March 10, 2010 - Boot Key Harbor

Hi guys,
Here is our latest mass email which summarizes in a little more detail our journey since Everglades City.
There are about 20 new photos in the Current Photo Album.
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Dear friends and family,

Unless you’ve been following the blog (http://ginnyandsteve.blogspot.com), you last heard from us in Everglades City, Florida on January 12. We had just survived the big freeze that killed so many fish and reptiles. In Everglades City we bought all the groceries we could carry then sailed south through Everglades National Park.

We were in or near the open Gulf of Mexico most of the time, but we also traveled some of the tidal passages between islands. Each day we reached a new key and tied up there. Sometimes there was solid land to walk on, sometimes not. Sometimes we saw other people, sometimes not. One day the weather and water were warm so Steve relieved some curiosity by intentionally tipping Thurston over in a calm creek. Once past about 60 degrees she capsized to the point where the masts hit the bottom. He swam underneath and pulled the masts out. She rolled over a little more but the buoyancy of the cabin caused her to float extremely high and cocked to one side. Steve stood on her upturned belly, tied a rope to the high side, and leaned back toward the low side. She righted! It’s good to know we can rescue ourselves from a capsize.

As we approached Cape Sable, where the land bends to an east-west direction, the winds became contrary, so it took us four days to round this major headland. Then we sailed east through Florida Bay, which is extremely shallow and dotted with small islands. We ran aground several times but within 24 hours we were in the Upper Florida Keys.



We landed at the town of Islamorada on Plantation Key. We anchored in front of a city park for three days. The authorities said we were illegal there so we moved to Upper Matecombe Key, which is where Steve landed at the end of his famous 1990-1993 voyage. We anchored in a bay on the Gulf side where we could wade to a public street end. We took the bus to various stores as necessary to further improve the boat. For example, we upgraded our cushions, reinforced a leaky mast step, and installed a stern light. The local police didn’t like us there either, though, so we moved to a canal hidden in an abandoned forest on the Ocean side of Windlay Key. No one noticed us while we reconfigured the footrests that Steve uses when he rows. (The new footrests are integral with an open stowage bin on the forward side of the lazarette.) Whenever we emerged from the woods onto the public road we were careful to not be seen, so the cops wouldn’t run us off again. It’s unclear whether we’re actually breaking any law; according to one interpretation even a small boat is required to have a sewage holding tank if lived in full-time. It is abundantly clear, though, that the Islamorada police don’t like hobos!

After three weeks in Islamorada we sailed, over the course of three days, to Marathon, the next town down the chain of islands. In the center of Marathon lies Boot Key Harbor, where hundreds of boats lie at mooring buoys, at docks, and at anchor. Many of these boats are lived in fulltime. The liveaboards are a complete community, with a daily 9:00 am radio discussion on VHF. We couldn’t find anywhere to anchor where we could wade ashore, so we anchored among mangrove at the inner end of the harbor. Then someone gave us a free inflatable dinghy! Once we had replaced the missing oars and oarlocks we were able to easily get ashore. Now it’s hard to see how we got by without a dinghy! Some boaters stay here for a day or two, others have been here for years. We’ve made friends from New Brunswick, Ohio, and Ontario, all of whom spend some portion of their time living aboard sailboats.




Marathon is even better situated than Islamorada for getting boat work done. A West Marine, a Home Depot, a library, and food stores are all within walking distance. Here we have added shelves, spice racks, and a rain tarp. We’ve also added secure closures to our water tank caps because they were coming loose and spilling our drinking water. In fact, we have so successfully worked out Thurston’s bugs that we no longer deem it necessary to return to Larry’s house in Georgia before proceeding toward the Caribbean, which remains our destination.



You could say that our shakedown cruise is now done and we are poised nearly as far south as you can go in the U.S. The weather is finally warm enough to wear T-shirts, but the water is far too cold to swim. Must . . . go . . .further . . . south! But Cuba blocks a direct southerly route. Should we go east around it or west? Stay tuned!




We hope you are all doing well and that newness spices up your lives with sufficient frequency.

January 29, 2010

Hi Guys,
We made it to the Keys after an eventful 10 days or so of sailing through the Everglades. To those of you with a map, We went from Pavillion Key to Graveyard Creek, to the Little Snake River in Ponce de Leon and holed up a few days in Little Sable Creek. It was there we discovered a gallon and a half of salt water in our bilge (yikes!) and had to take the boat entirely apart to find the source. The main problem we found was a leaky mast step, we have since sealed that up to the best of our ability. Having the boat apart was a great opportunity to do some capsize tests.



