Christmas letter from
the SPACESHIP Earth
December 1996
Dear Friends and Family,
A daughter-in-law once said some people call these
letters "fruitcake", but we love fruitcake, and hope you will enjoy
this slice of life. What a way to reach out and touch so many friends. We're
here! Finally! South Bight, Andros, Bahamas: 24 12.09N 77 33.40W. Gin clear
water, clear blue skies, and not much else. We've wanted to explore Andros in
the Bahamas ever since we bought Spaceship because of her shallow draft -- 4.5'.
Andros, a large island made up mostly of water, has a 140 mile barrier reef
along the Tongue of the Ocean which is over a mile deep. The water inside the
reef is six feet or less. We're in a lovely anchorage, and hopefully, we'll go
ashore before Christmas to meet the inhabitants of the tiny settlement, and mail
this missive to you -- or is it mistletoe you? 1996 started out cold! We know,
it was cold everywhere, but frost on the windshield in Fort Lauderdale, Florida!
Brrr! Arctic smoke looks like ghosts marching on the ocean when the air is more
than 40 degrees colder than the water. Even the beach bunnies put on clothes.
Ed's brother Vern came for a visit and as usual worked. What would we do without his visits. How many jobs have been put off "until Vern gets here." Of course, he managed enough time to enjoy the beach bunnies once it warmed up and they dressed down to their bikinis. My [Wendy's] son Andy also visited. He enjoyed lots of sunrises and walks on the beach.
Friends in Pensacola, Fl invited us to visit and we decided to go there by sailing around Florida. We left Ft Lauderdale in early March after re-christening the boat Spaceship with home port Earth at a lovely going away party given by Mitzi and Pierre, the owners of the marina. After sailing down the Florida Keys to Key West, we turned north up the west coast of Florida arriving in Pensacola June 17th. The Florida Keys are lots of little islands surrounded by very shallow water. But we have a shallow draft boat. It's a good thing we also have a powerful engine to back us off all those slightly too shallow places. US 1 leaves Miami leaping from island to island over long bridges to thread its way to Key West. Many islands not connected to US1 are only occupied by birds. It was the nesting season and pelicans, egrets, ibises, and herons busily fished to feed their hatchlings. In the evening they all headed home to their nests and we heard the accumulated squawking of the baby birds demanding to be fed. Key West might be our favorite U. S. "city". Eric, our grandson, referring to the flavor of the city and the attitudes of the people called it a foreign country -- definitely not US mainland mentality. There are a lot young people here, some from all over the world working with green cards. Eric tried all sorts of new things: flying in an ultralight with his hands on the controls, viewing reefs through a glass bottom boat, snorkeling around a wreck full of tropical fish, sailing with us to the Marquesas and back, and just wandering around Key West.
We had two couples visit us at the same time: my brother and sister-in-law, Gerry and Marianne Ulrich, and Ed's cousin and her husband, Rose Marie and Rich Watson. A Morgan is wonderful for having lots of visitors. We had fun on Mallory Pier watching the sun go down and enjoying the various shows. We almost became a part owners of a deep sea search for ancient gold, but decided that it was more a donation than an investment. We had to renew our passports. A photo shop took awful passport pictures, so we took pictures of each other with our own 35mm camera, and our new passports have pleasant, happy, smiling faces. Our dinghy engine conked out in the "low rent district", a group of dilapidated boats that barely look like they'd stay afloat. One of the friendly, capable, "old- fashioned" people towed us to the dock where Ed fixed the engine. People are wonderful everywhere. The West Coast of Florida is different from the fast paced, crowded East Coast. Small town friendly atmospheres interspersed with lots of nothing. Remember, nothing is nice to a cruising sailor. Along the way, we spent one night up the Shark River in the Ee Ehe mosquitoes and noseeums, we became part of the food chain. The screens stopped the mosquitoes, but the noseeums came right in. It took half a day sailing out in the Gulf to blow these flying hypodermic needles out of the boat. Quiet, full of birds, mosquitoes and noseeums. The noseeums stayed with us the following day as we sailed north along the Gulf Coast until the afternoon breeze finally blew them away. What a relief. We sailed north on a nice east breeze just off white sandy beaches in 20 feet of clear blue water. Just past noon the wind waffled then blew out of the west -- a sea breeze. What do you call it when you move the sails over but keep going in the same direction? This is the first time we'd ever experienced a true land breeze/sea breeze. The wind stayed out of the west until 10pm when it switched back to the east -- a land breeze. The baby ospreys were growing up. They squawked at us as we sailed by their nests that looked like a pile of sticks someone tossed on top of a post.
