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The BEST Storm Photo I’ve Ever Taken!

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

This monster was actually moving away from us, East into Tampa Bay. We were able to sit on the stern (back) of the boat, and watch the almost-continuous lightning. It looked like a cosmic nuke had gone off. It was AWESOME! I might put this up for sale on dreamstime.com.

Last night, one of the boats on our dock got struck by lightning. No injuries and we haven’t heard about any damage. We think the owner was out of town. They obviously have a lightning protection system on board. I just happened to be looking outside when it hit. Man oh man, those lightning bolts look REALLY big when they strike that close! Even though I saw the lightning, the instant thunder aftershock made me jump about a foot off the bed. Then, I had to go change my underwear…

NEXT: Anchor + High Winds + Dock Box = CRASH!!!

Are you subscribed to our newsletter? We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂

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Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

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Anchor + High Winds + Dock Box = CRASH!!!

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

So, I was sitting here working on the boat yesterday. Just answering emails. Pretty mundane. After a morning of errands, grocery shopping, and Mason having a friend over for some gaming, I was immensely enjoying the peace and quiet until…BAM!

The boat went from not moving at all to lurching harshly to port (the left). It bounced back, and then lurched again. My eyeballs darted to the port (window) and huge, dark clouds were on the horizon.

We all jumped up, and spilled over each other to get outside. Our Managing Editor, Brian, quickly went to work checking all the lines. The wind was deafening as it screamed through the rigging on our boat, as well as everyone else’s. ALL our neighbors were outside their boats as well, scanning the horizon. We were all looking for the same thing. A funnel cloud. Thankfully, there wasn’t one.

Brian yelled over the clanging, “Remove the port cockpit line! Toss it to me!” Mason (age 13) took the line from me, and gave it to Brian, who expertly lassoed it around the piling on the starboard side, and then quickly wound the line around the starboard cockpit winch.

To hear the wind whistling through the rigging, go to the 0:15 mark on THIS VIDEO.

No Tan Lines (“Tanny”) was pitching like crazy! There were whitecaps inside the marina by that point. I carefully walked to the bow, and grabbed two bumpers that weren’t tied down. I tossed them to Mason in the cockpit. Max (age 17) was outside saying, “Man, it’s gonna be a bad one! What do you want me to do?” I had him toss some loose items down the companionway stairs. We’d deal with those later.

Then, we waited for the rain to begin. It’s fun to stand on the stern of the boat, listening to the sounds of rigging under attack, feel the wind render your hairspray completely useless, and wait for the first big blops (big drops = BLOPS!) to slam you in the face before you all race down below below, and close the companionway door.

We all did that, which was fun, and we then got settled for a BIG, exciting ride! For about half an hour, Tanny was beaten up pretty good. It felt like it had when we had the mast out.

And, a little while later, Max yelled, “We’re hitting something!”

Brian tossed his laptop to the side, and was up and off the boat lickety split. The wind had shifted again and the anchor was hitting the dock box. He adjusted one line, and then jumped back on the boat. I’d run up to the bow to help…but he didn’t need my help. We both dove back into the boat, and dried off as best we could. There was no point in me changing clothes. I knew I might have to do that all over again.

And, I did. Max hollered again. “Something sounds really weird!”

I told Brian to keep working. I’d handle this one. I went to the v-berth. Yes, it was definitely a weird zip, clang, zip clang noise. Hmmm. I opened the door again, got hit in the face by wind and rain, crawled out of the cockpit, and made my way to the bow. The halyard had come loose, and was sliding up and down (and slapping) some metal rigging. I tightened the halyard line on the mast (praying we wouldn’t get struck by lighting at that exact moment), raced back to the cockpit, and trailed a river of water into the salon once again.

My hair was matted to my head. My mascara was running. My dressed was soaked. And, I was having the time of my life! 🙂

A few minutes later, one of the ACs stopped running (no clue why) and we lost our Internet (that’s still out, too, but I have wifi hotspot on my phone so I’m still online).

