The Last Mango brings us home... at last.

It has been an incredible 2 ½ days. It will be hard to capture it all, but here goes… We headed out of Norfolk around 1530 Wednesday with clear sky, big rollers, and once again dolphins escorting us out. There were a few ships at anchor in Norfolk waiting their turn to go in and unload their Chinese junk. Linda took the first turn at the helm and while I cooked us up a great meal of fajitas and a beer that Skipper from Watch Hill had given us (He departed four hours earlier) Phil then came on watch followed be me at midnight. Thursday morning found us with conditions still good, but that didn’t last. By noon the sea state was progressively worsening and wind gusts were peaking at 25. By 5 the weather was the worse I had seen. The waves were mountains and the wind was upward of 30 on the nose so we opted to keep a furled jib out and in order to keep moving (in the wrong direction.)Then we tacked back towards Delaware knowing that we wouldn’t be able to head directly northeast. Phil and I stood 2 hour watches sleeping in the cockpit. The fajitas didn’t taste as good the second time. We continued to fight these same conditions through the night and as if things couldn’t get worse we could see a squall approaching from the west. I understand that somewhere in all the excitement we must have accidentally cut out our tracking SPOT and caused a little anxiety at home ( the coast guard got called), but we had no time to be listening to the radio as the squall delivered driving rain with even higher winds. Just like out of a movie- the engine died. I woke up Phil who tried his best to keep the boat pointed in a direction that would allow me to unclog the last remaining gunk out of the fuel line and then restarted the engine. As soon as the squall passed, conditions started getting better. The next day was certainly a better day as we entered the New York harbor approaches. Our prayers had been answered. We had survived the perfect storm. We had a nice sail all day Friday and a beautiful moon lit our way to Montauk. Sunrise at Montauk was quite something. We saw literally thousands of baby sharks 2-3 feet long, in small schools. We rounded Montauk Point around 730 and are now in home territory. We know we are in New England as we scooted across a sail regatta from Block Island and a observed a submarine heading out to sea. The Last Mango has been a sea worthy ship and has given Linda and me an experience of a lifetime and we were lucky to have Phil spend his birthday with us and help us for the last 325 of the 800 miles we have logged. We will soon be picking up a mooring at our old marina in Groton and closing this chapter. Thank you guys for following us and for your concerns and comments. We will continue to use this blog for future travels, but of course our posts will not come as often.

Goodbye Norfolk, Next stop Montaulk

Sorry for not posting yesterday. It has been a busy 2 days. Phil arrived early this morning and we finished up the last of our chores early this afternoon. We departed Norfolk at 1530 this afternoon. Phil estimates approx 62 hours of travel. Currently motoring as there is no wind. May not be able to post for a while due to lack of service, but please continue to checkour spot. It will continue to be on for the rest of the trip. See you guys early Saturday if all goes well Say a prayer for us. Linda, Juan, & Phil

Goodbye Ditch; Now we're up the Creek

Hey guys'

First, Linda and I would like to say thank you to everyone who sent us congratulations. We will certainly have to celebrate when we return. Linda also wanted to thank Den for the Coinjock prime rib recommendation. It was fantastic.

We left Coinjock early this morning and left North Carolina behind shortly there after. We barely squeezed by a barge going the other way, but our timing was good for all bridge openings and we entered the Great Bridge Lock at noon. We believe Divine intervention was again to be given credit for allowing us to be the last boat to pass through the N&S RR bridge before it had to remain closed for hours to perform some unscheduled maintenance. We hit Mile 0 of the ICW at 3 PM. Norfolk by water is not what we imagined. There are so many Navy and commercial yards. Armed patrol boats encouraged us to maintain our distance frorm any of the military ships, but Linda still managed to snap a few pictures. Anyone recognize the Simon Lake? After the ICW we went another 4 1/2 hours before arriving at our marina in Little Creek. We had to take a long way around to avoid a shoal and although the wind was only 10-15 the confused sea state made for a bouncy ride. We will stay here until Phil's arrival, after which we will make a decision on departure for our open sea leg of the trip.

The Last Mango Sails at Last!

