Mitch, our tow operator, had pulled alongside Imprimis and lashed us up side-by-side. I (Heather) was prepared to take some pictures and video of Long Island Sound on the way to the marina during the tow. The morning was a little brisk and I thought I might get my jacket just in case. Mitch, stated that I might want to go ahead and get it before we get out on the water and I have to steer. Huh? I kind of ignored that and got my jacket. He then asked if I had VHF and I said of course we do. I went below decks, set the channel, and let him know I was connected. He had me get on his channel and call him to make sure it worked. He wanted to make sure I could reach him in case of emergency. Ok, weird. Our boat was literally connected to his boat and I was thinking, “If I need to talk to him, he’s right here, but ok.”
We slowly made our way out of the marina and past the buoys. Once outside the channel, we suddenly stopped and Mitch stated he was going to hook onto the bow of our boat and pull me behind him. He also let me know that I would probably need to steer our boat to stay directly behind him. Ummm, excuse me? This was supposed to be a relaxing ride for me. I was not mentally prepared to have to steer the boat..at all.
I was able to get a couple videos and a few pictures during the 3.5 hour trip. I am glad I was on the boat, it definitely made me feel better about being on the water. Imprimis handles very well when under way. The ride itself was actually pretty pleasant even though I had to steer the entire time. There were no leaks anywhere and our boat cut through the water like nobody’s business. Of course we’ll have to see how she does under sail, but I am pretty confident she’ll do great.
I can certainly see why Long Island Sound is for the experienced sailing crowd. I had plenty of opportunities to notice the shifts in the water, currents, and crazy wind shifts. We even got hit with a set of random steep waves that appeared to be standing waves.
There was a bit of confusion getting into the marina as there were 2 areas for hauling out and the marina thought we were a different boat coming in. Once that was settled, we were able to pull right up into the haul out area. It didn’t take long before a couple guys were setting about to unstep our mast. They got the mast into the work garage and we were able to measure the mast, inspect the rigging, and wiring in the mast. All in all, they all said everything looked really good.
Next thing we knew, our boat was being put in the sling and hoisted out of the water for the first time in what appeared to be a very long time. There wasn’t a ton of growth on the bottom, but there were a few barnacles, with one affecting our speedometer. She’s definitely going to need a good sandblasting and bottom painting once we get her to Florida. But that’s a story for another day.
When we last left off, Dwayne and I were headed back to our home base in Florida. We spent the next week firming up a boat hauler and a tow to a marina that had haul out services. Why not sail to a marina? Well, once we made the decision that the best option was to ship the boat to Florida, we took down all of the sails and started removing anything that might hinder the shipping process.
So here we are. A week later, driving back to Connecticut. We found a great marina that would be able to haul us out. The towing guy said he would meet us on a Monday morning and we’d be set.
Halfway across the country and a call comes in
Hold on…not so fast. Halfway to Connecticut, the hauler called to tell us that his rig had broken down and he was headed to the shop. He would not be able to haul our boat to Florida anytime in the foreseeable future. Back to square one.
Luckily, we were able to snag another hauler, after approximately 30 phone calls. It seems that hauling out of the Northeast US is a bit of a pain because of all the toll roads and bridges and New York City. Once again, we were back on without altering the haul out plans we had made.
We arrived to the boat on a Saturday evening. We didn’t have much time to remove the last of the hardware and as much from the inside as we could. After opening the hatch, we were pleasantly surprised there had been no leaks (so we thought) and all appeared to be right where we left it.
Ohhh that smell …
We noticed, during our previous stay, that our head had a bit of a leak. It didn’t look like anything major. We had already decided that once arriving in Florida, one of the first projects would be to remove the head and all those plumbing lines and replace it with a composting head.
When we climbed aboard to start unloading, Dwayne headed up to the V-berth. When he stepped on the flooring by the bed, water seeped out. Uh-oh, what the heck is going on? We opened up the flooring which has a small locker and it was filled with water, but wait…no…no that wasn’t water.
Dwayne started cleaning up the area with paper towels and I (Heather) was all, “You might want to put some gloves on..that’s not water…that’s pee.” At first, Dwayne tried to disagree that it was water. Once we opened up the lockers near the holding tank, the smell of urine hit us like a ton of bricks. Lovely, just lovely. Long story short, once that mess was all cleaned, we found the pump out valves were not labeled correctly. When we pumped out the first time, nothing happened…..and the tank was full. Very full. So full that a few gallons had seeped out around the hose clamps. A few gallons.
