Stars, Sails - the Parallax View

A family of astronomers at sea... coming soon to a galaxy near you...

28 May 2020 | Fort Myers, FL
13 February 2019 | SW Florida
25 May 2018 | Fort Myers, SW FL
02 September 2016 | Fort Myers, FL
11 July 2014 | Fort Myers, FL
04 July 2014 | Fort Myers, FL
01 July 2014 | South Jersey Shore
23 April 2014
11 November 2013 | Fort Myers, FL
05 July 2013 | Fort Myers, FL
25 March 2013 | Fort Myers, FL
11 March 2013 | Fort Myers, FL
25 February 2013 | Fort Myers, FL
24 January 2013 | Fort Myers, FL
25 December 2012 | Fort Myers, FL
15 December 2012 | Fort Myers, FL
28 November 2012 | Fort Myers, FL
25 November 2012 | Fort Myers, FL
07 November 2012 | Fort Myers, FL

Every time we haul, it POURS!!!

22 September 2011 | Pensacola, FL
Heather/ pouring and 72F
Meteorologically, it makes no sense.

Given the constraints of my final trip to Vegas to pack Dad's things into a truck and bring them back to Pensacola (three full days of driving, which is to say, I drove 1860 miles from Tuesday morning -- thanks, Joyce, Bruce, Kevin, Dale, and Mary! -- through Thursday night, arriving just after 11 pm), followed by an immediate trip (also driving) to Orlando so that Derek could undergo a formal pin-on ceremony for his promotion to CDR, followed by a couple of days at Universal Orlando to celebrate Grant's upcoming birthday, followed by a trip to Mobile (Wednesday) to pick up our special cards necessary for any OUPV or other Coast Guard licensed captain (the TWIC card), followed by hauling out on Thursday -- but Friday, if the weather was threatening on Thursday, because of how bad it had been LAST time we hauled... how is it even possible!!!??? We could have chosen a different day. We WOULD have, if we had had any idea that this would happen a third time! Derek set the date for the haulout, checked the weather forecasts, and we went with today, Thursday, because yesterday, and even this morning, it looked OK... and it was not rainy in the early morning, although nicely overcast, so not too hot -- Grant spotted this lovely dinner-plate-sized moon jelly oscillating around the docks this morning:
moon jelly... pretty big! ... maybe that should have alarmed me, maybe moon jellies don't like sun, so it was actually, in its jellyfish language, urgently warning us of the impending rain apocalypse... OTOH, how would anyone be able to tell?

Things seemed pretty decent for the short trip over there (unlike last time, when Derek was absolutely soaked before we even left the dock), but after Parallax was actually out of the water, the western horizon started to look more and more threatening.

Warping Parallax into the travelift slings, photographer is facing west:
warping into travelift slings

Front sling is tightened, rear sling is being positioned to avoid lifting the boat by its propellers or shaft support struts:
positioning the rear sling

With Parallax out of the water and chugging along to be power-washed, it's still slightly sunny to the south (shown), but the western sky is looking ominous:
parallax the land craft

The power-wash guy noticed that we need to raise our bootstripe, too (told him so!) :-) We are planning on bringing that bottom paint up 4 inches to avoid the kind of waterline growth we saw over the last 4 months. Not that we actually plan to need all 4 inches... it's just that more paint is safer than less:
power washing

By the time the power wash and barnacle scrape were done, it had started to pour (again???), a nostalgic situation for us, as ALL of our family haulouts have been, for some reason, in driving rains:
raining AGAIN?

They drove her over to where she would sit, placed the timbers under her keels and the jacks to her sides, and lowered and detached the big, webbing, paper-wrapped (to protect her finish) straps:
lowered onto her keels

My lord, it's so rainy and gray by now, it reminds me of Nome, Alaska on a fall-rains day! Parallax sits on her timber baulks as the travelift operators head for some place drier:
gray and rainy

And finally, our part of the haulout work can start. The picture below is of Derek telling me that we should go get dry, after scrubbing the waterline and de-waxing with acetone where we are about to paint, and laying out the offset for the new waterline level.
Derek getting wet
Comments
Vessel Name: Parallax
Vessel Make/Model: 37' Prout Snowgoose (1982)
Hailing Port: Pensacola
Crew: Derek, Heather and Grant
About:
Two astronomers, looking for variable stars and adventure. After cruising the Caribbean aboard S/V Paradox for 18 months in the early 90s, the crew swallowed the anchor and had a child, always planning their next Great Adventure: cruising under sail with Grant, showing him the world. [...]
Extra:
We knew that if we ever got a catamaran, we'd want a name to celebrate her twin-hulledness. Parallax is seeing the same thing from two slightly different points of view, which with our two eyes is what gives humans our depth perception. It's also a good metaphor for one of the benefits of marriage. [...]

S/V Parallax

Who: Derek, Heather and Grant
Port: Pensacola