It rained for another two hours and the wind diminished considerably during that time. Our neighbor posted the highest wind speed during the storm. It was 45 knots. Whoo hoo!

NEXT: The BEST Storm Photo I’ve Ever Taken! 

Are you subscribed to our newsletter? We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂

* * *

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

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Look At My BIG Shark!!! Ha ha ha…

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

I have been fishing on the beach numerous times in my life. And, while I have caught countless fish from boats and piers, and while two of our kiddos have IGFA Junior World Records (that have since been broken), I have never managed to hook a fish from the beach. Not once in my entire life. UNTIL NOW!!

Armed with some dead fish from the bait shop, hearty lines, heavy weights, and all that other fun stuff, I walked into the ocean to cast, got walloped by a wave, got bumped by a fish (which made me yelp and dance an embarrassing jig for a second), got my line pretty far out, kept the bail open while walking back, closed the bail, put my pole in the pole holder, and plopped down on my lawn chair. And, I watched…

I watched as the tip of the pole wavered with every breaking wave, and with the retreating surf. Some waves were bigger than others. Is that a fish? No, just a wave… Was THAT a fish? No, just a bigger wave. I watched as several beachcombers ducked under my line. I watched the sun begin to set. And, I continued to wait, very patiently.

It only took about 30 minutes for the pole to bend over. Yep, that was no wave! I jumped to the pole holder, grabbed the pole, set the hook, and started reeling. People stopped to stare. I reeled while relaxing the pole forward, stopped, pulled the pole back against the invisible adversary, and did the same thing over and over. He ran once. I could tell it was big! He was a fighter! Oh, MAN! I was SO EXCITED!!! Was this the trophy fish I’d been dreaming about my entire life? Would I be able to land him all by myself?! How many dinners would this monster make?! Whoo HOOO!!!

I finally got him up on the sand and…this was his actual size:

I got the hook out, put him back in the water, and sent that cute baby blacktip on his way while humming the Baby Shark song. I didn’t catch any more sharks but I did catch two saltwater catfish (we call those hardheads). But, I didn’t care. I just wanted to catch fish, no matter what kind. I got to talk to people passing by, including a couple from Illinois. I got to watch for sea turtles (didn’t see any of those). I watched a ghost crab repeatedly tossing sand out of his hole. And, I got to commune with God for awhile, staring out at his massive, brilliant beauty as the galaxy became more vivid and bright from that darkening stretch of sand.

I spent the rest of my sitting time (waiting for the pole to bend) by re-applying insect repellent countless times. Each time I had to go into the water to cast (getting slammed by waves), I had to spray myself all over again. The no-see-ums were having a field day with me. I must be very tasty. I literally have hundreds of bites on my ankles, legs, and arms. I woke up scratching like crazy this morning but I didn’t care because I CAUGHT FISH ON THE BEACH FOR THE FIRST TIME!!! 🙂

NEXT: Anchor + High Winds + Dock Box = CRASH!!!

Are you subscribed to our newsletter? We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂

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Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

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THAR HE BLOWS!! Preparing for a Glancing Blow…

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

It looks like we’re going to be spared the worst of the tropical storm that’s building in the gulf and we are praying for our Louisiana neighbors. We haven’t escaped all of it. Even if we didn’t have modern weather forecasting and satellites, we’d have known something was brewing. It’s been overcast here all week, which is very unusual for this time of year. And, we had several really strong squalls that had us adding extra lines and bumpers. During one particular lightning storm that woke up the entire dock, we remembered we had not yet reconnected the lightning protection after getting the mast put back in. Oops.

This morning, we had a very short burst of rain but the wind is wailing and the boat is rocking pretty good. We’re supposed to get rain most of today and all day tomorrow as well, even as the storm moves away from us. And, despite what weather.com has been broadcasting, we’ve been watching rotation off the coast for the past two days, even before the low hit the gulf. It just hadn’t organizing itself yet.