Another beautiful morning in Connecticut for the day of towing. Mitch, from one of the nationwide boat-towing companies, was a great guy. We were able to get a full pump out before heading to the next marina. We verified that the stinking tank was empty! The plan was for Dwayne would drive our car to McMichael’s Marina in Mamaroneck, NY. I was to stay on the boat to hopefully get some footage of Long Island Sound. I was not prepared for what was going to happen next……..
Do you really NEED to attend an ASA sailing school? Is it worth the money and time?
Like many of the folks who visit this site, we watch a LOT of YouTube sailing video channels. They were our inspiration to begin this journey and continue to inspire us to this day. The vast majority of these guys claim to have had “no experience at all” at sailing before heading out and most make it look easy.
While that may be acceptable for some, we just didn’t feel comfortable with that. We decided that, while the boat was tucked away for the winter in Connecticut, we should try to learn to sail here in Florida.
There are plenty of sailing schools in the Florida panhandle that offer the American Sailing Association classes. We opted to go with the team at Floridaze Sailing in Pensacola. We chose them because they offer their instruction on 30 foot sailboats and they will limit the class size to a couple if you request.
Lots of the schools start you off on little 20 – 25 foot boats that don’t have many of the things you’ll find on a family-sized boat. Those things handle very differently and have different things onboard. It didn’t hurt that they were exceptionally friendly on the phone when we called.
Going into the ASA 101 and 103 classes, we really had no idea what to expect. Very few ASA Sailing Schools get into specifics on their web sites. We looked online but really couldn’t find much info other than the basic curriculum. We knew we’d be learning basic terminology and handling in light winds on calm seas. Not much further info could be found. So, we figured we’d share our experience. Keep in mind that your experience may be different if you attend a different course.
The ASA curriculum specifies the textbooks you’ll need and our instructor pointed us to Amazon to obtain them. We each got a set of the books and broke into studying them before we ever headed to class. Well, Heather studied them and Dwayne flipped through them thinking we would have some classroom instruction.
It took us a while to get a good day that the school could take us. Being local, the instructors wanted to ensure we had good weather and calm conditions for our first day. Sailing in conditions that are below 60 degrees on choppy seas is entirely possible – but not a great way to start. We were both onboard with waiting for a good weather window!
ASA 101
When the big day did arrive, we met our instructor at the docks around 9 AM. Captain Rick immediately took us over to one of the school’s boats and started quizzing us on the parts. He dived right into teaching right at the docks. No boring classroom time was wasted here! We were soon settled onto the boat and Captain Rick had us untying lines.
Within 30 minutes of boarding the boat we had cast the lines and, with Dwayne at the helm, we were navigating our way out through a narrow channel under engine power.
The rest of the weekend was an absolute blast! We went through the entire curriculum while aboard the boat. Captain Rick gave us some study material to take home and the final afternoon of the class we did have to take an exam. It was a testament to the great instruction and our desire to learn that we both maxed the exams in short order.
During the ASA 101 weekend we focused on helm commands, basic sail trim, points of sail, seamanship and safety. We also did a lot of training in the busy Pensacola Bay on navigation rules and learned how to avoid collisions and hazards. It was exhilarating to say the least.
ASA 103
A few weekends later, we were back at Sabine Marina to take the ASA 103 course. The Coastal Cruising course goes into more advanced topics and we were more than ready to take them on. We did have to spend a lot of time tied up at the marina because the winds were howling around 30 knots and the tides were so low we couldn’t exit the marina. We spent that time learning to read navigational charts and plot our courses the old-fashioned way. Our instructor also turned us on to several navigation apps and we discussed some of the more modern ways to navigate.
Once we got out on the water, we got to practice more of those basic safety and navigation skills right away. Proper maneuvering to recover a man-overboard is one of the main exercises of this course. During one of our recoveries, the US Coast Guard decided to add an element of surprise to our operation by speeding right past us and nearly causing us to lose our floating dummy! We did recover it after all and spent the next several hours tacking and jibbing around Pensacola Bay. We went on to successfully pass that course as well.
Summary
While they may not be required in the United States, we highly recommend attending both the ASA 101 and 103 courses. The confidence you will gain really can’t be measured. Knowing that you’ve had the training and put some skills into practice in a somewhat controlled environment was invaluable.
