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Turks and Caicos

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January 4, 2012

Leaving Georgetown we headed East following a book by Bruce Van Sant, Passages South – The Thornless Path to Windward.  Traversing East through the islands is difficult since most of the

Looking for coral heads on the way in

wind comes out of the east.  He has a series of rules to follow creating windows of opportunity to make the passage.  We now simply say things like “Bruce says” and it is so.  We had originally planned on sailing for four days and missing this difficult Thorny Path.  We had difficulty finding crew who could join us for the journey and for our first long passage we really wanted the help.  We take turns at the helm; plotting positions, adjusting sails and looking for other boats occupy our time.  Following a schedule of two hours on and two off makes for a difficult night of sleep.  So we follow Bruce’s Rules and make short hops down the Thornless Path.  The progress is certainly slow.

From Georgetown we sailed to Conception Island, which has some of the finest diving and

Our other World

snorkeling around.  Ella and I saw a Spotted Eagle ray four-feet below us that’s body was longer than her and the tail was twice as long.  Hundreds of fish swirl around keeping us company.  Lindsey saw a Grouper that easily weighed a hundred pounds.  Chase likes to swim only in the light water (shallow).  He knows that in the dark water (deep), sharks lurk looking for a tasty little guy to eat.

Ella diving off Rivers2Seas

Sailing on to Rum Cay we had a quick stopover.  Taking the dinghy over to the island for dinner, we found out that reservations were needed several hours in advance.  The reservations are needed so they can catch dinner.  The bar/restaurant seemed nice with its sand floor and pool table in the middle.  The cigarette smoke kept the mosquitoes at bay, but Ella refuses to breath if someone is smoking.  We left for home.  Sadly the lock holding us to the dock jammed and couldn’t be opened.  A friendly man, Marco, took us all back to Rivers2Seas and then returned me with a pair of our bolt cutters.  The boat was free instantly.  Realized that we needed a better lock certainly, but a better cable as well.  Marco was one of 50 single men on the island; they also have 15 married couples and four single ladies.  Rough odds for the men!

Our first night sail brought us to Mayaguana.  Twenty-four hours of motorsailing took us 140

Morning Glassy Calm

nautical miles to our last Bahamian island.  Lindsey and the kids had never sailed at night, which is a wholly different experience.  Waves come and rock the boat that can’t be seen, winds change direction, noises are accentuated and the mind worries.  The plus side is that the stars can be spectacular.  When the bioluminescence swarms the boat if feels as though we are floating through space.

The kids starlights

The kids were jealous of our stars outside and made a couple starry light shows in the salon where they were sleeping.  The waves were chaotic and bounced each of them every few seconds into the air.  Surprisingly, each slept wonderfully.  Lindsey and I each had about an hour and a half of sleep during the crossing.

Abraham’s Bay in Mayaguana is a huge bay that had eight boats in it; all at least a half mile from

Mayaguana home - note the extension cord

each other.  We took a family snorkel to a little reef, but jellyfish drove us back.  New Years Eve was spent marveling at the vastness of the Milky Way.  The next day we wandered into town to find some lunch.  Everything was closed so we played at the town park.  A man, Fernando, was talking to us and then ran off to get the bar owner to open.  We had a couple of Kalik beers while watching the Miami Dolphins play the NY Jets in a New Year’s Day football game.  Having not watched TV in over two months, the whole experience was surreal.  Chase and Ella played dominoes while we chatted with locals and watched football.  When the owner had some food delivered we asked where he got the takeout.  Keep in mind this is a town of 200 people.  It was from his sister across the street.  Knowing food was not going to be an option we paid our bill and headed down the street.  One of the bar patrons stopped on his bicycle to say we left too early, “his momma was making us food.”  Immediately, we headed back to the bar.  Four heaping plates of fresh turkey topped with cranberry sauce, potato salad, real macaroni and cheese and corn filled out bellies.  All payment was refused.

Earil Cartwright

The next day Chase and I went on a search for wild paddles as Lindsey taught Ella her schooling.  After a few miles walking and several inquiries, we were led to Earil Cartwright whose advanced age didn’t prevent him from furiously trying to dislodge a blade from his rusted out lawnmower.  We chatted about Mayaguana, bone fishing and other white folks he had met.  He brought out a 12-foot pink bladed oar he made 20 years ago from hand tools.   We walked back with the oar over my shoulder.

Taking a sail following the islands lee shore we staged at Southeast Point for the run to the Turks and Caicos.  At 1am, we up anchored and motored over a glassy sea to arrive 45nm later at 9am.  The electric windlass broke necessitating the anchor and chain to be set by hand.  The anchor weighs 45lbs and the chain a whole lot more.  Until we can get the motor rewound in the Dominican Republic I will be the windless.

A boat with all its many systems is prone to breakage in this harsh salty environment.  I used to

Worthwhile moments

think I was adept at fixing most anything.  That was before I became a sailor.  As chief maintenance man of the transportation department, sanitation department, electrical company, water company, gas company, and communications department, I feel as though I should have sent Christmas cards to all these folks back home who did jobs bringing us these things so effortlessly.  In the last week I have had to rewire the propane solenoid, fix a cooling leak in the diesel engine, manufacture a part for the dinghy outboard transmission and take apart the anchor windlass.  It seems unending.  I am reminded of years ago as Kent and I “canoed” across Nebraska.  We pulled that red canoe 600 miles down the Platte across sand; we didn’t canoe much.  Those were difficult times and the frustration was immense.  I feel that frustration now and hope that it gets better.  The sailing when we do goes great, but the fixing of everything does not.

