Lamb’s Yacht Center
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Sept. 10 – Jacksonville, FL
Sept. 3 – Jacksonville, FL
Lamb’s Yacht Center
“Goin’ places that I’ve never been.
Seein’ things that I may never see again
And I can’t wait to get on the road again” – Willie Nelson
Ok, so all those lyrics may not be true…yet, but at least we are on the road again. Heading back to the boat in Jacksonville after a great summer with our family. We definitely aren’t goin’ places we’ve never been before, at least not right now. This is our 18th trip on I10 in the last three years. It’s a long (862 miles), straight, pretty boring shot from Houston to where I10 ends in Jacksonville. We’ve memorized every bump, turn and detail of the road…from the best places to stop for gas to which exists have the best places to eat and we have definitely learned what time of day to avoid driving through Houston and Baton Rouge.
We live two hours south of Houston which means we have to leave Port Lavaca around 4-4:30 in the morning if we want to miss the morning rush hour and still make it to Jacksonville at a decent hour, that’s pretty early…very early. But it’s what we’ve done in the past. This time we decided we’d leave after dinner and drive through the night, so we could get back to the boat earlier in the day. Neither of us like coming aboard in the dark. There are too many things that have to be done before we could go to bed and if there are any unexpected issues it can be a pain to deal with late in the day. So we packed the car, took care of last minute things at home, visited with our parents, took showers, had one last good Mexican dinner at a local café and left for Florida at 6:15PM. Driving at night seems to make the trip go by faster and there is definitely a lot less traffic to deal with. We arrived at the marina by 9:45AM…14 1/2 hours and we had the whole day to get things organized on the boat and get it cooled off before collapsing into bed early.
We really don’t know what tomorrow will bring…no set plans at the moment, but it does feel nice to be aboard. We miss our little grandwonders, but the walls are covered with their pictures and we visit with everyone by phone almost daily and exchange lots of pictures and videos.
Living on a Boat
I found an article on another blog and thought I would share it. I know we have friends that think they might like to buy a boat and cruise off to exotic ports or maybe just do what we’re doing and explore the coastlines of the United States. This article will let you know how life might be before you purchase that boat. If you’re already spending your life cruising around on a boat, you’ll have a laugh at how true some of these things are. The scenarios are more accurate if you plan to live on a sailboat and travel to far off destinations, rather than our life on The Pearl, but it gives you an idea of what to expect. We actually live in luxury compared to some sailboats, but living on a boat can be a challenge and everyday activities and comforts we take for granted on land become luxuries when you’re on a boat. The daily activities we do quickly at home can take all day on a boat. Life on a boat isn’t just glamorous locations and happy hours.
Thank you Mark Roope for letting me use your article. You can follow his blog and travels at Cygnus III.
Practical live aboard boat tests
Accommodation:
Move everything out of your living room. I know it is bigger than a boat but we have to break you in slowly. You can bring the fridge back provided you lay it down face up and put everything you will need first right at the bottom under everything else.
Sleeping:
You are allowed a small mattress provided it is no thicker or comfortable than a slice of burnt toast. Spray it liberally with water to simulate condensation. Fire elastic bands repeatedly at any exposed skin to simulate a mosquito attack. Do not go back to sleep until you find the offending elastic band. Men should put their prized golf clubs on view in the front yard; this will simulate your anchor. It will guarantee that you are awake all night keeping watch. Set the alarm for 3am to simulate another boat coming in and anchoring on top of you. To make it more realistic go outside into the street wearing only a head torch, wave your arms around and point. It won’t make any difference but it looks good. This can also be done naked to prevent too much conversation.
Water:
Water is your most precious commodity on a boat. If it comes to a choice between your wife or water, I am afraid she will have to go, especially if like most women she likes to wash. If she is prepared to clean herself in seawater or the condensation from the windows this may be acceptable. If for some strange reason she needs to wash her underwear rather than wear them for a month, then wait for rain.