Even though a course may run over a thousand dollars for a couple, we felt it was really worth it. Sure, you could climb aboard any boat and learn these things. But, I can tell you that we can easily spot a sailor who hasn’t had basic instruction a mile away!
Our boat was located at South Benson Marina in Fairfield, Ct. There are only 2 ways out of Long Island Sound. Either we motor through the East River praying we get the currents right or we sail east to Montauk, NY and deal with the cut known as “The Race”. Not the best of options for sailing newbies. Rather than adding several days to the journey, we figured motoring through New York City would be pretty awesome.
We woke up to a beautifully calm, blue sky morning. There was no wind. Since we wanted to motor for a bit, we figured all was well. There was a nice high tide for our almost 6 foot draft. After a quick fill up of gas (yes, we have an Atomic 4 gas engine) and a pump out (more on this adventure later), we were on our way!
Our engine had just been serviced a couple months prior, new filters, cleaning, the works. We were told it ran great, no problems. Being newbies, our big mistake here was not checking over the engine before we left. We were about to learn a really rough lesson.
We headed out of the marina and were doing great. All we could think was. “this trip is going to be amazing!”. Right after we passed the first set of buoys outside the marina, the engine died. Wait, what?!
It’s ok … we got it started again … we’re fine … let’s keep going.
Almost to the second set of buoys, the engine died again. Are you freaking kidding me?? I (Heather) took over the helm while Dwayne ran down to work on the engine. Meanwhile, we’re just drifting sideways between the buoys and the channel going into the marina.
Dwayne got the engine started again, yes! I got her straightened out and the engine stopped, AGAIN. This time, it did not want to start again. Dwayne was down dealing with the engine inventing some new words as I was watching us drift closer to the buoys and ultimately the lighthouses.
As our attempts to start the engine continue to fail, my new catchphrase of “I don’t know what to do” took hold. You might ask, why didn’t you just pop those sails up and go? Duh, we do have a sailboat. Well, remember when I said we had a beautiful calm morning? When I said calm, I should have said non-existent wind.
At this point we really only had one option: call the marina and see if we can come back until we figure out what is now wrong with the engine. We dropped our anchor; silver linings it held great. We sat out in Long Island Sound and had a nice lunch while waiting on TowBoat US to come pick us up.
Two hours later, we were back in the marina. Tearing apart the engine trying to find out what was wrong. Dwayne found the problem quickly. An oil pressure sensor wire had disconnected while the engine was running. We thought “Great! We’ll walk down the road, get a rental car and get the supplies we need to fix the problem and get back on the water. We’ve got this.”.
The next morning, another beautifully calm day dawned. We tested the engine and it ran great for a good twenty minutes. It looked like we were good to go. We untied the lines, put her in gear, and cast off the dock. Not ten seconds later the engine died again! I mean, seriously?!?
This time the engine would not start back up. What were we to do? We were drifting in the middle of the marina! Luckily for us, there was someone working on their boat and we were still close enough to the next set of docks. I was able to throw him a line, Dwayne jumped off the boat, and they were able to get us tied back up.
At this point, I got off the boat and took a walk. How do I bring up that maybe we shouldn’t attempt this. We had to have a reliable engine to get out of Long Island Sound and the East River. Obviously, there was something seriously wrong with this engine. We agreed the next course of action would be to find a place to haul out and have the boat shipped to Florida. But for now it was time to go back home for a couple weeks.
When we last left off with this story, we had just bought a boat, sight unseen, on eBay. After a quick check of the boat, in person, we tucked her away for the winter since she was in Connecticut and we were in Florida. So begins our story today …
We had planned on heading to Connecticut in April to sail our boat to Florida, but Covid-19 had other plans. Fast forward to the end of May and we were finally on our way back up to Connecticut; even though there were a lot of marinas still closed at this time. We figured it would be the first week of June before we actually headed out of the marina. Places were planning on opening, so all would be fine; right?
The road from the Florida panhandle to Connecticut took us 2 days, through 10 states, with a stopover in our old stomping grounds of Roanoke, VA. We arrived at the marina fairly late in the evening, so we just grabbed the essentials for the night. Our sailboat was just as we had left it in March, for the most part. We wouldn’t be able to really survey anything until the light of day. That first night on the boat was rainy, but definitely not uncomfortable. We sat out in the cockpit, under the bimini, listening to the rain and the sounds around the marina. It was so peaceful, but dang was it still cold in Connecticut! Our thin Florida blood was NOT prepared for the 40 degree weather at night.
