Very nice
04/01/2013, 26.929747N:82.06376W

Opened up one of the galley drawers and out poured about a liter of water. Hmmmm where is that coming from? So I had to get into some strange positions to see up in the cupboard where the water was coming from. Found it......was coming from the deck shower head hose. What was happening was the shower head has a button to press for water to be turned on. Well while in the holder it was pressed up against something and the cupboards were getting a shower. LOL Replaced the shower head and all is well on Majestic Dreams.

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Very Nice, sunny 74 and light breeze
04/01/2013, Fisherman's Village, Punta Gorda FL

Tied up in Fisherman's Village, Punta Gorda Florida. This will be the home of Majestic Dreams for a little while. We plan on leaving her here and then returning to Oklahoma City. Then in a month we will bring the kids back down with us and do some day sailing to get some of the kinks out of her and let her get used to us. Very happy with our decision.

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Nice/75/8 knot wind
04/01/2013, Burnt Store Marina/Port Charlotte FL.

It has been a while now since an update to the blog. We got the transmission fixed and while we kept planning on returning to the boat and sailing her or moving her, schedule problems and other commitments always got in our way. So now we have headed down to the marina with the intentions of moving her to another slip that is has more city opportunities available. Burnt Store marina is a great place but a bit off the beaten path where if you want to go shopping or need parts, supplies, etc. It would take about a 30 minute drive. As opposed to the new place (Fisherman's village, Punta Gorda FL.) is more nestled in the hustle and bustle of the city.

We arrived and found that we needed to work out the logistics of keeping the rental car and moving the boat at the same time. Plan was Cynthia would drive the car back up the coastline to Fisherman's Village and I would steam up the coastline via the water with the boat and we would meet at the new mooring place. Great idea until you try to turn this Vagabond around in a tight marina. She has a wide butt and heavy ballast so she doesn't like turning around in cramped quarters. Didn't help that every power boat in Florida wanted to enter Burnt Store Marina at the same time I was trying to turn her around. After about five stabs at it and a close call with some mooring poles. I got her turned and headed out to sea. Motored up the coast with no problems and as I was approaching the entrance to Fisherman's village it was getting dark. Nav signs and indications were very hard to see so I made 1-2 knots into the marina and didn't have any problem. As I approached the marina on the left I saw two very large black objects. Wow, there were replica's of the NINA and the PINTA tied up to the pier. Awesome sight as I was pulling in. Brought her right into the slip were we are leaving her for a bit and all was great. I'll try to get Cindy to upload the pictures of the replica boats.

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Cynthia/ nice December Day
12/06/2012, OKC

Update on the transmission, it's on life support. Our star mechanic has pulled the transmission and took it apart. As you can see from the photo, it is not pretty. When the mechanic took it out and was carrying it up the stairs, all the loose metal was banging around inside. He said "This is not good." The housing is cracked. Pretty much every part is going to have to be replaced. We have found a place that has all the parts, but the cost isn't pretty. It is $2,900 just for the parts, not including the labor to rebuild the transmission and put it back in the boat. Needless to say, we are a bit discouraged. We were hopeful we can get the transmission rebuilt and move the boat to another marina in Florida before Christmas, but that may be just wishful thinking on our part. Good news is that the boat is safe and someone is working on it.

We are very excited about our Christmas plans. We are staying at our friend's house in HAWAII for a week. They have been so thoughtful on making sure we have good transportation and fun things to do. They even put up the Christmas tree even though they won't be there on Christmas. The kids, my parents, Robert & I head off on December 21st to the crystal blue waters. We have lots of FUN planned! My parent's 50th anniversary is next year, so we decided to bring them with us as their anniversary gift. Looking forward to the day when we can sail our boat to Hawaii instead of a plane ride!

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Ax/Nice
11/26/2012, Oklahoma City

We are home and have started back to work. But reflecting back on the whole episode I can only thank whomever was watching out over us. I made a map of where we anchored (#1) and the trail (supposedly) that we drug the anchor and where we were picked up for tow. (#2).

The part that gets me is that there are many pilons that are about 6-8 foot tall and about 2 foot in diameter (indicated by the green squares) that we had to have passed while sleeping and it is only a miracle that we didn't bang into one of them or worse damage the boat. I called the previous owner and talked to him about all this and he right away told me that I needed 75 foot of anchor chain out on a night like the one we had. I estimated that we had 60+ feet of anchor chain out but he is right. The more chain you have the better your chances of resetting the anchor once it drags or flips over in the mud below. One of life's lessons. I'll not too soon forget.

The mechanic is suppose to start on the job today. He is needing to build a trellise to support the engine once the transmission is removed. Then once that is in place he will be taking a transmission the size of a small calf out a hole the size of a bowling ball! Cramped is an understatement. I don't evny him. Once the transmission is out then he will be able to break it down and see what actually happened. I think a total rebuild will be in order. That way we won't have to worry about it leaving us stranded in the future.

The big decision now is when the transmission is fixed, do we hire a captain and crew to ferry the boat to Kemah or do we wait till the end of Feb/first of Mar to be able to go down and ferry her ourselves. We are leaning on getting another captain to do it, that way we can just wait till it is in Kemah and then fly down and do some weekend sailing. Otherwise, with work schedules and the upcoming Holidays we won't be able to get free until last of Feb 2013.

Big Sigh!

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Cynthia/Pretty in both places
11/24/2012, Burnt Store Marina & Home

I thought I would post a picture showing how much better the decks look after Cinderella had been working on them for almost a week. Amazing what a good product and hard work can do!

This is the last day on the boat, so there are a lot of little things that have to get done. We have to pack all our clothes and other items that have to go back to OKC. Paul got a few presents for those that are helping watch his house, so I will be packing those in one of our hard sided suitcases and mailing them to him when we get back to OKC. We are leaving a lot of the things we brought on board - pressure cooker, rice cooker, pillows, bedding, etc. It should be much lighter going back. All the loose items on board have to be stored or tied down. Lots of rope, life preservers, deck chairs, etc all had to go below or in the deck box.

Robert worked on getting all the equipment talking to each other and soldering the wires under the navigation station. I finished the last little bit on the decks. We got finished packing everything up about 5pm, so we went over to Fisherman's village to have dinner. They had just decorated for Christmas, so it was very pretty. The restaurant at the end of the dock makes their own salt scrub. They have it for you to try in the bathrooms and it is really quite wonderful. This is the marina we used for the sea trials, so we had been here before. I decided to buy a container of the pomegranate scrub. We had a lovely dinner looking over the bay with the boats floating by.

Paul's flight leaves at 7:15 in the morning and the Tampa Bay airport is about 2 hours away, so we decided to drive to Tampa tonight and get a bit more sleep in the morning. We stayed at a hotel not far from the airport.

Robert took Paul to the airport first thing and I stayed at the hotel. Our flights don't leave until 11:20 and 12:05. Everything went without a hitch... until security. We check two basically empty bags, but it wasn't until security caught my salt scrub that I realized that I hadn't moved it to our luggage. It was too late and they had to throw it away. I was VERY sad!
Robert & I flew separately, but arrived just about the same time in OKC. He was down in baggage claim and he texted me "there is a lady down here in boots and spurs". I replied "I am HOME!" Not your everyday sight, except in Oklahoma and maybe Texas.

Thanks for everyone's kind words and encouragement on this journey. I hope I haven't bored you too much! We will keep you updated on the progress of the transmission and the decision on how to get the boat to Texas.

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