KOKOPELLI TOO Ship's Log (final )
Authors Note: Any spelling or grammatical errors in the following log are the fault of the editorial staff, but since we can't afford to pay them, we let it slide.
Mar: 2012 - The End (for now):
Well, it was goodbye to our beloved Kokopelli Too as she was sold to a new owner. We hope that she will have many more wonderful adventures and give the new owner as many terrific memories as she did us. We want to thank our patient and diligent broker Andy Gillis at Ross Yacht Sales for all his hard work on our behalf.
Time to start shopping for the next vessel!
Sept: 2010 - A Hard Decision:
Boats become entwined in the lives of their owner's. They become part of you. For the last eight years, our Beneteau 393 was a big part of our lives. It introduced us to the cruising life after many years of racing, brought us safely down the coast to our new home in Florida and it took us safely and comfortably to the Bahamas and back. It has provided many unforgettable memories and introduced us to many new friends.
However, as happens many times in life, circumstances change. We've become too busy to take the time for any long distance cruises. We now live in an area of shallow water where a five foot keel is too deep for most locations. It's become all too easy to just jump in a friend's power boat for a quick ride to the beach or waterfront bar or fishing hole than to rig the boat, motor slowly out to the nearest sailing grounds for a few hours and then head back. Our terrific sailboat deserves to be owned by people that will use it more often than we've been able to recently. A boat this good shouldn't be sitting at a dock unused. That's why we've put her up for sale.
She's a great boat that's been well taken care of. We would love to see her in the hands of someone who will take care of her and use her often.
02/12/09 - Not Last
Entered Kokopelli Too in the Edison Gulf Regatta to see how the new jib & main from Calibre Sails would perform. Our good friend Larry and his girlfriend Suzanne came along for the fun. The initial wind predictions were for 10-15 kts, which would have been a good range for us and at least given us a chance. However the wind / weather gods had different plans and dropped the wind to 5kts and also threw in fog as an extra bonus. We managed to find the starting line as the fog disappeared and started the first race ghosting over the line at a whopping 2kts. Finding wind was a crap shoot this race and we crapped out - finishing dead last. The second race was better. The wind picked up to around 10 kts and we managed to get some clear air for a while and were third to the first mark (out of 8). Unfortunately the "reach" leg turned into a dead downwind leg (not our strong suit without a chute). Larry became our human whisker pole and held the jib out with the boat hook. We got passed by two boats on the second leg just as the fog rolled back in. I managed to find the finish line by using the tracks on the chartplotter to see where we came from and we finished 5th. At this rate we might win if they had a few more races! Anyway, we began making our way home in the fog. By the time we got near the Sanibel Causeway, the fog cleared, the sun appeared and it was a beautiful ride back to the marina.
07/04/09 - Happy 4th!
Decided to play it safe this 4th of July. We'd spend the night on the boat but keep it at the dock in Cape Coral and away from the other folks out watching fireworks. Instead we took a chance on our much repaired but seldom working 8hp mercury and took the dinghy out to the river to view the various firework displays going on. We stayed way out of the main channel and saw Ft. Myers Beach, Cape Coral and Sanibel Island's display. Turns out that downtown Fort Myers didn't get their show going until well after 11pm by which time we were sound asleep in the forward cabin.
07/24/09 - Hot, Hot, Hot!
Betsy had a four day weekend so we decided to try a weekend on the hook at Useppa Island. We even managed to corral Molly into her carrier and shanghai her for crew. No wind to speak of so we motored our way up and dropped anchor at about 4pm. There were a couple of other sailboats there already but that was it. It was going to be a quiet but hot weekend.
Our battery system we installed for the Bahamas trip has turned out to be less efficient than the original ones. We seem to be going through a charge quicker now. Because of this, we couldn't run our cabin fans during the night. This made for a sweltering night at anchor and not much sleep. The next morning our "trusty" dinghy motor refused to start once again so we were stuck on the boat for the day. Much book reading and swimming was done. Later on in the day Boomer and Suzi came by for a visit by boat. They headed back as the thunderstorms threatened. Betsy and I watched the lightning show on shore and the terrific sunset as another day on the water ended. A slight breeze made the sleeping a bit better that night.
09/30/09 - Goodbye to an Old "Friend":
As you read in our previous post, our veteran Mercury 8hp dinghy engine has been acting up again. I brought it to the shop (again) and had the stator replaced. Then it refused to start again within a couple of weeks (fuel problems). At this point we've spent way more on repairs over the years than we bought this used engine for. The decision was made to part ways with this unreliable beast and replace it with something new and reliable. We then debated for a while about what size engine to get (power vs weight). After much research and opinion gathering we decided on weight as the deciding factor and purchased a 6hp Tohatsu 4-stroke from onlineoutboards.com and had it shipped directly to our house for free. It doesn't have quite the same punch as our old engine but it weighs about 20lbs less, uses less fuel, is quieter and IT WORKS WHEN IT'S SUPPOSED TO!