I awoke this morning at dusk to a view of our beautiful anchorage with mist in the air and a still sea without even a ripple. Paul you would love to shoot this area. (http://www.paulrezendes.com/) It ended up being a slow moving morning, with some maintenance chores to finish and my wife made us breakfast before we weighed anchor(how funny does that sound). We made it past our last opening bridge in North Carolina escorted again by Linda's dolphin friends. This time she was able to catch a quick photo. Once out of the Alligator River we were able to put both our sails up and give the motor a rest for a while as we made our way across Albemarle Sound. This only lasted a short time, long enough for us to determine that The Last Mango sails well, as some ominous looking clouds started moving in from the north. Thanks to Phil for pointing these out to us. The storms never caught up to us until we were safely tied up for our stay at Coinjock Marina. They have a restaurant that is known for their prime rib and offer a 32 oz Captain's cut- we chose the boatswain's mate 14 oz instead! An excellent choice. Fueled up again, a whole 10 gallons for the last two days travel. Tomorrow we plan to leave NC in our wake tackle the many bridges on Virginia's portion of the ICW.

Alligator Pungo Mango

First, today- Our day started as an old married couple with one night under our belt. We snuck out of our slip at 630 this morning with only our new friends Jim and Su to help cast us off. Our destination today was to be Belhaven, but our time was so good that we arrived early afternoon and decided to tackle the Alligator River- Pungo River canal. That was originally going to be a full day by itself. It is by far the most desolate area we have gone through on this trip. There were also no other boats traveling with us and we were concerned we would not get to the end by nightfall. As it turns out we were able to find an anchorage across the ICW at the north end of the canal by around 800 pm. We were pleasantly visited by several dolphins (porpoises) that continued to hang around our boat until we were done anchoring. We have revised our schedule tomorrow based on today’s success and are taking aim at Coinjock.
Alright- Going back to yesterday. The day started pretty much like any other day in Oriental with coffee shortly followed by a breakfast cocktail. At which point Linda & I started discussing our loosely laid plans to move forward with a wedding. At noon we decided to see if we could pull it off, so Linda called the County clerk & then the magistrate’s office in Bayboro which is about 12 miles from Oriental. We had till 4 pm to get to the court to get our license and with only one taxi (literally one car) who would not return a call we chose to start walking. Linda (being braver and better looking) stuck out her thumb while I walked next to her. There were several cars that passed us by before our luck changed and a wonderful woman (Linda) driving a car with NY plates pulled over and gave us a ride. After explaining our story to her, not only did she take us to the courthouse, but she waited for us to get our license and then brought us back to the marina after first allowing us to stop at the grocery store to get some additional supplies which we had not been able to get the day before. While riding to Bayboro, we were able to arrange for Pam the magistrate to perform the ceremony at 6:30; all we needed were witnesses. This was easy. We had befriended a couple from the neighboring boat and when I asked Jim & Su they were delighted at the idea of standing up for us. It all came together. Pat our real estate lady from our visit last year came to help us celebrate as well as our friend Vince who became the “official” photographer. Mellissa, a waitress for the restaurant next door came running out with a rose for Linda and the entire happy hour crowd at the Tiki bar witnessed our vows. And so there you have it. Who needs wedding planners? I guess it takes a village…

It takes two to Mango

Who would have guessed that the last day in Oriental would give the Last Mango his Last Mate. It was destined to happen. Thank you for sharing our special day= Jim & Su, Pat, Vince, Pam, Melissa, Linda, and the entire Tiki crowd. Just pictures today, stories tomorrow.

A day in port, a day of work

We got a few things done today, but it wasn't as productive as we expected, Linda did some laundry and I tried to replace the jib halyard, but literally hit a snag. The pin on the top furling section is half way out and wont let the upper guide slide down. I will have to go up the mast to tap it back in. Linda wants Phil to assist, so it looks like a job for Norfolk. I did replace the jib sheet (easy) which was really worn and I removed the fuel tank level sensor so I could access the tank. Found a couple of chunks, but mostly sludge. I understand it is diesel algae and is most likely the culprit of our fuel line issues. I will try to arrange for a fuel polishing in Norfolk. We walked to the grocery store and restocked our cooler. It was quite a hike especially walking back 2 miles with 40 lbs of supplies. We had some time to mingle with the locals and the other transients and enjoy a few cocktails and talk boat stuff. Not much else, Oriental claims to be a small drinking town with a sailing problem. So without further adieu, I present the next instalment of Louie's famous Pirate Jokes. (you'll need a coupe of drinks to appreciate these) I left some out- You can thank me later.