Despite the fact that we’ve lived on a boat for two years now, I still feel wobbly-legged after disembarking. Most people say that goes away after awhile but it hasn’t for me. I was sitting in a restaurant eating raw oysters (YUM!) last night and my brain was still making my body feel like it was gently rocking up and down, back and forth. It’s actually quite calming. Thank GOODNESS none of us gets seasick!

After things calm down, we’re heading to our daughter’s house to have some grandkid time this weekend and I’m very excited about that!

NEXT: Look At My BIG Shark!!! Ha ha ha…

Are you subscribed to our newsletter? We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂

* * *

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

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A Big, FAT, Red Storm!

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

On Wednesday night (or should I say Thursday morning) at 1:00 a.m., I had just turned off my laptop, and was about to get ready for bed, when the boat pitched suddenly to port (to the left)…and stayed that way. I dashed up into the cockpit and we had QUITE a blow coming on! That first gust of wind in front of a squall hits hard and fast and this one just kept blowing. Our neighbor registered the wind at 45 knots. By that time, NOBODY in the marina was still asleep!

We added a line from a starboard side piling to the winch in the cockpit to take some of the pressure off the other lines. We then sat down and looked at the sky during each lightning strike, scanning the horizon for a funnel. Then, we ducked down below when big, fat, cold raindrops started pelting us, and checked weather.com. It was a monstrous red blob and I knew we wouldn’t be going to bed anytime soon.

So, we settled down and watched TV while Tanny pitched violently to and fro. An hour later, the wind died down and we were finally able to get some blessed sleep.

NEXT: THAR HE BLOWS!! Preparing for a Glancing Blow…

Are you subscribed to our newsletter? We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂

* * *

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

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When Someone Says the Floor of the Boat is Open, REMEMBER THEIR WORDS FOR THE REST OF THE DAY!

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

Last week, Capt. Brian Whiddon (the Managing Editor here at WritersWeekly and the Operations Manager at BookLocker) had the salon floor open while he was working on the engine. Knowing how graceful (ahem…) I am, he came into the floating home office several times to remind me so I wouldn’t fall through.

The floor has been opened many times since we moved onboard two years ago and I have never even come close to falling in. I am VERY cognizant when there is a gaping hole in the floor. Falling in can be very dangerous. There is metal, potentially some dirty, stinky, tetanus-laden water, and even rust. So, I am always hyper-vigilant.

Except, apparently, when I am carrying groceries. I had to run out to the store that day and, when I came back, Brian was working on the bow. He helped me get the groceries out of the dock cart, off the finger pier, onto the deck, and into the cockpit. Loading groceries (or anything) onto the boat is a multi-step, all-hands-on-deck process.

Once everything was in the cockpit, I told him I could finish getting it all inside. He said no, he’d help, and followed me into the cockpit. I opened the companionway door, grabbed some bags, and proceeded backwards down the slanted steps. Then, I turned around, took a step toward the settee, and instantly down I went.

Before my brain could even register that I was falling, my right foot was on the bottom of the bilge. My left leg was bent all the way, with my knee on my chest. And, I was still holding the groceries. Embarrassed as all get-out, I turned and, yes, Brian had seen the whole thing. He had one of those “did you seriously just do that?!” looks on his face. And, I stammered, “Oh yeah. There’s a hole in the floor.”

I put down the groceries, settled back on my haunches, and pulled my leg out of the floor. My foot had landed square and safe on the bottom of the bilge but my right leg had banged the engine, right where “pancake” (my hematoma from falling off the boat in November) is. It honestly didn’t hurt. Maybe my brain was still swirling with humiliating thoughts of the dumb blonde move I’d just accomplished.

I stood up, and inspected my leg. An attractive red welt was forming and swelling on the top side of pancake. It still didn’t hurt much so I stood up, swallowed my embarrassment, and ignored Brian’s jokes about wrapping me in bubble wrap each time I try to step on board.

I put away the groceries, sat down with my laptop, and got back to work. A few minutes later, my leg started to throb so I put a bag of frozen peas on it. It really was a non-issue. But, a few days later, after the swelling went down, I realized that there were now two knots in my leg. The top part of “pancake” had gotten torn away from the other part, which was really weird. The good news is pancake seems to be shrinking again. She doesn’t feel like she used to, all flat, firm and roudish. She’s now lumpy and odd shaped.

