 5-10kts breeze on the nose. Of note: GREAT DOLPHIN SHOWS!! I'm not talkin' "hey I think I just saw a dolphin fin over there"... I'm talkin' about TEN OR SO DOLPHINS JUMPING OUT OF THE WATER AND FROLICKING ABOUT, JUST INCHES FROM THE BOAT. This was extremely cool for me. I've never seen that except at SeaWorld. This was au naturel, baby!! Don't believe me? Look at the pics! Also noteworthy: IT'S WARM HERE IN CHARLESTON!! Today was sunny and 80 degrees!! We steamed into Charleston at 6am, much needed sleep 'til noon, got a great lunch, cabbed it to downtown, and here I am at Charleston College Library bloggin' away. Looking around.... I'm OLD. Why didn't the girls look like this when I went to college?? Jordi, get to work... you're 26. You just make the age cutoff.
Here's a random smattering of pics from the NC to SC passage... enjoy:

Images from Oriental, NC

2007-12-09T14:01:00.001-08:00

Above: Hoisting the Christmas star. Apparently, Oriental NC has a big "Spirit of Christmas" weekend.... we missed it.

Below: John and I at "The Bean". Great little coffee shop!

This is our local sailmaker who worked wonders for us!:

John & I repacking the rudder stufing box:

Quickie

2007-12-07T07:53:00.000-08:00

The weather projections have changed. We have decided to shoot offshore for the next two days. Oriental NC to Charleston SC. 230NM. This should take about two days. This means we will be in a communication blackout for two days. Kinda like Apollo 13 when they went behind the moon, sans Tom Hanks. Don't trip out... we'll be back online when we hit Charleston, promise. Did I say this should take about two days? Two days. :)

Reminder: Don't forget to get in the habit of checking both blogs when you check this one...
http://www.caribbeanendeavour.com/

Later, kids!!

Lame Post

2007-12-06T18:33:00.000-08:00

Enjoying Oriental North Carolina. Had a good work to play ratio today. The sail loft says our dodger and sails will be ready tomorrow morning, so we're outta here. We were gonna pull an offshore overnighter to Charleston, SC, but since we'll be leaving late and the winds are not favorable, we're gonna just steam along the ICW until dark tomorrow... maybe to Morehead/Beaufort area NC.

Today's pics: See yesterdays pics. Same deal. I'm only writing this because we actually have wi-fi on the boat, so it's so damn convenient.

"That's OK son, you can do it OOOON the BOAT!"
~Judd "Bender" Nelson in The Breakfast Club

Actually... my choice of TWO networks right here in the salon of the mighty Audax! There's a coffee shop just a stone's throw from the boat... right across the street. But I would never actually throw a stone at it, cuz they have good coffee and free wi-fi.

Greetings from Oriental, North Carolina

2007-12-05T13:43:00.000-08:00

Here we are in Oriental, North Carolina. What a CUTE little marina town. Artsy and colorful. Friendly locals that talk funny. We really like it here. See the shrimp boats in the pics? We went out to lunch at a cute local cafe, and I ordered a shrimp quesadilla, which was the special. It was, in fact, special. The shrimp tasted very fresh. Big surprise. Nothing else to report, other than we are getting both sails and the dodger worked on at a local loft. We did some future chart plotting last night after dinner and here's our tentative tour dates:

AUDAX WORLD TOUR '07-'08:

12/23 - 12/26: Miami FL

12/28 - 1/4: Grand Bahama Island

2/14 - 2/21: St.John USVI

2/22 - 2/28: Tortola BVI

Scenes From the I.C.W.

2007-12-04T09:11:00.001-08:00

1. I apologize for the long hiatus between posts. Please note that it's not due to laziness or apathy, but rather a lack of wi-fi on the ICW.

2. The Intracoastal Waterway: a series of inland canals, rivers, and bays which meander North/South from NJ to Florida.... I am currently in Belhaven, NC public library as I type this. Everything I would describe in words about the ICW can be more simply conveyed with the following photos.... so here ya go. Enjoy. Remember that if you click on a pic, you can view it larger. Largerly. More big.

3. Major props to Jordi who took 90% of these pics with his pimp new camera.

Grocery Shopping in Norfolk

2007-12-04T09:02:00.000-08:00

Funny story: While in Norfolk VA, I was tasked with making a grocery run while John and Jordi went on a quest for a new alternator belt. I started walking in the general direction directed by someone inside the mall complex. I walked.... and walked. No store in sight. Just as I was going to abort mission, I saw a.... umm.... "underprivelaged" sort of fellow carrying grocery bags. Score! "Excuse me... where did you get those groceries?" The dirty, unkept, disheveled fellow directed me to his source. I walked on. As I walked, I noticed I was in "da projects" and I also noticed a very distinct and palpable lack of caucasian residents. Hmm. Peculiar. Trash littered the sidewalks, and many of the late model imported compact cars parked on the streets seemed suspended in time... dormant for years. We're not in Kansas anymore. COME ON, GROCERY STORE. Walk a little faster... it's getting dark. Getting looks from the locals..... yes, I'm white. There's the store!! Whew. Walk faster. Trash litters the parking lot. People are yelling Ebonics at each other throughout the parking lot. A policeman on foot patrols the parking lot. I enter the store. Another policeman patrols the inside of the store. Lovely. More looks..... yes, folks, I'm still white. I won't be in here long, I PROMISE. Quickly acquire items on list. Focus.... focus.... be courteous yet cautious. While shopping, I overheard an obviously local woman accosting the on-foot patrolman about how unsafe her neighborhood is. Her tone was as if he cared, and as if he had any sort of power to change it. I shopped on..... Checked out and called a cab. When I loaded my groceries into the cab, and got in, the cab driver told me that I was lucky she came to pick me up, because she makes it a point to never come to this neighborhood. She just happened to be close by, so she swung by on the call. She asked me "who sent you to THAT grocery store?!". I explained. As it turns out, there was a much nicer, and demographically compatible grocery store within two blocks of our marina. That information would have been great to have about an hour ago....... at least I bet I saved a few dollars. And if I needed to stock up on Malt Liquor, I went to the right store:

Steve St.Jean Trivia

2007-12-01T10:00:00.000-08:00

Exactly ten years ago TO THE DAY, I broke my neck!