Cooking:
All meals are to be cooked on a camping gas stove but turn it off half way through the meal to simulate running out of gas. Break out a tin of cold baked beans. You may eat the neighbor’s prized “Coy Carp” provided you can catch it.
Communications:
You are allowed a computer provided you use it on battery only and can pick up a dodgy Internet connection from the pub a mile down the road. Curse anyone who sends you a link to a “Youtube video” or an image that is bigger than a postage stamp. If you have mobile phones turn them off, because they aren’t going to work anyway and the cost will be astronomical.
Provisions:
Provisions are limited to what you can carry or drag back from a petrol station 2 miles away. This includes a cylinder of gas. All purchases have to be made by sign language to simulate your total inability to speak the local language. Let 20 people go in front of you to mimic those locals who will push in front of you or have just popped in for a chat. Check all produce for anything that can crawl, jump or eat you such as cockroaches and rats.
Toilets:
Every time you use the toilet throw at least two rolls of toilet paper down afterwards and push them in with a plunger. You might as well get used to dismantling a toilet now, as you will be doing it in the future…a lot.
Maintenance:
Take the car engine out and put it in the smallest cupboard it the house. It has to only just fit and the oil filter and water pump has to be impossible to get at. Change both at regular intervals and learn to curse loudly. Have a first aid kit handy.
Socializing:
The live aboard has got to learn how to socialize. Go to a complete stranger’s house and invite them back to your house for drinks. You will either become instant lifelong friends or they will bore you to death and drink your year’s supply of alcohol. In either case once they have gone you’ll never see them again.
Power:
Use one light at once and only when absolutely necessary. Pretend your room thermostat is your battery monitor and casually glance at it every 10 minutes. Occasionally get the neighbor to run his mower outside your window for a couple of hours to simulate a generator. At these times you can use two lights but still continually check the thermostat.
Amusement:
Take deck chairs and a bottle of wine down to the local car park. Watch all the cars parking and comment how differently you would have done it. Tut or snigger when they cannot park first time. If there is only one vehicle in the car park, watch out for the French. You can tell them as they will come in at 40mph not knowing where the handbrake is and get out before the vehicle has stopped. They will also park within 2mm of the other car.
June 10 – Cruise Interruptions
“Grandchildren are the dots that connect the lines from generation to generation.” —Lois Wyse
We found out we were having another grandwonder on our way home from the boat last fall and knew we didn’t want to make any cruising plans for this summer. We wanted to have time to play with our grand daughter Mayven, and have time to help take care of the new baby. Some things are just more important than having fun on a boat…there aren’t too many things, but grandwonders certainly are! So this is going to be a transitional year for us…moving from the summer cruising we’ve been doing the past three years to winter cruising. For now our plan is to spend next January and February in Marathon (The Keys) and then go to Abaco in the spring…after that who knows.
We planned to be home by the time our new little grandwonder made his arrival, so we could be at the hospital for the joyful occasion. But this new little person had of his own plan. We got the phone call last Wednesday morning at 3AM that Brytanie was in labor and he was making his appearance almost two weeks early. I’m sure it won’t be the last time he has plans of his own.
We had finished all the work we wanted to get done on the boat while we were waiting for his arrival, but we hadn’t quite taken the time to get home. I had a feeling we might need to leave a little earlier, so I packed all our clothes and took inventory of what we were leaving on Tuesday. After our son, Kyle, called with the good news, we loaded the car and shut down the boat in record time and were on our way home by 5 AM. It’s a 16 hour drive from Jacksonville, FL to Temple, TX and although we wanted to be there for the birth I hoped the baby would came quickly…and he did, very quickly. We weren’t even out of Florida when we heard he’d arrived. Thanks to modern technology we got to keep up with the progress and had a picture of our new grandson minutes after his birth. Not quite as good as being there, but still very exciting.
Graham Thomas Marshall arrived at 8:06AM (central time) weighing 7lbs. 8oz. and 20.5” long. Neither Brytanie’s parents coming from California or us from Florida could make it in time for Graham’s birth, but Stan’s sister got there just moments after he arrived and she made a great stand-in Mom and Grandma until all of us got there. He joins a large family on both sides and will definitely be surrounded by a lot of love the rest of his life.