Why do seagulls fly over the sea?
Because if they flew over the bay, they'd be bagels!

How does a pirate get his mast up?
He uses a wench!

What happened when Redbeard the Pirate fell into the Blue Sea?
He got Marooned!

What did the pirate say when his wooden leg got stuck in the freezer?
Shiver me timbers!

Why does it take pirates so long to learn the alphabet?
Because they can spend years at C!

What do you get when you cross a pirate with a zuchnni?
A Squashbuckler!!!

How does a pirate tell his wench he wants to have sex?
Drop yer sails and prepare t' be boarded

The Oriental Express

We had a great run today. We snuck out of the anchoracge at 6 this morning to make it to the first bridge opening (on demand) prior to their start of only open on the hour schedule. That not only put us ahead of schedule, but kept other boats from passing us for quite some time. When a boat passes you in the same direction it creates a huge wake and you lose the momentum. The sky openened up around 930 to where we could hardly see the next marker. GPS kept us on track. We decided against pitstops for lunch or supplies and just kept on going. At Morehead City it got a little confusing with all the harbor markers, but we had our GPS... until it lost it's satelite fix, twice! What timing. A word of advice: Always have paper charts as back up and when the GPS comes back you can use them to wipe youself. Our goal for today was an anchorage towards the end of Adams Creek, but we were so far ahead of schedule we decided to keep going to Oriental which was going to be tomorrow's destination. We plan to spend a couple of days here before resuming our travels- we love this town. I'm gonna try to access the fuel tank and they have a great provision store here, so I guess we'll go spend some money. Anyway, they have a webcam that updates every few minutes right across from our slip. Check it out you may catch us walking by. Our boat is hidden behind a power boat, but you can see the mast. http://towndock.net/ After dinner we took a walk and took a couple of pictures. I titled them Linda gets crabs and I'm dragon ass. Also a couple more from todays trip. Sorry no Louie Pirate jokes today. I'll save them for tomorrow.

I ate the last mango

A Man Goes into a bar...Not today! No groundings today & the engine ran all day without a stall, pretty much uneventful day. We did get to sleep in a little waiting for the tide to come in to give us enough water to get out of our anchorage area. We had time for showers and coffee and could have hung out for another 40 minutes since as soon as we got to the ICW we had to wait for the hour mark to get a bridge opening. Then it was a mad dash to get to the next bridge for the 1/2 hour opening. We pushed the diesel a little harder and unfurled the jib to get to 7.5 knots. We used the wheel pilot which came with the boat today. It seems to track alright, but not as responsive as the tiller pilot we had on Aficionado. We arrived our planned anchorage at Camp Lejune right as the Marines started a military exercise with boats, helicopters, & gunfire. There were about 6 camouflaged inflatables that came flying out of the same inlet we needed to get into.
Anyway, as promised here is the first of Sailor Lou's Pirate jokes. Please let me know when you've had enough!

What do you call a pirate with two eyes and two legs?
Rookie!

Why did the pirate run aground?
His eye-patch was the wrong prescription!

What kind of ships do pirates have trouble with?
Relationships!

What did the ocean say to the pirate Captain?
Nothing, it just waved!!!

What do pirates say before they fight?
Let's get ready to RUM-ble!"

I think maybe Kathy has better writers than Lou, LOL Keep um coming.