We found she floats very high in the bow due to the cabin. Steve had an easy time flipping her when we had the masts out, but it was a little harder with the masts. Though they float now when apart, they can't keep from being pushed all the way down with the weight of the boat behind them. Important things to learn!



Next we spent a couple days in Lake Ingraham (there are tons of tiny channels we crashed ourselves into so as to get out of the strong winds). When we got sick of hiding from the wind we went out only to be greeted by a front as we reached the point of no return. The horizon to the North darkened until it was black and the sea was a sickly yellow green from the last bits of sun still coming from the South. We saw bolts of lightening in the distance and Ginny got pretty nervous. When the front hit the wind started coming from behind us, propelling us through the waves which had not yet caught up with the change in wind. The sky was dark all around and the thick raindrops plopped into the waves fast and constant. We became unable to see land and Ginny bailed like crazy just so as to have something to do to avoid becoming too freaked out.



It didn't last too long though and the resulting change in wind allowed us to speed to Flamingo where we we rewarded with an excellent anchorage right on the Coastal Prairie trail that leads between Flamingo and Clubhouse beach.



After a couple days there we sailed across Florida Bay with the intent of landing near to where Steve landed on his arrival back in the US after his three year voyage. To do this we had to defy the advice of wiser people and cut right through the middle of the bay, navigating tons of shoals and hard to find channels with the aid of a 25 year old chart. No regrets. It was beautiful! The water became clear and Steve even saw a sea turtle.



So here we are in Key Largo today with our boat anchored by a park in Islamorada. We are reprovisioning and planning on spending a week re-fixing all the things we already fixed that came apart due to faulty epoxy! Always with the boat work. Maybe we'll even find some time to swim!

There are about 35 more pictures in our "Current Photo Album"

January 12, 2010

It has been about a month since you last heard from us, and an eventful month at that! We left Atlanta on December 10 and drove to Niceville, Florida to visit Ginny's friend Stephen. He hates Florida, but at least he has a nice girlfriend there, in our opinion. His ultimate goal is to make it back to Hawaii and we wish him luck, and not just because we want to visit him there! During a cold storm we went for a long night walk on the Gulf beach. The sand was blinding white and crunchy the way cold snow is crunchy, so Steve kept subconciously thinking we were walking in snow!



We stopped in Panama City to show Thurston to her previous owner, and in Largo to see our friend Ron Hodinott. Then we sped southeast to Miami to meet with Bremerton friends Danny Stroberger and Betty Boop, who were on their way back from Haiti. We spent an amazing evening together at a Haitian "jazz club" jamming with their musical friends. Danny and Steve took a swim in the Atlantic before Danny and Betty had to catch their flight home.

Driving west back through the Everglades we saw many lazy gators enjoying the warm sun. But rainstorms began upon reaching the Gulf coast, keeping us holed up in the truck a couple days.



Now the good stuff. On December 19th we left our dear truck and trailer on the property of an acquaintance on Pine Island, near Fort Meyers. We launched our newly finished boat in shallow Pine Island Sound, sped on a beam reach across to Captiva Island, and spent our first night in a mangrove lagoon. Only fifty feet of mud separated us from a road in the middle of a swanky resort! With muck-covered legs and our hair full of sticks we must have looked a sight emerging from that primordial thicket! But no one seemed to notice us.



From that night on there has been no question whether the boating life suits us. It definitely does! We typically row or sail about fifteen miles (the days are so short this time of year) then anchor parallel to a sheltered beach. We place one anchor forward, one astern, and tie a line to something on the beach. To step ashore we just pull on this third line. Around Christmas time we spent four days at ritzy, condo-infested Marco Island due to high winds and the need for some minor boat refitting. Then we proceeded into the Ten Thousand Islands, which are the saltwater southwest edge of the Everglades.



For nearly two weeks we camped on uninhabited Panther Key. It has some beach around its edges but is mostly mangrove in the middle. We arrived several days early for a gathering of small sailboat enthusiasts organized by Ron Hodinott. We anchored in a tiny lagoon that drains out at low tide, leaving us aground. It was a good place to make further boat improvements, such as a rope-steering system so Ginny can steer while Steve rows. We set up the tent on the beach and had a campfire going when Ron and his friends got there. Unfortunately, their arrival coincided with a record low temperature and high winds. The water in the cockpit froze one night! The other boaters left; we stayed on, merely surviving. We scavenged old clothes and pillows from an abandoned campsite and wore everything we had. For two days we barely left the tent. We weren't prepared for "Arctic in the Everglades!" Thank you Jenna for the cashmere sweaters you gave Ginny!