Good days!

For now we have been given clearance to be in the Turks and Caicos (or as Chase calls this country, Turkeys and Naicos) for seven days.  The winds look favorable so we should be in the Dominican Republic soon.

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Florida to Georgetown, Bahamas

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December 27, 2011

Florida to Georgetown, Bahamas
The crossing from Miami to the Bahamas was a good one. Traversing the Gulf Stream which is called the largest river in the world is a challenge. A fun challenge. We buddy boated across with a Canadian boat, Bikini. We would end up spending the next 6 weeks with them having a ball. The Bahamas have amazing turquoise water, numerous rainbows and fluffy white beaches. As we sailed the 200 miles we would stop at different bays to anchor for the night.
Each anchorage has different qualities. On Allens Cay the endangered Exuma Iguana reigns. We could feed them grapes from short sticks. Staniel Cay has some wild pigs that like to swim out to boats for a free hand out. We anchored outside an island owned by David Copperfield. We kept waiting for him to make us disappear, which luckily didn’t happen.
     Our friends have some fun toys aboard like water skis and SCUBA gear. I did three dives with John and had a blast each time. The underwater world is a glorious place to see. An octopus, which I consider my spirit animal, was my favorite. The snorkeling is fantastic.  Lobster hunting has proven to be exhilarating and tasty afterwards. Ella went snorkeling into a cave that was featured in a 007 film. Our little girl impresses us daily.
I am learning to be a fisherman too. Trolling is definitely my speed – throw the hook in and then come back when a fish is on. Chase has only caught one fish, which was exciting. I was less excited when I realized it was a two-foot shark!
Georgetown, Bahamas is a bit of a cruising mecca. At present there campfires on the beachare 100 boats here and soon that will increase to 400. We play volleyball often, snorkel or use the SUP boards. Sadly there isn’t much culture here with Bahamians. The other cruisers are the culture. They are fun to share tales and dreams with.  The organization is intense.  Cruisers net @ 8am, Yoga @ 8:45, Volleyball @ 2pm, happy hours at different beaches @ 5pm.  As one cruiser put it ‘if I wanted this much organization, I’d be working 9 to 5.”  While we do enjoy the place, it seems as though we have moved to a more athletic retirement home.  Prettier than Gateway Terrace in Florida, but a old folks home just the same.  Great people and we shall miss them.

        Chase and Ella are both doing great.  They play make believe daily after school, build sand castles or go exploring with us.  Chase now insists on being called ‘Turtle.”  Apparently, Gram called him this before and he likes the name.  Even in death, Gram has the ability to enrich our taking Ella to school – not uphill both ways at least    lives and make us smile.

Christmas was a fun event with the best tree ever.  At least Charlie Brown would think so.  The kids made ornaments from shells and sea fans then adorned the top with a starfish.  Certainly my favorite tree ever.  Lindsey’s mom, Kay, made the trip down for a week so we had fun showing her the islands.  We rented a car a cruised the coast.  The few restaurants we found were closed but I did find a nice place with one table inside.  Conch Snack, Chicken wings and hamburgers were all fantastic.  We think it may have been a brothel, but at 1pm luckily nothing was happening.
The winds have been howling keeping us here. Tomorrow the winds should abate and we will make a run for the Turks and Caicos. As excited as we are to continue our journey, it is difficult to leave our new friends that we have bonded so well with.

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Sailing Florida to Bahamas

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December 10, 2011

We have been having a wonderful time in the Bahamas.  Our new friends aboard Bikini have helped us immeasurably as we buddy boated from Fort Lauderdale to Georgetown, Bahamas.

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Getting Rivers2Seas ready to sail

Filed under: The sailing life begins — 4 Comments
November 15, 2011

Rivers2Seas                                                             Florida

Swimming from the slide aboard Rivers2Seas

Our time at Gateway Terrace retirement home is coming to a close.  The place has been great, but talking

SUPing around the neighborhood

solely with octogenarians and above is getting rather slow.  We have been here since mid-September; so just about 2 months getting Rivers2Seas in working order, provisioning, living life aboard and waiting for hurricane season to end.  We had planned to do all this in 4 months time, but that didn’t work out so we have been working long days and nights.

We arrived with our red minivan stocked to the gills with our treasures from home that would make Rivers2Seas our home.   Moored

"My room is so BIG!"

to a dock in the canals of Fort Lauderdale with swimming pool 20 yards away is a play palace for the kids.  They first exclaimed upon seeing their rooms, “this room is huge!”   Our preparations for life aboard had meant even smaller rooms in their minds than their slightly bigger than a full-size-bed room with 40 inches to the ceiling.  When we first arrived I set up some HeroCams in some of the rooms to record the kids’ reactions to the boat.  Apparently, Chase disappeared for 20 seconds down below without our knowledge.  He made it to Ella’s room, took a right into the bathroom and straight for the toilet.  At 3 years old, his little butt cheeks twinkle as he stands and pees, flushes the toilet, and joins the festivities without us knowing of his little venture.  The cameras had us howling.  Our little seaman has arrived.  Chase is 100% in his element on Rivers2Seas.  A child’s intuition can be astounding.  They each know so much about boat life without us teaching them.

