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Our Sailing Hideaway Blog and YouTube videos will remain active. Join the HideAways as we tell, through blog stories and videos, what life really is like on a small, 23' Com Pac sailboat. We'll show the joys, thrills and chills of the sailing life, but also what it takes to maintain a boat, trailer and truck. You are just as likely to learn how not to do something correctly as to do it right. That's important too! New! The Hideaways take to the road! Follow Traveling Hideaway: Winds of Wanderlust Transitioning from Sailing Hideaway to Traveling Hideaways as sailors learn to travel without heeling, well, not much, anyway. The Paint Wasters Society unlocks the art of paint squandering with sheer delight, free from the shackles of remorse or guilt. Trust me, a century down the line, nobody's going to bat an eyelash, so why not indulge in some paint splattering shenanigans today? Let's turn those pricey pigments into a canvas of laughter and joy.

Monday, August 6, 2012

GOT CRABS? A Sea Pearl Story

In our Sea Pearl days too many years ago, our hands down favorite place to sail was the area north of Ft Desoto park at the mouth of Tampa Bay.   Often we'd let the boat sail itself from the boat ramp to the shallows across Bunces Pass until it ran aground among the myriad of Mangrove islands that populate the area.  One of my adult children reminisced  that the Capt's cure for running aground was to make crew members leave the boat one at a time until flotation was achieved.  This is not as bad as it sounds since the Magic Pearl drew all of eight inches or so.


One of our efforts to use the Magic Pearl for an over night cruise found us aground at sunset near a large barrier island near the Gulf Of Mexico.  We dropped an anchor over the bow and ran ashore, without benefit of a flashlight, to catch the last of the sunset .   Returning after dark on a moonless night had us wishing we'd at least lit the anchor light.

Our Magic Pearl had disappeared in the darkness.  So did everything else.  

As we walked bare foot along the shallows of a large beach we could hear what sounded like silverware clinking.  We could not place the direction of the sound, but it was very close.   We stopped and it stopped.  The two of us stood in the pitch black darkness completely befuddled.  Suddenly Linda, who is not known for this behavior,  let let out a shriek and ran in the general direction of where the boat might be.

I felt them a moment later.  Unseen  wild creatures with lots of legs were scampering over my bare feet. While I won't admit to a shriek, we eventually ran into the boat from which I grabbed a flashlight and returned to the scene.

At first I couldn't process why the ground seemed to be moving away from me.  In an instant I discovered the silverware symphony came from thousands upon thousands of Fiddler crabs snapping their huge claws as they tried to get out of my way.  If I stopped and especially if I had turned off the flashlight, they would return to crawl all over my still naked feet.

Fiddler Crabs On the Move!

Earlier this year found us encamped near the Lower Suwannee river hiking the many trails in the area.  After crossing a foot bridge to an island we found a wood bench near the seldom traveled back waters begging for company.  As we sat there awhile we realized the waters edge was literally crawling with Fiddler crabs.

At that my friends was the inspiration of the movie:

Wild Beach Camping or Why I Like My Compac 23 Cabin




Yes it's cheesy but it was a lot of fun in the making!   

Next time back to sailing "Weathering the Gunkhole Storm"


SMALL BOATS ROCK!

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Eastport Pram Sailing Conversion - The Hard Way


HideAway Pram  St Pete Beach Florida
Back in 2002 we acquired an Eastport Pram kit from Chesapeake Light Craft as a tender for HideAway.  We had no intention of sailing the dink.  Then one fine day the folks at CLC brought all their boats to our part of the world.  We tried a few kayaks then started on the sailboats.  I noticed the Eastport Pram on the beach begging me for a sail.  It was not a long time before I discovered the pram sails as well as it rows and  with none of the effort.  I was instantly hooked.

A fellow sailor who had enough of my babbling about the sailing pram gave me an old rig as more of a dare, I think, than a polite suggestion to shut up or put up.  More time passed until I happened upon the plans for the pram hiding in a long forgotten place.

Yeah, I know that's not how the dagger board looks on the plans  

 If you know how to read plans it is easy to trace the full scale drawings onto plywood and cut them out.   It's a bit harder if you don't notice the difference between millimeters and inches.  'Course then you wouldn't have a spare dagger board and rudder like the author. 


Some modification is still needed to the donated rig.  Who, besides me, needs a gooseneck when you have a bit of electrical wire and a couple of non stainless steel plates?

Yes that's electrical wire and a couple of metal plates
OK a lot of modifications will need to be made.  It has to be easier to make a new mast rather than scarfing on a couple of feet to prevent the ever painful boom-whacking-noggin incident. Not to mention that the existing mast is too skinny to fit the deck hole step.  If the dink had a mast step that is.