We're leaking! Every time we ran the engine, the bilge filled up. We called around on our cell phone and found Sailor's Wharf, a marina in St. Petersburg near the Morgan factory. After chocking the boat, the manager grabbed our prop shaft and water squirted out of the hull. They cut all the old fiberglass away and re-glassed around the through hull tube that contains the prop shaft. Not a drop since (knock on wood). We also had the bottom painted. As we approached Apalachicola, a funnel dropped out of a thundercloud a half mile away, and drilled a hole in the ocean throwing up spray four times the length of our boat and four times the height of our mast - a tornado. We started our nice big engine and motored away. We anchored in Lake Wimico on the inland waterway in the afternoon. There was no life. Nothing. We went swimming. The water was fresh! At dusk, birds flew home from the sea making a raucous sound. In the morning, bull alligators roared at each other across the lake. They swam along the shore We became more careful about swimming. A baby osprey took his first flight -- up he frantically flapped until exhausted he tumbled down, more frantic flapping, more tumbling, again and again, until he spread his wings and glided and then off across the woods. His first landing must have been a scream. Nature treated us to such a show, we remained anchored in the lake for a week. If we'd left the first day we would have remembered a desolate place.
Our friends in Pensacola, gave us the keys to their Cadillac and to their home. They have a power boat that goes 90 miles/hour. Farther in an hour than we go all day. Of course, they run out of gas in 45 minutes while we get 400 miles to the gallon. We spent a week in Alabama exploring the Tom bigbee Waterway by automobile, and visiting Elizabeth and Whitney in Birmingham. Lindsay was off on a debatable trip in Minnesota. On July 10th, as we anchored out ready to leave the next day, the Blue Angels practice we never saw so many planes try to occupy the same place at the same time, but with a quick turn or a roll they were miles apart.
While sailing back to Key West, Ed commented on the reliability of the engine whereupon it slowed and then stopped. Luckily we were in the inland waterway near Sarasota getting ready to anchor for the night. In the morning, we called The Great American Marina and they towed us in and ran our diesel fuel through a huge filter for two hours --a process called polishing ones tank. At first, the fuel came out black with algae, but ended up clear. Ed changed the cruddy Racor filter, bled the fuel lines, and the engine started and purred like a kitten. On our travels up and down the Florida coast, we got local news and weather on our TV. Each little town thinks it is the center of the universe. In August, leaving Ed in Key West to worry about hurricanes, I go visit children in Raleigh, NC where Hurricane Fran put a tree through the roof. Key West hasn't had a hurricane since 1935.
Ed's son Tim came to visit and wanted to sail. We left Key West heading out into the Gulf Stream bound for Bimini, Bahamas and bashed into east wind and waves. Forget that. We went back through Key West, out the NW Channel into the Gulf of Mexico, motored through the Keys, and sailed under the Channel Five bridge ready to tackle crossing the Gulf Stream again. Just after sunset, a storm came up and once more we found ourselves bashing into wind and waves. Tim said that in the dark of night he looked at his watch hoping it was 4 am and nearly dawn, but found it was only 9:30pm. We decided we couldn't make Bimini before a strong cold front would catch us, so we turned north and headed for Miami. The Gulf Stream carried us so fast we made Fort Lauderdale by sunrise, where we had one warm sunny day which we spent swimming in the ocean and then the cold northwest wind blasted through, the temperature plummeted to a frigid 60 degrees and we bundled up. After a wonderful Thanksgiving with Gerry and Marianne, we finally sailed across to Bimini. Another cold front -- but it was 10 degrees warmer in Bimini than Miami. After waiting a couple days, we sailed south just off the banks because the wind was supposed to come out of the SE the next day. It was still out of the NE so we had to beat across the banks to NW Channel light where we turned south to run down the east coast of Andros -- got that? Several other boats motored all day straight across the banks into the wind without raising a sail. As we started down the east coast of Andros the wind did indeed come out of the SE and we beat all night sailing close hauled on a port tack to reach the South Bight on Friday the 13th. If we had waited one day, a mild cold front came through, and we could all have sailed downwind -- is the whole world impatient? Thoughts on Morgans -- at least this one. Every passage provokes a list of things to fix. When we bought Romarin, she was ready to sail across the oceans, but even though Spaceship is 17 years old, none of the previous owners had sailed her in the deep sea. She was, however, in near showroom condition, and only needed minimal fitting out for ocean passages. Someone said that more Morgans have rounded Cape Horn than any other production boat -- want to go along? We bought Spaceship because we said if we were going to live aboard for another ten years, then let's do it in a little more comfort. We find her a comfortable home and a great boat all over the place. Technology has certainly changed our lifestyle. OOPS! In Andros no cellular phone, no TV. On to 1997, may we all realize our dreams and aspirations, but most of all, may we all have a healthy happy year. Love, Wendy and Ed
mailed 27 December 1996