Tanqueray For Sale

To see the boat listing go to:  

http://www.boattrader.com/listing/1989-O'Day-322-339308

Yes folks, the Tanqueray has had her last voyage.  We crossed the Gulf Stream from the Abacos to Fort Pierce, FL a week ago today.  It was a smooth sail, but also a bitter-sweet sail, knowing that our trip was coming to an end.

Sara on Tanqueray - heading back to Florida

Mike sailing her into Fort Pierce, FL

However, we hope that, as it may be 'our' last trip on the Tanqueray, it will not be 'her' last trip.  We are looking for the right owners now, who want an adventure of their own.

Last sunset in the Bahamas - one word "Magical"!

The Tanqueray is a sturdy, well-crafted sailboat, fully equipped and ready to head back south.  We are willing to negotiate on price to make your dream happen.  Please contact us if interested and/or you'd like to schedule a visit.

Tanqueray sailing into Fort Pierce 

Tanqueray docked at our friends the Walkers house in Fort Pierce.
Tied up beside the yellow catamaran Kopy Kat.

Mike's final Bahama profile

Tanqueray's topside looking good

Chart table

Tanqueray's salon - ready for the next owner to move-in!!!

View from the companionway

Our new ride a Ford F150 to cross the country in on our road trip back to the west coast.

You Know You Live on a Boat In The Bahamas When:

Tanqueray anchored at Pipe Creek, Exumas, Bahamas

Swimming is a daily activity!

You've reached your maximum tan.

You no longer communicate with cell phones, but with the VHF.

You listen ("eavesdrop") to other conversations on the VHF.

You break your can opener.

You break your replacement can opener.

You are stingy with your fresh water, washing & bathing in salt water as much as possible.

Your wild nights are in a town of 300 where you meet everyone in town in the first 5 minutes & are in bed by 10pm.

Night time entertainment is a game of cards or reading a good book and not a movie or TV show.

The latest product in your hair is the salt from the sea.

You dream of HOT SHOWERS, hey, maybe even COLD showers...

You worry about the head (toilet) breaking.

All your valuables are stored in zip-lock bags.

When it’s not unusual to hit your head once a day.

When your wardrobe consists of 90% swimsuits.
You look for the green flash in the sunsets.

Sunset

Fishing is considered an arm workout.

You use vocabulary like: scuppers, stanchions, jib, leeward, forestay, bow, stern, forward, aft, companionway, cockpit, halyard.....

You listen to the weather forecast instead of the news every morning.

You reuse ziplock bags.

Your recycling bin consists of burnables, compostables, and sinkable's.

You use a sea sponge for a dish sponge.

You tape your cupboards shut.

You have a new waterfront view everyday.

Your center of balance is no longer standing straight, but leaning at a 30 degree angle.

You drink warm cocktails, occasionally warm beer, if you are lucky enough to get it.

You line dry your laundry.

You consider letting your husband cut your hair.

You get Internet 3 times a month instead of 3 times a day.

You speak in units of knots instead of miles per hour.

You compare things like: length, draft & speed with your neighbors.
There are not enough words to describe the variations in the color blue.

Pipe Creek, Exumas

Happy hour doesn’t have to start at 3pm and end at 6pm.

Fish is a daily part of your diet.

In terms of keeping your home clean, sand, salt and mildew are your worst enemies.

Leaving the head (toilet) valve open could sink your home.

All your lights are LED & you monitor your power usage daily.

You use port and starboard for left and right.

Parking requires an anchor.

Wind is your best friend and worst enemy.

You cook with propane.

You are excited when you make a tray of ice cubes in a day.

You NEVER wear socks.

You rarely brush your hair.

Visiting the neighbors requires a dingy ride.

Practically everyone on the SEA is your new best friend and is willing to lend a helping hand!

Pitts Town, Crooked Island

......the joys of seamanship in the Bahamas!

