mmmm...photobooth

The last day on the boat...Photobooth shoot...awesome way to waste time.

This is me, sitting on the couch, at Margaritas house, a week and some change after I have returned to the U.S. I have been in Asheville for a few days now, and I'm not gonna lie, I really love being home. 

My first day back, Me and Sloan took 3 of our YL dudes to Midnight Hole, this sweet swimming hole where you can jump off rocks and stuff, immediately followed by kickball with the rest of Asheville YL, immediately followed by Cici's pizza fest, immediately followed by an 18 person poker game with all my high school fellas. What a great homecoming. 

I found an apartment that I think I'm going to rent. It's pretty sweet, 1 bedroom, basement apartment. It's a pretty cool place, and great location for me doing YL at TC Roberson because it's only .5 miles away from the house. And the rent is cheap...I'm thinking yes.

I've been helping Sloan with the kitchen renovations. It is looking so good. You can definitely tell that it's supposed to be a kitchen. 

Besides that all is well. 

I am so thankful to be back in this place. The sailing trip was so good for me, but it was time to come home. 

Oh, and my favorite part of coming home was Asher leaping off the top step of the stairs and into my arms to give me a bear hug that would make a lumberjack tear up...take that to the bank.

Chuckling...aka...Man Giggling

7-17, Friday

Well, I'm at the airport in Lajes, on Terceira. A recap of the last week:

Wednesday, July 8

We left Flores at 10am and had great wind all day. It was definitely a bit more relaxed, especially since it was only goin to be a 24 hour sail. It was pretty low key, but we did see some sweet dolphins jumping a few feet out of the water...I think a few of them were mooning us...because that's how dolphins roll.

Thursday, July 9

We arrived in Horta at 7:30am, so a solid 21 hour trip. Horta is cool, definitely not as beautiful as Flores, but there are people! And cars! And tons of sailors! And hot showers! Sweet mercy of Jesus, a hot shower. And free internet...which ruined me...I was on it for 4 hours the first day...geez. We (the crew from Flores that went to Horta, which was everyone!) went to Peter's Cafe Sport, this legendary sailor bar that has been around for decades. It has whale bones on the walls, and flags from pretty much every country in the world...but the food sucked...but that's cool, it was still a cool hang out, for real...but the food sucked...but whatever...who cares. We pretty much hung out there all night...btw, the food sucked...and then we all parted and went back to our ocean vessels for a kip.

(PS. If anybody is still keeping up with sailor creds,

 you don't have to any more...I've racked up way too many since Bermuda to count or keep track of...and my brain just can't handle it right now...because I'm kind of awesome...let's be honest)

(Seriously...be honest...deep down you know its true)

(And if you don't think so, just agree...it's my blog...I'll say what I want)

(But seriously, if you're completely honest, you're going to agree...so no worries matey)

Cool view of Mount Pico from the boat.

Friday, July 10 – Monday, July 13

All these days run together a bit, but to sum them up:

I moved onto another boat, Yamma, because the capitan, Steve from London, is going to give me a ride to Terceira, where I fly back home in 7 days. His boat is a Halberg Rassy, 36 feet...aka...real nice. I feel like I'm in a hotel room. Steve is a legend, classic brit...with a dry sense of humor, plus, a mouth like a sailor, equals, a classic fella.

Yamma

So, the first 10 minutes on the boat, I go to the bathroom, and break the freaking toilet. I thought they were all the same...But, in theory, I forgot to open the seacock...idiot. So, now Steve's cussing up a storm, I'm a bit nervous and worried that he won't give me a ride anymore, but semi chuckling (or “man giggling”) which makes him even more annoyed...crap...Long story short, we got the toilet working, and Steve loved me again.

Oh, in Horta, it's bad luck to leave port without painting the name of your boat on the sea wall. (Steve didn't care, so we didn't do it) (I'm convinced that is why the toilet broke...it knew...it was a future knowing toilet.) Anyways, so that makes for thousands and thousands of paintings that have been there for ages, and more keep coming....real cool. So, I walked around for an afternoon, checking out all the paintings...so cool.

