Wanderings of the Yasmine Ann: January 2013

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Our New Paddle Boards!

Roy and I purchased new inflatable paddle boards for our xmas present to each other. They arrived the other day. We had fun trying them out on a very windy day. As you can see we both didn't dare stand up on a windy day on our first time!

Roy was the first one to try the paddle boards out!

I'm cruising along on my knees!

Beautiful sunset!

Beautiful sky!

Roy checking out the sail.

Roy and I at Salty's Tikki Hut when Eric Stone & Steve Hall play. Great night lots of laughs and great music.

Bonnie, Yasmine & Pat in Key West

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Keys Rigging

Keys Rigging was here most of the day Monday replacing the gull striker shroud and tuning the rigging. We had a couple of other issues with bolts instead of clevis pins being used and they replaced those as well. Good group and very reasonable. We decided to pay for assurance instead of always wondering if we were going to lose another mast.

For those who don't know. The dolphin striker is used on the bowsprit of sailboats to help with distributing angled loads for the sprit. Picture below. Rich (Snow Goose) told us that in the old days, there would be a harpoon tip added to the dolphin striker which would impale a dolphin who decided to jump in your bow wave and provide fresh meat for the crew.

When cruising cats started coming out, some wise guy decided to call the appendage a gull striker. This is because it faces skyward. Now, everyone knows what you mean when you say gull striker. It was explained that it actually forces a concave shape to the aluminum cross member and that when you load up the rig, it brings it straight.

Just came down from the top of the mast. We finally have a functional anchor light. We bought a neat product from a manufacturer in Key West, Stektronics. It is a low cost LED anchor light and the best part is the boards are replaceable. That is what makes it unique and appealing to me.

Dolphin Striker is the steel rod pointing down towards the water.

Certainly not as glamorous and the blunt top makes it hard to impale anything. The gull striker is the bracket in front of the roller furler. We had the steel cable replaced due to a crack forming in one of the toggles.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Great Weekend!

Saturday a group of 10 of us headed down to Key West for the Seafood Festival. We enjoyed the bands, vendors and the food was just ok. We stayed for a couple of hours. Then to Duvall St and Mallory Square for the rest of the day.
Sunday Roy and I enjoyed a light air day of sailing, then we grabbed a mooring ball at Sombrero Reef to snorkel. We saw a lot of different fish we have never seen before. I actually drove the boat up to get the mooring ball at Sombrero Reef and our mooring ball at Boot Key. I did a great job I must say.

Great Sunset!

Rooster on Duvall St.

Bonnie & Sid

Kent & Jane

Roy, Kent,Jane,Bonnie & Sid

Banyan Tree

Friday, January 18, 2013

Paradise!!!

It's been along time since we posted!!
We live a tough life living in Paradise! Marathon has been absolutly amazing for working on Yasmine Ann. We have West Marine and Home Depot in walking and biking distance along with Publixs.
We are enjoying all the wonderful sites in Marathon, Sombero Beach, 7-Mile bridge for walking or riding bikes & many great restruarants, Hurricane's (Thursday night Happy Hour), Sunset Tiki Hut, Burdine's (great tuna & fried key lime pie), The Island Fish Co. (Pat's Washer's wonderful recommandation for girl's day out) and many more great places to eat.
We have meant so many incredible people, Bonnie& Sid on FIU, Anna & Rich on Snowgoose, Kent & Jane on Carina, and Jenette & Steve on Endless Summer. Steve plays with Eric Stone from Lattitudes, they played at Salty's Tikki Hut last weekend everyone had a fantastic time dancing and listening to the two of them play. Thanks to Jeanette we had front row seats!