Viking

You're finally on the right track Troph! If you have the money a performance oriented cat is 100% the way to go. Hopefully your wife finds the motion of the cat while sailing to be more to her liking. I've met some people that handle monos just fine but get sick on cats.

That's a pretty kick ass setup and looks fool proof. I'm into aquariums and ponds and would be tempted to put guppies or japanese rice fish in there. Thanks for sharing; I'll have to try this sometime.

It's a Manta 42 catamaran. Here's a picture of one (not ours): Well made boats built in Florida for owners and not charter. They're a bit small on the inside compared to modern Lagoon/Leopard/Fountaine-Pajot but it's perfect size for us and has decent performance.

I haven't posted much because doing so feels like bragging and I'm not that type. But since you asked, it's 4pm on a Tuesday and I'm drunk on Kaliks at Staniel Cay. Life does not suck.

Whoopsie. Would love the know the story of how this happened. Drunk? Asleep? Christmas blowjob? "Maritime Management LLC, based here, has reported that a ship under the company's management, the M/T Tropic Breeze, was struck last night at 22:03 p.m. by the super yacht M/Y Utopia IV approximately 15 miles NNW of New Providence Island, The Bahamas. The 160-foot tanker was traveling on its proper watch en route to Great Stirrup Cay when it was rear-ended by the 207-foot super yacht. The catastrophic force of the collision pierced the stern of the tanker causing the tanker to sink to the ocean floor at an estimated depth of 2000 feet. Fortunately, the crew of the Tropic Breeze were uninjured, have been rescued and safely returned to a company-owned facility on shore." https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mt-tropic-breeze-struck-by-mega-yacht-utopia-iv-and-sinks-off-the-coast-of-new-providence-island-301450791.html?fbclid=IwAR3maHBGARbpf1Rwj-I4WlkI402PrBuxdId34wZLWSFYRH0DBlHv9UdTbAw

That looks fast. What speed are you doing? Do your crew fly home after the race or do you bring the boat back to the states with them? I need to arrange to be in Miami early November next year so I can get a ride during the shake down sail before the race. 😀

Getting a boat from Florida to the VIs is a pain in the ass. You're going against the prevailing trade winds so you're basically waiting for a good weather window that might occur every few weeks to get you 100-200 miles east and south and then you wait again. You should look into storing the boat in Grenada during hurricane season. Getting it back from VIs to Grenada is super easy as it's a beam reach both ways.

Hanse isn't a catamaran so I say no. You want a Leopard 44-46. I've actually not been on a Hanse so I can't comment on those specifically. I'm curious as to keeping it year round in the USVI or PR. Lots of boats do that but the insurance has to be $$$ during hurricane season.

I worked food service at six flags for 3 seasons and back then they used Sysco (or something similiar). You could eat fairly decent meals (burgers, salads, etc) no problem. I loved that job as a teenager. Made out with a co-worker girlfriend on the spinnaker many a times.

I usually like dark mode in apps but this one looks like shit.

In the words of the great Captain Ron, "Well if anything's going to happen it's going to happen out there."

Getting antsy. We've been in TX since May and will return to the boat in a few weeks. We'll spend 3-4 weeks getting ready and then head down to the Keys. I didn't share in May but while we were docked at the St Augustine Municipal Marina we got hit by 55ft power boat. The current in St Augustine can rip at max flow and some captains underestimate it. This boat was docked directly in front of us and was backing out and quickly got sidewise to the current. They hit us once and were then the wrong direction to get out of the marina so they powered forward, hit another boat, managed to turn around, and then hit us again on their way out. The other boat that got hit was hit again two days later. 😠 The damage was both rubrails on the bows were ripped off, anchor and anchor roller were pulled out of the deck and twisted, bent anchor bridle padeye, and a bent pulpit. Just 5k in damage! Not bad! Fortunately the dude had money and just sent me a check. My insurance broker when I asked him what to do: "Do not get the insurance companies involved! Work it out between yourselves first." Ah insurance companies that don't pay out... it's the american way. BoatCollision.mp4

We renewed in person at the Tarrant County Courthouse in Arlington. One really nice covid change is that the passport office is now on a scheduling system. Previously you'd show up, take a number, and wait hours to be called. Now you show up at your scheduled time and you're the only person there and get help immediately. We chatted up the lady working and she loved it. No longer does she have to deal with customers that are bitchy because they had to wait hours.

