Athena's Odyssey

 So, who and what is Athena? In Greek mythology, she is the goddess of knowledge and wisdom. She is also a warrior, but very different than her brother Aries. Aries was all brawn and force. In combat, Athena brought in strategy and intelligence. When together, they were a formidable duo, but rarely did they fight. By extension, she is also the goddess of technology, navigation and boat building. Useful attributes on board.  Our Athena is a Stamas 44' ketch, designed by Bob Johnson who also designed the Island Packet line of sailboats. They only made 23 of our boat, while there are hundreds of IPs in various sizes. She was built in 1985 of fiberglass, has two masts and a center cockpit. The interior, typical of her age, is sipele mahogany. She has classic lines, and people have told us she's a good looking boat.  We chose this boat for several reasons. The previous two owners took very good care of her, and she may have spent most of her time sitting in the boatyard. Only ...

 First posted February 9. We'll weather the weather whatever the weather, whether we like it or not.  We left the Chesapeake in mid December, a month later than planned. And soon encountered ice in the canals. But we eventually worked out way south into Florida with palm trees and bougainvillea. From winter hats and warm jackets to t-shirts and bare feet.  I'm continually impressed with the weather forecasting available to us. Several different models are available at the click of an internet button. And it's not just for rain and sun. Detailed info presented in easy graphic form let us see the offshore wave heights days in advance. Wave period too. Same with wind speed and direction. We can plan a week ahead when to be offshore and when to stay put and when to motor down the ICW.  The ICW (InterCoastal Waterway) is an amazing bit of engineering. One can navigate from Texas to New York almost entirely protected from the open ocean. It follows a series of canals and r...

 The most dangerous thing on a sailboat is a schedule. While it may appear that this lifestyle is one of carefree anchorages with rum drinks with friends under a glorious sunset, that's only occasionally true.  Sometimes a schedule is created by the weather. Sailing from Charleston SC we had the choice of coming back in at Beaufort GA, Fernandina, Jacksonville or St Augustine. We had a good west-southwest breeze, which was predicted to turn south at some point. When it turned, we came in at Fernandina.  Meeting with people can also present a challenge. We chose this boat so that we could have guests. She has a nice aft cabin for the two of us, plus a v-berth for one or two guests. There's also a quarter berth which is mostly full of tools, and the salon setee. Weather permitting we occasionally set up on the deck under mosquito netting. But coordinating when to be where to rendezvous  We took advantage of the free dock in Jacksonville FL, where the outgoing tidal cur...

First posted January 22, 2023 Some cities are festooned with draw bridges. Portsmouth/Norfolk/Newport News is one such. Several of them, especially the railroad bridges are plagued with breakdowns. When that happens, traffic on the ICW stops . We had delays two years ago here as we sailed The Purple Gallinule north. And now with Athena, trouble again. Worse, we're stuck between two broken bridges for two hours and can go neither north nor south. Friends of ours opted to skip it all and sail all the way outside of Cape Hatteras, several days, to avoid the delays. I think that if you were a bridge mechanic you could have permanent employment here.  Chesapeake City VA. We're stuck waiting for a half inch of ice to melt. Sharp shards of ice will scrape the bottom paint off your waterline. Like many towns and cities along the nation's waterways, Chesapeake offers a free dock for boaters. Restaurants, grocery stores and hardware stores benefit. Here there's also a city park a...

First posted on January 8, 2023 Making progress! The cold weather has broken, winds abated, and sunshine plentiful.  After almost a week in Portsmouth VA, we motored to Chesapeake VA just beyond the lock and the Great Bridge, where the local patriot forces pushed back a larger British encampment. The battle lasted half an hour.  Skim ice returned come morning, and while other cruisers fired up their diesels and crunched through, we waited another day. Onward to two nights in Elizabeth City NC, followed by New Years day of sailing with no diesel at all.  While at the boatyard we designed and had built by Ruddercraft, and subsequently installed a new rudder. The original Stamas rudder was too small, poorly balanced and much too fat. As such it steered badly. New Years day was our first chance to try it out under sail. Tis not perfect, but is certainly a huge improvement over the original. Other faults are more likely from hull shape rather than rudder. Much harder to fix. B...

First posted on December 12, 2022. In one day we made it South to Portsmouth Virginia. Motored the whole way with occasional help from the sails. Portsmouth has a nice free docking wall for folks boating up and down the ICW, so we stayed the allotted two nights. It was a chilly sail, but the weather ahead looks worse. So we checked into Tidewater Marina for several nights. 2 days of rain from stratus clouds, followed by seriously strong winds then 3 days of bitter cold. Nice to be tied up securely and plugged into shore power for a little space heater. The rains weren't bad but winds were sustained at 30 to 40 mph with gusts to 50 according to Athena's wind gauge. Whitecaps everywhere and occasional spume spraying off the tops. Then cold! 11 F the first night, 17 second. Daytime highs below freezing. Condensation forms on the hatches and windows at night, then drips down as the cabin warms up. But our diesel heater in the aft cabin and electric heater in the salon keeps us toas...

First posted December 19, 2022 Friends, family Welcome to the next chapter in the adventures of Athena.  Please respond here if you wish to be removed from this emailing. Also if someone else would like to be included. Also if you have any questions or want clarification or for any other comments.  For those of you who don't already know, a year and a half ago Kristen and I bought a 44ft sailing ketch, and have done some upgrades and maintenance on her. She is named Athena, and should be quite a capable blue water boat.  Athena is the Greek Goddess of wisdom and knowledge and technology, and by extension boatbuilding and navigation. Atena is also the Latin name of the little burrowing owl.  Last summer, 2022, we sailed her north from the Chesapeake to the entrance to the Cape Cod Canal in Massachusetts and back. We had a great time and met with some of you along the way. She taught us a few things too: How to sail a ketch, maneuvering a heavy boat in tight places, an...