Note: I was going to put some funny title up there, but gave up because it didn’t sound right.  So, I’ll start this with a song for you….

I’m on the highway to hell
On the highway to hell
Highway to hell
I’m on the highway to hell

AC/DC

Day 16:  New York.  If anywhere in the world can be described (besides Canning Highway in Australia where AC/DC takes the nightly road trip to the pub at the end of the road) it could be ANYWHERE in New York.

New York drivers are the most aggressive, horn blowing, tailgating, cut-you-offers I’ve ever had the pleasure of not-quite coming into contact with. Thus far anyway.  That is the “coming into contact” with part.

On the other hand, the folks in the local pubs, stores and the marinas are some of the most congenial, nicest, kindest people you’d ever want to meet.

I can’t quite reconcile the differences between the two because I KNOW for a FACT that those nice, gentle, helpful smiling people turn into road rage warriors  and screaming, name-calling Hell Spawn the instant their foot touches the gas pedal in a gasoline or diesel, four-wheeled or two-wheeled road vehicle.  I’ve not yet had the pleasure of encountering then in a boat….

However, on land I’ve been cut off, tail gated, yelled at, honked at, flipped off, passed on blind curves, passed by people in the wrong lane, wrong side, and people coming at me from the other direction with their wheels and three quarters of their vehicle where I should be!   Holy crap, I can NOT WAIT to get out of New York or at least stop driving here. haha

On the other hand, almost everyone we’ve met with a couple of limited exceptions have been nice as pie to us.  Some wanted to hear our stories or tell us theirs.  The waiters and waitresses in eating establishments, in particular Applebies have been very nice, even sweet to us.

I’m thinking of writing a new book.  I think I’ll call it “Escape from New York” minus Snake Plisskin…

We’re easily more than two weeks away from sail date.  I might have to extend the hotel stay…. ack!

We’re staying 20 miles from the marina, the hotels closer are pretty bad.  The boat is missing its batteries.  The running rigging is all hosed up, I need to figure out the winch for the anchors, and do some minor sail repair.  We have so much junk that we’re never going to get it on the boat and if we do we will be on the next episode of “Boat Hoarders Goes Redneck in New York”.

We went through the locker and stuff that the former owner left for us/  There were hundreds of items.  More than we will ever be able to put on the boat.  However, JoAnne came up with a plan to use the settee area for storage of pots and pans and bigger kitchen items in the forward seat, and all the nuts, bolts and engine parts (among other boat parts) in the forward set locker).  It’s good because it works well.  There are small spaces under the seat on the port side both forward and aft with a large tank in the middle (I have to crawl under to work out which tanks are which and I’ve not had the chance to do that yet, but I think it is a water tank).

In those areas we can store a small amount so I’ll put things we rarely need in there, and she can use her end for kitchen items we hardly use.

Yesterday we managed to spend somewhere upwards of 6000 dollars.  Batteries, rope for rigging (two kinds, 1/2″ and 3/8″), a lot of smaller items, a pig tail power connector, a dinghy and of course an engine for the dinghy.

We didn’t buy a “cheap” dinghy, we got one that should last a couple (or few) years in the Caribbean Sun Shine.  Made of hapalon, it’s a RIB-310.  But know it wasn’t the most expensive one either.  And it was an inflatable, not a hard sided sailing dinghy like I really wanted.  We just need a dinghy, and this will do the job.  We’ll get our sailing dinghy along the way, or I’ll build one eventually.

We also bought a different kind of engine.  I’m not sure how it will work out though.  It’s a 5 hp engine, and runs on propane. Yep, propane. I joined the Green Crowd yesterday.  Don’t ask me why. Some reviews were bad on it, but we learned something about the engine – that you have to bleed the air from the lines after you connect your tanks, or the engine doesn’t run well.  I’ll reserve judgement.  The tanks are the small grill tanks you can buy at Walmart (or anywhere).  There is an adaptor to connect it to a regular propane tank though.  Again, I’ll reserve judgement for the time being.

On the bright side, we’re well under our projected “Refit Budget” bu a few thousand bucks.  Now, it’s just a crap load of work.  I probably should count the hotel bill into “refit”……

We are looking at extending at the hotel until next Saturday because the majority of our parts won’t be in until this coming Thursday, 6 August.  We’re NOT sure of the batteries, but if they get in Tuesday we could move aboard Wednesday evening or Thursday.  I don’t want to move us aboard until I have the battery system back in and rewired up.