Forty degree nights and eery skies in Connecticut
We woke up to a nice brisk morning at the marina. People milling about working on their boats and heading out for a day on Long Island Sound. Justin, the marina manager stopped by for a chat. Back in April, there had been some gale force winds in the marina. They literally tore our dinghy off our boat and into the water. Marina workers were able to retrieve our dinghy and secure it back to our boat. However, it had lost most of its’ air, so we were praying real hard that we would be able to re-inflate it and there wouldn’t be any holes. As luck would have it this time, we were able to salvage the dinghy.
Before we had left the boat back in March we had noticed there were leaks around the portholes and handrails. Once we returned to Florida, we knew we were going to put the boat on the hard and give some serious attention to the entire boat.
We did some quick fix sealing of the windows and handrails in an attempt to keep water from getting inside the boat while we were gone. The seals worked great; it may have not looked the best, but hey, it was a fix to get us where we were planning on going and most importantly, no more water dripping in the cabin.
It ain’t pretty but it worked!
Now that we knew everything was sealed up good we set about cleaning and bringing in food, supplies, safety equipment and gear onto the boat. I quickly realized, I brought way too much for a 32 foot boat. For a week, we cleaned inside and out, bought spare parts, checked lines and added an anchor.
One day as I (Heather) was scrubbing the deck, I heard someone yelling to me. The previous owner’s son stopped by in hopes of seeing the boat still docked. He said they had a bunch of stuff for us if we wanted to come get it all. We ended up with 2 chairs, 4 sails, spinnaker pole, whisker pole, extra line and blocks. Basically, we ended up filling our rental minivan completely full of more equipment. There was so much we weren’t sure if everything would fit on the boat with everything we already had stored!
There was no way we were going to turn down all these things!
I should mention that while we were getting everything ready to set sail, we were also waiting for a good weather window. The first part of June had 2 named storms already. This had made us more than a little nervous and antsy about getting started. But, it was time to leave the marina and Connecticut to begin the journey south…..
OK, before we continue the story, I feel I should address some of the comments that have come across on Facebook and on this site. Lots of folks have opinions about participating in auctions and I feel I may have not accurately presented my eBay experience.
Firstly, I was NOT bidding on boats just to try to drive up the bids. I was always bidding on boats in the hopes of actually making a boat purchase. We don’t have a huge budget and we understand how eBay works. You bid, you win, you pay. Otherwise, someone else who wants it more will win.
Sadly, there are a lot of operators on eBay that use automated tools to run up the bidding at the very last second. We’ve missed out on making a boat purchase many times. My method was to place a bid on a decent boat and hope / pray / beg that I wouldn’t be outbid. We were really close to owning a boat about a month ago and were literally outbid by someone using some software within the last five seconds of the auction. If you want to have complaints about someone on eBay – these are the people who deserve your ire.
Secondly, I blocked out the final price of the boat because I know that always draws a lot of judgement – both good and bad. When it was apparent that we might actually win this auction, we both went into extreme research mode. We wanted to find out everything we possibly could about this type of boat. We researched their history, their resell values, and tried to determine if we were stuck with a dud. We’ll reveal the final price eventually but we want to wait until the survey is complete before we do.
Getting there
Shortly after the auction closed, the charity that had auctioned the boat called. All I needed to do was arrange payment and they would give me the contact info for the previous owner. They forwarded their warranty policy. This was a form to acknowledge that lots of donor boats are junk. The engine may or may not work (even though the listing specifically stated it did). We were given 6 days to visit the boat, or have an agent check it out, and file a complaint if we felt it wasn’t as advertised.
Long story short: I paid the bid price, they turned over the info, and I started the process to go visit the boat.
Normally, this would be no problem. But, as I mentioned before, I was sitting just south of Richmond, VA and scheduled to fly home to Florida in 2 days. I called the airline to try to add a hop up to the Northeast but, they wanted a thousand dollars for that privilege. Nope. Not doing THAT.
I was able to get the airline to push my scheduled return flight back by one day for a much more reasonable fee. But that would mean getting myself to the Northeast and back on my own.
Thanks to my hectic travel schedule of the past 2 years, I had a BUNCH of reward points though IHG hotels. I was able to get a room in Connecticut at no cost. I added another in Richmond the following day, at no cost. After a quick call to the rental car company, I added a day to the rental and was all set.
