Making a big mental shift
Photo of TALESPINNER taken by friends on MIKAYA as they sailed past me en route from Powell Cay to Great Sale Cay
by Christine Kling
After two and a half days of motoring up the ICW, I arrived here at Harbortown Marina in Merritt Island, my new home for the hurricane season. Folks who live up north think of the usual four seasons, but those of us who live in tropical climes see the year as divided between two seasons — hurricane season and not-hurricane season.
During the not-h season we get to travel and sail and sometimes, in the middle there, we actually get to don a sweater or two. When you live out on the hook, the cockpit and all the deck becomes part of your living space and a 33-foot boat doesn’t seem too terribly small.
But during the hurricane season, we find ourselves a hidey-hole usually at a dock somewhere where we can plug in and start to run air conditioning. During this season we hide down below inside our boats away from the heat and the mosquitos and the no-see-ums. Occasionally we come out blinking at the light like half-blind burrowing creatures peeking out of our holes. When I live closed up inside my roughly 10×20 foot space, it starts to feel very small indeed. As I work, I often get up from the computer to stretch and I have about 10 feet of floor space to do it in.
Another thing I do when I make this shift from not-h to h season, is I shift all the electronics inside my boat from working off their 12V cigarette lighter plugs to the 110 outlets. Normally my TV (used to watch DVDs on the hook) runs on 12V as does my router, my wifi booster antenna, my navigation computer and my writing computer. The problem is that I only have 2 inside plugs so in order to run one thing, I have to unplug something else, even though I do use splitters. At the dock, I can run everything at once on 110V if I want. Now that’s a luxury. I don’t have to shut off the Internet to watch a DVD.
At the dock, the shore power cord and the hose come out of the seat locker and the deck-stored jerry jugs for diesel can go in. As the boat is repurposed from a traveling boat to a dockside home, different gear shifts places and comes into use. I’ve only been here a few days and I’m trying to focus on my writing so the long list of things to do to make this shift remains half-completed. I’ll need to clean and flush the outboard, scrub and dry out the dinghy so I can roll it up and bag it, take down my headsail and bag it, etc
And then there is the long to-do list that resulted from stuff that broke while I was sailing over in the Bahamas for almost 4 months. Fortunately, that list isn’t too long, but it includes a leaking raw water pump on the engine and a failed autopilot just for starters.
But, as I look around my boat and I think about my future plans, I realize that I am interested in sailing farther than the Bahamas next time. Much as I love those islands, I would like to go further south in the Caribbean and it is my dream to sail the Mediterranean. This little boat would require so much more expensive equipment to go for those long distances and it’s hull speed is only 5.5 to 6 knots. An extra knot or two makes a big difference on passages of several days. I’m tired of watching my big boat friends sail past me as though my boat is dragging a sea anchor.
In my sailing career, I have sailed long distances only on bigger boats. I did a 1000 mile delivery up the Baja Coast on a 50-foot Baltic Trader, I sailed the South Pacific on an Islander 44, and I sailed from California to the Caribbean and Venezuela to Florida on the 55-footer that my ex-husband and I built years ago. I’ve sailed with friends and done deliveries on a Ron Holland 43, a Lagoon 40 and a Cherubini 44. Sure, there are plenty of folks who sail the world on boats the size of mine, but I now have the familiar sailor’s disease: big boat envy.
So, in my seasonal shift I am also making a bigger mental shift. I am going to prepare Talespinner to go on the market. Yup, you got that right. I’m moving on up. I’ve decided I’d like to get a boat in the 38-40 foot range. Of course, it’s not going to happen over night. But I hope to have the boat ready to put her up for sale by the fall and the end of hurricane season.
Know anybody who wants to buy a 1989 Caliber 33?
Fair winds!
Christine
Want more sea stories? My nautical novels are available here and Cross Current, the second in the Seychelle Sullivan series is only 99¢ through Monday, 7/22/13.
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