We do have a power pigtail we needed at this marina.  One of the mechanics, Erick was nice enough to Frankenstein one together for me and lend it to us for the time being.  He said he needed one for his boat and would lend it to me until mine comes in.  Thanks Eric!

I’ll rectify the problem when my part comes in (yuk yuk – that’s an electrical joke, but 90% of you won’t get it, lol)

I’ve got one halyard that is completely toast.  The outer braid came apart due to, I’m sure, chafe at the sheave at the head of the main mast.  It’s all wrinkled and fallen down on both sides.  I need to change it soon, so I don’t have to climb up there.  I’ve got to check the lighting up there too, so if they are out, I can get someone ELSE to climb up there. lol

Other running rigging is all messed up because a lot of it puddled water around the lines and caused algae to grow, not to mention most of it has been in the sun so long it’s got UV damage.  So I bought several hundred feet of each type of line so I can replace the various lines.

Now, on to the Marina.  They’ve changed names at least three times that I can determine and possibly that many in a couple of years.  The current manager is not the guy I’ve been talking to on the phone the past few months, but a new one.

Old owner is still there.

Then I find out the entire staff has changed out.

The boat was put here, I assume because it was cheaper to store on the hard than anywhere else.  I still find that difficult to believe after paying my yard bill….

The old manager was very nice, is a sailor and seemed to know sailboats, but he apparently has cancer and isn’t managing any more. though I understand he is still here at the docks on his boat.  I wish him well.

The marina itself lost 70 plus slips and boats during Sandy.  And I suspect it really screwed up the water depths here.  I’m sitting in a seven foot deep slip at the moment, during high tide.  The keel is 6’1”. So, we settle into the mud every time it is low tide.

I have been checking the dock lines and my other lines I’ve tied off to prevent the boat from leaning very far over.  I’ll probably need to swap out my dock lines in a day or so, or add some more to prevent chaffing of the lines.  The water is 3-4 feet deep at low tide and I can see the prop.

Which brings me to my next gripe.  When the old marina manager was there, he said they’d take care of the zincs, put it on my yard bill, along with the paint job, boot stripe (which I really, really wish I’d NOT done) and nothing was accomplsihed until a few days before I arrive.  A boot stripe was put on, up on the cabin….. didn’t really need it on the hull, lol.

The paint was slapped on, the intakes were gooped up with paint and none of the zincs were changed.

When they DID change the zincs it was ten minutes before splash, and they only did the two on the back of the boat.  They didn’t replace the prop zinc.  Me, being a non-expert on sailboats (yet) I asked “Where’s the shaft zinc”.

“Ain’t one”, I was told.

“I know there ain’t one, where is it?”

“Ain’t there, no place to mount one….”

They mount around the shaft like a doughnut, I didn’t know that at the time.  Figured it out later.

On the bright side, the boat is sitting in 3 feet of water at low tide, I’ve got a dinghy on the way and I can paddle my little butt around the back of the boat, install the zinc myself by putting my forearms into the water…. so I guess I’ll add that to the list of jobs.

Oh, the best part of the marina came today.  It was 70-72 degrees this morning, tide coming in making it easy to get on the boat, so we drove there.  Gates were closed at 8:30 AM.  Hmmmmm  I didn’t have a code.

I do now.  They didn’t think to give it to me…..

Tomorrow is Monday.  Won’t be a lot of people in the marina tomorrow.  Everyone went home tonight (or is leaving in the morning).  I’ll have my choice of parking spots close to the dock that goes out to my slip. If all goes well, I’ll pull the chain in the morning, determine if I need to order any and get my call into West Maine (only place in the area I can find so far) for 300 feet of chain (if I need it) or clean what I have and put it all back.  Sure wish I had some muscle guys to help me with this part…. but oh well.  30 links at a time (lifting) won’t be bad, it’s the dragging through the boat and on deck that make me cringe. lol

Ok, I think that’s the update for today.  We ate at Lynchs pub for lunch (late, 3 O’Clock-ish) and found it to be nice in the pub part, but appeared a bit dressy for the dining area.

Last part of the update.

Wednesday is 5 August.  I turn 58.  We will be married 38 years on that day.  My eldest son turns 37.  So, Happy Birthday to him, and a Very, VERY happy anniversary to my darling bride, JoAnne.

We are also meeting the former owner that evening to chat with him and have a drink, probably at Lynch’s..