Anyone remeber that one? Not fun. December 1, 1997.... BOOM. Ouch.

R.I.P. Evel Knievel

2007-12-01T09:53:00.001-08:00

Evel Knievel has passed away. Anyone who knows me well, knows that this is sad news for me.

EVEL KNIEVEL WAS, IS, AND WILL ALWAYS BE THE ORIGINAL, MOST FEARLESS AND BEST MOTORCYCLE STUNTMAN IN THE WORLD. PERIOD.

Godspeed, Evel. Thank you for the inspiration. Your fans will miss you. Real motorcycle enthusuasts out there know exactly what I am saying. Thank you.

Hooters.... AGAIN?!

2007-12-01T09:16:00.000-08:00

This pic is a shout out to Chris Bartlett. You happy, Bro?

So we take the tender to shore to go hit some wi-fi... what's the first thing we see? HOOTERS. There's the wi-fi..... again. OK. I'll go. I suppose it's not so bad when they are dead at 10:30am and the waitress-to-customer ratio is 8 to 1.

FOUR STATES + ONE NIGHT = HAULIN' ASS!!

2007-12-01T09:03:00.000-08:00

Offline Entry: It's Friday night and I'm sitting in Salon of S/V Audax as we are anchored off Hospital Point in Norfolk, Virginia, at the entrance (mile zero) of the ICW. (Intracoastal Waterway) This is a major milestone! No more waiting for "weather windows". Just drawbridges and locks instead... but no more big seas for a while.

So... what a leg this last one was! Departed Cape May NJ yesterday (Thursday) at around noonish. Steamed with the wind on the nose and 3-4ft seas until dusk or so. Then the winds clocked around and we sailed though the night. What a night it was. Breezy, decent seas, starry night, The Doors playing in the cockpit speakers... quite enjoyable. We did hit some gusts which caused us to reef the sails. When doing so, we headed up to luff the big genoa, which had the sheets just a flappin' and whippin' like crazy. Just as I shouted from the helm "we don't wanna do this too long, guys, those whipping sheets are gonna stave up the dodger", the whipping sheets did, in fact, stave up the dodger. She's all stove up. Two big holes. DOH. I'm glad it wasn't a human face. The chilly temps didn't exacty improve the dodgers elastic qualities, either. Add it to the "to do" list, I guess.

Then we started HAULING ASS. Reefed in sails, blowing 15-20kts across our beam, 4 ft following sea, and we had 'er surfin' up to 8.5 knots, which is great for a beamy ol' cruiser! All under the stars with Led Zeppelin playing in the cockpit. Good times. It's fun to drive at times like these. Four states in one night.... New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. BAM!
Then the winds died off at sunrise, so we fired up the engine. Something smells like burnt rubber. Slight smokiness. The alternator belt is too lose and its burning up. We tighten it. Gotta get a new one. Get two. We then steam into Chesapeake Bay. We see two submarines heading out. Here comes DDG 52! I immediately reckognize the Arliegh Burke class Destroyer approaching quicky astern. VHF handheld on ch16. Sure enough... "Sailing vessel in Thimble Channel, this is USNavy warship do you copy.... we would like to overtake you to port..." Like they had to ask. What if we said "NO"? Jordi hailed them back and we were nice enough to let them by. That was cool. This wasn't one of the BIW ones, however... DDG 52 was built at Ingalls in Mississippi. Steamed by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, through Norfolk and here we are. I cooked up dinner: broccoli, and spaghetti with sauce and sausages. It was really good. Morale is high. It's going to be nice to just motor along in flat calm waters for a while, taking in sights etc... not that sailing isn't fun... of course it is. In moderation. Everything in moderation.

John can't get "the schlong" to work. (big super amplified wi-fi antenna) That is a slight bummer. Aside from that, the dodger damage, and the tender outboard motor not passing raw water, everything is going pretty smoothly. I'm really tired right now.... loooong very active night of sailing last night. I have CSDD. I made that up. It stands for Cumulative Sleep Deprivation Disorder. This is Sailing Vessel Audax, over and out.

Cape May, NJ

2007-11-28T14:53:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-27T12:09:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-26T10:51:00.001-08:00

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!!

2007-11-24T11:00:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-24T10:48:00.000-08:00

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 !!!

2007-11-20T14:53:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-17T14:26:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-17T05:49:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-14T16:19:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-13T17:50:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-12T04:26:00.000-08:00

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!!

2007-11-08T04:13:00.000-08:00

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"!

2007-11-05T10:20:00.000-08:00

"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

2007-11-01T04:34:00.000-07:00

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

2007-11-01T04:15:00.001-07:00

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

2007-11-01T04:00:00.000-07:00

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.