Yesterday it warmed up a little so we sailed here to Everglades City, our last place for provisions before the Keys. We will skirt the Everglades National Park then probably sail to Marathon Key. This may take a week or so. We don't expect to see many people.

We hope you are all enjoying your central heating! We'll try to update the blog again in a week or two. There are about 50 new photos in our "current photo album" which is linked on the left.

December 9, 2009

Friends and family,

You last heard from us on October 6 when we had just returned to our friend Larry’s house near Atlanta. The household now includes Larry (nurse, works nights), Karen (HR clerk for the local fire department, works days), and Karen’s 18-year-old daughter, Alison (budding actress, works and studies odds hours). Consequently, there is almost always someone awake and someone asleep at any given time! It's a wonderful place to be and we are very grateful to our Stone Mountain family for always making us feel so welcome.

Steve gets up at dawn and starts the boat work. At 9:00 he hands Ginny a cup of coffee and says, “Hey Babes, here’s your coffee.” She mumbles a thanks and comes slowly to life (sometimes). Except for leisurely meal breaks we have worked full days every day getting our boat ready to cruise. Along the way Ginny’s cat, Thurston, unexpectedly passed away back in Seattle with Jenna, Ben, Carley and a giant bag of catnip at her side. Now our boat is named Thurston (just as Steve’s Squeak was named for a dear, departed cat.) in her memory and in hopes that her spirit will bring us good fortune in our travels.

This last boatyard stint has been three months (already?!). In Atlanta last spring we worked four months. Before that we worked in the junkyard in Tampa for three months. Ten months total, but she’s ready!

In this last session of boat work we have finished the aft stowage locker (“lazarette”) and rowing station, applied anti-fouling bottom paint, made cabin cushions, installed a solar panel and simple electrical system, and many smaller projects. We’ve packed utilizing every cubic inch (Ginny’s specialty). We have loaded up on charts, digital maps, ebooks and simpsons episodes aplenty. Now we even have a place to leave the truck and trailer, on a guy’s property near Fort Meyers. That’s about 2/3 of the way down the Florida peninsula on the Gulf of Mexico side.

Tomorrow we leave for Florida. We will stop by Fort Walton Beach to visit good 'ole Stephen, then drop off the boat at Pine Island and zip down to Key West to see Dan and Betty before they head back to Washington. After that we plan to cruise southern Florida, plus maybe Cuba, the Bahamas, the Yucatan, and/or Belize, until spring. Then we will probably return to Larry’s, refine Thurston based on live-aboard experience, return to Washington in the summer, then start our REAL voyage in the fall. At least that’s our best guess for now. We’re pretty sure Thurston will kick ass, and we look forward to finally doing a lot of swimming, rowing, sailing, wildlife-watching, etc.

Ginny’s got some funny pictures (a few below), so take a look! Our love to you all!

Steve and Ginny

Photo Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/ginnygoon/TheAdventuresOfGinnyAndSteve#

November 29, 2009

Still working. We are getting very close to being ready to leave. Recently we've decided we need an electrical system after all. So, we installed a 12-watt solar panel and a cute little 10.5amp alarm battery. This should be sufficient to charge our phone and netbook so we can read lots of ebooks and compile more pictures for the photo-greedy among you. Speaking of which, we've uploaded 14 more to our album, a few of which are below:



In response to the $580 quote we got on a boat mattress we decided to make our own. It turned out Awesome!! We even had enough left over to make a little bed for Ginny's cat Snazz.


We also decided we needed an "anchor buddy", so we tore up some old batteries to get free lead (and yes, we were quite aware of all the many levels in which this was a terrible idea) and then broke down and bought some lead after two batteries only yielded 10 lbs worth.


We painted Thurston's name on the boat :(



... and had a tiny bit of extra time to hang out... But only while working!

November 17, 2009

Have you noticed lately the dramatic increase in the misery of existence? The black hole of despair eating the entire universe? Well, don't fret too much, everything will end soon enough. It is true that the world revolves (revolved) around only one creature and sure enough it must be stopping now with her passing. Presumably we will all disappear within the next few days. Thankfully.

So, go crazy! Punch your enemies, hug your cats, loot your neighborhood grocery store, and try to find some meager pleasure in our new and entirely unwelcome Thurstonless Universe.

In memory of our dearly departed fuzzy friend we have finally christened our boat, Thurston, a name that will carry with it the wisdom, dignity and pure spirit of the world's most perfect creature. Also, hopefully, it will act as a beacon to her ghost!