I just had to wait for the class I was in to finish and then hit the road. No problem. Just a 7 hour drive through the DC area and NYC, a quick check of the boat, and a 7 hour drive back to make my next flight. Good times.
And, that’s exactly what I did.
The donor
As it turned out, the previous owner is an older gentleman in his 80s. He is no longer able to take care of the boat. His son figured it was easier to take the donation value of the boat. Putting her up for sale at this time of the year is a bad idea. Paying another $2000 to store a boat you don’t use over the winter is an even worse idea. They were very upfront about any issues on her and seem to have kept meticulous records.
The boat, at 45 years old now, has only known 2 owners. The gentleman who donated her has kept her in great shape over the years. According to the records I found onboard, he and his wife had her since the early 1990s. Apparently they were using her to race around Long Island Sound and along the East Coast for awhile.
Visiting the boat
Friday morning, I woke up super-excited! The previous owner wasn’t available to meet me at the boat but had arranged for the keys to be available for me to take a look around. The purpose of this trip wasn’t to perform a survey or anything – it was just to validate the purchase and get a general idea of the condition. I was ready to go and checked out of the hotel in about 30 minutes!
Driving through the small Connecticut towns was an experience in itself. I’ve not spent much time in that area and will certainly want to go back someday to visit.
When I pulled in to the marina, they were expecting me and pointed me in the direction of the boat. Knowing she was a donation and that photos can be edited I was starting to get really anxious. I made my way down to the end of the dock and my heart leapt.
Walking down the dock, I passed several derelict boats. There were several boats that were floating but that had obviously seen their better days. There were brand new boats that probably cost more than our home. But there, sitting in the very last slip, was OUR boat. The boat I had only seen in photos and was unsure if it was even real. Until now.
Does she need some work? Sure! You don’t pay this little for a boat and not expect to put some work into her. Does she sail? You better believe it! Will she work for us? We’ll see – we’re setting up the survey now and will have plenty more to tell you when that takes place.
In the meantime, I managed to quickly film a couple of minutes worth of video while checking her out.
Ok, I freely admit that I never expected to actually win a sailboat auction on eBay. I’ve been playing this dangerous game of window shopping for older boats and placing bids. It’s a great way to waste some time on a Sunday morning while we catch up on our favorite YouTube sailing channels.
My bids are never much more than the current high bid. I always get outbid in a matter of minutes thanks to automated bids. Always.
I’ve probably placed bids on 20 or more boats over the past few months but I always get outbid really quickly.
That’s precisely what happened last weekend as I was window shopping and getting ready for my trip to Fort Lee, VA. Heather and I were watching sailing videos and my silly self was doing some harmless bidding on eBay. I was being outbid quickly and I just figured that nothing would ever come of it. Another lovely Sunday morning spent with my sweetie and no harm done.
On Monday I got an email from eBay that said I was the high bidder on a boat again because bids placed after my last one had been retracted. What? How does that happen? I always thought all bids were final. How had I suddenly become the high bidder? How much longer would I remain the high bidder?
The listing still had another 24 hours to go. Oddly, most of the “watchers” were no longer interested. No one else was placing bids. This was truly odd. But – i had almost won a bid once before only to be greatly outbid in the final 5 seconds of the auction. We weren’t getting our hopes up. Not this time.
The boat I was bidding on was an older boat – a 1974 Paceship 32. From the pics that were online, it looked to be pretty well taken care of but that can be misleading. The previous owner had donated the boat to charity and they were auctioning it on eBay. No need to get the hopes up. Hell, it probably didn’t even have a working engine if it was donated.
Tuesday afternoon, shortly after my classes were over, I checked eBay to see if it was still there. Had they pulled the listing? Why was no one outbidding me?
Then I got an email from eBay. The auction had 15 minutes until ending and I was still the high bidder. Whatever. Someone will swoop in.
The next message was a pop up on my phone. I had won. I don’t even know how that happened.
I have a theory that someone’s autobidding drove away the other watchers and I got extremely lucky. We’ll see how that plays out. Maybe it was my ruthless persistence. Maybe someone checked out the boat in person and decided it was a rusty misrepresented hulk.
Whatever it was, I was now getting a phone call from the charity that auctioned it wanting to know how I’d be paying for the boat. Once they received payment, I’d be sent a Bill of Sale and have 6 days to dispute the sale as a misrepresentation.