The Paintings

Sunday, all the folks from Flores decided to go to the supermarket. We left the supermarket with two rabbits, wine, and this banging chocolate/cookie dough roll/cake awesome times dessert. (Seriously, thats what it was called) So that night, we went out to the Swedish couples' catamaran (which are freaking sweet) to have a “Rabbit Stew Party”. It was amazing...Legit amazing. Rabbit is awesome. We ate and drank to our hearts content, and then we all went back to our boats...fat and happy sailors.

Me and Carolyn at the Rabbit Feast.

Monday was my last in Horta, so I decided to walk around by myself. I was craving some oranges, so I bought some...Sailing has increased my appetite ten fold...I'm in trouble for real. Then, I went to the old whaling station and watched this movie about whaling...People...these guys are crazy raw. Whaling is the craziest fishing/hunting activity you could ever do. Those whales are freaking huge.

The Whaling Museum is on the opposite bank...the beach in Horta.

After all that, I went back to the boat to surf the web and sleep!

Horta

There is way too much to write, so I'll just gonna make it fast...

We stayed is Flores for 6 days total, then we sailed to Horta, which is a pretty major port for sailors. It took us 20 hours to do 130 miles...which is pretty fast in the boat I have been on. It was actually a really good trip. So we got to Horta, and EVERYONE that was in Flores is here. So the gang is back together. We have just been hanging out here, we went to the famous sailors bar, Peter's, and had some dinner the first night we were here. Besides that, we all just walk around and eat. 

We are actually going swimming today! The first good sunny day we've had in awhile! And the other thing, you can see Mount Pico from the marina, it's really really pretty. 

Ummmm....Oh, I'm on a new boat, they are taking me to Terceira, where the adventure ends. I fly home on Friday. It will be nice to eat and sleep again...like a normal person.

AND!!! The crew from Flores all bought 2 rabbits yesterday, and the greeks and arnie are going to cook rabbit stew for us all tonight...I love it. Pictures to come...

Adios!

Bom Dia! (Good day)

Ahhhh, Flores is so good. Been here for 3 days now. It's absolutely beautiful. And the people are so nice.

As you know, we got in Friday night. After anchoring we decided to go grab a bite to eat at the local pub. By far the worst hamburger I'd ever tasted...but I didn't care at all. We didn't have any Euros, and the bank was closed, so the owners let us eat anyways. Awesome.

Saturday, we got up early and went into town (Lajes). Carolyn and I decided to give ourselves a bit of a leg workout, since we hadn't really used them in weeks, so we decided to grab some lunch and take off for an afternoon hike. The lunch was amazing: Bitoque, it's rice, 2 steaks, french fries, a fried egg, and a salad. So much food, very cheap, very good. I was stuffed to say the least. Then we walked for 4 hours...and walking here is no joke. The roads are basically cliffs...12% grade...what the heck. Which basically means that after 2 weeks of not using my legs...they are now effed. But, on our way bck to town from the hike, we saw a man in his garden (everyone has gardens), he saw us and brought us two massive handfuls of strawberries that he'd just picked....they were so good.

That'll be some fresh smelling laundry eh?

Nice walk

After the walk, we went back into town, to the Restaurante Marinha, owned by Ricardo and Sonja (whole let us eat free the night before), and they were having a July 4th celebration! What!?! Makes no sense. Anyways, they had karaoke, good food, and all of the other sailors were there, so we met a bunch of them. We all hung out, and danced...by the way, Portuguese dancing is like fighting...for real...and then when you are done dancing with the Portuguese girls, they just turn around and walk off...no thank you (Obrigado) no wave, not even a handshake, heck not even eye contact. It was wierd...but really really fun.

So, Sunday we woke up around 11:30 and rented a taxi to tour the island. We drove all around the island for 3 hrs. (small island) and saw the Caldeiras (crater lakes), we went to Fajazhina and Faja Grande, two villages on Flores. It really is a beautiful island. 

One of the Caldeiras

Fajazhina

Malo Alto, the tallest peak on the island.

After that, we went and hung out with the Frenchies, Flo and Beru, and the Mad Brits, Chris and Kathy. Flo and Beru are sailors, and they decided to buy a house here a year ago because they loved the island so much. Flo has a massive garden

and she shares alot of her vegetables (which are amazing after not having any for two weeks). Their house is charming though, and they are so nice.