Sailor Superstitions

By Mike “Daubie” Daubenberger

My Grandpa started the sailing Daubenberger Family’s sailing tradition three generations ago.  When we proposed the trip, Grandpa was full of advice, helpful information, and had a number of mementos to share.  There was the PT yacht club flag, the stone soup fillet knife, and a silver dollar to be fastened to the front of the mast.  With the silver dollar came the following note:

Dear Sara + Mike

I’m sure you know that sailors are very superstitious.  Never sail on a Friday, never whistle before the mast, no women aboard (yeah right) and never sail without a silver dollar at the base of the mast.

Enclosed is the one that served us well on the Stella Maris for 20 years.  May it continue to keep you safe and bring you luck and happiness.

Love Grandma and Grandpa

This is my Grandpa, he has a word of advice, a solution to a problem, or a piece of heritage to share for every adventure, problem, or opportunity that may come your way.  I’m happy to report the silver dollar has been secured and the ship and crew have safely arrived in the Bahamas!!!     

Lake Sylvia

Yes, that is our sailboat, the one that looks like a dingy, on the right.  We rafted up to our friends, who were on a 45 foot ketch, named Even Song.  This was my first experience rafting up to another boat and it is a lot of fun being able to jump from boat to boat and not have to climb into a dingy, possibly get sprayed with salt water and/or get stuck out in the middle of the harbor with your outboard not starting (these have been some of our experiences so far!)  Nelly especially loved the extra space to explore and canvas to jump around on.  

Lake Sylvia is the free anchorage in Fort Lauderdale, a quiet escape from the busy city and mega yachts.  Here you can actually meet boaters on similar size boats as yourself.  We spent 2 weeks in Fort Lauderdale outfitting our boat for the Bahamas.  Boat life is a lot of fun, but it is not always fun and games, especially in the beginning!  So, if you think we are just relaxing in the warm 80 degree weather drinking gin & tonics (what other drink would we have, with a boat named Tanqueray!) with nothing to do, see the list that I've provided below of what we have done these past two weeks while at the dock in the Riviera.

1.  Bled the engine

2.  Installed new/working refrigeration

3.  Changed out all the inside lights with LED lights (energy conservation for our 2 small house load batteries)

4.  Installed an outdoor cockpit LED light

5.  Hooked up the auto-pilot

6.  Bought a spare anchor and anchor rode

7.  Strengthened the dingy davits

8.  Re-bedded multiple fittings

9.  Installed a new battery charger and inverter

10.  Fixed carburetor on dingy outboard

11.  Provisioned the boat with a year supply of food and supplies

12.  Stowed all the new supplies

13.  Bought several spare parts in case something breaks down in the Bahamas (i.e. fuel filters, oil filters, hose clamps, wire, hose, you name it, we have it!)

14.  Installed salt water pump (this is to help with conserving fresh water when doing dishes)

15.  Change fuel filter

So, don't feel too jealous of us just yet.  After Saturday when we cross into the Bahamas you can start feeling jealous!  

Transient

We've been in and out of several marina's and small port towns already and I keep getting asked the same question, "Are you a transient?"   I looked up the definition of transient and found the meaning to be:

•  A.  a guest or boarder who stays only briefly

• B.  a person traveling about usually in search of work

• C.  a temporary oscillation that occurs in a circuit because of a sudden change of voltage or of load 
• D.  a transient current or voltage

C and D are amusing to me, since I'm an electrical engineer by study and in my work/cubicle life, I run thermal & transient stability studies on the power system for the West Coast High Voltage Transmission System. 

But now, having taken the year off to sail the Intercoastal and down to the Bahamas and possibly beyond, "transient" has a new meaning.  I'm not in search of work, well, at least not yet, I am lucky to be on sabatacle and have my job back at the end of the year, but I am a guest or boarder who stays only briefly.  Wikipedia defines transient slightly different, "a term used to describe the wandering poor, better known as a homeless person, bum, hobo, etc.".   

This definition better fits Mike and I as we are definitely wandering and quickly working our way to being poor! A friend asked us the other day, "How do you tell the difference between a homeless person and a boater? A boater doesn't have greasy hair." Well, I'm sure going to make sure I wash my hair now! Both Mike and I are beginning to show signs of grease. Uh Oh!

