Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Updates and Canaveral sailing

I am lagging behind on my trip write-up, I do apologize. I never announced it here, but sometime around early February I was offered a job in St. Augustine doing the same type of consulting I was in Orlando. It was a dream come true to finally be able to move to the beach, near my family, and also in the same town as Windsong. After I was laid off I was able to secure a small amount of contract work with my old company to keep the coffers full, and I was able to push my start date in St. Augustine back until mid April. As you know by now, I used that time to take on the challenge of moving Windsong from West to East Florida, a grand adventure so far!

I started working in St. Augustine last week and have loved being here so far. This town never fails to bring out great feelings inside me. My family always had summer vacations here when I was a kid, and in my teenage years I would drive to these beaches every weekend to surf and be with friends. My whole life seems to have amazing memories associated with St. Augustine, and I’m extremely excited to begin this new phase and make the most of it.

Windsong is currently in the Cape Canaveral area, and I plan on bringing her up to St. Augustine sometime in May. Once up here it’s time for the haul-out and the start of the grueling work to completely refit and repair. I continue to visit Orlando and Windsong on the weekends and have made progress deconstructing the interior and refinishing the woodwork.

I was even able to take a bunch of friends sailing offshore on a Saturday a few weeks ago. We left Port Canaveral in the morning, sailed South almost to Satellite Beach and then back to the inlet by the evening. It was a great sail in brisk 15-20 knot winds out of the Northeast and 4-6 foot choppy seas. Windsong cut through the chop well and I thought the ride was extremely comfortable, 3 out of 6 crewmembers thought otherwise as their lunches were returned to the ocean soon after setting sail.

I still have to write up the last leg of the Journey, Stuart to Canaveral, and will get to that eventually. For now, here are some pictures and video of the Canaveral sail:




Morning at the marina




Going out of Port Canaveral





















Sails up!














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Jumping dolphins



Pelicans eating our leftover bait

1 comment:

Mid-Life Cruising said...

Sounds like life is good! I hear St. Augustine is a wonderful place to live.