Final Preperations Again

Well we are planning on leaving Panama City on April 1st. It feels like leaving Houston all over again, but hopefully with better results. We have been refitting Sandy ever since we got here, and now we are prepared for anything (probably not!!). But we are prepared for all the problems we had on the way here. I installed 3 more solar panels, at 125 watts each. When we left Houston we had 180 watts of solar and 400 watts of wind generator (that's if the wind is blowing 30 knots) Now we have 555 watts of solar. Which sitting at the dock is more than enough to handle our load. I also installed 3 new alternators, and KNOW that all three are working. And I bought a 3000 watt gas generator as a backup for the backups. Better safe than sorry.

I also added a new solar charge controller as our old one wasn't large enough to handle the additional power.

I also added AIS to our Raymarine system. I purchased the send and receive model, and installed the unit on a switch in case I don't want people to see me. I am currently waiting on a cable to hook it up, so we might not get to use it this trip. I also got my wind, depth, and speed units hooked up to the E120. The more I learn about the system the more I'm amazed by it's abilities.
For all those non mariners out there, curious about AIS?? www.navcen.uscg.gov/enav/AIS/default.htm

Jen has been re sanding our rail, because we didn't varnish it last spring when she was done sanding. So far she has about 3/4 of one side done. She would be done, but claims she is retired and can't work when the weather is too crappy, or too perfect. So in between too crappy and too perfect she only works about 3 days a month.

Before, During, and After.

I also re-polished our train horns, as it is our most important piece of equipment, and needs to be working properly. (I think they sound better polished)

As the crow flies Carrabelle is 59 miles away, but from marina to marina it is 100 miles going around Cape San Blas. We are still too tall to do any of the intercoastal waterways and will be offshore the entire way. We should be able to make the trip in 24 hours, but due to my lack of planning skills and everything taking twice as long as it should, I am planning 48 hours for this trip.



We are all looking forward to getting back out on the water. With fingers crossed and happy thoughts, we are ready to try again. Knock on wood this trip will be better than the last.

Something NEW

Last night when Ryan, Sissy, and I went for her walk we saw something that we have never seen before…

GLOWING WATER!!!!!!!!

The water was twinkling like hundreds of stars or lots of lightening bugs just under the surface, but where ever the water was moving it was like watching electricity run through the water. The glow would ripple and move, the best that I can describe it would be like the northern lights underwater. It was soo cool. I tried to get a bunch of pictures but most of them were just a black screen. I have a little bit of video of Ryan walking on the beach (His footprints would glow in the sand four or five steps behind him) and then me splashing in the water with a stick and you can kind of see the ripple effect. The camera didn’t do a good job though, you can only see the most extreme of the glow, when in fact all of the water was glowing. Ryan and I got in the dinghy and played for two hours. We would have stayed out longer but I was getting a little cold.

A jellyfish pulsing in the water

  

Splashing the water

That’s about all of the pictures that turned out. Hopefully I can have another chance to see glowing water and try again!

Life as usual

Not much going on around these parts.

So I am just going to post some pics.

Ryan and Sissy on their way home from the store.

Sissy posing in front of Hunt’s Oyster Bar.

A Day on the beach.

Horseshoe crab on the beach.

Out for a joy ride.

Recap

Okay, So I was recently turned on to another boaters blog, it was a great read and so very much like Ryan’s and my own story. I have sent them an email and hope to hear back from them and possibly add their link to our page. While reading their blog I noticed a few things that she did in her page and thought that they would be good additions to our page as well. (Thanks for the great ideas!) Many of you will notice that I have added a specs list of Sandy Dreams to the side menu. I thought that it was a good idea and wanted to add that information to our blog. Ryan came along and noticed that I was making changes and decided to help. Soooo our specs list is a little longer winded than I had planned on but Ryan insists that all of it is necessary (Whatever). Another thing that I liked about the blog that I read is that she had a list of all the repairs and changes that they had made to the boat since purchasing her. I too would like to make one of these lists, just not right now because my memory is going to have to kick into overdrive for that task, but maybe soon. For now I will just post about some of the changes that we made and then got busy and forgot to post about. One that immediately pops into memory is the work we did on Marilyn’s stateroom. Initially I didn’t post anything because we wanted it to be a surprise to her when she showed up. Kinda ruins the surprise if everyone else has already seen it. :) Then we had the wedding and things got crazy from there out. So here are some before, during, and after pics.

 

* Ryan also installed a small AC unit for Marilyn at the foot of her bed. (Pic above)

*Marilyn officially moved aboard in January (Not sure if that was ever officially blogged.)

*Another project that has been completed… painting the name on the back. Finally!

First we had to scrub the old name off with Acetone. By hand. It really sucked.

Then Ryan buffed and waxed the scratches and paint residue off the back. We put the stencil on, and scuffed the areas to be painted then Ryan inspected my work.

Once I was cleared, I began painting.

And the finished result was something we could live with.

*Another project was buffing the hatches. They had oxidized and were ‘foggy’.

Before and After

 

* We sanded and painted the dodger top

*We hung pictures or what I really should say is we velcroed pictures.

These pictures are of the Rings and Sandy Dreams with all her sails up. (I had posted about these when I first found them on the boat.)

Marilyn has some pictures from Phoebe’s parents in her room and I put the “Wall of Fam” in ours.

This one is a painting my Great Grandfather did.

*I added a few little touches of paint to places that were not good for hanging things but someplace that I wanted that little something.

 

*Purchased a little table for the salon.

*Got a mount for the projector.

*Had all new sail covers made.

* Ryan got all of his gadgets installed. (There were some earlier blogs on that)

While here in Panama City we have also made some repairs that came up during our trip.

*All of the alternators have been redone.

*The “door” in the cockpit has straps made to keep it up out of the way and a tear repaired.

*The roller furling sail was repaired.

*All of the hatches have been resealed.

*The mast has been resealed and the trim varnished.

(And as of right now we are having a somewhat nasty rain storm and don’t have any leaks! Yea!!!!)

*Ryan has bought 2 more solar panels. They should triple our intake. He has them mounted but is still deciding on the best way to run the cables.

And I am sure there is more work that has been done and much more to do, but I am drawing a blank right now and the blog is already pretty wordy. So thanks for making it this far and I will try to post updates as they are happening to prevent future back tracking.

Until next time, much love and happy thoughts to all of you.

Jen and the rest of the crew

Fun in the big town of Panama City

Last night as I was talking to my mom about Spinnakers, the place Ryan’s Friend Scott manages, and about how crazy it is going to get over spring break. I started looking at their website. And while I was looking I found pictures and in those pictures was a good one of Ryan, Marilyn, and our new Scott friend  when we went out for Mardi Gras (other Scott not Ryan’s Scott). So I thought that I would post the link on here and while I was doing that I thought that I would post the marina’s webpage too. So that you can see where we are.

http://spinnakerbeachclub.com

http://www.sunharborpc.com

We are doing good here, hope you are there.

Lots of love,

The Wells Family