We plan to return to the boat next fall or even a short trip later this summer, but for now we are going to enjoy being grandparents to two of the most amazing little people in the world. We have a lot of hugging and kissing to catch up on.
Graham Thomas Marshall
June 3 – Small Vessel Reporting System
Lamb’s Yacht Center
Our plan is to go to the Bahamas next spring, so we’ve been doing a lot of research…reading everything we can online, in books and magazines plus talking to anyone we meet that has been there on their boat. One thing we knew we wanted to take care of this year was registering for the SVRS (Small Vessel Reporting System). This program is offered by the U.S. Customs & Border Protection agency to make immigration clearance for low risk recreational boaters easier on their arrival from a foreign port.
It’s a painless process…if you know a few things that aren’t explained well on the CBP (Customs & Border Protection) website. We tried several time to register online when we were in Charleston, but ran into the same problem each time. Their site would lock up when we tried to enter the information on our vessel. We tried calling the number on the website for information and even sent an email, but we got no response. Later we talked to a CBP officer on the dock, he told us we could register without the vessel and add it later. That seems weird…isn’t this called Small Vessel Reporting System? He also told us everyone on board needs to register…no where on their website does it tell you that! Maybe it should be called the Passenger Reporting System. So the secret is to register each person and schedule a time for an interview and bring your vessel information with you.
The SVRS a free program. If you have a SVRS number all you have to do is call the CBP when you arrive back in an U.S. port. They will ask you a few questions and clear you, your passengers and vessel by phone. If you DON’T have a SVRS number you have to report in person to the nearest CBP office within 24 hours of your arrival. Our interview wasn’t much of an interview…we had heard they would take our pictures and fingerprint us, but that didn’t happen. All they did was take our boat information and issue each of us a SVRS number. The process was simple and painless.
We wanted to get registered in this program while we had our car, because the interviews are only done at certain CBP locations. Those locations can be hard to get to when you arrive on a boat. We found out that one of the easiest places to register if you don’t have a car would be Fernandina Beach, they office is close to the marina.
Vessels also need to have a DTOPS (Decal/Transponder Online Procurement System) decal. It’s a yearly decal (cost $27.50) that is required by the CBP for vessels 30 ft. or more in length that travel in and out of US waters. The decal will be displayed on our boat and lessen our chances of being detained or boarded for inspection by CBP. We’ll go online this fall and apply for the 2015 DTOPS decal, because it can take 4-6 weeks to arrive and we want everything done before we leave for the Keys after Christmas.
June 2 – Jacksonville, FL
Lamb’s Yacht Center
“Sounds of the wind or sounds of the sea; Make me happy just to be.”—June Polis
This past week Stan stayed busy compounding and waxing the upper portion of the boat. It’s been at least two years since he’s had time to do the job completely at one time. Once that job was done the boat had to be washed and scrubbed to remove all the dust that compounding creates. While he washed the boat I cleaned the inside of the boat…vacuumed, dusted and even cleaned cabinets. The Pearl is clean inside and out. Stan has a few little projects to finish this week and then we will be heading home to play with our grand daughter and welcoming the new addition to our family. Our cruising adventure will continue later in the year.
We took a little time to play this past week…well, maybe not really playing all that much, but at least we did go out to eat a few times. We were told the Japanese restaurant, Okinawa, was very good, so we gave it a try. It was our first experience at a Japanese grill house and we truly enjoyed the food and the show. I’m sure we’ll go back before we leave the area. Saturday we went to the farmers market on Riverside Avenue and enjoyed the free music and lunch over looking the river. Saturday afternoon we drove down to St. Augustine to check out the Downtown Bazar the have the last Saturday of the month. The bazar didn’t turn out to be very impressive, but we had fun wandering around this great little city, doing a little shopping, looking at boats and enjoying a snack at Harry’s. St. Augustine was one of our favorite places on our way up the coast in 2011 and we look forward to stopping here when we move the boat south later in the year.