We renewed our kids' passports in Aug and it took a month. We paid extra for expedited service.

We went to the Dallas march. Neither the wife nor I have ever been to a march or protest so figured now's the time. It's hard to judge crowd size on the ground but I'd say there were 2-4k people there. The sign game was strong.. my favorite "This is my resisting bitch face."

I've learned that the most dangerous boat on the water is a big ass power boat with an owner captain.

The % of sailors, even seasoned sailors, who don't know how to tie a cleat hitch is way higher than you'd suspect. They think that a cleat hitch keeps it on but it's the wraps that do. Thin dinghy painter + big cleat = you need lots of wraps. Every year in the Bahamas a couple of dinghys get lost. The owners blame the locals on facebook ("Our dinghy was stolen!!") and half the time the dinghy is found days or weeks later by another cruiser on an island with outboard still attached. I never let another boater tie off my painter for that reason. Except one time this year I handed my painter to a buddy who's been a liveaboard for 6 years. I figured he for sure knew how to tie a cleat hitch. We were drinking in the cockpit of his boat (a monohull) and two hours later I noticed that my dinghy was gone. Fuuuuck. We grabbed a flash light (it was around midnight) and set off to find it in his dinghy. Even that alone was a big risk as if his outboard went out then we'd be turbo fucked. It took us an hour but we finally found it about a mile up the island. The current from the outgoing tide kept it pretty close to land fortunately.

If the boat still floats and the crew is all alive then you did good! What was the second crazy situation? Most casts lack backstays, so sailing deep down wind just freaks me out. The swept back shrouds just don't seem like they are back enough to provide that much support for all of the forward forces on the rigging. Yet somehow the masts don't fall down. Fucking magic I guess.

Now I want to go to an art auction on a Carnival cruise. While drunk of course. What's the best piece for sale, a signed dogs playing poker?

Hey the first one had the teak decks already replaced. That's a 50k+ expense that you don't have to worry about for another 20 years! Get a cat. 800-1200k buys a badass 45+ft cat. The newer ones have a ridiculous amount of space. I've got a buddy with a Lagoon 450 and you could put 30 people on that boat and not be crowded. There's room for 10+ forward, 10+ in the cockpit, 6-8 inside, 6-8 on the hardtop. It's just amazing. The sailing, at least comfort wise, is so much better. There's little heeling and even when you beat towards weather it is not as bad. I've got a vid of a mono buddy boat that was bucking into weather and they were fucking miserable. Most of the family was throwing up. Our boat had a little slamming but otherwise it was comfortable.

There's no better anniversary/birthday/christmas present than a boat.

I commented to my wife that this boat is real FU money and I wasn't referring to the cost of the boat. It was doing ~35kts for a few hundred miles (florida->abacos).

Sailed from the Abacos to St Augustine this week. Had a great sail except that the 1st reef line chaffed through so we had to sail on the 2nd reef a lot of the time which is slooow as snot. Bonus of the trip was that we were 25 miles from Cape Canaveral when a Falcon 9 was launched. Pretty cool to see and I'd love to be even closer to a launch next year.

The Michael Trixx magic show at Lorelei's is great. Check the schedule but I think they have it 2-3 nights each week at sunset.

I promise you there's few things more relaxing on the water than sailing along at 5-7kts in a 10-15kt wind. Just heaven. I almost never give up the helm seat on our boat because I can sit there for hours and hours just enjoying the ride.