We planned to retire almost two years ago, at the “end of the Five Year Plan”.  Then JoAnne was diagnosed with cancer, we had to pull the house from the market and regroup.  Which we did.  And JoAnne is doing very well today, one year later (yesterday) after ending chemo.

As you all probably know I had a heart attack on the 13th of May, went through surgery to replace a valve and have a bypass done at the same time.  The bypass was done “because we’re in there and it will cause you issues in the future”.  I didn’t want future issues.

On a tuesday about three weeks ago I saw the doctors and they released me to go back to work, and as of today I can go back to lifting weights, albeit slowly and carefully planning my training program to get my strength back in my upper body.  I went from 178 lbs down to 161 lbs at the lowest, but I never stopped walking and exercising as I could.

Last Friday was our last day at work – both of us left our jobs on the 10th of July.  Our house is sold.  Our belongings pared down to a small trailer with some tubs of kitchen items, some radio gear, personal belongings we can’t bear to part with yet and we’re ready to go.

Today I finished the paper work for our mailing address (St. Brendan’s Isle), and that will be mailed tomorrow.  Our last, and final step is selling JoAnne’s jeep.  It’s a 1999 Jeep Wrangler Sahara Edition.  She’s asking 7800 for it – KBB is listing it for our zip code at 8200.  Wish us luck.  Let us know if you’re interested 🙂  Adventure.Rick.JoAnne@gmail.com or click on the link on Craigslist!

We have nothing preventing us from leaving tomorrow (except the Jeep).  We were shooting for Wednesday this week, but might not be able to leave until Thursday or Friday assuming the Jeep is sold.  Either way… we are ready.

The bottom of the boat was painted last week, new zincs installed and a new boot stripe was put on.  I’ve asked them to stand by on commissioning the boat and splashing until we arrive – probably in about two more weeks, as we have stops to make across the country.  We plan to stop in Missouri, Ohio, and Virginia. Then off to New York we go to collect the boat, unload our junk and collect some other stuff from a storage container – all of that boat parts and such.

So here we are, 57 years old – and having worked collectively for over 80 years now… we’re done.  From now on the only work will be on our ship…. or if we run out of funds.  Which I don’t foresee any time soon.

I’ll document some of our trip.

What I won’t do is post exact locations or exact dates here.  Old security practices die hard 🙂

To my friends at the Agency, my co-workers, boss and the rest – all my best and thanks for 18 years of challenges, successes and friendships.

Here’s to the next 20 finding new challenges, new successes and new friends.

Never, ever give up on your dreams.  No matter what happens.  No matter how many people tell you “Can’t do that”.  Naysayers do no service to themselves and others.  In fact, Naysayers are the direct cause of many failures in business and in life.

I say this all with the full understanding that many people believe me to be a severe pessimist in life, and to an exte t that is trueand accurate, but my pessimmism has always had a purpose.  Safey, avoiding greater dangers, avoiding a waste of time at work and ultimately protectingmyself and those whom I love.

But when you have dreams, whether they are to sail around the world  or to just go fishing on the weekend, never give up on those dreams for if you do, you re doomed to never complete your dreams.

In May I had a heart attack.

The year before, my darling wife  JoAnne was diagnosed with cancer and under went surgery, then chemo.

Weve never once given up on our dream of moving to our sailboat.

On Tuesday the doctors released me to go back to work on Monday.  They also told me that u less I had any issues, they don’t need me in again for a year.

JoAnne goes infor onemore checkup on the 2nd, and she’s having her port removed as well.  I’m considering departure in about three weeks  assuming my work accepts my resignation.  I can’t imagine them saying no at this point.

Wih all we’ve been through, it’s really time to go….

The boat should have been painted by now, with new bottom paint, boot stripe and zincs…. that means we need to arrive, unload our stuff to the boat and set sail… we’ll travel the ICW until we’re safe to head for the Caribbean after hurricane season.

Onward…. Adventure!

I posted last I’d had a heart attack.  Since my last post a few weeks ago, I’ve undergone open heart surgery, with an aortic valve replacement and a single arterial bypass.  I’m now the proud owner of a new tissue valve, and an old vein from my leg used to do the artery bypass.