Maybe falling into the floor was just what she needed to start healing again! 🙂

A few days later, the yacht riggers were here to finish tuning the rigging after putting the mast back in. When they opened up the floor, Brian stepped in here and said, “Hey, Grace. You are NOT allowed out of this room until they leave!”

NEXT: A Big, FAT, Red Storm!

Are you subscribed to our newsletter? We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂

* * *

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

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One WILD Toilet Ride!!!

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

The mast on No Tan Lines (“Tanny”) is 67 feet tall, and weighs several hundred pounds. We had it removed about a month ago for repairs. The mast step (or i-beam) is a large, steel box in the bilge that supports the mast. It weighs about 250 pounds, and was also removed so we could have a new one manufactured.

A few days after the mast was removed, the wind picked up. We woke up one night to the boat pitching wildly left to right, left to right. Since we lay with our heads to port, and our feet to starboard, it felt like we were doing involuntary sit ups.

The lines on deck above our heads were straining and complaining against the stern cleats. I jumped up with my trusty flashlight (which is always sitting on my shelf), and peered out all the ports, making sure were weren’t bumping the dock or, worse, a neighbor’s boat. Everything was okay but it was VERY difficult to get back to sleep with the violent lurching. I wondered how our marina neighbors were faring in this odd weather change.

The next morning, as I was crawling out of the cockpit, our next boat neighbor, Vince, said, “What’s going on with your boat?!” I looked and his boat was hardly moving. I turned and our other neighbor’s boat was also stable. Yet, Tanny was still pitching violently. It only took a second for my brain to put two and two together.

Once I turned on my laptop, I contacted the riggers to ask when the mast step would be replaced. They still hadn’t sent me an estimate and they had guys out sick with the flu. Ug! How long were we going to have to live on this roller coaster before things got back to normal?

Brian showed up for work shortly thereafter and, after using the head, commented that our toilet was a bucking bronco. He was RIGHT! We have to hold onto the counter top and shower wall just to pee!

The rigger’s guys were working on another boat on the dock the following day and they said they towed a boat once without a mast and they couldn’t believe how much it bounced around. The mast is not only heavy, providing stability, but it also acts as a pendulum, helping to even out the boat’s movement.

After a few days of very subtle nausea and a sore lower back (because I’m constantly trying to sit still while working, fighting the movement of the boat), I figured out the formula. If the wind is blowing from the east or west over 10 knots, we start dancing. If it’s under 10 or blowing from the north or south, things are pretty stable.

Today, we have an east wind blowing steady at 14 knots and my back is KILLING ME. I’m emailing the riggers almost daily to ask for updates because, while I love a good bounce now and then, hours and hours of constant movement, while constantly checking the lines, is exhausting. Don’t even get me started on the sleep deprivation part.

But, I must say…all of this sure beats the multi-thousands of dollars we are saving by not living in a house! 😉

NEXT: When Someone Says the Floor of the Boat is Open, REMEMBER THEIR WORDS FOR THE REST OF THE DAY!

Are you subscribed to our newsletter? We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂

* * *

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

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The Floating Flu Folly

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

I actually don’t know if it was Influenza or something else but everyone in the floating home office got sick in the past week except Richard.

Our Managing Editor, Brian, fell first. He stoically came to work anyway but I told him to quickly disembark, and to take some sick days to convalesce on his boat. I was a nice boss. I delivered dinners to him so he wouldn’t have to cook. I would jump on his boat, holding my breath, drop a warm, covered plate of healthy food in his cockpit, and holler “dinner time!” Then, I’d jump right back off again.

Two days later, Max was down for the count. And, two days after that, I was slingin’ snot and coughing up my lungs as well. Richard and Mason, sensing imminent discomfort and danger, headed down to Bradenton, to our daughter and son-in-law’s house…where our daughter was just starting to notice a sore throat. She hadn’t been around us so we didn’t know if it was the same thing or something different. She eventually started coughing as well.

