s/v Field Trip

We're in Annapolis.  Preparing for the largest sailboat show in the US.  'Preparing' for most boaters means readying shopping lists, checking seminar schedules and scheduling calendars for social events. If anyone is like us, before we started cruising we didn't have a clear vision of what we needed.  Now, we have a better idea, and hope to provide some 20/20 clarity to some of our 'boat show' decisions. Sarah and I were at the Miami boat show where we were bitten hard by the sailing bug - and bought a boat.  We've attended every boat show in Annapolis, one in California and two in Miami since that first trip. This time, it's different.  We actually 'have' our boat - in Annapolis - and can now shop and look with more discerning eyes on 'boat stuff'.  After 8,700 nautical miles, countless trial and error evaluations of our decisions made, in some cases years ago - I will now tick off an abbreviated report card - most of which you ...

4,832 Nautical Miles = 5,561 Statute Miles = 1.4x length of the Amazon = 22% of the circumference of the earth = 650 hours of sailing This was not our original plan. When we bought Field Trip, we planned on having her professionally delivered to Charleston, SC. From there, we would ‘play, learn, experiment’ and figure it out. After ‘hitting the proverbial wall’ at work, plans changed. We decided to move to Argentina, watch the boat being built, and actually sail her – with captain and crew – to the United States. The first part of our trip from Buenos Aires to Ilha Grande, Brazil was great. We had an excellent captain and crew – made some lasting friendships, and had a great time. I’ve written some about this first leg of our journey here . The second leg of the journey, Ilha Grande, Brazil to St. Lucia was also great – but we had a small wrinkle. The third crewmember had an issue and we ended up doing the last (and longer portion) of the trip with Captain Martin and m...

Merry Christmas.  Happy Hanukkah.  Happy New Year. A lot has happened since our last blog.  We've been working non-stop since our boat splashed.  Things have happened that you just can't make up....in summary, we're having a blast. Currently, we're completely moved aboard.  We did this miracle in about 9 hours - once our items arrived from storage.  Our stuff is stowed, but needs to be organized.  That is a continual process as many of you already know... The biggest challenge - getting our stuff from storage to the boat.  On the surface this should be relatively easy.  Show up.  Load up.  Drive.  Unload.  Unpack. Our stuff in storage No so fast.  I left the boat at 7am to get to storage and load our items.  A large bus was arranged to pick me up at 9am.  I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  I called.  And called.  And called.  Nothing for almost 1 1/2 hours. ...

Today was her day.  People stopped and stared.  A way was made.   Shyly, yet proudly, she inched down the roads of San Fernando, and men flocked around her to lend a helping hand.  Trees were cut down, power lines lifted, cars pulled aside.  Nothing could stop her.  She felt a little vulnerable, quite naked,  really, without the adornments of lines and a powerful mast that would proclaim her a sailing vessel.  Yet, she inched forward, ready to dip her keels in that water and finally float. What could we do, but just follow along and watch - in awe of the reality, the dream, the being that has become a personified part of our family story.  As she made her way to the water, the kids found their own entertainment... petting neighborhood dogs, dropping rocks in sewers, sword fighting with the fallen branches - it seems she had not seduced them, yet.  Mark and I just kept exchanging glances, not believing she was here. now. with us. ...

Fun.  Painful.  Busy.  Slow.  We're almost there!  There are soooo many details on getting ready for the boat.  It's the busiest we've been since moving to Argentina almost four months ago. Field Trip is officially set to splash on Monday.  Our schedule is getting tight with the holidays approaching.  We've been running around like crazy getting logistics figured out for our move to San Fernando next week. In addition, I've been making regular trips to Field Trip during the week.  Santiago and Memo now cringe when I walk into the boatyard (not really...but close).  Everyone is working hard to get the boat ready.  It's a beehive of activity with lots of intricate details all coming together at a rapid pace.  I've been truly amazed to see the boat morph into this beautiful work of art - combining modern materials with detailed, handmade woodworking. We're excited.  We're anxious.  We're exhausted.  We're read...