A few pictures of the completed cap rail
Stan hard at work waxing the boat…can you see that shine?
Our chef at Okinawa…he was very entertaining
Historic St. George Street in St. Augustine
One artist’s display at the Downtown Bazar
The El Galeon and the Noa docked in St. Augustine
May 27 – Memorial Day Weekend
Lamb’s Yacht Center
There were all kinds of festival going on in the Jacksonville this weekend…celebrating the beginning of summer and honoring our veterans. Saturday we drove down to Paltaka to check out the Blue Crab Festival. We spent several days in Palatka when we went up the St. John’s River and again on our way north three weeks ago. They have a nice waterfront park and historic downtown area. Palatka is a small town, but this festival brings out thousands of people. There were arts and craft booths, educational booths, carnival rides and games, entertainment and tons of seafood. It was the warmest day of the weekend, but we still enjoyed the festival and having lunch in the shade by the river.
On Sunday we went downtown to the Jacksonville Jazz Festival. It started on Friday night and consisted of three stages with entertainment. We found a shady spot and enjoyed the music for a couple of hours. It was the last day of the festival and the crowd seemed a little small, but I’m sure it was packed Friday and Saturday night.
Our last weekend festival was the best, it was the Memorial Day RiverFest in Green Cove Springs. We also stopped at this beautiful little town while we were exploring the St. John’s River. It’s a quaint community with an amazing riverfront park with a gigantic play ground, a spring feed pool, huge shade trees and lots of green grassy spots to spread out and have a picnic. It looked like we had stepped back in time when we arrived at this festival…red, white and blue banners flying everywhere a huge American flag greeting people to the park, kids running around playing chase, swimming and splashing in the spring and adults listening to the music and visiting with each other. It looked like a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting. There were lots of booths selling crafts, food and sweets, plus tons of things for the kids to do, and continuous entertainment under the gazebo. An all American Memorial Day celebration. We found a great spot along the spring run to set up our chairs and relax. From there we could hear the music and people watch. We were having a wonderful afternoon until a thunderstorm rolled in with tornado warnings and sent everyone home. It didn’t look like it was going to last long, but we decided to come home. I hope they were able to enjoy the fireworks that were planned later in the evening.
We had a great weekend and it was nice to have a break from boat projects. The thing that amazed us the most about these festivals was the fact they were all free. No charge to come out and enjoy the day with your family and friends.
Scenes from the Blue Crab Festival
Enjoying the Jazz Festival
Scenes from the Memorial Day RiverFest
The views from our chairs by the spring
One activity they had was the rubber duck race in the spring run. We bought four duck, but ours didn’t win!
May 20 – An Afternoon on the Water
Lamb’s Yacht Center
“Life is simple…just add water”
We put the first coat of Cetol gloss on the cap rail, flybridge and port door this morning. It’s getting a little tedious going around and around; coat after coat, so this afternoon we decided to take the dinghy up the Ortega River. It’s not a long river…or at least the navigable portion, but it is beautiful. The area around the marina looks more like a small lake and is lined with beautiful, large expensive homes. All with beautiful yards and boat houses. A couple of miles from the marina the river begins to narrow and it looked like we were back on one of the small creeks off the St. John’s River…lush, green and remote. I’m sure just beyond the wooded shore there was civilization, but it was very relaxing and it felt great to be on the water.
We love having the boat under cover at the marina, but we haven’t seen much sign of wildlife since we arrived. We did watch an eagle do a little fishing the other night, but other than that and a few cormorants fishing behind the boat, it’s been a little dull around here, but it wasn’t dull today. Once we got into the narrower part of the river we spotted an eagle and a small alligator, but the real fun was spotting a manatee. At first we thought it was a large alligator, but once we got a better look we noticed it was a manatee. We turned the motor off and just drifted for awhile. The curious creature decided to come investigate us and stayed for a nice long visit. It was so much fun seeing him up close. What a great way to spend the afternoon.
