Add four people, some wind, and wine.

And you have the makings of a great time. We spent the day on Perfect Wind, a 25 foot Catalina with some good friends. She may be 30 years old but she still cuts across the Cheasapeak with authority.

We made at least two tacks and even had a chance to hang on the hook so we could take a swim.

Add a sack of wine and sandwiches and a good time was had by all.

And yes the Cutterman's Pin went along for the ride. So we can add that to the pin log.

"Spring" Clean up

We took a trip down to the boat to see how she was making out in the Southern Summer heat. Everything (knock wood) seems to be going well so we performed some maintenance in preparation for launching later on this year.

The teak was touched up with Cetol and I used Attwood's hull cleaner to remove the "mustache" Freedom was growing from all of the miles we put on her. If you squint you might see a hint of it in this photo. It's a brown stain above the water line created by the bow wake. Cudos to Attwood since the product was strong enough to remove the build up but not so strong as to bleach out the bottom paint.

After the clean up we drove down to Savannah and visited with Michele. As a part of that trip we stopped in at Fort Pulaski and the Tybee Light. Fort Pulaski was the last fort built with brick and mortar. When the Union attacked it with rifled artillery it was obvious this construction technique was no longer viable. The fort surrendered to the Union when the walls were breached and the magazine was in danger of being detonated.

http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/ga001.htm

The Tybee light is one of those landmarks people can visit and fully explore. Yes, that means you can walk to the top of the light. All 178 steps will get you there. And if you try it when it's 95 degrees outside like I did you will (hopefully) arrive at the top and wonder why you tried it. But once up top and outside on the deck the view made it worthwhile.

The John J. Harvey on the Rondout

I found this old video of the John J. Harvey and decided I'd post it. They were taking folks for rides on the fireboat when it visited the creek back in 2005.

Yes, we did get wet.

Two months down, Two to go...

It's been a month since we hauled Freedom out for the Summer. We've managed to have some great times with the help of our boating buddies up here in NY.
In spite of being away from Freedom things are happening that will move us along the path of getting her to the Bahamas again. For example we've picked up a new 55lb anchor, and a 17 foot whip antenna hoping to improve our ability to anchor out.

Ok, I Lied

Some folks took exception to deleting the blog. So it's back. At this point Freedom is on the hard waiting for us. We're back in NY at home looking down on the marina wondering how long it's going to be even tho we know the answer.

So the search for upgrades begins. A new anchor, perhaps another radio and single side band. To be sure there will be others but that is the list at this point.

I've created a slide/video show of the trip and placed it here:http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewalbum.html?bm=185511

Some folks have had trouble because of slow links so if it balks at you try a faster link? I've had it get stuck and loop a couple of times but other times it has gone very well.