The Cruising Adventures of Wild Blue and crew...

Mike,

Nice photo work, but I think I detected some Photoshop stuff going on, ie, the dorsal fin on the dolphin is missing :wink

And yes it sucks to have to show up at work on Monday morning, but it is almost as much fun as boating, and it does pay for the boat gas :thup

Harvey
SleepyC
 
Hey Jim,
We took delivery of "Time Bandit" Sat from Marc and Doug in Carrabelle, our home port, and look forward to seeing you guys in Apalach perhaps this weekend. I'm sure you already figured this out but, Marc and the boys and girl (this not a typo) at Wefings are great folks...
Cheers,
Tim and Shirley
Time Bandit
 
Hi Tim and Shirley,

Congrats on the new boat. I saw it briefly before it went out - looks like you're equipped for 'most anything! I am assuming we will be hitting the water shortly after the rest of the party arrives, so I don't think we'll be around this weekend. We'll be discussing places to go when they get here - Carrabelle sure looks nice. I'm guessing that will be on the agenda.

-----------------------------------------

Hi Bob and Nancy,

Not sure I can trust Marc to cook stuff that doesn't have critters from the Black Lagoon in it. :wink: Looks tasty, though!

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
Jim,
Some suggestions for the Carrabelle area...a little cruise up the Carrabelle River which will change into the New River is a nice trip. The new Tiki Bar on Timber Island has great food and, not all seafood, plus you can tie up at the dock and walk in. Also, Dog Island is a charming and pretty pristine place to check out. The harbor on the east end of the island is a good place to drop the hook, or you can tie up at the transient portion of the dock and take a stroll around the island...you mentioned the area was reminicent of Florida 40 years ago...well, this might be 50 years ago:)
Cheers,
Tim
Time Bandit
 
Thanks, Tim - we love to get local information like that. We are planning Carrabelle and Dog Island, so that's most helpful. Hope we can coordinate to see you there!

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
We are now a group of three boats! Brent and Dixie and Brent's sister Joanne and her husband, Jeff, arrived just after dusk. It was getting too dark to launch, so they spent the night in their RVs and plan to launch this morning. Great to see everyone, and the "skippers meeting" in Jeff and Joanne's motorhome brought things into focus: the plan is... one day at a time. :wink

Jeff and Joanne have a CD-22 that is brand new to them... hasn't been wet, yet. So, we won't be in a hurry to get on down the waterway while they get moved in and settled. They have boating experience, but there was some good natured discussion... I wasn't familiar with putting a motor on a buoy. 8) Three different boats, a range of performance differences. The personalities mesh, so we can work out everything else.

They have been driving for days, and we're all excited about poking along the coast, enjoying the water. I'll get some photos when everyone is up and about.

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
The six of us had supper with Marc (Wefings) and Anita last night. The conversation was lively, much of it centering around Marc's adventure with two trucks, a tow rope, and trying to trip a minivan. :shock: I'll leave the details to the principals, but apparently the producers of "JackAss" have called and want to buy the rights to make the movie! Marc grilled two kinds of fish and a very large pot of shrimp was boiled to the delight of 7 of the 8 of us. (You can dress 'em up, but I still know what they are... but to show that I am willing to try, I did eat a part of one.) This army travels on its stomach, so there was plenty of food, wine and dessert. It was a delightful way to end the day.

Much of the day was spent prepping and launching. Jeff and Joanne (proposed boat name Kurbit) finally got to get their CD-22 wet and motored almost 50 yards to their slip. The initiation continued while they learned the fine art of tying off to pilings and a skinny finger dock. Vehicles are tucked away, grocery shopping is done, the boats are loaded to their waterline, and we'll make some final decisions on what direction we're heading before we shove off.

The next few days are supposed to be pleasant temps with a chance of precip; with a cool front coming though by the weekend.

Updates as they happen.

