Our adventure has begun.

We left Burnt Store Marina on Monday afternoon with full fuel and water tanks, an empty holding tank and highly excited sailing hearts. The winds were strong, but they were predicted to blow a beam reach for us all the way across the bay and we were excited to do some real sailing on this vessel. The first hour was fantastic – 20 knots right on our beam, sunny skies and Stella was screaming at 7 knots! We were giddy with excitement. Then in the blink of an eye, the winds started to blow maintained speeds of 30, with gusts up to 40. As much as we wanted some good wind to stretch our sailing legs, that was too much wind 🙂 Stella Blue got up to over 8 knots!! We wrestled to get down the sails and made our way into the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) headed towards Cabbage Key. Our original plan was to anchor out across the channel from Cabbage Key, but with the strong winds we decided to take shelter in the Cabbage Key Marina. The relief that we felt after we were securely tied up to the dock was incredible. We had made it from Point A to Point B on our first solo voyage. Beer time!

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We did it!!

Stella Blue now has a properly functioning, ice-cold, kick ass refrigeration system. Logan and I installed the Adler Barber CU-100 compressor unit and the VD-150 evaporator plate unit yesterday from about 1pm to 10pm. There was sweat, there was grunting, there was even a little blood. But we were successful and feel so accomplished this morning. This may change the way we provision for the Bahamas!

The weather here on the west coast of Florida is wacky today with t-storms and sustained winds of 20-25 with gusts up to 30 mph, this is enough to warrant a Lake Wind Advisory. We will be spending this Sunday working on miscellaneous boat projects and resting up for our passage tomorrow.

Remember when I said that the more we accomplish, the longer our to-do list gets? Well this has proved to be true once again here at the Burnt Store Marina.

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We’ve had two incredibly busy days in a row. Thursday we went to the Dania Marina Flea market with Captain Ron and picked up a bunch of new toys. Yesterday we got the dinghy aboard for the first time, painted the centerboard, and put Stella Blue in the canal.

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Exhausted and Happy

We are almost there! We talked to the boat yard management today and scheduled our haul in for early Friday afternoon. The plan is to spend the weekend tied up to the dock while we finish up projects and use the car the run any errand we can think of because the little white Acura is being shipped to California on Monday. Then on Tuesday…off we go!!!

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Playing around with our new Pentax WG-II I found a time lapse mode. I set the camera in one of the port side portholes and let it do its thing for an hour. This is what it came up with. Pretty neat.

It’s been exactly one week since we left Houston. To the minute. We left at 7:45 last Saturday. It’s a bit hard to believe that it’s only been a week since we have done so much. We are finally settling in to our routine though. We have our french press thermos for making joe, and we have had the same breakfast for four days in a row, half a bagel with cream cheese sprinkled with old bay and an egg over easy on top. Our new home is small, but we have adjusted quickly. With a little bit of organization and planning a lot can be done with a little space.

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We are finally here! After 9 months of planning and preparation we are finally living aboard Sailing Vessel Stella Blue in Port Charlotte Florida at the Charlotte Harbor Boat Storage. We are still on the hard as we finish up final preparations for our voyage. It’s been a whirlwind of a week so far. So far we have installed a new stereo, bought a dinghy, moved all of our stuff aboard, cleaned and organized the head and galley, learned to use the oven and range, cleaned the water tanks, etc, etc. We have been working hard so that we can set sail next week.

There is still some work to do to finish getting this blog setup the way I would like it. It’s raining today so I am using this down time to do what I can.