This will be a short post. I wanted to get out a quick video showing the progress of the boat as of this week. We have less than two weeks before splashing. While it looks like a lot of work on the boat - and it is - the final pieces come together rather quickly. If I hadn't seen hull number 4436 at this stage and splash, I wouldn't believe our boat would make the date. :-) HD Video Link

Building a boat and time schedules don't coexist.  We've had a number of setbacks on our splash date, especially in the last 3-4 months. Time schedules are as predictable as nailing Jell-o to a wall.  Wiggle, wiggle, jiggle, jiggle - never really ceasing to move. The old saying about visitors scheduling time to visit the boat is you can either pick the date or location, but never both.  This holds true - when your boat is in the water. The silver lining for us is we have been enjoying Argentina and have made some great friends.  We haven't been in a significant rush.  At the present, if all goes well, including weather, our boat will now splash around mid December vs. the end of November.  About 2 weeks later than expected.  The boat will be commissioned for a week, moving the 'move on date' to December 23rd.  We'll have about a week to get the boat in order before we export January 2nd, and leave January 3rd for Brazil.  YIKES.  A ...

s/v Escapade owners transporting 'stuff' to boat! Pinch me.  Ok, hit me.  Reality set in this weekend.  We're next!!!  We helped Neil and Shaun move aboard their boat Saturday.  It was a crammed bus.  Lots of boxes, bins, suitcases and other items to provision their new boat.  We were very excited to see them board Escapade for the first time.  I was beaming almost as much as Neil and Shaun - knowing how close we are to the same provisioning excercise. Stacks of items for boat prior to loading It took about an hour to unload the bus, and move all bins onboard.  In 3 hours a lot of the items were unpacked.  The hard part will be finding space for all the smaller items and getting the boat organized.  It will take Neil and Shaun a couple of days to get on top of everything. Tomorrow (Monday), s/v Escapade heads out for Uruguay for the inagural exporting and collection of items we had shipped for our boats.  More on this...

Paciencia.  Patience.  This pretty much sums up the key ingredient to building a boat in Argentina. Having spent a fair amount of time with our boat on two different occasions over the past several weeks, I can happily say there is good progress.  I'll share some of my observations. Logistical Headaches Building a boat in Argentina is not for the impatient gringo.  It's complicated.  Importing stuff for our boat is painful at best.  Customs, 50% import duty, shipping costs, etc all add up.  If you don't bring it down with you via checked luggage - a.k.a. a mule, expect to pay mucho dinero for shipping and transport costs to Uruguay.  Neil and I are currently experiencing this headache for our life rafts, flares, etc, etc.  Ugly. Antares also has similar challenges.  They have to have items 'typified' for customs to allow import without the taxes.  This is done because the components for our boats are for export and not subje...

Two Antares owners - the Sullivan's and Silverstein's - went to St. Petersburg, FL last week to attend a detailed class on our new spinnakers .  It was exceptional .  The Parasailor team, owners of s/v Dragonfly (Fountaine Pajot Belize 43') and the Hunter 49' we used for lodging were excellent. Sarah unfortunately got a sinus infection the day prior.  She had significant nausa the night before and a splitting headache during our class.  Ugh for Sarah.  Needless to say, I was wrapped up in the class and probably not the best husband that day...sorry honey! I would strongly recommend the class to anyone purchasing the sail.  We learned a lot, and frankly found out some items we are researching for our Antares boats to ensure we can easily rig our sails in the future. More on that later, after my trip to Argentina in the next couple of weeks.  All in all, VERY pleased with our decision on the Parasailor and excited to get it deployed on our boat! I ...

Finally!  We hired a professional graphics artist to work on our logo.  We want participation from YOU to help us decide which logo to use for our boat. Key considerations for the logo are: * Must be clean and easy to see on boat * It will be embroidered on shirts * Something that symbolizes our trips The graphic designer we used is Keith.  He is EXCELLENT.  His contact info is below if anyone is interested in contacting Keith for a logo design project. Keith Tyrrell keithtyrrell@comcast.net Sample Work So, without further adieu, below are our logo options.  Please review and let us know what you think by voting! P.S. You can click on logo and pictures to enlarge Logo #1 - Wave Logo #2 - Red Wheel Logo #3 - Blue Wheel Logo #4 - Name Only Vote Now! Logo Poll