Schooner

Schooner

Monday, February 17, 2014

Dive! Dive! Dive!

We are so excited because we just got scuba certified! I (Dana) did it mainly for the enjoyment factor but we made sure to get Joshua certified for many reasons. One being: he needs to learn to be more comfortable in the water. We live on it! He doesn't enjoy swimming or getting wet. I am the complete opposite. Another reason was so that we could have the ability to clean the bottom of our boat. While you may be able to get some of it when you hold your breath you won't be able to get it all. Plus, what people charge for a cleaning is a lot. Within a few months our investment will pay for itself. Plus, Josh will be able to make a business cleaning bottoms, installing zincs, and doing emergency underwater repairs.

Our research also told us that in order to be able to get a tank filled you need a certification. So there we were, with many reasons to do it. Our next decision was where to get certified. You can Google search all you want but ultimately it comes down to word of mouth. We asked our friends at St. Augustine Cruisers Net to suggest somewhere and the answer was unanimously iDive.

His prices turned out to be one of the most reasonable when we did our research too. When Joshua called the owner, Ken, he was pleased with how he responded to his questions. They offer a mini class called "Try SCUBA". So we did! We don't have any pictures from that class but we immediately went after the class to sign up for certification.


See how happy and excited Josh was for the class? He made sure we were early. I was excited too but I was concentrating more on getting us there. ;-) 
Ken (left) and Josh demonstrating good buoyancy control

Dana!
 Here we were demonstrating skills. Josh did well on his buoyancy control here in the pool. I struggled a bit.
The second dive wasn't in a heated pool :-( but in a spring. DeLeon Springs actually. Here it was quite smaller then what I thought it would be. We got to practice our "giant stride" getting in though. It was fun! I struggled a bit this day but it turns out I didn't have enough weight. Once the instructor gave me more I was fine.



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We didn't get many pictures this day because the visibility wasn't great. What is weird is that some of the pictures came out with a blue tint while most of them were green (see above-ick).
Here is another diver harassing a turtle. It didn't much like the attention! Later she went on to try and pick it up but the turtle escaped her grasp.
The last day, our check out dive, was at Devil's Den. It was supposed to be at another location but they had what is called "brown out conditions". I think you all can guess what that meant. So our instructor had us go here. Unfortunately it cost us more money to dive here then the other spot but Ken promised us we would love it. Let's hope so.

Here's the view looking down. It is impressive to look at, very pretty. It's quite a ways down so I had a little bit of trouble getting down the stairs (fear of heights). Ken, ever the patient guy, talked to me the whole way as he had been the first down. I was fine once down. The water was a bit chilly but not bad.

These last two photos aren't as great. The light was poor and GoPros don't fare as well in low lighting. This one above is a still taken from the bottom of the stairs.

Here's the other side. Hi guys! This is Ken on the right and another instructor (I'm sorry, I forgot his name!) on the left. The other instructor ended up being my dive buddy at the end because Josh got too low on air and I hadn't been able to explore the whole way around. I wanted my moneys worth! Haha...again, we were shocked at the price but I enjoyed it.

When we came up we were officially certified, we passed!! So exciting! Ken cooked for us and we hung out until the woman threatened to lock us in ;-)

Certified!!!
Waiting for food

Grill master Ken

I'm going to post a video on Facebook so make sure to hop over to this link and check it out. While you're there please give us a "Like"! In case you want to know Ken is on FB too at this link> iDive.

Thanks for the great dives Ken, hopefully we can do more with you!

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

New but old-Dana's view

I have a few things to say about our old dinghy. More then a few actually but in addition to being old, small, and a bit of an eye sore it was reliable. It got us out of a jam when we were in NYC and Joshua had many fun adventures with it but it wasn't really meant to be a dinghy like we were using it for. In fact, it was actually a child's sailing dinghy. I never stepped foot into it. It was too tippy and wasn't meant to hold much weight. It also leaked a little. As I said...many things to say about it.

We have been looking for a new one ever since it was obvious we would need a bigger one. When you are on anchor not only will a dinghy get you to the shore from the boat while holding you but also any laundry, groceries, and water. We knew we wanted it to still fit on the foredeck when we made any passages and it also needed to be durable. Inflatables are nice but made of plastic and tend to deteriorate quickly.

So we needed strength, longevity, a good size, and most of all-a decent price. You would not believe how hard it is to find each one of those things without having to sacrifice another. But we did it! It kind of just happened. Joshua was skimming the local Craigslist and came across an ad for the dinghy that was docked on other side of our slip. Imagine that, it was right under our noses.

Joshua said he looked at the ad before but for whatever reason skipped it. He showed me and I told him to just shoot the guy a quick email. The guy mentioned he was actually going to be stopping by the marina that day-perfect!