It's hard to remember what we were doing before, but there are some new pictures in our photo album.

October 29, 2009

Hi Guys,
Just a quick update as we don't have a lot to report. Larry and Karen took off on a two and a half week trip down the St. John's River in Florida and are still at it, presumably having a wonderful time.

In the meantime we've just been working as per usual. The details of that work are much more suited for Larry's Sea Pearl website, so on here we'll just offer a little summary:
We finished our Lazarette:


Painted the canoe (completing all our canoe modifications for the time being), the outside panels of the lazarette and cabin, and the inside of the boat.


We've recently worked out our tiller tamer system and fixed various little bugs. Speaking of which, we've also met various little bugs!



We still have a few small things to do, such as have a custom mattress made (pricey!!) and make sun/rain covers for ourselves and our sails. For fun we're back in the habit of watching old movies at night and Ginny has finally started working on her "year of photographs" project again. Some of you may remember she was taking an excessive number of pictures from November 06 -07 in an attempt to catalog every single day of her life. The end result is interesting and will result in some sort of massive work of digital art.

In the short term we're looking forward to Larry and Karen coming home, seeing Addison eventually (we hope!) and a visit from Ginny's old friend Stephen who will give us an excuse to take a day off and canoe the Yellow River. Stephen will be borrowing the canoe while we're gone now that he's living in Florida.

Lastly, we have unnamed our boat Pepper. Steve is leaning back towards Tusk, Ginny is thinking Snuggles Jr.

October 6, 2009

Friends and Family,

You last heard from us from from Calgary, Canada, when we had just begun our truck trip back to Georgia, where our sailboat is. After Calgary we crossed the plains provinces: Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These are mightily flat and full of wheat. We camped each night in or on the margin of some vast field. Once the grill was saturated with grasshopper guts and the ground was crawling with black, lethargic crickets! The only city was Medicine Hat (named for a war bonnet that once imparted great powers to its Indian owner), but we passed through countless towns consisting of a grain silo and a few houses and stores.

Around Winnipeg the vegetation transitioned to low forest but the land remained flat. Then ponds and rock outcroppings started to appear. These features culminated in Ontario, which someone said is two-thirds water: lakes big and small, connected by beaver-choked streams. The land portion consists of rugged hills composed of ancient, Canadian Shield granite. The land is dotted with lakes, yet the lakes are also dotted with islands: 14,000 of them in Lake of the Woods alone, where we camped for two days on a pristine, forested isle. Loons called mournfully in the night, an ascending cry that slips from a lower to an upper register in mid-call. The days were hot and sunny, the water cool and tranquil. The canoe's oars and rowing station came in handy as we circumnavigated one island after another trying to comprehend this alien landscape. We want to return some day and explore Quetico Provincial Park, where in a lifetime you could never canoe all the old voyageur routes. And just across the border in Minnesota lies the Boundary Waters Wilderness.

We next drove around the north shore of Lake Superior, like a freshwater ocean with surf and rocky beaches, remote and undeveloped. Finding places to camp was easy: just drive down any faint pair of tracks into the woods until the highway noise fades in the distance then stop wherever we can turn the Isuzu around. We kept her undercarriage well polished driving over tall grass and saplings! Then we pull out the pantry (an ice-less cooler), the kitchen table (accordion case), our utensils kit, and the white gas stove in its little oven box with the pots and pans nested inside, and arrange them in a row facing the tailgate, so we can sit with them in reach. Dinner may not be any culinary magic, more likely macaroni and cheese with a can of peas. But we couldn't be more snug in our truck canopy bed, and, who knows, off among the mossy pines a moose or bear may even raise its head to the haunting wheeze of an accordion inexpertly played.

As an old sailor would say, we did our eastings in Canada but then we had to do our southings down through the States. We crossed at Sault Ste. Marie. Homeland Security welcomed us with an hour-and-a-half search and verbal grilling. They fingerprinted Steve to see if maybe he was Somebody they were looking for, but he wasn't. Sorry guys! We crossed at night so there wasnt any line, but the dozen or so personnel on duty had nothing else to do, so we didn't save any time.

Then we drove south through Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina, averaging a state per day. In Detroit we we gaped at the abandoned buildings, and Ginny bought the new Modest Mouse and Cure CDs with money she found on the ground. (She keeps Steve happy by downloading old Small Faces and Stevie Ray Vaughn cuts for him. We now have his and hers MP3 players.) Disdaining freeways, We wound up and down and back and forth through Appalachian backroads until we though our tires would wear out. We camped under a bridge one night, next to a burnt-down house (meth lab?) another. The weather turned cold and wet.

