07/07/2008, Puerto Rico
Here's a Picture of Santa coming to visit last Christmas in our dingy..... imagine 9 people in that!!!
Our trusty little 9.9 Yamaha outboard has been loosing power for the past few weeks. I was not really to worried about it, it has been so faithful over the years. I changed the plugs and cleaned the injectors and it still was gutless so I asked our local boat mechanic here in Salinas and he identified the problem. Apparently this year of these 9.9s and 15s (its an older one) have a known issue as they get old they loose their main seal and it's more costly to fix it than to just get a new engine. Soooooo as we are starting to shop for a new engine.... the old dingy itself starts to loose air again... this is nothing new either as I bought it used (very used) 6 years ago in Fort Lauderdale and even though it is a Hypalon dingy she has been starting to literally fall apart on us in the hot sun. We have kept her floating for the past 2 years by pouring a glue substance into the tubes a couple of times a year... its kind of like the fix-a-flat stuff for cars and has worked well.... until now. Shes not holding up.
Looks like we need to bite the bullet and get a new dingy. With 9 people onboard, and our little guys only getting bigger by the day we need at least a 13 footer and probably an 18 horse engine. We figure if we are gonna spend money on a dingy we better get one we can all go to shore in without relying on Shadow as a back-up. FUUUUUUN huh the dingy and engine we'll need will run around $10,000 which is comperable to a full repower on our boat itself. But what can ya do? We anchor out 99% of the time and our dingy is our car. It takes us to shore as well as to dive spots and in an emergency its our tie to shore.
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07/04/2008, Puerto Rico
Happy 4th of July to everyone back home. Let me assure you that the holiday is being celibrated by the Puerto Ricans with a gusto.
I am sitting in the Cruisers Galley here in Salinas and cars with boats are driving by while children with coolers are marching by in droves headed for the beaches and harbor where our boat is moored out.
We spent the day here at the Galley with Christian Allaire (check out his blog here on sailblogs too) and his sister and her daughter. We ate burgers, hot dogs, chips, fruit and chocholate brownie sundays while we all watched CAPTAIN RON which we were happy to note was filmed here in PR and some of the scenes filmed right about 100 yards from where we sit. (Hey if you're not a cruiser you just will not understand the importance of this!)
Well I will sign off now because we are about to watch another fun one.... The Three Amigos.
Happy B-Day USA!!!
Captain Tofer
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06/14/2008, Salinas, Puerto Rico
I am leaving on the 19th for another delivery with my buddy Blaine Parks. For those of you who don't know, I have been doing sailboat deliveries with Blaine for the past two years. In that time we have sailed close to 20k ocean miles on other people's boats (and been paid for it too!!) My last trip was a couple of weeks ago when I delivered an Island Packet up the coast from Ft. Lauderdale to New York City. This next trip we will be delivering the 48 foot Island Packet flagship from Charleston to Tortola.
On the home front, Rebecca is now working at "The Cruiser's Galley" here in Salinas. She is doing a little bit of everything, from cooking to catering and waitressing. It has been great for the kids because they can come in and watch cartoons on a big screen TV in the afternoon LOL. There are computers here too so the older boys have been having a good time playing some games together whenever we go in after our school on the boat is done.
We moved Wandering Dolphin to a mooring for the season. It is a new mooring and the owner is not charging us for it. He just wanted a boat on it so no one else nabbed it and left their boat there forever hehehe. It will make it a lot easier for us to quickly head over to Jobos (the mangroves) when the big storms approach. We are also taking care of a boat for another guy while he is gone for the season. He pays us to check his boat, start the engine, keep the batteries charged and for an extra fee to move it over and tie it off in the mangroves when we move our own boat.
Jimmy will be heading to Wyoming again for July and August so he can go to camp and visit Grandma and Grandpa. He will be leaving his little growing business of bottom cleaning to me. (he has some monthly boats to clean now. If I am going to clean bottoms I will need to get a Hooka. My older lungs can't handle free diving and cleaning at the same time.
So our plans for the season seem to be coming together pretty well. I hope to get a couple of more deliveries before the end of July and start booking some more for the fall. I am already booked to deliver the same Island Packet that I took to New York back down the coast in October.
We are also hoping to take on 2 more boys or girls for September - November for "A Course Correction" so if you know anyone just give them our e-mail sail@wanderingdolphin.com or have them call Shelly at (918) 540 0732.
We had some comments about our suitability to take troubled kids on sailing adventures so I thought I would mention here that Rebecca and I have been working with troubled kids for 19 years. I have a degree in Social Science's as well as 16 years experience as a school teacher. I also was a trained group facilitator for a counseling program in the public schools and am a trained substance abuse 12-step facilitator. We have had over 130 kids actually live with us for one year or more in our own home. I am also a US Coast Guard Licensed Captain with over 20,000 bluewater miles. If you have any questions about any of this before you refer us to your friends send us an e-mail and I would be happy to personally call you and chat with you or give you references before you refer us on.
God Bless,
Captain Tofer
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