I’m going to cardio rehab on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at this point.  It will be three weeks from surgery on this coming Monday.  I’m walking about 4 miles a day, and my goal is 5.  Yesterday I got in 4.5 miles.  I’d really like to shoot for 8 weeks to be ready to head for the sailboat.  I wont be 100% but I should be building up my strength rapidly after my bone has knitted well.  Trying not to over do it, so no walk today, and because I have rehab this evening I’ll get my exercise then.  Just won’t get my 10k steps in.

Hi all;

Wanted to let you know what’s happening with me.  I’ve only posted normal stuff here for the past few days, but I’m sitting in the hospital.  On Wednesday on the way home from work I suffered a minor heart attack, but didnt realize thats exactly what it was.

It was minor enough they can descerne no damage in the tests I’ve had.  However, in 2012 I was diagnosed with aortic valve stenosis, narrowing of the valve between heart and aorta.  It wasnt too urgent at the time.

Today, it’s pretty urgent.

After a bunch of ultrasounds, an angiogram, blood tests and examinations it looks like I will be undergoing open heart surgery next week, probably Monday and probably not later than Wednesday.   JoAnne and I still have to discuss this, and we’re supposed to meet with one of the surgeons on the team tomorrow morning.

I wasnt going to post anything at all, but folks at work are asking about me and my coworkers were keeping it quiet so for everyone’s sake and sanity, and because I dont really have a problem with people knowing, I’m telling it here.

On the history, I was born witha bicuspid valve.  Normal people have three leaves in the aortic valve.  But people with two invariably end up in this condition.  As you age, your valves become calcified.  A person withmy condition ends up with problems intheir late 50s to early 60s.  Normal people see this kind of progrssive calcification at 70-80.  Statistically speaking, going two years without fixing the problem once you see symptoms will kill you in two or less years.

The next decision is to go with an animal valve or mechanical.  Mechanical means anti-coagulant drugs for the rest of my life.  A pig or cow valve means 10-15 years before it fails and I have to start over.  Given that we want to live on a boat, travel and enjoy what is left of our lives together, taking drugs that can make you bleed out from small injuries is simply outof the questio .

My company,  Coact, Inc, was kind enough to withdraw my resignation and retirement letter on Wednesday and for that, I am thankful.  It lets me keep my current insurance without interruption.   JoAnne’s job has also been very helpful in that respect as well.

So, we will be staying in Colorado a little bit longer.

Take care all.

Rick

Tomorrow my  book is free for the Kindle.  24 hours only.

Please if you get a copy, go to Amazon.com and write an honest review, go to https://rddonaldson.wordpress.com/ and post a comment somewhere under the book articles and let me know you liked it (or not, and why if not) at my contact page on the above site.

http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Survival-Communications-Skills-Aftermath-ebook/dp/B00Q3ZWRIE (Book Link)

http://windsoftime.us (this link)

https://rddonaldson.wordpress.com/ (Author’s blog and page)

http://www.amazon.com/Rick-Donaldson/e/B00Q514LD0 (Rick’s Amazon Author’s Page)

Please visit all of those if you have time, thanks a million.

Rick

Heads up friends, families, survivalists, preppers and ham radio operators, sailors and everyone.

My book will be up free on Amazon.com for the Kindle for one day only next week. Check the link on 18 March 2015 any time in that 24 hour period and you can pick it up for free.

Here’s the link:

Greetings friends.

We close on our selected boat on Monday.  There were some glitches with the banks, moving money around and various questions about this and that.

At this point it appears though, everything is in place, all parties are satisfied on the transfer, the paperwork for USCG documentation is in the works, we’ll be registering the vessel in Delaware and sometime this spring or early summer if all the other things work themselves out, we’ll travel to the location where the boat is living and move it south for the Summer and eventually, next winter we will be heading for the Bahamas and Caribbean.

From where the boat lives now, we will likely do a lot of ICW travel, mostly, it appears under engine power.  Not precisely what I wanted to do right off with a sailboat, but, you know what?  As Emerson said, it’s not the destination, it’s the journey.

A journey entails learning, travel, examination of the things around one’s self.  A journey through life ought to be enjoyed with stopping to smell the roses (I don’t remember who said that).  OK, enough cliches for now.

The point is, the boat is 41′ long, has two masts and is a beauty.  She needs some work inside.  I need to change some hose clamps, work on some woodwork outside, and JoAnne thinks a case of Brasso might be helpful on the portal hatches.  I’m not as sure about that part (especially if it requires me to be polishing the brass, I had my share of that in the military… but I am certain I can find a swabby somewhere that will be working on if that’s what she wants!)