The Mad Brits are the Mad Brits because they are crazy. Kathy says they have a "Case of the F*** It's!" Ha ha, cracks me up. They bought a house after being here for 4 days! I think I would too if I had the money. They even invited me to come back and help them fix their property up...we'll see. Carloyn and I have taken quite a liking to them though.

After that, we went out to eat with the rest of our motley sailing crew:

Arnie, or somethin like that - Ze German

Dimitri and George - The Greeks

Adrian and Mary - Crazy Swiss

Peter - resident Old Fart

Phil - The strange guy from Liverpool.

From left to right: Ricardo, Carolyn, Arnie, Adrian.

When you eat here with a big group, they bring the whole table food. It's a pain to split the bill after, but they bring plates and plates of food and jugs of wine and you just eat and eat until you're full. I love it.

Anyways, More later.

July 1

July 1st

150 miles to go, and the wind is on our nose...Burn it. It looks like we'll be getting into Flores on Friday which = a MASSIVE dinner and a proper shower...

Oh yea, it's cold man, I had to bust out the sleeping bag pants and fleece...what the heck.

July 3rd

LAND HO! Holy crap...land looks awesome. I mean, the last leg of sailing was good, pretty chill. You just get into a rhythm, but oh my goodness what an awesome feeling to see land.

My seeing land picture.

I think it will be a good night...

Halfway

We are halfway!

800 miles to go! It's all down hill from here man. Time has now lost all value, except calculating when we will get to Flores.

Sleeping, Eating, Reading...That's the schedule.

It's refreshing, and at the same time, really annoying. You really have to let go of everything...I have really had to realize that I am not in control, and cant do a thing to make us get there any sooner. Just gotta loosen up out here in the big blue. 

Besides that, we have had good wind. We got to put the spinnaker up.

Pretty eh?

And I caught a big fish, but I couldn't t

ake a picture...why?  Uh because I was catching the fish. duh.

And we saw some dolphins, 

I got to steer, 

Saw another sunset, 

and sat somemore!

More tomorrow.

My first Gale...then Boredom

6/21

Well, it got rough...really rough...45 knot winds and 20 ft. waves rough. And, during all of that, our self steering broke...which pretty much means fix it or self steer for a week and a half. We decided to try and fix it. It was nuts, heaving up and down 20 ft. swells, hanging over the stern with a wrench in each hand (and occasionally teeth) trying to fix one of the most important pieces of equipment on the boat. But, we fixed it...but we had to heave to in the process so we made NO PROGRESS...disheartening for sure.

So, that was yesterday, today the wind is mid-20's and seas are <10>

But I seriously wanted Turd to come pick me up on his helicopter yesterday.

6/22

This is boring...

6/23

This is still boring...all I do is think. I wasn't built to think. I was built to do stuff. I don't even want to write. So much freaking ocean to go. It seems like it will never end. I wish my head would explode...or I had some power where I could actually sleep all day, for days on end.  

The Ocean.

6/18

Leaving Bermuda...beyond that gap is about 1800 miles of ocean.

We left a bit late Yesterday, around 1pm, but we are making ok time. The wind is out of the north east, right where we want to go...so we are doing a long northern tack, followed by a long eastern tack...Fun stuff.

On the starboard tack. + 10 Sailor Creds for putting up with this for days.

So apparently, everyone get seasick, and everyone told me that I was going to get seasick...Obviously, they don't know me very well...Because, obviously, it was vice versa...Ben Johnson didn't get Seasick, but Seasick got some Ben Johnson. Bring it Poseidon.

First Sunset.

Anyways, my first experience on watch last night was great. It's really beautiful. It's a totally different world when it's dark: Bio luminescent plankton (crazy), Holy Crap Stars (tons of them, and satellites, and shooting stars), and just nothing for miles. The moon is insanely bright. Sunsets and sunrises are rediculous. During the day, there's tons of flying fish, Portuguese Man O Wars, Shearwater Gulls, and lots and lots of Water.

First watch

On a more disgusting note, the two boys threw up...I took shrapnel. I wasn't paying attention...the youngest threw up into the wind...and I took some to the face. Yep, I know...but of course, I just took it like a man, licked up what was close to my mouth, and wiped the rest off with my sleeve (which, incidentally, I slept on later). Ah...a Sailor's Life. It's supposed to get rough in a day or so...Buckle Up.

The Flying Fish that almost hit me in the head. They fly...for real.