Monthly Archives: April 2017

Repositioning Cruise Day 3 – April 10 – At Sea

Ship’s Position at 11:00am ADST

28°20′45″ N 66°23′52″ W

The ship is making good progress but there was tension building in the air yesterday afternoon!

I encountered several golfers who were quite stressed that they could not get the broadcast of the last round of The Masters on their stateroom TV or on any TVs in the bars on board. However, the 2 ESPN channels we get were thoughtfully broadcasting reruns of NASCAR races & a college hockey championship game.

Thankfully, just when we thought all was lost, the final round of Masters broadcast preempted the auto races & all was forgiven (at least by the golf fans).

I have to confess that I watched a fair bit of the final round myself & was glued to the set until the final putt was sunk. ⛳️

Last night after dinner they were showing the movie “Passengers” at the outdoor theater so I went early, got a good recliner with a blanket & bundled up & was ready for the show.

Unfortunately, there was something wrong with the sound system so they ended up showing a silent movie with closed captioning. Bummer! I hope that the guy who couldn’t fix the sound system is not also in charge of maintaining the ship’s navigation system!

Thoroughly disappointed I headed to the late night buffet to console myself.

When I woke this morning the seas were noticeably rougher. There are whitecaps on the water as far as you can see & you need to chose your steps carefully to maintain your balance.

The swells on the water appear to be between 6-8 feet. The ship is moving at 20 knots & into a 20 knot headwind so it really takes an effort to walk forward on the promenade deck. Even so, it’s reasonably comfortable once you are out of the wind. I would not want to be out in this on my little boat!

The ship’s log says we have travelled over 750 nautical miles so far. I guess it’s too late to change my mind about the crossing 🙂

Cheers!

Repositioning Cruise Day 2 – April 9 – At Sea

April 9 – 9:00am ADST
Present Position: At Sea

25°59′14″ N 76°2′21″ W

Above is a photo of the Fort Lauderdale skyline at sunset as we were headed out to sea. Red sky at night sailor’s delight! Hopefully this will continue 🙂

Woke up at 7 this morning & headed to the buffet for an early breakfast. No land in sight in any direction & I was a bit concerned that other passengers might get worried about a limited food supply & start eating to calm themselves. Thankfully most were still asleep, no doubt recovering from yesterday’s hectic pace.

The weather this morning is beautiful & the sea is calm. Last night’s passage was so smooth that when I woke up a few times I could not even tell if we were moving. We are far enough north & east now that the ship’s time has moved ahead 1 hour to Atlantic DST.

I attended a lecture this morning about the history of the Atlantic Ocean & its influence on the world over the centuries. The speaker is from Canada & he will be giving a talk on a different subject each day. He was pretty good so I’ll add these lectures to my routine!

Time to get moving again, it’s only an hour until lunch.

Here’s some travel minutiae for anyone that may be interested in this kind of stuff:

– Ship’s Heading: 074 degrees
– Distance Traveled So Far: 246 Nautical Miles
– Ship’s Speed: 17.6 knots
– Wind Speed: 11 knots
– Apparent Wind Speed: 30 knots
– Sea Depth: 15,500 feet
– Weather: Sunny & 22 degrees C

Cheers!

The Repositioning Cruise Begins! Day 1 – April 8

April 8 – 2:00pm EDST
Port Everglades Cruise Terminal

26°5′52″ N 80°7′12″ W

I boarded the Crown Princess (shown above) in Fort Lauderdale about 12 noon today – along with about 3,000 of my new best friends 🙂

Here’s a view of the waterway where the ship is now docked – taken from my balcony cabin (L201) on the Lido Deck. It’s a long way down!

We set sail for England at about 7:00pm tonight. As soon as I got aboard I noted that there were already long lineups at the buffet restaurants. I hope we have enough food on board to make the crossing.

The crossing will take 14 days with a few stops along the way.

Sadly, Catherine is not on the trip with me. She has no interest in crossing the ocean on the water, but it’s been a “bucket list” wish of mine for several years, so away I go & there will be a reunion at the end of my journey. Thanks for the support honey!

Catherine & I are going to meet up at Heathrow Airport on April 22 & spend about 12 days self-guided touring around Bath, Oxford & London. Should be a lot of fun & I will have to do some extra walking to try & shed the extra weight I am probably going to pick up on the way over!

I hope to post some short blog entries while I am crossing. Each time I post I will include the ship’s longitude & latitude. If you copy & paste that information into Google Maps you will be able to see the ship’s position at that particular time.

Better go for now. It’s only a couple of hours before the ship sails & I see that the lineup at the buffet is much shorter now.

Cheers everyone!

Wally

A New Adventure Begins!

When we sold Ananda last fall I was not sure what our future held for us – with respect to boating. I had contemplated spending a year or two without owning a boat and trying some more vacation charters instead.

It’s been a long winter so I spent some time on the internet looking at boats for sale – just in case I found something interesting.  I was not planning to buy anything, I just wanted to see what was out there and to learn more about the type of boat that I might buy sometime in the future ;). I was most interested in a single engine, double cabin trawler that had no (or very little) exterior teak.

Well, the future was a lot closer than I thought! Here’s a photo of the newest member of our “boating family”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This boat is a 1993 Marine Trader Aft Cabin Trawler (“the Trader”). She’s 34 feet long and has a single 6-cylinder diesel engine.  She is currently named “Scott Free V”. Apparently the original owner’s last name is Scott & he wanted to associate the boat with his surname.

To make a long story short, I found the Trader on Yachtworld. She was berthed in Jacksonville, FL. I called the listing broker and had a good long discussion with him about the boat. With that information in hand, I had a long conversation with Catherine (read: me pleading) and we agreed that I should go and take a look at the boat.

I went to Jacksonville this past Sunday, had a close look at the boat on Monday and made a conditional offer – based on a satisfactory survey. The survey was conducted the same day & did not reveal anything that caused me to lose interest in the boat so the purchase transaction continued and it finally closed yesterday.

What Happens Next?

Even before we found the Trader we had a lot planned for April, May and June. Now I will have to find a way to squeeze in a little trip home for it :).  I have always wanted to travel to Florida via the Erie Barge Canal, Hudson River and the Inter Coastal Waterway and am quite happy to have the opportunity to do the trip in reverse!

We are storing the Trader in Jacksonville for April and May and then I will begin the trek home in June. That gives me lots of time to plan the trip and equip the boat with the stuff we will need on the journey. Stay tuned for future updates!

Cheers everyone!