Last night we crossed into Georgia. A couple hours ago we pulled into Larry's driveway. Karen lives with him now, but they had the spare bedroom waiting for us. Their hospitality overwhelms us. We now have a few weeks of final boat work before us before we can set forth in Pepper, but we have a warm home to do it in. Thank you, guys!

We hope you are all well and ready for these short days and long nights. . For more new pictures, see our corresponding photo album at: http://picasaweb.google.com/ginnygoon/TheAdventuresOfGinnyAndSteve# starting with the Zamboni picture.

Steve and Ginny

September 17, 2009

Friends and Family,

You last heard from us from Larry’s House in Atlanta on June 21st. We had nearly completed work on our sailboat so we headed back to Washington to see people and take care of business prior to what could be an extended trip into the Bahamas or Caribbean. First we returned to St. Louis, Missouri, where we stayed with our friends Jesse and Lena again, except by this time they had had a baby, Violet.

Then we droned across Missouri, Oklahoma, the Texas panhandle, and New Mexico. In Albuquerque we visited Steve's niece Kat, her (now) husband Billy, and baby daughter Kayla. We also received the new netbook computer we had ordered. Then we attended the annual Rainbow Gathering in the mountains of New Mexico, which we had heard of through Ginny's sister and a Juggalo-looking guy at a rest area in Oklahoma. It was Steve's second and Ginny's first. Fantastic, huge, lots of music, bizzare spirits, and free food, though you have to stand in lines for that. There was a rainbow inside a rainbow as we freaks went wild. This all took place above 9000' where it was surprisingly cold.

Next we went to Arizona and hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We camped a couple nights in the canyon. The temp was over 110 during the day. We sat in a stream for hours to keep cool! Then we met Jim Hogg in Phoenix and camped with him for three days around the Chiricauhua Mountains. Next stop was Ginny's grandma's house in Los Angeles, where for the second year in a row we made it to her birthday. Our arrival this year was a surprise! Almost everyone made it, even Carley, who then drove up to Washington with us.

We got back to Washington late on the 19th of July. The tasks we set for ourselves ended up taking eight weeks. Steve found a new renter for his house in Pacific and got his income taxes done. Ginny integrated the new Asus Eee into our lifestyle and helped Jenna with her clothing design business. Though we visited quite a few people we mostly stayed at Jenna and Ben's house in South Seattle. We worked on the truck (our Isuzu is better than ever now; it even drives straight when you take your hand off the wheel!), put new gunwales on the canoe, built a new waterproof accordion case, made an awesome rocking horse for Violet's first birthday, snuggled with Ginny's cats, and checked off many smaller tasks from a long To Do list.

On September 11th we finally headed back toward Pepper, who awaits us at Larry's house. We went via the Canadian Rockies, where our improved canoe has again proved its worth. We now write you now from Calgary, Alberta, where we are also adding to our gallery of mp3 songs to listen to while we travel. We hope this finds you all well and that your lives similarly blessed with newness and love of each other, eh.

Steve and Ginny

Check out the rest of our new photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/ginnygoon/TheAdventuresOfGinnyAndSteve#

September 3rd, 2009

We've been doing more boat work, only we're still in Seattle. This time it is on our precious canoe, which has had some rot problems in the gunwales as well as sun damage to the kevlar.

Ginny has been helping her dear dude Jenna with some of the more tedious tasks of running a clothing design business as well as working on a secret project for some special people. Steve has been running wild in the streets, being productive in various dull ways (sanding gunwales, fixing dryers, changing tires, etc) and finally getting around to visiting some of his friends and family. Not really much new to say, but here are a few more pictures and a lot more can be found at: http://picasaweb.google.com/ginnygoon/TheAdventuresOfGinnyAndSteve#

August 7th, 2009

Trying to be better about updating... trying to be better about updating...

We've got a few new pictures in our online album at: http://picasaweb.google.com/ginnygoon/TheAdventuresOfGinnyAndSteve#

Since being back in Washington Steve has been fixing up and renting out his house, while Ginny has been hanging out with her best friend Jenna and her favorite, favorite cats Thurston and Snazz (plus a bunch of other awesome cats too.) This is definitely as exciting as it sounds.

Other fun things we have done include: Thrift store shopping with Jenna, truck maintanence and (one of our few purely social activities) a party at Steve's friend Tzaddi's place on Lake Union. Thanks to everyone who made it, we had a great time.

Here are some pictures of the cats we've been hanging out with. If you want pictures with humans in them you'll have to go to the photo album.