Provisioning

Imagine going to the supermarket, well, first imagine walking 2 miles to get there, and then proceeding to buy all the non-perishable food that you can think you'd possibly need or want for one years time. Well, I can tell you from personal experience that one shopping cart is not enough! Try more like 3 carts, full to the brim, and once they are organized and bagged it's more like 4 carts.

Five hours at the grocery store is, for most normal people, an unbearble amount of time to be buying food. We literally walked down every aisle and hoped that there would be enough cans of pears, dried fruit, tuna, salami, canned vegi's or pasta sauce in stock. You know you are from a 'Different World' (i.e. a boater), when you are pushing multiple grocery carts and people start staring at you like, "Is there some Apocolypse that I didn't hear about?". Well, that's what you call "Provisioning" your boat for a year sailing trip.

Then trying to figure out where you are going to fit all this food you just bought in your 32-foot boat that's already crammed with gear, clothes, spare parts, tools, that is the true test. We stowed the food under seats, in plastic bins in the aft cabin, in lockers and shelves and in little nooks and crannies that you wouldn't even know existed, all places that the food will not spill out when the boat is heeled over sailing.

Before our big provisioning excursion, I had been doing some of my own "market research" via other sailers. I asked them questions on the types of meals they cooked on their boat, what non-perishable foods they recommended, anything they wished they had brought more of and how they provisioned their boat in a place where food is not as easily accessible as in the U.S. nor as cheap. I got some great ideas from numerous people and Mike and I began writing out our Master shopping list.

Luckily, in my favor, I grew up with a mother who is an all time bargain shopper, spends hours in the grocery store and provisions her house on a weekly basis for the 'Apocolypse'. We never lacked on choices for cereal in the morning or food in the cupboards. So, with that notch in my belt, I did not miss a beat when we started buying everything on our list and more as we began filling cart after cart of food. Thank you Mom!

What I learned from this shopping extravaganza is that you can rest assured that Mike and I will be eating well this next year, even if it is from a can!!! We will be catching lots of fresh fish, lobster and conch to add to our provisions. If you like food, look for future meal descriptions and pictures in our Boat Food page.

Thanksgiving

We set sail at 8am this morning and no longer than an hour into motoring, we stopped the engine, hoisted the sails and sailed 7 hours straight at a clipping 7.0 knot average. You are wondering how fast that is? Well, 1 knot equals 1.14 miles per hour, so that was a good 8 mph. I know that doesn't sound very fast, I mean, I could probably run that, but sailing at that speed on a 32 foot vessel, well, that is moving!

Plus, today is Thanksgiving day and we have not been to a grocery store in over 3 days and we are planning to cook our big meal today! Luckily before we left St. Augustine I had gone on a legendary grocery run (1.5 miles out), running there and trekking the way back with 50 lbs. of groceries that I had to balance between two bags, one which ripped along the way. Thankfully, Mike met me half way and helped carry the bags back, if it weren't for his help I would have had to leave more of the groceries behind, due to weight constraints on my carrying behalf (2 smashed bananas were, unfortunately, left behind).

Being Thanksgiving and all, we thought we would have a short travel day, giving us time to prepare the big meal, but that did not happen. We were on a beam reach! This is the best point of sail for any sailboat and we were not going to stop until dusk, even if it was Thanksgiving! We made a good 60 miles, plus Mike said it was a family tradition to go out sailing on Thanksgiving. So, at around 3pm, I thought it would be prudent to start prepping the food and at least put the turkey in the oven.

This was my first solo Thanksgiving meal preparation and I was a bit unsure how I was going to get it all together, especially given the fact that I was cooking in a galley (this is the boats kitchen and also means a 3x4 foot area, which leans at least 20 degrees at most times and usually is rocking and rolling, especially when you are trying to prepare food and consists of only one pot and one pan and a handful of miscellaneous kitchen utensils). Thank goodness for the oven gimbal (this is the hinge on the oven that allows you to cook at an angle when the boat is heeled over)!

I had the following ingredients to work with: 3 lb. frozen turkey, white potatoes and sweet potatoes, acorn squash, biscuits, green beans, pomegranate, and champagne.

