Capturing the Moment

We made it! We sailed the Odyssey into the island port of Isla Mujeres, Mexico early yesterday morning (3/29). The voyage started off interestingly with the bilge pump cutting off on our final check right before leaving the dock. Then as we are working on the electronics for that the water pump kicks over for the final time. The weater outside was perfect and we were missing it. But Ryan and I dove into fixing these two things and after an hour had the bilge back up and running (it was a bad connection) and we had replaced the water pump with a brand new one. We topped off our water supply and cast off our lines about 3:30pm on Sunday 21st. A few miles our a fitting that the vang and the reefing lines run to broke. I thought to myself, "oh no, not another trip like last one." But luckily that was the last thing that broke down the entire trip. We did have to change out the furling line for the jib as it was about to sheer in half due to chafe. This was a challenge as we had ...

To all those following along you know that this departure has been a long time in the coming. We have been here in South Padre Island for three weeks. The boat has been hauled out, painted, we got two new crew members, spring breakers have come, partied, and gone home, we celebrated a very green holiday, rubbed elbows with some Kemp Riddley sea turtles, and finally we are set to depart. Several upgrades have been added to the Odyssey during this time. The most excited for all of you will be the addition of a SPOT gps locater. Thru it we can send out OK, SOS, and help messages as well as the ability for you to follow our track online! I have put the link up at the top of the website although at the time you have to cut and paste it into your browser. (if you dont know how to cut and paste just ask my mom. she is in the reference department) The plan is to set out on Monday the 22nd on the back end of this North front. 6 maybe 7 days at sea. Heading towards the Yucatan. Wish us luck! -Da...

Follow the link to follow along with the voyage of the Odyssey! http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Ka5ZHBllBWqM2yXecCiXc0PxmIHtdqYr

Still here in South Padre Island, Texas. Spring breakers have kept gathering in numbers along the island and the new crew of the Odyssey has gathered on board. Heidi and Ryan (aka Burger), both of which I have sailed on the Tole Mour with, have flown in to help with the next crossing and beyond. The sails are back on, parts are in, mostly, and now we are waiting for a weather window. The northern fronts are still coming in though so we are biding our time. A shakedown sail today went well, with the sails performing, the whisker pole working, and only grounding twice. Not bad.

Picture 1: Me diving under the boat unfouling the prop, 100miles out at sea Picture 2: Me up the mast in the bosuns chair doing repairs Picture 3: The clasp of the preventer that sheered off Picture 4: The after effect of the preventer snapping and halyard ripping out of the headboard of the mainsail Picture 5: The Odyssey all loaded up and ready to go

Port Aransas, TX to Isla Mujeres, Mexico app:660 Nautical Miles Attempt 1- Day 1: The crew for the crossing comprises of the owner, Kirk, his twin brother Todd (both of which are newish to the experiences of sailing), a certified captain and airplane mechanic Brian, and myself a sailor/marine biologist. With the crew all gathered and rested we set about making final preparations to head out early this morning of Thursday the 25th of Feb., 2009. Our first bump in the road so to speak comes as we head out of the Piper Channel and pass the dredgers who thankfully have been dredging the ridiculously shallow channel for the past week. Just in the nick of time I thought. Well as I started steering around them I anxiously watched as the depth finder started showing 2ft under the keel, to 1ft, and then *bump* we are scraping muddy bottom. 'What are these dredgers doing!Making the channel even shallower!?' I thought. Luckily it was soft mud so I powered her up and scraped once m...