Ella working on her writing skills

Lindsey has been homeschooling Ella and a bit with Chase.  The process is a learning experience for all involved.  It is amazing how thorough 1st grade education is these days.  On our road trip we passed through a museum in Tennessee that had samples of the first grade education from the 1800’s.  The 10-page single textbook is a bit different than the 22 100+-page textbooks Ella received as part of her curriculum.  Chase listens attentively to everything that I am telling Ella and wants to participate.  Homeschooling is tough.  Sometimes I find myself expecting college work from Ella and I am not satisfied until she delivers and then I remember that she is only in 1stgrade…..The stress of messing her up for life is sometimes overwhelming and then I back off a bit and let her run her course, and I am blown

away at what she picks up naturally.  The kid is smart.  It is amazing the ambient education she is getting.  Two days ago, she called for one of the biggest bridges in Fort Lauderdale to open.  She was beaming when the bridge engineer called back

Music class in the salon

and immediately opened the bridge (as he always does at the top and bottom of the hour, we just happened to hit it

perfectly), although to a six-year-old, she without a doubt just moved a mountain.  One of her lessons the other day was to talk about animals in their ocean environment, instead of reading the science textbook and cutting out pictures of fish and dolphins, we donned a mask and snorkel, walked off the back of our boat and stuck our heads in the water and looked for manatees, fish and anything else we could see.  Instead of sitting in a classroom and reading a glossy paged book, she is feeling, touching, breathing, and drinking her education.

Measuring rainbows

Brad has been working on the boat.  A new navigation station with Air speed, direction, barometer, water speed, speed over land, bring the boat up to date with her electronics.  Hours of work on the heads has resulted in many new parts and some horrendous “groover” stories.  Almost every piece of trim on the boat has been removed to get behind at the bowels of our ship.  Here the maze of wires truly astounds as so many systems entangle themselves.  It’s like having all the wiring of a car and house together.  A new boom attaches to the

Ready for the pool yet, dad?

mast now after a frustrating series of errors by the manufacturer.  An old guy lumbers over to tell me one day, “mind if I give you some friendly advice?”  At this point I have realized that an insult is coming from one of the old men who watches my entire day as I work all over the boat.  He tells me to hire an experienced rigger to put the boom on.  Using a pyramid of self-equalizing harnesses around the sail and boom, I can easily pull it up with the mainsail winch.  I see it as a work of art to save a lot of money.  Glad it worked because with the manufacturing issues I needed to remove it three times.

Frustration over the marine industry continues, from a guy who condemned two AC units and a Freezer to be replaced for only $7000.  A few days later a different contractor had it all completely fixed for $417.  We saved another $10,000 when I was able to install all the electronic instrumentation from masthead to thruholes in the hull.  Most of the people who work aboard Rivers2Seas are happy to teach us how to fix future similar problems.  They have been great teachers for each of us.  They patiently explain all the working parts and the difficult areas.  We go to sleep exhausted from the constant physical and mental strain.

Bedtime stories

A West Marine store, largest of the boating suppliers, was moving to another larger location and had some great clearance bargains.  75% off the clearance price and I was getting all sorts of spare parts, fishing gear and new flexible diesel tanks.  These tanks are normally priced at $1250; I was able to get them for $225.  That was cheaper than buying the jerry can equivalent.   We have bought a ridiculous amount there preparing for all sorts of calamities.

Ella and Chase run all over the boat catching pirates and princesses.  Their imagination is wonderful.  One of the major downsides of a trip like this is the lack of interaction with other kids.  They play so well together that it makes it easier on us all.  The boat is now home.  At the store one day with Chase after being in Florida for two weeks I said “let’s go home.”  Chase lost it and screamed that he didn’t want to go home, “I want to go to my boat!”

Friends have visited from Colorado which has been wonderful.  It’s hard to get the construction area put away and then ready to sail, but certainly worth it.  We had a slow sail with Elysia and Rob Clemens and their kids Harper and Conner.  At 8 months, Harper didn’t do much moving around.  Conner more than made up for his sister by pushing and twisting everything he could touch.  We visited the Sawgrass

Petting some of the local wildlife

National Park via airboat with them, which was a fun and loud way to travel.  Kay Reynolds, lindsey’s mom, visited for a week.   We had a great sail to Miami and then a bouncing rollicking one back the next day.  Chase was puking, Grandma matched nicely with her yellow lifejacket and a nice shade of green.  Ella loved the bouncing.  I practiced at singlehanding a boat.  I loved running from one side to the other as we tacked up the coastline.  Pete Wells came aboard with his parents and four other friends.  A great daysail out into the Gulf Stream had Rivers2Seas moving fast.  The trip back was a little hectic with all the puke flowing about but we managed to get her docked again.  Pete has been able to teach us a fair amount and terrify us with his sailing stories (he has a bunch).  The Fetters, Toni, Dave, Madelena, and Patrick arrived for some serious rain.  The heavens opened up and released a torrent of rain for 5 days.  In that time 12-15 inches of rain fell.  Storm sewers were running amuck and whole neighborhoods were underwater.  We ventured up to DisneyWorld for two days of play inside Walt Disney’s head.   The man had a great imagination and business mind.  It’s fun to see it from both sides since my dad has been such an admirer and given me business books on Walt.  Ella loved Space Mountain careening around the roller coaster in the dark.  Her hands raised high she screamed with glee.  Chase liked the Astro Blaster where he could spin us around high in the air.

Driving the boat up the Intercoastal Waterway took us through 21 bridges on our way to the boatyard where Rivers2Seas would be hauled out

Morning fishing from our home

of the water.  It was a packed week as we accomplished many tasks onboard like replacing the shaft seals on our saildrives (which then turned into replacing one shaft and one propeller), bottom antifouling paint done, sewage thruhull replaced, buffed, speed transducer put in the hull and a ton of minor fixes.