Ok, great. I’m in the middle of a military class and scheduled to fly back to Florida on Friday. The boat is in Connecticut. I’ve never even been to Connecticut. Now I have to completely rearrange my trip, figure out to get there, and go make sure this thing actually exists.
We’ve been wanting to buy a sailboat for quite some time now and today we did it; we bought a sailboat. Dwayne has been eyeing boats on eBay and making bids here and there when we find a sailboat we are interested in. Well, we actually won a bid and never thought it would happen so quickly let alone happen at all! The kicker; it’s in Connecticut and we’re in Florida. Things are about to get real interesting around here. We have only seen pictures of the boat thus far and are praying that the pictures are at least a decent representation of what we’ve purchased…cue Captain Ron…..let’s hope it’s not like Captain Ron.
So, come along as we journey to see our sailboat for the first time and begin our adventure!
A few years ago, during a visit to Provo, I captured some dashcam video that showed us driving from the resort to the beach. It was a cheeky little 5 minute video put together more as a test of the action cam than anything else. Naturally I put it on YouTube just to preserve that fun little trip. It was put up on my personal channel long before we started the whole Daydreams Afloat project but has somehow gathered over 15,700 views as of this writing.
We put our heads together to try to figure out why this little video would even be that popular. After all, it’s just dashcam footage that doesn’t really show anything. That got us to thinking that perhaps, what people are really looking for is some usable information about driving in Turks and Caicos. Since we’ve spent considerable time driving around those islands, we put together this little list to help out the traveler who may need some extra info. Without further adieu, we present:
The FIVE SIX most important things you need to know about driving in Turks and Caicos:
Driving is on the left here. Turks and Caicos is part of the British West Indies and driving on the left is the norm! While driving on the left may be intimidating at first, it’s really not that different once you get the hang of it. After about a half hour on the roads (and perhaps exiting a roundabout into oncoming traffic, once) I figured it out and never have had another problem.Some of the rental cars available on the island have the driver’s seat on the right side. These cars are identical to the cars we’re used to in the U.S. (gas pedal is on the right, brakes on the left, etc.) but the driver sits on the other side of the car. Just like in the movies! Whenever I get lucky enough to get one of those cars, I usually find myself opening the door for my wife a lot. I really didn’t approach the car from the wrong side, at all. I’m just a gentleman like that.
There are NO traffic lights in the entire country! Anywhere. On any island. Not even one. All the intersections either follow leftfirst priority or are roundabouts. There are LOTS of roundabouts and you have to remember that the traffic flows clockwise in them. If you are entering a roundabout, oncoming traffic is from the right. Many that seem like straight through intersections on the smaller 2 lane roads. Just be careful when entering any roundabouts since cars that are already in the roundabout have priority.
Speed limits are all marked in MPH. The speed limit signs are circular signs with a red border and a number inside. Rental cars on the island are typically equipped with Km/h speedometers. You will need to do a quick mental conversion when you’re out driving around. The most common speed limit is 40 MPH (which is 64 km/h). Residential areas are marked at 20 MPh (which is 32 km/h).
On multi-lane roads, like Leeward Hwy, the RIGHT lane is the fast lane. Don’t be a lane hog and watch out for those who don’t quite understand the speed limits!Speaking of the roads, not all the roads are paved! Expect to go off road a bit on hard coral roads. Some of the best beaches on the island are accessible only by these unpaved roads.
Watch out for the speed bumps! Some are really big and not well marked. Some of the speed bumps are very wide, as they are elevated pedestrian crosswalks. Keep slow and keep an eye out. Speed bumps are very prevalent in the big resort area of Provo and in the newer residential areas on the east end of the island.
Finally, it’s sad that we have to cover this issue but, drunk driving has recently become a major problem. The local lawmakers have just recently enacted legislation to deal with it. Effective July 1, 2018 breathalyzers are in use and are stringent enforcement has begun. Legal limits are the same as much of the US at .08. One other thing to be aware of is the legal drinking age in the TCI, as well as the rest of the Caribbean is 18.
Ok, that wraps up the top six things we’ve encountered as drivers in Turks and Caicos. We shot plenty of video during our most recent visit to the island and plan to put together some video examples of each of these. We’ll update this post when we do.