What I made was a baked turkey breast rubbed with salt, pepper and indian curry cooked in our one cast iron pan along with diced acorn squash served with mashed potatoes, using lots of butter and evaporated milk from a can, baked sweet potatoes with butter and brown sugar, sautéed green beans with an olive oil, garlic, apple cider & soy sauce dressing, and bellini's, a pomegranate infused champagne.

The meal turned out great! Most food on a boat does taste great, even if it's not, it's kind of like camping, where all your food tastes 10 times better, same thing here. So I think it would have tasted great to the real world as well, but it was definitely satisfying to Mike and I. I'll post pictures of it soon. Bon Apetite!

The Budget

Payday!! Whoo Hoo....this is always every-other Thursday and I always have the day highlighted in my calendar, so I don't forget, like that would happen! Today is my last Payday, though, and I think Mike dried up a few weeks ago, so now is when we really need to start thinking about our budget! The first few weeks on the boat has seemed like a never ending money pit...

We've had to buy spare parts, buy navigation equipment, provisions and the list goes on. Here is a list of a few of those items that we still want or are working on:

1. New dinghy motor (where you can actually push in the choke and trust that you will make it from point A to point B)
2. A working refrigerator (right now ours is a glorified ice box)
3. A toilet that you can use (we have a Y-valve leak - this is hopefully an easy & inexpensive fix)
4. An inverter that works (we have DC Power, but it would be really nice to be able to use the AC outlets)

And that's the scary part! There is always a list of what needs to be fixed next and what you'd like to improve or what would just make your life a little easier, but you have to prioritize because all of these things cost money and take time.

This luckily has not been a complete shock to me. I new a little bit about boat expenses from my grandparents experience on the Queen B. Grandpa was always in the engine room fixing broke generators, water makers, alternators, planning the next boat remodel/upgrade and so forth. He was always sending the grandkids on errands around town to the nearest Napa Auto Parts to buy the tool he needed to get the job done or the replacement bolt or filter. I guess you just don't realize how Expensive those improvements can be until you are the one opening the wallet!!

And on top of all that, it sometimes feels like you say the word "Boat" and everything is 10 times as expensive!! We had the same experience with our wedding and almost wanted to tell people we were having a Birthday party, so we could get cheaper prices.

The last day Daubie was aboard, he taught us about the Sailor's Gold Star Day. This is a day when you spend no money and you can enter in a gold star into your log. Lots of cruisers are cheap, at least to some degree because if you are going to live this life style and not have a steady income, most people have to watch their money if they want to continue on, not everyone has a trust fund. However, being out here, you do realize that there is A LOT of money out there and there are tons of multi-million dollar yachts and sailing vessels....how they get this type of money, I'm still trying to figure out! But, long story short, the "Gold Star Day" is what Mike and I are striving for, plus it would help out on the whole budgeting!

Sailing 101 Down the Intercoastal

November 1, 2011 - We set sail on the Tanqueray, Mike, Sara and Captain Daubie from Charleston, S.C.  Today was the beginning of our 11 day, 241 mile voyage, where Mike and I would try to learn as much as possible from his Dad, Daubie, who has over 50 years of sailing experience around the world! 

This was a huge task to undertake, but we had a lot of fun along the way while learning everything we need to know for our 1 year journey to the Bahamas and beyond.  Daubie taught us how to navigate using navigation charts, bouy's & markers (red right return), garmin devices and gps navigation tools, he taught us how to set  an anchor and how to set a second anchor in stormy weather, how to follow the weather forecasts and what a Norther means, how to cook a mean cheesy potato dish (excellent for open ocean passages) and his favorite paella, how to cast a shrimp net, how to us the VHF to request bridge openings and moorage at marina's, how to play the ukulele (at least get us started with some chords: G,D,C & Em), how to trouble shoot boat problems, how to connect to shore power and open up the circuit board, how to check the oil, how to check the bilges and make sure we are not sinking, how to provision, how to land and take-off from the dock, how to travel at night, how to tie knots, how to splice line and whip it, how to jibe and more importantly how to prevent accidental jibes, how to set up a safety harness system, how to get our dingy to run with the finicky carborator, how to pump out the toilet tanks, how to watch the tides, how to fix leaky valves, how to train a cat not to use litter, how to log the trip and how to sail a beam reach!