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
Re:overloading. Don't know if it makes a difference, but that ground wasn't level. Now the boats... that may qualify. I haven't seen Wild Blue's waterine since we launched. :roll:

(Insert Bill's discussion about minimalizing here) :mrgreen:
 
OK.. So, Pat and I are in Puerto Vallarta, Mex. today and headed for Salulitos to sniff around for tracks left by Pat Anderson tomorrow. On the 2Nd of Dec. it's to Florida to find tracks left by Jim, Joan, Brent and Dixie. Having a hard time finding any C-Dorys or Brats. I guess the weather and water is just too warm. Dam!
 
We're cruising the ICW through the Cypress Swamp right now, westbound. I keep hearing banjo music in my head. :wink: We didn't get far yesterday, due to a necessary stop for some swapping out... Brent performed an in-water removal of his lower units (yes, both) and swapped out his old impellers - the new ones were too large of a diameter.

I'll post photos when I have a faster connection, but you will be impressed. Spent the night rafted to a dock; the ladies cooked while the menfolk worked. :wink It was an early evening, and we are enjoying the can't-get-lost stretch. The cypress trees are impressive, now giving way to Georgia Pines; saw some bald eagles earlier, and only one other boat so far today.

No particular destination, so we won't know where tonight's stop will be until it happens. It's a hazy day, upper 70s, calm. I shot some interesting shots in the fog this morning. We're cruising at about 6 knots, getting 5+ mpg, except for a faster run through Wimico Lake so Jeff could see how his boat gets up on plane. :D

Film at 11:00

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
I just love reading about your adventures. You really should think about writing a book. It would be a best seller.

Your stories inspired us to take boating classes and look into purchasing a boat. We passed our Coast Guard Aux test last night. (I had the higher score - does that give me more authority on board? :twisted: )

Be Safe and Thanks for sharing!!

Moria
 
mbwf":1ua9frr3 said:
I just love reading about your adventures. You really should think about writing a book. It would be a best seller.

Your stories inspired us to take boating classes and look into purchasing a boat. We passed our Coast Guard Aux test last night. (I had the higher score - does that give me more authority on board? :twisted: )

Be Safe and Thanks for sharing!!

Moria
Click to expand...

I think Jim IS writing a book, have you read the whole thing? Maybe several volumes! And I agree, it's great reading!

As for authority, the wife is always the Admiral, the husband the Captain. :D :wink:

I know.

Charlie Capt USN Ret.
 
Charlie,

On our boat, I am the captain and Joan is the OWNER. :mrgreen:
-------------------------------------------------------

We are down for the day, anchored in a bayou off the GIWW. Brent has a line in the water, now that it has stopped raining.

As promised, here are some shots from yesterday:

Heading out...

StartingOutE.jpg

About 5 miles up the Apalachicola River, Brent got a horn on one of his engines. We were near Marc's partners house on the river and asked permission to pull in there to assess the situation.


The impeller wasn't pumping water. Yeah, that's not good. Brent went right to work taking the lower unit off, and changed out the impeller - at that point, we could see that the diameter of center of the new impeller (that Brent installed before they got here) was too large. Brent put the old one back in, and we put the unit back together...


Since we were out of the wind and waves, he decided to check the other impeller. Yep, too big. He changed that one out, too.

RaftedE.jpg

We decided to raft up and call it a day. While several people were standing on our boat to raft, I could hear the scuppers back filling. No bilge pump? I checked it and it was frozen - wouldn't turn at all. Since we frequently get water in there and rarely get water in the cabin, I swapped those two pumps out. Not saying I'm not as handy as Brent, but it took me longer to do that then it did for him to change out two impellers. :roll:

We had supper on Discovery, chatted for a while, then turned in for the night. The wind laid down and it was a warm, muggy night.

Today when we were ready to leave, a thin fog had come in - not enough to cause any vis problems, just enough to add to the ambiance.

Our cruise up the GIWW has been interesting today; wooded and quiet. We stopped for a while at the public dock in White City, and are planning to be in Panama City tomorrow.

More when I can; this connection is painfully slow. (I'll try to get more photos tomorrow)

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
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