And, two days later, Mason came down with a sore throat, a cough, and a fever. Richard didn’t want to put our grandson, Jack, in danger so he packed up Mason, and brought him back to our satellite office in St. Pete, which has sleeping quarters for emergencies…like, you know, flu season and HURRICANES! I gave him a list of things to buy for Mason: Soft tissues, cough drops, Mucinex (gentler than Nyquil, but just as effective if you want to sleep a bit instead of coughing all night), Chamomile tea bags, and extra C and D vitamins.

As of today, Brian, Max, and I all have residual runny noses and coughing, but no fever. I still wake up coughing several times each night. I sit up, drink some water, pop a cough drop in my mouth, wait for it to dissolve, and then lie back down to sleep.  I woke up this morning to find a big, red glob on my pillow. At first, I freaked out, thinking I’d coughed up blood in my sleep. But, no. On closer inspection, I discovered it was a half melted cherry cough drop. Apparently, while half asleep, I laid back down with the cough drop still in my mouth and I guess it drooled of my mouth it out at some point. Gross!

I peeled it off the pillow case with a tissue, put the  pillow case in the laundry bag, and got up to start my day. It’s VERY dangerous to lie down with a cough drop in your mouth. My ex-husband choked badly on a cough drop once and I had to give him the Heimlich Maneuver.

Mason’s fever broke last night but he’s still coughing. I’m no longer contagious so I’m hanging out at the office with Mason today, working and watching videos with him. He is hoping to recover because he and Max have a church camping trip this weekend. They are super excited about that! I am hoping to recover as well because I have FEMA training this weekend so I can help out locally when, you know, the next hurricane hits.

And, Richard is still completely healthy! Not sure how he escaped the floating home office pandemic but we’re sooooo glad he was available for frequent trips to the grocery store and CVS!

NEXT: One WILD Toilet Ride!!!

Are you subscribed to our newsletter? We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂

* * *

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

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Our Boat Has Been Demasted!

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

Don’t worry. We demasted it on purpose. Several months ago, we scheduled “No Tan Lines” to go to the boatyard, and have the mast removed so we could have the mast step and stringer replaced. After our last sailing trip, we noticed the mast step was cracked and decaying. The mast step supports the mast. If that fails, your mast can fall and that can be catastrophic, structurally and financially.

Our first appointment was postponed because a hurricane was barreling our way. The second appointment was also postponed because our motor conked out that morning.

Our third appointment was yesterday. The night before, the wind kicked up to more than 20 knots. We knew it was going to be a hairy trip but we did NOT want to postpone again. So, we got up at 5:00 a.m., did the final prep work, donned our all weather gear (it was in the upper 40’s), welcomed 3 of our awesome Dock 4 friends on board (who had volunteered to help), and shoved off.

Capt. Brian Whiddon (who is also the Managing Editor at WritersWeekly and the Operations Manager at BookLocker) immediately noticed a problem with the left bow thruster. It was shorting out. Despite that, and despite the strong northeast wind, he got us out of the slip with no problems at all. Once we got into Tamp Bay, we braced ourselves. There were breaking waves in the bay so it was quite an exciting ride! It only took about half an hour to get to Salt Creek, which is protected from the rough water. However, it was still windy and getting the boat through a narrow channel in gale was another adventure.

Brian got us into the narrow slip at the boat yard with no problems once again, even though we had to veer left to get in there.

The yacht riggers immediately got to work removing all of the rigging that supports the mast.

The crane arrived so they hooked it up to the mast, and got to work jiggling it back and forth until it literally “popped” out of its support.

In THIS VIDEO, you can see the mast popping from the interior of the boat.

In THIS VIDEO, you can see what the riggers did on the outside to break it from from its support. Not very technical but extremely effective, and even a bit humorous!

They then pulled it through the deck, got it on land, and laid it on a large, big-wheeled cart. And, we were then cleared to leave.