I'm sure you have realized by now, as have I, that the step hole for the mast bears little resemblance to the American way of measuring wood.   There is not really enough space to enlarge the existing hole and maintain the designed strength.  The good news is I'll likely get a new block plane out of the deal as I shave 3/8 INCHES off the last eight INCHES of the new mast.


Mighty handsome rudder & tiller construction don't you agree?  The answer is - Yes by the way!

We spent an entire Saturday afternoon unraveling the mystery of the rigging.  The process involved many trips to the Internet and at one point taking photos of the screen then running outside to compare with reality as we understood it. 

We believe this to be the correct rig setup
 The HideAways did eventually discover the correct configuration.  The lines in the foreground were determined to be the standing rigging of the former craft.  I bet that was interesting!

SMALL BOATS ROCK!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA !


It was a lazy day for the HideAways Saturday. It was the first sailing day after Tropical Storm Debby wrought havoc in our part of the world.  Relieved that we had escaped unharmed or damaged we took our time recommissioning HideAway, our Compac 23 sailboat.  The afternoon sea breeze had set in but we chose to anchor for a leisurely lunch and a nap.  Later, after sailing off the anchor across Boca Ciega Bay listening to WMNF 88.5 Community Radio in Tampa spin 50s era platters, I craned my neck around the bimini to check the mainsail set and noticed our large American flag flying off the back stay framed against a clear blue sky

Trading the tiller for my camera I started shooting this video when the music stopped for a moment and suddenly The Star Spangled Banner, sung a cappella, reached over the air ways.  Neither of us could speak when it ended. 

Unfortunately the combination of wind and bad reception ruined the original audio but my good friends at UTube stepped in with this rendition.   A special day for the HideAways on Boca Ciega Bay near Gulfport Florida. 

Friday, June 29, 2012

The Great Mullet Key Cruise




Mullet Key Ft Desoto Florida Tampa Bay 
Mullet key is located at the mouth of Tampa Bay on the north edge of the Mullet Key Shipping Channel. Mullet Key is home to Ft Desoto Park with its cannons hidden behind tall concrete abutments along its western shore in defense of Mullet instead of the Spanish these days.

Even though Ft Desoto is one of the most popular parks in Pinellas County, Mullet Key proper is a place of heart stopping beauty and serenity. In 2001, I believe it was, the North Shore of Ft Desoto Park was judged best in the known world by Dr Leatherman. It shares this distinction with Caladesi Island State Park 30 miles or so north just offshore from Dunedin Fl. Both are highly prized by the HideAways as sailing and in the case of Ft Desoto, beach camping destinations.

The entrance to Mullet Key from the Gulf of Mexico is via an unmarked channel surrounded by Heron Knee Water that extends half a mile or so off shore known as Bunce’s Pass. Navigation of the pass varies each day to the whims of afternoon sea breeze storms, not to mention the rare hurricane or not so rare tropical storm.

In preparation for the cruise HideAway’s Capt. surveyed the channel using a two year old Google Earth image, duly noting that one photo of the entrance to Bunce’s Pass featured a large sailboat firmly aground on a vast beach without a single drop of water in sight.

Bunce's Pass Looking Toward Gulf of Mexico
If you are as unfortunate as to catch Bunce’s Pass in a bad mood the combination of tide and wind can produce, for your afternoons’ sailing enjoyment, 6 foot seas with a short fetch in an unmaintained and uncharted rather narrow channel. No wonder few large cruising sailboats call at this secluded tropical gunkhole.


On Tuesday night last, a group of renegades from the usual marina sailors met at Boca Ciega Yacht Club in Gulfport Fl to discuss strategy. Of the three boats in attendance HideAway, a Compac 23 would be the smallest and the only boat equipped with a nearly modern electric depth finding device and a mostly burned out GPS. Thus HideAway would take the lead with the others, a 26 foot something or other and the largest, a Pearson Wanderer, following. The fact that HideAway has the shallowest draft at 28 inches was over shadowed by the ownership of the electric depth finder without considering that navigation would really consist of bearings from a water tower, past excursions, and a change of sea color.

Thus plans were made, courses plotted, tides observed and rendezvous chosen. Someone added Debby as a possible addition to his crew list but no one paid much attention to the change.

As I write this in the dark, Debby is busy trimming my trees, flooding my street and yard and otherwise throwing a major hissy fit that I fear will prove costly to many.

Tropical Storm Debby - Which Way Will She Go?
Since the hurricane center is convinced that Tropical Storm Debby will head west ignoring the most reliable models that suggest a Florida landfall a nervous night is in store for everyone including the flooded city of Gulfport.


Yesterday we left HideAway spider webbed to the ground in her dry slip prepared for a level one storm event. Meanwhile work continues between power outages on HideAways’ dink sailing conversion.

The Great Mullet Key Cruise will wait for more favorable weather.


HideAway's  Dink Sailing Conversion Under Way
SMALL BOATS ROCK!