The running rigging needs replacement, the sails are “useful” but I wouldn’t cross an ocean with them.  Sailing offshore a ways will be fine for short stints, but not a long trip.  The sails will require replacement eventually.  The standing rigging is ok, but I still need a rigger to climb up (I’m afraid of heights, so I won’t be doing it just yet) and check the mast heads.  From what I could see with zoomed in cameras and binocs though, the head SHOULD be good to go.

The bilge is a mess, but nothing a light pressure wash won’t handle, and there’s a broken float switch that requires replacing.

The name is changing (and yes, to all of you who know better, we’ll have a ceremony. No need to tempt dangerous and jealous ocean and wind gods and all that) as well as the hailing port.

When the paper work is complete, and all is said and done, money exchanges hands and everyone is happy, I will post pictures of the vessel.

In the mean time, I could use a few book purchases /grin, you know, to help offset the costs (Honestly, I don’t make much off a book.  Less than 2 bucks.  So, seriously, check it out)

Rick’s Books

Speaking of books, I will be launching an author web site as well because I’m working on a SF series which I hope to have published sometime this year, depending on a lot of factors.  (Wish me luck there).

Reblogging this so I can watch the video later. Thanks!

As a young boy I had a handful of heroes.  My Father who was a Marine and served in the Korean War.  My other heroes in general, were astronauts.  Any and all of them.  In fact I was pretty geeky as a kid before that word came into normal usage and didn’t mean something creepy.

I was soooo into the space program that I recall creating my own “Astronaut Baseball Cards”.  They didn’t sell them in the dime store, so I used to cut out pictures of the various astronauts and make up “stats” about them, like how many space walks they’d done, how many times they went into space, and crap like “How long they can hold their breath”.  I think I made some of it up.

A few days ago, one of my childhood heroes died.  Neil Armstrong was born on August 5th, 1930 – exactly 27 years to the day that I was born.  Yup, I shared a birthday with him.  Armstrong was the first man to walk on the Moon on 21 July 1969.  He and “Buzz” Aldrin landed there on the 20th of July and I watched for days while they flew, landed, walked and lifted off to meet up with Michael Collins in Apollo 11.

Last night there was a “Blue Moon”…. a Blue moon I am sure any sailor reading will know, is the second full moon of the month and happens rather rarely.  Yesterday was the day they buried Neil Armstrong.  When they announced his death, it hit me pretty hard.  I’ve never met the man, but I consider him a National Hero.  He was one of those people who did great things and never bragged about it, never let it go to his head.  He stood out from the crowd and avoided contact with the public and the media for most of the rest of his life.  I don’t know enough about him to understand his thinking but he was humble, unafraid of the world I am sure. Anyone who can jump in a tiny speck of dust and fly to, and land on the moon, walk on it and come home in one piece is a person who is courageous, heroic and deserving of any praise applied to him, regardless of his own beliefs about himself.

Neil Armstrong, while not “quite” the hero I consider my father to be, or even my father-in-law (who served in World War II in the US Army) is still one of those men who come rarely to this Earth and even more rarely distinguish themselves as a pioneer, a hero and a person every child might aspire to be like.

The original Seven Astronauts were the first guys I made “Baseball cards” for…. and when Grissom died in Apollo Eight, I remember crying about him.  I didn’t cry for Neil… But I pulled my car over for a moment.  Below are the the original Seven Mercury Astronauts.

• Scott Carpenter
• L. Gordon Cooper
• John H. Glenn Jr.
• Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom
• Walter H. “Wally” Schirra Jr.
• Alan B. Shepard Jr.
• Donald K. “Deke” Slayton

As a sailor I read a lot about the sailors of old, Cook, Columbus, Degama, Polo and so on.  As an American born in the early 20th Century and having lived into the 21st century I sincerely expected our Astronauts would pioneer the way to Mars, a Lunar Colony and perhaps even land on an asteroid.  But our political structure has thus far prevented such things.

To me, I guess I will leave it to the grandchildren and perhaps the great-grandchildren to get there…. and get the politics right (or remove politics from the equation) but for me, I’ll head to the Caribbean, do an Atlantic circumnavigation and be happy with tracing the steps of the Vikings, Pirates, Privateers and great Explorers of 15th, 16th and 17th centuries…..

Bon Voyage Astronaut Armstrong – may you fly to many planets and stars and explore them ahead of us all.