Captain's Log, Barship Last Mango, Stardate 2010

Another late night, another late entry- We didn't realize we had bought an amphibious craft. She was modeled after our lifestyle; can't seem to keep her out of the bars. This time it was the opposite shoal from the one coming in, it must be the official SC/NC boundary. Our 0630 departure, would have got us there in time, but the 15 minutes spent digging out caused us to miss our bridge opening, so we had to wait another hour at the last (and soon to be replaced)pontoon bridge in the country. the wind was only 0-5, but the rain was heavy with thunder & lightning. We refueled at Holden beach Marina only 15 gallons used to this point. Maybe the clogged tube is making the engine more efficient. Also stopped and had lunch at St. James Marina in Oak Island, NC.- Great fish tacos & Linda had a soft shell crab sandwich. She had a hard time with it because the legs were sticking out of the bun. Next came the Cape Fear river. Wind was around 20 on our quarter, so we put out the jib to help us along. With the late departure we arrived at our anchorage at about 8 pm. Our friend Kristen met us and we went to dinner at the Oceanic restaurant at Wrightsville beach. Again a great meal- I had the super duper grouper. After Dinner Kristen's fiancee, Doug met us and to become our second guests on board. Don't get concerned about our late departure Tuesday. We are licking our wounds and waiting for the tide to come in, plus we only have 40 miles to do today. Holly, we're still looking. Almost forgot, Thanks to our "Team Mango" for all the suggestions and insights regarding our fuel tank issues. Every bit counts and also Sailor Lou has sent me some pirate jokes which I will be pasting in starting with the next post. Lou, I hope I don't lose any followers!

Where Mango, Woman go

Linda had a dream that her cousin had put her in charge of a wild cat; she woke to a picture text message from Lindsay of a baby kitten just born overnight to Princess- Mckenzie's cat. If only she had dreamt of what was in store for us today, we might have just stayed in Georgetown for one more night. Our ICW has gone from Marsh to swamp with what I believe are cypress trees inhabited by eagles & flies the size of eagles. Our dolphins have been replaced by jumping fish. I have to give credit to Linda for putting up with my obsession with diesel DIY training. It appears that the bulb failure from yesterday was not the fault of the design or the bulb, but was merely a symptom of the real fault, which is that something is swimming around in our fuel tank and from time to time (so far we have been lucky as to when it occurs) plugs up our dip tube. It will take a cleaning out of the fuel tank to absolutely fix the problem. Many thanks to all the engineering folks (including Sailor Lou) for their repair suggestions. Jim T. if you are reading this the second picture is of the golf course gondola where you should be :-) So maybe all these fuel problems are our light punishment for renaming the boat that Paul had mentioned. Although we have managed to pull through because we performed the required ceremony minus the virgins. One last thing- They say as far as sailors are concerned, there are those who have run aground and there are those who will. We can now check that one off our list, but we won't take all the blame, the charts do not reflect the latest shoaling. One good thing about today. We have our anchoring drills down to an art

"The Ditch" at Last...Mango

Hey guys,

I'm posting this for yesterday's entry. Too tired last night to type. We had a great first day's run; headed out at 0600 just as planned. Thanks Phil for the reminder to turn on SPOT. Linda Doolittle made some dolphin calls while in Charleston harbor and within a minute a dolphin popped up to say good morning. We tried getting pictures for Holly, but they were just too quick. The ICW is pretty much what we read, mainly marsh with lots of local fishing boats and a few snowbirds heading north. Pretty uneventful day till a mile before we arrived at Georgetown. Linda took the helm while I readied the fenders for a stay at Harborwalk Marina. The river was choppy and the wind was a steady 15. Just then the engine started to lose power. We had a furled jib out so when the engine completely died we were able to sail while I checked on the motor. It was a quick diagnosis, but I couldn't make the repair fast enough, so we chose to get the valet service. Thanks to TowboatUS for bringing us up to the dock. The pronblem ended up being the modification that was done to my fuel line which added a squeeze bulb. Possibly not well though out. as the bulb was exposed to the engine heat it softened and then collapsed causiing the motor to starve. It took but a few minutes to remove the bulb and bleed the system. Pete, she is purring and we are smelling diesel fumes again! We had a great meal at River Room restaurant- Highly recommended. In all a grat day, but we miss having breakfast with Mckenzie. Congrats to Jessica Watson for completing her nonstop solo unassisted round the world at 16. How do you top that?
Till later- J&L

Last Day In Charleston for Last Mango

Another day in paradise, but not for us. We were busy doing all the last minute to-do's, although we did start the day right drinking mimosas with Doris & Roger, our first guests. The entire deck is scrubbed clean, GPS is operational, generator has been satisfactoily tested- runs better than the ones at Millstone. All lockers are stowed for sea, tanks are full and we've moved the boat to the T-dock for an early morning start. Renaming ceremony is complete, unfortunately per Paul's prediction we could find no vigins in Charleston. I forgot this was a Navy town. We managed anyway and if Posieden and Neptune keep their end of the bargain we will have a safe passage. TTFN

Finally Charleston

Sorry for the delayed post. It was a good day; It was a busy day. We woke at 3 am Nick dropped us off as planned at TF Green. An easy connection at Charlotte and we arrived in CHS as scheduled around 1030. It was a shock leaving Connecticut in jeans and jackets and arriving in Charleston's 1000 degree weather. We quickly adapted by going directly to Roger's, changing into shorts and drinking his cold beer. I love this Southern hospitality- Thanks again Roger. We picked up our 6 boxes of UPS crushed supplies and finaly made it to the boat at about 1230. We spent the rest of the day cleaning (Linda cleaned) I just made more mess doing maintenance. We contacted a diver and had him scrape the bottom. They do that monthly down here. It had been a little over two months and the growth was thick, but it;s all clean now. The engine fired right up. The main halyard has been replaced. The GPS chartplotter is mounted but not yet connected. The boat's old name has been removed from the transom. Tomorrow we will go through the re-naming ceremony, with Champagne and sacrificed virgins and the works. I'll try to get some pictures up also. I turned on the SPOT, but don't expect much from it just yet since the boat won't leave the dock until Saturday morning. That's all for now- Stay tuned.

Hello all you followers

It's good to know we have fans even though this is a boring site, but don't worry it is going to get exciting... Even if we have to make stuff up!
Charleston! Nick will sacrifice sleep and drop us off at the airport Thursday morning about 8 hours before Georgia even thinks about getting up. The weather is looking pretty good for the first few days, then it looks like we're in for a soaker the first part of next week. No problem, we have a fully enclosed cockpit and will be fully stocked with all the necessary alcoholic essentials. Plus we have a windlass and Linda brought her rain coat so she doesn't get wet when operating the windlass. I of course will have to stay in the cockpit to drive the boat and mind the essentials. No takers yet on Aficionado. I stopped in to see her today. She will be moving to the back of the lot soon to allow all those, who will be ready, to jump in the water before Memorial Day. OK, so as usual not much else to report till we head down... and Jimmy there's still so much to be done.

10 days before we fly

We're getting a little anxious. I shipped out six boxes of "stuff" to make our flight easier. I thought it would save money. Linda reminded me it would only be $25 surcharge for luggage VS $65/box. Oh well, they are on the way. Phil has his reservation to Norfolk. I hope we can get there by the time he shows up! The link to the SPOT tracker is active, but the tracker is turned off till we get there. And the Last Mango Webpage has yet to be completed. Alright, not much else left to say at this point till we fly out on the 13th.

Countdown T-27 days

Mckenzie spent the night last night. Woke up to Grammy making us breakfast. We read the tale of the City Mouse and Country Mouse. Alright- Items are getting crossed of the list and boxes are starting to get packed to ship down to Charleston. Thanks to Roger who has agreed to store our "Stuff" until we arrive. We've activated our new tracking device today (See the Find Me Spot Link under Where are Juan & Linda), but of course won't be using it for any practical purpose until we arrive in SC. Our BoatUS membership is active. Not much else is new.

29 days and counting

This is of course our first post to our new blog. We are counting down the days till we travel to Charleston, SC to take possession of our new boat "The Last Mango".
The plan is to sail her back to New England, traveling up the ICW to Norfolk, VA and then breaking out from the Chesepeake towards Montauk. If God and the weather permit we should be back at our old marina in Groton, CT. by Memorial Day. Our new boat is a 1989 Pearson 37-2. Aficionado, our old boat (we still have it, if anyone is interested in a well built,very well cared for, sailboat)is a 1976 Pearson P30. We have truly enjoyed her for the last five seasons, but we needed more room so Linda could bring her entire closet (just kidding). Actually we did need more room for our extended trips. We are also currently working on a website, keeping with the theme, thelastmango.com . Please be patient I am still learning web design.