It is with regret that I must rename the boat. As Rosa has left me and a divorce is underway, it no longer makes sense for the vessel to be named after her lovely island. In keeping with my previous trend, started with my beloved Battleship Nadesico, I will rename Boracay Star after a television show that has been influential in my mind. I therefore have decided to rename her Tardis, after the Doctor Who franchise. It is also appropriate as I have recently graduated from University of Florida as a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering. I will now be able to introduce myself as The Doctor, and this is my Tardis. I have started a new blog, http://svtardis.blogspot.com/ which will hopefully allow me to chronicle my latest adventures.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
I have been reading sailing books of freedom that have been inspiring me. I finished Joshua Slocum's "Sailing Alone Around the World" first, a book I downloaded free to the tablet. What an inspiration, that he went so far without much by modern standards. He was also a very reasonable man. I concurrent read Bernard Motisseur's "The Long Way," and I think he's a madman but quite entertaining. His motivation for sailing was to escape the rat race and discover simplicity on a boat. Both these books created in me a great longing to feel the way they feel
But I digress, as this is supposed to be a sailing blog of our adventures. We both hadn't been sailing in a while, and the weather this weekend was perfect, and surprising in late November. The mild east winds meant we sailed out of the slip Friday morning. The onlookers on the dock watch expectantly for me to impact another boat. Rosa was down below busy and didn't even notice that I had pushed us out of the slip, raised main and stays'l, and was sailing away. In fact, we got as far as Boggy 1 before she even asked why I the engine wasn't running. She thought we were in the slip the whole time!
I tacked out of the bayou, which took 45 minutes due to the indecisive and swirling winds. As we reached Boggy 1 I went down below for something, and as I came on deck a FWP patrol boat had sped to within a boatlength from me. I was scared, naturally, because it's not often the cops ruch up on me as if I was capable of getting away from them. All they wanted to see was that my registration was in order, then they sped away. Little did they know that my taxes are light, as my 30 year old vessel is a classic and gets me the low registration fees of 18$/2 years. The dinghy is also a classic, but it is not based on tonnage or length so it pays the same.
Upon rounding Boggy 1 we were now heading downwind, and the 2 headsails were just not cutting it. I doused both and raised the drifter, my favorite sail. We were heading almost dead downwind with winds about 7-10 kts. This moved us at a steady 4 knots. We had planned to sail to Pensacola, but at these speeds it just wasn't in the cards. Instead we sailed on to Spectre Island, and we still didn't get there until 3pm, managing the trip without ever starting the engine, wonderful, just a little like the 2 great sailors I was reading about.
We relaxed
But I digress, as this is supposed to be a sailing blog of our adventures. We both hadn't been sailing in a while, and the weather this weekend was perfect, and surprising in late November. The mild east winds meant we sailed out of the slip Friday morning. The onlookers on the dock watch expectantly for me to impact another boat. Rosa was down below busy and didn't even notice that I had pushed us out of the slip, raised main and stays'l, and was sailing away. In fact, we got as far as Boggy 1 before she even asked why I the engine wasn't running. She thought we were in the slip the whole time!
I tacked out of the bayou, which took 45 minutes due to the indecisive and swirling winds. As we reached Boggy 1 I went down below for something, and as I came on deck a FWP patrol boat had sped to within a boatlength from me. I was scared, naturally, because it's not often the cops ruch up on me as if I was capable of getting away from them. All they wanted to see was that my registration was in order, then they sped away. Little did they know that my taxes are light, as my 30 year old vessel is a classic and gets me the low registration fees of 18$/2 years. The dinghy is also a classic, but it is not based on tonnage or length so it pays the same.
Upon rounding Boggy 1 we were now heading downwind, and the 2 headsails were just not cutting it. I doused both and raised the drifter, my favorite sail. We were heading almost dead downwind with winds about 7-10 kts. This moved us at a steady 4 knots. We had planned to sail to Pensacola, but at these speeds it just wasn't in the cards. Instead we sailed on to Spectre Island, and we still didn't get there until 3pm, managing the trip without ever starting the engine, wonderful, just a little like the 2 great sailors I was reading about.
We relaxed
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