I wasn't present for the whole conversation but Joshua has a way of dickering with people so I knew he didn't need my help. By the time I had gotten out there he worked it out so that not only were we going to get it for less then listing price but he was also going to take our old dinghy. This was a big weight off of our shoulders as we weren't sure how to get rid of it. Who would want such an old boat?

Apparently there is always a person who has a need for old boats as the day after our deal some people were there picking it up. They said they were very happy because they had been looking for one. When asked what they were going to do with it they said it will be their new couch. Ok, to each their own! It was finally off the foredeck from when we lashed it down to go offshore and would actually have a purpose again.
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I'm sure that Joshua will have an interesting story to tell regarding my issue with small boats but I finally conquered my fear and got in. I'm proud of myself!

Out with the old....

...In with the new(ish). 

I want to thank everyone for reading and following our adventures. We have many more in store so stay tuned! Also, we have a Facebook page now so please give us a "like" and share with your friends!
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Friday, February 7, 2014

We were blown away

   Who has not been to West Marine? I do not think you can own a boat without a trip here. Not because the prices are good, but because its like being 8, and going to Toys-r-us. My parents never bought anything from Toys-r-us, the prices were better elsewhere. That's the same thing for us. Its a great place to visit to look, and maybe buy a hose clamp, a few feet of wire for a project, or a fender. Otherwise most things are overpriced by 20-40%, and the draconian price match policy makes me not buy as much there. Don't get me wrong, we drop $1500 a quarter in the store, but we would probably spend more like $4000 if they matched the occasional internet price. This brings us to our trip to Jacksonville 2 weeks ago.


   Jacksonville, FL has the second biggest West Marine in the country. They even have a tuna tower in he store... They also have a huge selection. 30 Day FREE amazon prime membership!!! Sign up now for this special trial. Cancel anytime.
Me and Dana both like to play with things, and touch thins we ought not to. So in my playing I played with the fans. We had been looking for some new fans to replace our aging units that are quite noisy. All was going well until I played with a fan called Taku. It has a 5 min burst mode that nearly blew our faces off. It was blowing things on the shelf across the isle. We were instantly sold. We didn't even know the price yet. $200!!!!!! For a fan? They must be insane. Alas, they were not.




   With a 5 min search online i had found it $50 cheaper. $150 is a ton of dosh for a fan of plastic. However we were already sold. Life on anchor requires some items we may otherwise dismiss, but on a 100 degree day this fan will be a gem.




   Installation is so easy, that it is too easy. In fact I would prefer a permanent mount.
Four suction cups hold it to the hatch, and a 20' cord plugs into a cig lighter. Instead of a 2 hour installation I plugged it in all lazily. I convinced myself it may be nice to move someday when needed. My plan is to install a cig lighter plug by the forward hatch, then zip tie the wire so it looks decent.




   So that's it. Our swanky fan. In the background is the old fan. One upgrade at a time we are bringing this old yacht up to today's standards. Until next time!





Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Small upgrades

What can i say, minor projects get procrastinated. Some of them so long, it is scarry. The faucet was one of those projects. The old faucet was leaking. not just a little leak, a major one. It leaked every time it was used. I even had a rebuild kit for it. I just never got to that project. So now it is finished. Here is the new faucet.


   Its made by an Italian company called Scandvik. Its a nice heavy unit. Dana, the cook, loves it.

   The next project,was a macerator. The old one died long before i bought the boat. I removed it the first week. There is a big tip here. I shopped around, sure i could find a price better then $125-150 everyone charges. They sell them on ebay for $72. Shipping was very fast. No photos on this one, as they are quite gross.

   Next up was the genoa. It tattered on my trip home, and when i tried to use it again, the sun cover came off a bit. I found a shop in town called something like Sails ECT?  The owner was very nice, he gets a lot of points for this, he knew his stuff. His price started out good...
  
   The sail shop was about 3/4 of a mile away.

   One thing I have promised myself is that I would work out more. This is exactly what I meant. Dana helped a bit by holding the bottom now and then, but it was mostly me. This sucker is heavy. 80-110#.
We got it there, by free foot transport.

   The sail came back yesterday. The quote was 1-2 hours labor. The bill came back as 4 hours, plus materials. When I called him on it, he said he will put half of it toward the next project he did for me. A bit odd I think on this one. He said he had been doing it for over 20 years. To stop in for a free quote. I stopped in for a quote, he was not there and would call me when he returned. About an hour later I walked back because he had not called. There on the sail loft was my sail, opened and being worked on. :Roll eyes: I asked the price and that was when he said 1-2 hours. He did not demand instant payment. That too is odd to me. Unless this is some ploy to get more business from me by keeping a 50% off tab.... Its just weird....

   More drama to come.