So it's goodbye to our old outboard (since sold on Craigslist ) and thank you for many years of faithful (and some not so faithful) service and exploration of new anchorages. Here's to new explorations with less worries.
10/18/09 - Rhode Trip:
Betsy & I just got back from Fairhope, Alabama and the Rhodes19 National Championships. After a road trip from Ft. Myers along the panhandle of Florida, along the coasts of Mississipee and Alabama and a side trip to New Orleans, we joined some friends of our's from the Hull YC in Hull, MA at the nationals.
Betsy & I left Ft. Myers and drove up to Cedar Key, FL the first day. A wonderful little place on the Gulf coast just below the panhandle and stayed at the Dockside Motel. Very friendly folks and a great place to stay. We had clam chowder at Tony's (2009 Newport RI Chowder Cookoff winner!) and little neck clams at the Island Hotel.
The next day we drove along the panhandle to Destin, FL. We made sure we visited the original Hogsbreath Saloon (we have visited the other one in Key West many, many times).
From Destin it was on to New Orleans (with a quick stop at the naval aviation museum in Pensacola). We stayed a couple of nights at the Maison Dupuy hotel in the French Quarter. The first night there we explored the various bars and restaurants of Bourbon St (including the famous Pat O'Briens). The next day we had coffee and beignets at the famous Cafe Du Monde and then walked the river front, visited the WWII museum and browsed the shops of the french quarter. We sampled a number of different gumbo and jumbalaya recipes and visited more than a few Voodoo shops.
Next, it was back to Fairhope, Alabama and the main event: the Rhodes19 National Championships hosted by the Fairhope YC. We met up with our friends from Hull YC (Bill Bradford, Dave Curry & Mike Hebert). Betsy & I were crewing for Dave & Bill respectively. There were 31 boats competing from all around the country (Chicago, Marblehead, Hull, New Orleans and Fairhope). There was a tuneup race on Tuesday followed by racing on Wed-Fri. Two races were completed on Wed before the wind died and there were three races on Thurs. Friday brought a cold front along with 25kts of wind and cancellation of racing. After a total of five races, Mike Hebert finished 13th, Bill finished 15th and Dave finished 17th (note: Toolin had the best single race with an 8th). The regatta was won by a New Orleans fleet member. The Fairhope YC put on a great event and the facilities there are terrific. We all had a great time and it was wonder ful to see our old friends from Hull again. Amazing how four days of racing goes by. Then a ten hour drive and we're home again.
** see the photo gallery for pictures of the trip
11/2/2009 - Nu Teak:
The swim platform on Koko's stern has a small section of teak set into a recess. Over the years the water has gotten into and under the teak and caused it to swell and the glue holding the planks down to come apart. I rebedded the wood once about a year ago but it just cracked again and came up. I decided to replace the section with new teak planks. I priced the replacement section from Beneteau's part catalog but before I could order it, I came across an article in a boating magazine on some of the new artifcial teak products made of composite materials that supposedly look like teak, feel like teak but last longer and require no maintenance. Two of the popular versions are "Flexiteek" and "NuTeak". Both produst run about $15/sqft plus shipping and glue. Since I was only looking at about 2 square feet, this sounded like a bargain compared to the Beneteau part (about 1/2 the price).
I contacted a local dealer of Flexiteek and was told that they could come out and do up a template and then make the replacement section. I was all set to go ahead but for some reason they never got back in touch with me. I then contacted the NuTeak folks over in Ft. Lauderdale, sent them my measurements and got a quote. Within a few days I had a stack of NuTeak tongue & groove planks cut to my measurements (I did have to do some final trimming and rounding of the corners). The next day it took me only about 20 minutes to glue them into place. It looks just like teak and shouldn't turn gray in the FL sun. Too bad the rest of the wood will!
** Note - I have since done the other teak over using two coats of Cetol "Natural Teak" wood finish. I'm hoping that this will last longer than teak oil and reduce the maintenance work a bit.
5/31/2010 - Size Doesn't Always Matter:
Sitting out on our lanai one day, Betsy noticed two large birds perched on top of a Norfolk Pine out on the golf course behind our house. She took a peek at them with the binoculars and saw that they were two juvenile bald eagles. I went and fetched my camera to get some photos before they took off.
As I was taking pictures, a flock of crows and other smaller birds began diving at the eagles trying to get them to move on (I guess they considered the tree was their territory). You would think that the much bigger eagles would ignore them but sure enough, persistence paid off and the eagles were eventually chased away.