Oh Annapolis, the city that seems to be made of brick. This fair city, hosts not only the nation’s largest in-water sailboat show each October, but they host a smaller boat show at the City Dock each spring.
I was completely wowed when I visited the gigantic United States Sailboat Show last fall and expected much of the same. That show is billed as the largest in-water sailboat show in the US and it was definitely a multi-day affair. Expecting large crowds, we made our way over toward Annapolis on Friday evening and grabbed a hotel. Early Saturday morning we started working our way toward the in-water fun.
Once we hopped off the shuttle, we quickly realized that the Annapolis Spring Sailboat Show is considerably smaller than its big cousin. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though and it sure didn’t stop us from having a great time. We boarded lots of boats and it was actually easier to get aboard some of the catamarans. I completely skipped those during the fall boat show due to lengthy lines and large crowds.
Looking over the list of boats that were on display, I counted nearly 60. All the boats were open for us to explore and explore we did! There were also a number of tents set up with vendors selling boat-related gear.
We didn’t go to the show expecting to buy a boat. The new ones are way out of our price range! But, we were able to get a lot of ideas and really enjoyed checking out the interiors of boats we’d normally never get to board!
We visited the show on both Saturday and Sunday. Regular admission to the show starts at $18 per person (discounts are given for children under 12) with special prices for 2 day tickets and VIP sessions. The shows also offer Cruisers University classes that seem to fill up pretty quickly.
Thomas Point Lighthouse
Near the end of each day, we took a harbor cruise with some of the vendors that operate from City Dock. On Saturday, we took a cruise with Watermark Cruises around the harbor area and out to the Thomas Point Lighthouse. The cruise was really nice and the crew were great and kept us informed of all the things we were seeing.
Along with the lighthouse, we were able to circle around the grounds of the US Naval Academy and witness some of the training equipment they have positioned there for our future Naval Officers. We’ve decided that our next trip to Annapolis will include a tour of the Naval Academy grounds – if for no other reason than to witness the Crypt of John Paul Jones.
On Sunday, we took an evening sail with Schooner Woodwind aboard one of their 74 foot sailboats. Even though there was only a light wind, this magnificent boat slipped very quickly through the waters. We spent nearly 3 hours sailing all around the Chesapeake Bay and had a great time talking with the crew and enjoying the atmosphere.
Getting there
Schooner Woodwind
If you drive in from out of town, it is highly recommended that you park at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Downtown Annapolis is very tight with small roads, lots of one-way streets, and limited parking.
Plenty of signs are posted as you make your way into the city directing the traffic toward the ample parking that is set aside at the stadium.
Be prepared: parking is NOT free. Parking at the stadium costs $10 each day and includes free shuttle service between the stadium and the Annapolis waterfront.
If you are visiting via the water, the mooring field is open during the Spring Boat Show and a dinghy dock is right next door. The mooring field is cleared during the Fall Show to make room for all the extra displays!
Worth the trip?
After our initial disappointment at how much smaller this show was, we truly felt it was a great experience. The lines were minimal and we were able to board all the boats we wanted to see. This also allowed us more time to get on the water and enjoy some quality time aboard. Given that there were nearly 60 boats on display, “smaller” is a term relative to Annapolis.