Brian backed us out of the slip, and steered far left (still going backwards) to avoid running aground on the other side of the creek. He was then able to use the right bow thruster to get us centered in the creek (think a creative, backwards three-point turn) and off we went, back to the marina.

The wind was blowing even harder now and, without the added weight of the mast, the boat was pitching to and fro quite violently in the breakers. It was a blast!!!! I only had to get up a few times to investigate crashing sounds down inside the boat.

Mason’s closet flew open and his Nerf guns fell out. Max’s Xbox flew off his shelf (oops – I forgot to secure that). The kitchen lamp flew to the floor (my fault on that one, too). The good news is I DID remember to lay down the TV in the salon.

We got back to the basin outside our marina, and prepared for the possibility of a piling collision because we had to turn left into our slip. Two other awesome neighbors I’d texted about our impending arrival, Rhonda and Kelly, were standing by on the dock with boat hooks. Brian steered us into the slip, picture perfect once again. No collisions at all! Everyone on board had been assigned lines to secure and, within just a few minutes, we were safely docked once again. The wind continued to blow all afternoon and, without the weight of the mast, Tanny has been pitching wildly all afternoon and evening.

Next week, the riggers will be here to cut apart the floor outside the boys’ bedrooms to begin the work. It should take about two to four weeks and it’ll be a mess but the mast will be once again safe for sailing after that. Just in time for Spring! 🙂

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NEXT: The Floating Flu Folly

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Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

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Annoying Dock Neighbors!

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

Moving onto a dock in a marina with other live aboards a year and a half ago truly showed us how mariners stick together. As I’ve written before, this is the friendliest, most tight-knit “neighborhood” we have ever lived in. If you need anything, and I mean ANYTHING, from a tomato (if you forgot to get one at the store), to someone to run to your boat and close your hatches (if it starts raining when you’re not onboard), to an obscure tool that you never knew you’d need for your boat, everyone will race to help you.

But, as with any neighborhood, there can be some problem people – folks who act too big for their britches, folks who over-imbibe on a regular basis, busy-bodies who poke their noses into everyone’s business…and folks to who take those “ask for help for anything” requests too far.

One example was an individual on the dock who had too much to drink one night, and walked down the dock, knocking on people’s boats at midnight, asking for a cigarette. We don’t smoke so I’m not sure why our boat got knocked on at midnight. I was still awake (I’m a night owl) and Coco went nuts, just like she did when we lived on dirt and someone rang the doorbell. By the time I got up on deck, this individual was stumbling back down the finger dock. We learned from neighbors the next day why he was wandering the dock at that hour.

There are other neighbors who cause problems but I won’t mention them here because they might recognized themselves and I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. There is a woman on another dock who has a pit bull that attacked one of our Dock 4 dogs. I don’t mind upsetting her. I have nothing against the breed as I have met many loving, friendly pit bulls but that dog shouldn’t be out in public, even on a leash.

And, there are the people who get themselves into situations where they MUST ask for help. You know, like when I fell off the boat and had to go to the emergency room. (I was sober, by the way.) After that happened, people checked up on me constantly, brought us meals, and even gave valuable medical advice (our dock nurse). I’m not the first one to fall off a boat here and I certainly won’t be the last. One individual, who has since moved, fell off his boat while drunk, swam to another person’s boat, and knocked on the hull to get help crawling out of the water. The danger with falling off a boat is the possibility of hitting your head on the boat or dock on the way down. More people die on boats in marinas than they do at sea.

Here’s something that’s really cool (and somewhat related). I received an email yesterday from a man who lives nearby. He heard about my accident from a WritersWeekly subscriber and he wrote to say he writes boating books, and wanted to know how I was doing after my accident. He used to live in this marina, and now lives in a nearby RV park. I was very happy to make his acquaintance and, hopefully, we’ll be able to work together someday on one of his future books.

I have another Pancake update. I measured it and it’s down to 2 1/2 inches by 2 3/4 inches! At this rate, it might be gone by…October maybe?

NEXT: Our Boat Has Been Demasted!

Are you subscribed to our newsletter? We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂

* * *

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.