My brain is about to explode just listing off all of the above (and that is only the beginning of the list!), but we had a great trip together and Mike and I feel ready to set sail on our own now, we think.  It was so great to have someone so experienced teach us the ropes and help us get the boat ready for a year cruising adventure. This took both of Mike's parents, Daubie and Mary, over a month of hard work, money, fun sailing and dedication to continue south to make it to Charleston in time to meet us and beat the winter weather! Thank you for all your help Daubie and Mary! 

It's sink or swim now, we said our good-bye's to Daubie today as he left from Ferdinanda, Florida on his way back to Port Townsend, WA.  Tomorrow will be DAY ONE of our voyage without "Adult Supervision".  We continue to head SOUTH to the warm weather.  Wish us luck!!

Intercoastal Sailing Trip November

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Maiden Voyage

We set sail November 1, 2011 at 13:40 from the Charleston Maritime Marina. Crew onboard was Mike, Sara and Daubie and cat Nelly. This was Tanqueray's maiden voyage with her new captains. It was a bit rollie heading out, but all seemed to be going smoothly with me at the helm and Mike and Daubie storing the fenders. About 5 minutes later, however, Nelly comes out into the cockpit looking for her litter box. Not the best timing, since we are just on our way out of the marina for the first time and learning how the boat operates and waves are rolling us around, the wind is blowing fiercely and we are still working on stowing the gear. Mike runs below to bring up her litter box, which is a plastic storage container and maybe a little too small for her, but it seems to still be working. Well, maybe not, Houston we have a problem! It appears that Nelly has not adjusted to her sea legs yet and she looses her balance in the litter box and now there is screaming and yelling in the cockpit as cat diareaha is everywhere and the boat is rolling around! Mike gallantly begins to cleanup the mess, luckily he has some experience with this from our previous days with our dog Brodie. Daubie and I try to keep our distance with the excuse that someone still needs to steer and navigate the boat. Mike locks Nelly down below in the head for fear of cat poop being tracked everywhere. After cleanup is completed, we continue on to Tom Point Creek, where we anchor at 6:40pm. The Tanqueray has been christened on her maiden voyage, just wish it was with champagne instead!!

Traveling with a Feline

Nelly - that's our cat, cuddly, soft, friendly, and cute.  Well, that's what we thought until we took her into the vet to get her rabies shots before our trip to the Bahamas.  Yes, we are taking our cat on the boat - which may or may not be a good idea.  We'll find out!  So back to the vets office, she completely morphed from her sweet docile self into a wild animal looking for blood, which she did get by the way.

Our first mistake was trying to cram her into a friends travel case, which was obviously used and smelled of cat.  She hissed, scratched and bit as we unsympathetically tried to cram her into this cage with no avail.  Second mistake was bringing this same cage into the vet with us where she began her transition into an evil blankety blank.  We received a 20 minute lecture from the vet on how cats are just animals and not always adaptable to change and that it was not a good idea to bring her on the boat with us, let alone travel on the plane with her. He told us that even tranquilizers were not recommend.  Alcohol was the analogy used for the affect of tranquilizers on a cat, you never know what your gonna get.  Sometimes you get a fun drunk, other times you get a crazy mean drunk.  No buddy wants a crazy mean cat. They're sharp!!! - not a good vision after seeing her held down today in two fish nets with the vet wearing falconry gloves. We opted out of the tranquilizers.

So, what did we do?  We informed him that we were flying out at 6am the next morning and had no choice but to take her along.  This is how we survived the trip, if you ever run into this problem yourself:

Step1: Buy a brand new cage
Step 2: Spend $50 on herbal cat anxiety remedies
Step 3: Feed your cat tuna in the cage

Amazingly, this worked and she turned back into her happy self and slept the whole trip to Asheville, North Carolina.

Lesson of the day: Never try to stick a cat in a used travel carrier!!!