{"id":null,"mode":"text_link","open_style":"in_modal","currency_code":"USD","currency_symbol":"$","currency_type":"decimal","blank_flag_url":"https:\/\/www.daydreamsafloat.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/tip-jar-wp\/\/assets\/images\/flags\/blank.gif","flag_sprite_url":"https:\/\/www.daydreamsafloat.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/tip-jar-wp\/\/assets\/images\/flags\/flags.png","default_amount":100,"top_media_type":"featured_image","featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.daydreamsafloat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/BuyUsADrink-200x133.jpg","featured_embed":"","header_media":null,"file_download_attachment_data":null,"recurring_options_enabled":true,"recurring_options":{"never":{"selected":true,"after_output":"One time only"},"weekly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every week"},"monthly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every month"},"yearly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every year"}},"strings":{"current_user_email":"","current_user_name":"","link_text":"Buy Us A Drink!","complete_payment_button_error_text":"Check info and try again","payment_verb":"Pay","payment_request_label":"Daydreams Afloat","form_has_an_error":"Please check and fix the errors above","general_server_error":"Something isn't working right at the moment. Please try again.","form_title":"Daydreams Afloat","form_subtitle":null,"currency_search_text":"Country or Currency here","other_payment_option":"Other payment option","manage_payments_button_text":"Manage your payments","thank_you_message":"Thank you for being a supporter!","payment_confirmation_title":"Daydreams Afloat","receipt_title":"Your Receipt","print_receipt":"Print Receipt","email_receipt":"Email Receipt","email_receipt_sending":"Sending receipt...","email_receipt_success":"Email receipt successfully sent","email_receipt_failed":"Email receipt failed to send. Please try again.","receipt_payee":"Paid to","receipt_statement_descriptor":"This will show up on your statement as","receipt_date":"Date","receipt_transaction_id":"Transaction ID","receipt_transaction_amount":"Amount","refund_payer":"Refund from","login":"Log in to manage your payments","manage_payments":"Manage Payments","transactions_title":"Your Transactions","transaction_title":"Transaction Receipt","transaction_period":"Plan Period","arrangements_title":"Your Plans","arrangement_title":"Manage Plan","arrangement_details":"Plan Details","arrangement_id_title":"Plan ID","arrangement_payment_method_title":"Payment Method","arrangement_amount_title":"Plan Amount","arrangement_renewal_title":"Next renewal date","arrangement_action_cancel":"Cancel Plan","arrangement_action_cant_cancel":"Cancelling is currently not available.","arrangement_action_cancel_double":"Are you sure you'd like to cancel?","arrangement_cancelling":"Cancelling Plan...","arrangement_cancelled":"Plan Cancelled","arrangement_failed_to_cancel":"Failed to cancel plan","back_to_plans":"\u2190 Back to Plans","update_payment_method_verb":"Update","sca_auth_description":"Your have a pending renewal payment which requires authorization.","sca_auth_verb":"Authorize renewal payment","sca_authing_verb":"Authorizing payment","sca_authed_verb":"Payment successfully authorized!","sca_auth_failed":"Unable to authorize! Please try again.","login_button_text":"Log in","login_form_has_an_error":"Please check and fix the errors above","uppercase_search":"Search","lowercase_search":"search","uppercase_page":"Page","lowercase_page":"page","uppercase_items":"Items","lowercase_items":"items","uppercase_per":"Per","lowercase_per":"per","uppercase_of":"Of","lowercase_of":"of","back":"Back to plans","zip_code_placeholder":"Zip\/Postal Code","download_file_button_text":"Download File","input_field_instructions":{"tip_amount":{"placeholder_text":"How much would you like to tip?","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"How much would you like to tip? Choose any currency."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"How much would you like to tip? Choose any currency."},"invalid_curency":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please choose a valid currency."}},"recurring":{"placeholder_text":"Recurring","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"}},"name":{"placeholder_text":"Name on Credit Card","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter the name on your card."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter the name on your card."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please enter the name on your card."}},"privacy_policy":{"terms_title":"Terms and conditions","terms_body":null,"terms_show_text":"View Terms","terms_hide_text":"Hide Terms","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"I agree to the terms."},"unchecked":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please agree to the terms."},"checked":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"I agree to the terms."}},"email":{"placeholder_text":"Your email address","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"not_an_email_address":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Make sure you have entered a valid email address"}},"note_with_tip":{"placeholder_text":"Your note here...","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"empty":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"not_empty_initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"saving":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Saving note..."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Note successfully saved!"},"error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Unable to save note note at this time. Please try again."}},"email_for_login_code":{"placeholder_text":"Your email address","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."}},"login_code":{"initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."}},"stripe_all_in_one":{"initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"success":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"invalid_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is not a valid credit card number."},"invalid_expiry_month":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration month is invalid."},"invalid_expiry_year":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration year is invalid."},"invalid_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is invalid."},"incorrect_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is incorrect."},"incomplete_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is incomplete."},"incomplete_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is incomplete."},"incomplete_expiry":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration date is incomplete."},"incomplete_zip":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's zip code is incomplete."},"expired_card":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card has expired."},"incorrect_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is incorrect."},"incorrect_zip":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's zip code failed validation."},"invalid_expiry_year_past":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration year is in the past"},"card_declined":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card was declined."},"missing":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"There is no card on a customer that is being charged."},"processing_error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"An error occurred while processing the card."},"invalid_request_error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Unable to process this payment, please try again or use alternative method."},"invalid_sofort_country":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The billing country is not accepted by SOFORT. Please try another country."}}}},"fetched_oembed_html":false}
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok
