There are several ways to secure turnbuckles for your shrouds and stays. Cotter pins and wire locking rings are commonly used to secure turnbuckles. They are small and difficult to get a hold of. If you are like me, more often than not, they end up overboard from klutzy handling. Of course you have an endless supply at your disposal - not! This results in an extra trip to your local marina supply at the most inopportune times. I know, keep two of everything.

Here is a method I have used for the last couple of years.

Buy a pack of stainless steel welding rods(wire). This will be a life time supply for you and your sailing buddies.

Cut a piece with wire cutters or my tool of choice, needle nose pliers.

I usually estimate about 2 - 3 inches longer than the distance between the holes you are inserting the wire into.

Make the first ninety degree bend about 1 to 1 1/2 inches from the end. Place the wire up to the turnbuckle and make the second bend equal to the distance between the holes. Insert the wire through each hole.

Once the wire is through, bend the end of the protruding wire into the turnbuckle so that it will not catch on you or your sails.

This is quick to install and remove, easy to grasp, and has less of a tendency to end up in the water!

On flights to paris as well as flights to phoenix the staff is friendly enough to repeat the directions twice. However if you are unable to close your seat buckle, don’t count on help if you are aboard flights to florida or worse, the flights to canada.

A major problem is facing Florida’s and much of the United States’ coastline. Escalating land values for waterfront property in the last few years have created a crisis for recreational boating. Marinas with public slips and working boatyards are being replaced by residential development, or being taxed at “highest and best use” rates that deflate the bottom line, and permitting issues are driving up costs and delaying new marina construction.

A recent Boat US newsletter reported:

While access issues are complex and usually very local problems that deal with private property, there is at least one potential solution at the federal level, The Keep Our Waterfronts Working Act introduced in Congress, July 2007. This bill (H.R. 3223) sponsored by Maine Rep. Thomas Allen, is aimed at preserving sites for “waterfront dependent commercial activities”.

H.R. 3223 would establish a grant program to be administered by state agencies to protect and promote access. Language in the bill incorporates key elements from strategy to preserve access developed by participants at Working Waterways and Waterfronts, a national symposium conceived by BoatU.S. and cosponsored by 23 other organizations last May (see “Access Summit Shares Solutions,” BoatU.S. Magazine, July 2007). Rep. Allen’s bill is particularly timely in that it would amend the federal Coastal Zone Management Act, now up for Congressional reauthorization.

Boaters should write to their own members of Congress and ask them to cosponsor H.R. 3223.

Please ask your elected federal representatives to co-sponsor H.R., 3223. It is common-sense legislation.

It’s easy to contact your local representatives. You don’t even have to live near the coast to write! Click on the links below now.

Click here for bill text.

Click here for a sample email letter.

Click here to easily send an email to your Members of Congress.

As we continued to head North, one thunderstorm came through and we were caught in the tail-end of the storm. It wasn’t too bad, a little bit of rain and a lot of wind. We reefed the mainsail and took in part of the jib to reduce our sail area. My wife and kids went below in the cabin and I was left to steer and manage things on deck. It was actually quite enjoyable. The bimini protected me somewhat from the rain and it was in the high 80’s so it wasn’t too uncomfortable.

I was coming to the realization that we were not going to make our destination during the daylight hours. Our options were to continue on or to find an anchorage and resume in the morning. We chose to continue, although I was a little apprehensive trying to navigate in the dark not having traveled these waters before. We had also been told it can be challenging coming into the St. Augustine Municipal Marina if the tides were not slack. We realized that before our next excursion we would purchase a spotlight to help us identify markers that were not lit. This was probably the biggest challenge to completing our journey that evening.

We arrived around 8:00 pm. The marina allowed us to tie-up at the end of the docks until morning. It turned out to be fairly easy to pull into our slip in the morning but I was glad to be maneuvering in the light. The marina staff were great and very helpful.

As mentioned before we left two hours later than intended. We had a south west wind which would mean we would be sailing on a broad reach. Not perfect but much better than trying to sail directly into the wind. For those not familiar with the Intracoastal Waterway(ICW), it is an inland waterway that parallels the Eastern and Gulf coastline of the United States consisting of natural inlets, bays, and man-made canals. Most of the ICW that we traveled that is navigatable by sailboat is a channel that varied in depth from 7-15 feet and widths of 50-300 feet wide. Traveling outside of this channel is an invitation for running aground quickly. Tacking on the ICW in this area would be a tedious task at best.

One of the interesting aspects about traveling on the intracoastal is that you will meet different kinds of boat traffic. Both pleasure and commercial share the waterway. I use the word “share” loosely! We had little room to get by when we encountered this barge. Don’t sailboats have the right of way?!

Along this route we encountered two draw bridges and several other bridges that we were able to pass under with no problem. There were houses on either side of the waterway for much of the day. Once we were North of Palm Coast, Florida the channel deepened and widened and there were fewer buildings. This part of the ICW was more enjoyable for me because I enjoyed the more natural views of this area and less boat traffic.