During that week I had to fly to Colorado to kick out the renters to our house.  Their rent checks were bouncing, bills had not been paid and I was worried.  It turns out they had over a dozen adult dogs and many puppies in their puppy mill inside our home.  They are gone and we now have a new management company to take these hassles away from us.  In one four day period I was able to get nine hours of sleep.  Nothing like trying to accomplish something with many different deadlines.

We sold the minivan to two guys from Patagonia who work with surfing racks.  She is in good hands and we are now keyless adventurers ready to set sail.

We leave today for Miami and then off to the Bahamas tomorrow!

Chase has fully embraced the freedom of our new sailing life

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Fort Lauderdale, Florida on the Middle River canal

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Rivers2Seas

Lagoon 410 made in France, 41 feet long with a 24-foot beam fractional sloop catamaran

Our home has treated us well and we have added some new safety features to make our lives easier and reduce a little stress.  The boat was in great shape when we bought her, but we needed to make it better.  And to make it home.

 

For navigation we have two Garmin 10” GPS units both inside at the navigation table and outside at the helm.  With the newest maps we can see Google earth and aerial shots of anchorages and other important landmarks as we enter.  These maps have been extremely accurate even with the base map model that we used this spring in the Bahamas at night and in a rainstorm navigating through a tight channel in the reefs for miles.  We have 2 backup handheld GPS devices as well.  The Garmin can be left on and will alarm if we drag anchor.  A hundred pounds of paper charts fill one of her shelves.  A few compasses onboard should never fail.  If all goes bad we have a few other backups like the beach ball globe from Ella’s schooling (a century ago this would have been gold).

For water we have two tanks with 100 gallons of water storage.  I am in the process of building a rainwater catchment system to supplement during passages.  We have a watermaker onboard that can convert seawater into drinkable water at about 5gallons an hour.

Electricity is generated by a Westerbeke generator, our engines, solar panels and a wind generator.  We can survive several days on using the solar panes and wind alone.  I have converted most our lights to LED’s, which run at 25% the amperage of conventional lighting.

Propulsion is achieved primarily via our 960 ft2 mainsail, 560 ft2 Jib and 600 ft2 Genakker.  We have a 100ft2 storm sail too (and a spare mainsail).  Two 30 horsepower diesel engines propel us at 6.5 knots.  We have 70 gallons of permanent diesel tanks and another 120 of temporary flexible diesel tanks.

For collision avoidance our first line of defense is ourselves.   During a passage we will always have a lookout whose job is to scan the horizon at least every 12 minutes.  That’s the time a tanker would take to come into view and crush us; not a pleasant thought.  They will also be looking for weather changes and sea life, of course.  The second line of defense is our AIS (automated information system) which is required equipment on every large tanker over 300 tons.  On our navigation screen we can see which direction, speed, name and cargo of these vessels.  A preset alarm will sound if they come within a distance we deem to close.   Our system also broadcasts Rivers2Seas, heading, speed etc.  I have read that the tankers often turn off this info on their navigation sets because it causes too much clutter.  There are rules of the sea as to who has right of way and a vessel under sail almost always has the right of way.  But when a ship can run you over and not even know about it, their size gives them the actual right of way and they know it.

To keep us on the boat we have jacklines that run fore and aft in which we can clip our harness into which should prevent us from being pitched overboard.  A two-foot lifeline around the boat helps too.  We have added netting to the lifelines giving us the appearance of a giant playpen.  The kids must always wear PFD’s if outside the salon.  We will wear ours at night and during any weather that seems appropriate.  Attached to our PFD’s are a knife, strobe light, whistle and MOB tags (man overboard tags).  These MOB tags will set off an alarm if any of them get more than 30 feet from the boat or are submerged.

For communication we have a Tracphone 25 satellite phone covering most of the earth.  Cell phones will be purchased when we plan to stay in a county for awhile.  The IPad has become a marvelous tool as well.  We have two nav station VHF units and a handheld one as well.

Lindsey and I have both been in the medical field at different times and have EMT training.  Our Medical Advisor, Dr. Art Sands has been incredible at getting us proper training, equipment and drugs.  We have seen some crazy stuff before and will see it again.  Once again, we have the knowledge and the tools to make these medical emergencies more manageable.  My biggest worry is getting another kidney stone during a passage and not being able to work.

Seeing at night is always difficult.  Kent and I had a hard time telling what bridge was what or if it was a barge or other canoeists (just kidding) when we night canoed through Kansas City.  We have FLIR night vision goggles that are super cool.  Using thermal variances in teperature up to a tenth of a degree a cameral screen gives us a glowing picture of the night.  Helpful in nighttime anchorages or looking for someone who has gone overboard (or canoeists).  To see during the day, I had lasik done on my eyes so that I can see more clearly.  We have 3 sets of binoculars and the kids have some spy scopes to look for land (or the dinghy should Wilson set her free again.)

Chase on his way to becoming "The Fixer"

Cats are reported to be unsinkable.  Nothing is unsinkable and fires are more of an emergency at sea than in our landlock homes.  If we need

to abandon ship we have a Givens top of the line liferaft rated for 6 people.  They have some pretty impressive videos from the US Coast Guard showing how superior their product is than the competition.  We hope to never be able to weigh in on the discussion though.  An abandon ship panic bag (with DON’T PANIC stenciled on top) has food rations, GPS, maps, flares, fishing gear, knives, signaling devices and compass.  We have a Katydyn PowerSurvivor 35 watermaker that can manually filter seawater at a rate of 1 gallon an hour.  An ACR epirb can be manually activated to alert authorities of our exact GPS coordinates.  This Epirb will go off if the boat is upside-down or the unit gets submerged.  A spot messenger is what we use to show our progress on the blog with great pictures of Google Earth.  We can manually send out a SOS to preprogrammed emails saying that we are in trouble, need help immediately and with our GPS coordinates.

Setting out on this journey we have heard about every comment from foolish, Why?,  and that many people have accomplished all this before, to with so much backup that it really isn’t an adventure at all.  We have taken many safeguards to ensure that our travels are safe.  If something horrible happens like hitting a submerged container (semi trailer floating 6” above the waterline) we have ways to get help – to not have that ability in this technological era would be foolish.  Saying that an adventure is only so if we use 18th century tools is simply a couch potato who knows less than the TV they are watching.  Many people are doing this now, many many voyagers have gone before this.

We added a plane to Rivers2Seas!

We want to see for ourselves.  The world is beautiful.  The seas are still intimidating, the whales still gargantuan, the sharks still prowling, storms still growing, then add to that the increase in shipping traffic and the cargo they have dropped, anyone who thinks otherwise needs to head to the woods.

One of my favorite quotes:

Far better it is to dare mighty things to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered with failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that know not victory or defeat.

 Theodore Roosevelt

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Road Trip from Colorado to Florida

Filed under: Moving aboard Sept. 1st — 8 Comments
September 14, 2011

We left our home on August 3oth and have now travelled from Fort Collins to Florida.  The car is loaded to the hilt with 2 surfboards, 2 Stand up paddleboards (SUP’s), a packraft, 10’ slide, 4 PFD’s, 14 paddles, riverboard, 2 child carrier backpacks, a giant sunshade, piano, and a bag full of bugs.  That’s what is on the roof – the inside has more than you can imagine.  We bring smiles wherever we go with the car becoming its’ own attraction at scenic overlooks.

Road trip kids

The kids are great road trippers.  We have them set up with a closet shoe holder attached to the seat in front of them so the can get to toys, food, drinks etc. from the comfort of their capsule.  The library full of books in-between the two was a great hit.  The iPad has paid for itself already in the entertainment value, Ella has a Nintendo DS that can seemingly do anything.  After 2 weeks on the road, this is our 4th longest road trip together as a family.   Ella visited her 41st US state along the way and Chase his 37th.

Our first night out we made it to Lindsey’s mothers’ house, Kay Reynolds.  She lives 2 miles away.  Moving out of our house, renting the house, leaving Mountain Whitewater Descents (even though we closed on Sept. 5th), solidifying things with our accountant, bookkeeper, USFS, Ben the Director of Fun, bankers and technological wizards occupied our time.  It made throwing Ella a 6th birthday party and an end of the season party for our 50 employees a bit of a difficulty.   That first night we went out with friends for a sampling of Fort Collins great beers.  Crazy saying goodbye to them that night.

Waking up early, we drove to Hays, Kansas where we found a hotel that had an indoor pool and water slide.  I wasn’t sure how they were going to fair with my planned slide into the water from the boat (which is why we have it atop our car) so I thought this would give us some insight.  Chase, having never been on a water slide showed us the way.  He walked up the stairs quickly by himself, jumped onto the slide with water gushing just below him, flung himself down – then slid  round and round.  I played catcher.  It felt like I was catching a newborn baby.  Slippery. Scared. Excited.  And I really didn’t want to miss him.  He would pop up and swim crazily for more.  Then he started following the adults going backwards and every which way.  Ella was just as crazy.

Cannonball!!!

In Kansas City, KS to visit with Steve and Kendra Menke and their daughter Kennedy.  The only time we saw the kids was to catch them in the pool after a belly flop.  Went to a Kansas State football game where we saw a good game and thousands of people doing their impression of waves of grain slowly waving their arms above them.  Cool sight.

Driving through Joplin, MO where a F5 tornado hit a few months ago.  The line between minor damage and complete annihilation is so distinct it looks like a bulldozer came through.  We then visited Scott and Rachel Sargent and their kids Cade and Noah in Little Rock, AR.  They have a great house in the country with a giant tree swing for the kids.  It was fun to catch up with my cousin and his family.

We then hit up Memphis, TN where we visited Mud Islands’ relief map of the Mississippi River basin.  It’s hard for me to believe what Kent and I did 19 years ago canoeing this river at flood stage.   It’s one of those events in your life that forever changes you.  For $250 I was able to self propel myself from Fort Collins to New Orleans 2400 miles later.  More

importantly, I was able to follow a dream.

We had dinner listening to blues on Beale street and then went to the Peabody Hotel the next morning to watch their most famous guests arrive down the elevator.  A family of ducks sprung out of the elevator doors, down the red carpet and into the fountain for the day.  The kids loved the idea of ducks in elevators.

Driving north to Fayetteville, WV Lindsey’s college roommate Jenny Becksted housed us on her farm in the country.  Jenny and her fiance Brian, showed us their giant garden with every type of produce you could want.  Ella and I had a problem leaving the tomatoes.  She easily ate her weight in tomatoes in the days we visited.

Ella catches a raindrop above the New River Gorge, West Virginia

A couple hikes to the New River Gorge, Gauley River and to Jenny’s house after running out of gas endeared us to this beautiful country.  An angry bees nest gave Ella two stings that hurt for days.  Jenny hung back to tell Lindsey and Chase not to come down.  They escaped.  Jenny was stung

Ella and Chase prove they are ready for all conditions

about 30 times for her thoughtfulness.  I ran down the hill with Ella screaming and only got stung once.   The hike back from the river bottom is straight up.  Ella understandably wanted nothing to do with the bees.  We wrapped Ella completely with Chase’s coat, Jenny’s coat and my shirt, then put her in the backpack carrier.  I hiked straight up that hill following the trail but then wide around the bees.  It was the hardest hiking that I have done in a long time.  At times I had to crawl on all fours for twenty feet trying to get under all the growth.  Ella couldn’t see a thing and was content knowing that her dad was protecting her.  My legs were sore for days afterward.

The first national forest tract dedicated to Chase P. Ambler

Ashville, NC was our next stop.  This is where my Grandfather grew up.  His father Dr. Chase P. Ambler was a prominent figure here.   Visiting the monument dedicated to him for his forest conservation efforts was a thrill.  The first National Forest tract was purchased 100 years ago is here and dedicated to him.  Wow is that cool.  The fact that we have a Special Use Permit to run rafting trips in the Arapaho – Roosevelt National Forest brings me that much closer to my relatives.

Rattlesnake Lodge was a retreat for Dr. Ambler and family.  We all did the three-mile hike together through lush forest to the site.  Cooling off in the same spring that they used years ago brings me closer to my ancestry.  The men in my family have made this moment possible.  Great grandfather, Dr. Chase P. Ambler was devoted to wilderness and helped start the National Forest system; grandfather Dr. John Ambler showed me his love of mountains and skiing; father Larry Modesitt took me camping and boating when I was young and helped me start Mountain Whitewater Descents, brother Kent not only canoed with me down the Mississippi, but saved MWD in a time of need with his lawyerly world; Chase P. Modesitt has brought me here in my desire to show him the world.  Thank you all.

While we were at the lodge site an old timer came by and started explaining how cool the area was and what Dr. Ambler had done there.  When I told him that Dr. Ambler was my Great Grandfather, he became reverent, almost bowed but settled with a handshake.  When I said that my son was named Chase P. I thought he might fall over.  He has been a caretaker of the trail for 16 years and was a pleasure to talk to.  He couldn’t convey deeply enough what Dr. Ambler did for the people of Ashville and the country.  I had nothing to do with anything, yet my pride spilled forth.

Mount Ambler is in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park along the Appalachian Trail, which made our next stop.  The kids each made the 1200’ vertical climb and 1.7 mile hike to the top.  We passed many adults who couldn’t make the climb and were turning around.  At the top we were chilled in the cold mountain air and unprepared.  A 6100’ mountain is nothing compared to a 14er in Colorado – right?  Mountains are mountains and we should have been better prepared.  Chase learned a cardinal rule in climbing.  The top is only halfway.   He explained that he was only three and was tired.  After seeing 30-year-olds fail on the trail, I had to agree and gave him a ride in the backpack.  Ella had about a 4 mile hike for her first ever successful mountain climb.

Okeefeenokee Swamp was our next stop on the Georgia/Florida border.  Fires have been ravaging the area all summer and over half the area has burned.  Renting a canoe brought us up close to the alligators all around.  The kids nervousness (Lindsey too – nobody wanted to be eaten) gave way to excitement as more and more gators were found.  Chase liked the baby ones.  A four-mile canoe ride and we were all burning hot.  With ice cold drinks all around, a Jacksonville news station interviewed us on why anyone would visit a swamp that is burning.  What can I say?

We are Modesitt’s and we want to see the world.

Hanging out in a crooked tree at Rattlesnake Lodge

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Living Life through Adventure

Filed under: Pretrip Fun on Rivers2Seas — 1 Comment
July 22, 2011

Living Life through Adventure   by Brad Modesitt

Looking up through the fog we see that planes are still landing at Fort Lauderdale International airport.  It’s a good thing, as conditions on the sea have been deteriorating.   Thunderheads shoot 35,000 feet towards the sky building an impressive wall.  Soon they will darken to almost black.  We are sailing aboard a 41’ catamaran, Rivers2Seas, so that I can get more experience before taking my family on an extended cruise.   Winds have been building all day and are steady at 40 knots.  A couple gusts have reached 50 knots.  I’m getting the experience I wanted and an incredible dose of adrenaline.  A plane about to land suddenly does a corkscrew back into the sky, screaming away from the thunderheads.  Hmmmm.   The fog thickens until we can only see a few hundred feet.  Small hail comes with it, winds are howling, sea spray and rain pelt our faces.  Tarn starts screaming, “This is living!”  Tarn, who is normally a quiet guy, is ecstatic, glowing and just plain happy.

“Nothing else matters in times like these.  We are living in the moment, reacting, thinking, doing,” he says.  Our reactions then focus on an oceangoing tanker coming through the fog 300 feet away.  It’s not really welcome and we can barely see it.  I know he can’t see us.  Moments later, as the tanker passes us on starboard, the skies clear, the winds calm down to 20 knots and the sun welcomes us into the protected harbor walls.   I’m giddy as my first large storm squall has ended successfully.

50 knot winds, fog, small hail, sea spray FUN

Pulling out my phone to post an update to my wife, I see an “Abby update” email. These are the updates my dad has been giving about my mom and her battle with lung cancer.  After a nine-month battle, it’s not going well.  She has taken another turn for the worse and has only a couple weeks to live.  Talk about an adrenaline dump.  From living on the edge, to witnessing death first hand.  Tears flow unhindered.  Am I happy to be alive? – you bet.  Am I sad about my mother? –  more than anything.  How could life be so dramatic?  But, I suppose that’s what life is – dramatic.  It just happens to be compressed right now.  Life and Death are intertwined for all of us.  We can’t have one without the other.

Back home in Colorado, I spend as much time as possible with my mother.  A Costa Rican friend has taught me to “always talk happy.”  I try to give my mother all the positive news I can.  Inside, all I can think of are unhappy thoughts.  How can I continue without my mother to talk to?  She is the glue of our small family.  We are all wildly different individuals and my mom has always been our common thread.   Even though she survived ten months after her diagnosis, she never said goodbye to me.  It must have been too painful for her.  I couldn’t imagine saying goodbye to my kids.  With her gone, what will happen?  Will my father still talk to me? My brother or sister?   Will we come together or drift apart?  I’m not sure.

My mother passes away while our small family holds her hands and cries.  In her last hours, I tell her of the full moon setting over the foothills as the sun rises in the East turning the foothills a brilliant purple that very morning.  She had found incredible peace; I’m not there.  I knew it was coming, but her death is like a thunderbolt shooting through my soul.  The pain of watching her die in pain, coupled with her loss to me is immense.

This is the third time I have witnessed death first hand.  All three scar my soul, haunting my mind.  The first was in India when a mob outside my taxi bricked a man to death twenty feet away.  Watching the man crumple to the ground with a pool of blood flowing into the street is etched into my mind.  It taught me how inhumane humans can be.  The second was on a rafting trip that I was leading when a young man fell out into an easy hole and never breathed again.  While taking turns doing CPR, I screamed to him that his wife and two-year-old daughter loved him.   It taught me how fragile life is and his family showed how compassionate humans can be.  My mothers’ last breaths had my brother, sister, dad and myself holding her hands telling her she was loved.  My medical background describes the last breaths as agonal breathing.  They are right.  Agonal for them and me.  Her death taught me another lesson in love.  All three bring incredible pain to my whole being.  Death may be part of life, but it is difficult to witness.

There is nothing else I can do here.

My best friend, Bryce, joins me on Rivers2Seas soon afterward for some more sailing experience and to just feel alive again.  His dad died several years ago of colon cancer and understands my pain.  Sometimes life is crap and unfair.  One thing death does for me is to reinvigorate my desire to live life fully.

Sailing Rivers2Seas

We join two other friends as we plan to sail across the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas.  I have done much

41 foot Lagoon 410 catamaran

longer passages, but never as captain and never on my own boat.  It’s different when you are the one who is ultimately responsible for your crew.  We prepare the boat, provision and check weather forecasts.   The boat is in good shape, we have good food aboard, plenty of beer and the weather looks between good and iffy.  Perfect.  I’m here to learn and experience tough conditions, not easy ones.  We cast our dock lines at midnight.

Motoring through the intercoastal waterway to the harbor entrance we need to thread two drawbridges.  It was relatively easy during the day, but at night it is simply scary.  Leaving the harbor behind we set course for West Point, Bahamas.  Soon afterward, a giant storm shooting lightning from cloud to cloud forces us to change direction to the south and around the dazzling light show.  A constant orange glow radiates for hours as the storm rages on.  Then, a small brilliantly white light rises above the clouds.  Hours away from land, there are no lights to dilute the skies brilliance.  It’s a super thin crescent moon that looks like an angel rising to heaven.  I can only think of my mom as we watch the amazing show.  I’m not religious at all, but I am deeply spiritual.  Nature has immeasurable beauty.

We make the crossing just before dusk, anchor outside the harbor and open some well deserved beers.  We made it!  After checking in with immigration, we sail to Mangrove Cay, an itty bitty island on the northern edge of the Bahamas chain.  Drinking bottles of wine with a neighbor for the night who happens to be an retired nuclear submarine commander, we enjoy the cruising life.

Searching 150 square miles for the dinghy

I’m awoken at 4am with the news that our dinghy is gone.   A ten-cent pin has worked itself out and sent the boat free.  The wind is blowing from the South and nothing in the way of the dinghy until she hits the Gulf Stream, which will send it up to New York.  I figure out the most plausible area in w

hich it could be – 150 square miles of open ocean.  Talk about a needle in a haystack.  But, this needle costs $10,000.  I pick a heading following the wind and hope.  For hours we search the choppy waters for a tiny grey speck.  A dolphin swims up and stares at us oddly.  “Where’s the dinghy?” we yell.  She heads to the left twice and is acting differently than any dolphin I’ve seen.  With nothing to lose, I steer a little to the left.  Half and hour later we see a white boat on the horizon.  It takes another half hour to get there with prayers and hopes soaring.  It is!  7.7 miles from Mangrove Cay we find it.  I feel like I just won $10,000 at the card tables.  I’m not a gambler, so I’d rather not have the chance to win like this again.

We sail on to Double Breasted Cay.  And as the name implies, it’s a great place to hang out awhile and play.  The water is as brilliantly green as you can imagine with glowing white beaches.   Anchoring for the night, we pack raft around some islands, snorkel, play cards late into the night and enjoy the cruising life.  Sadly, the next morning it’s time to head home.

Our next squall is another dramatic one.  A water spout (tornado on the water) is two miles off our stern and coming towards us.  Luckily, it dissipates a minute later.  Lighting directly above forces us into the hulls where we hope to be safe.  Sticking a metal pole 62 feet into the sky makes me feel anything but safe.  I’m scared.  The lightning flashes and thunders simultaneously for 15 minutes, then is gone.  We wind our way south to Bimini and then have a great fast sail back to Fort Lauderdale setting my personal best speed of 13.7 knots.

I wanted more experience and the only way to do that is to push my limits.   I wanted to feel alive again.  – Mission Accomplished.

Water spout over our stern and coming closer

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Washed Out to SEA

Filed under: The sailing life begins — 1 Comment

Washed Out to Sea

I have been a river runner most of my life.  This is where I find passion for life, my monetary livelihood and the place I just can’t pull myself away from.  I own a whitewater rafting business, Mountain Whitewater Descents, on the officially labeled “unnavigable waterway” of the Cache La Poudre River in Colorado.  Years ago, I even paddled from the Cache La Poudre down to the navigable waterways of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.  I didn’t learn much about navigation except that it is difficult for a canoe to avoid an ocean-going freighter.   Once to the sea my voyages stopped.  Rivers have been my life as I amassed over 18,000 river miles (about 1600 days in sailing jargon).

the Colorado flag waves across the Gulf Stream

Last week I finally figured out where all those river droplets were cruising off to – the allure of the sea.  Oh sure, I had been sailing a few time

before and even sailed through cool spots.  My first ever sailing was crossing from the Pacific to the Caribbean through the Panama Canal, which I did five times before ever hoisting a sail.  So back to last week, a friend and I enrolled in Blue Water Sailing School to learn the basics of sailing out of Marsh Harbor, Bahamas.  There are schools all over the States to learn sailing, but why go to a community college when you can go to Harvard?  Sailing in the Bahamas was like getting my SCUBA certification in Utila, Honduras with the second largest reef in the world, compared to a swimming pool session.  Having fun in a beautiful area while going to school.  I want the full adventure right off the bat.as

Lindsey about to swim back to the boat in the BVI's

The first thing we couldn’t help but notice was the luxuriousness of the 43-foot Fountaine Pajot Belize catamaran.  Bryce and I started backpacking together over 15 years ago.  Once we became rafters, we laughed at how difficult things were when we could only hike into an area with our house on our backs.  With a raft, we could carry tons of belongings, float into remote wildernesses and do day hikes from there.  Life was easy.  I haven’t done a remote backpacking trip in years.  Rafting has taken over.

Sailing raises that comfort level exponentially once again from rafting.  The kitchen and tables and tents and toilets and chairs and food and games don’t need to be packed up and stored each day.  Everything is bolted into the boat and ready to go.  Large tables are surrounded by comfy couches that can store more stuff than you can haul.  Actual refrigerators and freezers; are you kidding me?  We even had a coffee maker and microwave.  Hot showers, of course.  Close a few hatches that brought in a nice breeze, pull the anchor and get ready to hoist the mainsail.  That’s a piece of cake compared to rafting.

Once those sails are raised, the wind flows through your hair and there is no feeling like it.  Harnessing nature in such a primitive and unharmful way is empowering.  Why can’t everything be like this?  But it’s not and your bones feel life’s worries melt away.   Why can’t I live like this all the time?  Why isn’t this home?  Why not?  Hmmmm?

 

My Great-Grandfather Thibodeau had a poem that he would quote often:

Sailing

One ship goes east,

Another goes west,

By the self same winds that blow;

T’is the set of the sail

And not the gale

That determines the way they go.

I can now feel what that means.  I want to reset my own sails for the distant coasts and the nearby coasts.  I want to see it all.  I want to bring my wife Lindsey, 2 ½ -year-old and six-week-old, they deserve it.  Lindsey really deserves it.  She was the one who gave me this school for a Christmas present.  I was overwhelmed.  Especially when I realized what I had done.  She had told me the cost, about $2500.00 and was adamant that it was for both of us.  She even made me promise not to spend more than a hundred dollars.  Because of some previous efforts, I was certain that a pop-up camper would be in the driveway, so I bought her something that she truly wanted, would be totally unexpected and I didn’t think we needed.  I thought it was overpriced plastic– a Dyson vacuum.  Yep, she got me a trip to the Bahamas learning how to sail, without kids and with my best friend Bryce.  And I got her a vacuum.  I was drinking rum and cokes while she was knee deep in diapers.   The vacuum does kick ass but most women wanted to kick mine at that point.

I can honestly say that it is better to receive than to give sometimes.  I had the time of my life sailing in turquoise green waters from harbor to harbor.   Learning all the new vocabulary like luff and rake and clew and plunker can be a bit overwhelming.  We studied hard by day, snorkeled and played hearts at night.  The world is there to enjoy – so we did.

Raising the mainsail and then our Genoa we started learning.  Tacking and jibing either against or with the wind became familiar.  We could take our boat, Cataway almost anywhere.  At low tide and me as helmsman, I steered the boat into Hope Town Harbor and went directly aground.  We steered quickly off and then learned another lesson from our Captain.  There are sailors that have gone aground and sailors about to and liars.  At some point everyone will go aground, even America’s Cup racer Dennis Conner.  That mishap out of the way, I am ready to learn more.

We took the American Sailing Association tests, both written and practical.  We passed.  Now as licensed skippers we can rent a monohull or catamaran throughout the world.

My wife took a big hit being at home alone with the kids and I was in a deep hole with the vacuum.  Practical isn’t always better than romantic even at 10 times the price.  Lindsey knew what she was doing; a skipper certification can provide a lifetimes worth of romance as we sail to deserted isles and beautiful coastlines.  We can’t wait to bring our family on sailing trips to Croatia, San Francisco, the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Tahiti, Virgin Islands, Thailand and every port in between.  I have a rare wife that all sailors want: she wants me to sail and she wants to sail with me.  We won’t ever stop running rivers, but now when we get to the rivers’ mouth, we’ll keep on going.

We’ll leave the vacuum at home.

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