I don’t drive the dinghy very often…so Stan gave me a driving lesson.
The narrower part of Ortega River
Our little visitor. I think he was as excited to see us as we were to see him.
Not a bad little spot to relax in while Stan fished
Stan did a little fishing, but no luck…we had chicken for dinner!
May 16 – Jacksonville, FL
Lamb’s Yacht Center
We are at Lamb’s Yacht Center on the Ortega River in Jacksonville. We chose this marina, because it has covered slips…it’s not like being in the sheds at Atlantic Yacht Basin in Great Bridge. These slips are covered by a high concrete roof, which lets in plenty of light and breeze but keeps out the heat of the sun and the rain. It’s the perfect place to do work on a boat, especially teak work….and that is what we’ve been working on the last week and a half. Our first project was getting a maintenance coat of Cetol Gloss on the teak Stan refinished last spring. That meant removing the stainless rub rail trim, taping, sanding, cleaning and then finally applying a coat of gloss. The next project was to redo all the teak that wasn’t done last year. That meant all the old layers of Cetol needed to be removed from the cap rail and port side door. Stan does that by using a heat gun and a wonderful little scrapper he bought last year, both items make the job a lot easier, but still time consuming and hard on the knees. After all the old layers were removed and the decks swept, Stan cleaned the teak with Star Brite Teak Cleaner to remove the mildew and then wiped on Star Brite Teak Brightener. These products really restored the look of our teak and were easy to use. Before we could begin applying Cetol we had to tape, sand and remove dust with Xylene. Today we applied the first of three coats of Cetol, which will be followed by three coats of Cetol Gloss. Five more days and we will be looking great!
We’ve been very busy working on the boat, but we have taken a little time to do fun things too. We went to the beach and farmers market last week and this week we went to dinner with friends. They belong to a Captain’s Club that meets twice a month for dinner. We had a great visit with Barbara and David and enjoyed a nice fish fry and program. The program was presented by a treasure hunter…Amelia Research & Recovery, LLC. He explained the techniques they use and showed us some of the treasures they have recovered. We actually saw their ship working near Fernandina Beach when we came through there last month.
The teak ready for it’s maintenance coat of gloss
Stan removing the old layers of cetol
The next few pictures show the same spot of the cap rail. This picture shows why it needed a little work.
This is the same spot after the layers of cetol were removed
This is how it looked after the Star Brite treatment
And the same spot with its first coat of Cetol
Another spot on the cap rail that was looking very bad.
May 11 – Jacksonville, FL
Lamb’s Yachting Center
We had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend. We’ve been working hard all week on redoing some of the teak on the boat, but we took the day off on Saturday. We went to the Riverside Art Market, a large farmers market and art show held under the Fuller Warren Bridge at the end of the Northbank River Walk. The river walk is a two-mile-long pedestrian/cycling path that connects the north end of the Riverside Avondale Historic District with Downtown. The market was one of the best farmers markets we’ve been to, just about anything you’d want, plus entertainment and lots of food choices for lunch…a good place to spend the day. After lunch we walked along the river to downtown…it was a nice break from all the work we’ve been doing.
The kids gave me a gift certificate to Orsay, a French bistro, in Avondale for Mother’s Day. Being away from family is very hard on days like today, but our kids always think of something to make it special. Stan continued his work on the teak today and I even did a little work, but the highlight of our day was the wonderful dinner we had at Orsay. The food was amazing; we started off with a Thai rock shrimp appetizer followed by scallops for me and trout for Stan and Black Forest cake for dessert. We had a magnificent meal…thanks to our amazing kids.
Plenty of shade and cool breeze off the river makes this a great place for a farmers market.
Looking back at the market from the riverwalk
A view of downtown Jacksonville from the riverwalk
Part of the riverwalk
Railroad bridge close to downtown…we’ve waited on this bridge when we came into Ortega last March.
A park under the Acosta Bridge
Thai Rock Shrimp
Sea Scallops
Carolina Trout
Dessert
