G Is For Grounding | Nancy Drew Investigates {A To Z Challenge}

During April, we're participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Every day (except Sundays), we'll be doing an alphabet themed post starting with "A is for Anchor" and ending with "Z is for Zodiac." Each post is an installment of "Nancy Drew Investigates the Case of the Missing Anchor" - so you may want to read the posts from the beginning, in order to follow along with the story (click here for the first post and here for an index of all the posts). At the end of each post, you'll also find some random thoughts on the day's particular topic. So, if Nancy isn't your thing, feel free to skip the story and go straight to the end.   

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When we last left you, someone had thrown a lit flare onto The Scarlet Slipper, almost burning a hole in the deck. Nancy also found a threatening note warning her off the case. Clearly, someone is getting nervous about Nancy's investigation.

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The next day, Nancy, George and Bess arrived at the marina and walked down to the slip where Marvin and Shelley’s boat, The Scarlet Slipper, was docked. Bess was sporting a new navy blue top with a sailboat embroidered on the front, white capri pants and had her long blonde hair tied back with a red scarf. Her cousin, George, was wearing khaki shorts and a simple t-shirt with her short black hair tucked under a sun hat. Nancy followed closely behind, looking immaculate in a kelly green cotton sweater set and madras Bermuda shorts.

“Don’t you girls look lovely,” said Shelley as she welcomed them onboard. “Let’s get you settled and then we’ll head on out to anchor for the night in Pine Tree Bay.”

“Bess and George, you’ll be sleeping in the v-berth. Nancy, will you be okay sleeping on the settee in the salon?” asked Shelley. “The table folds down at night and makes a comfortable bed. Marvin and I will be sleeping in the aft cabin.”

“That all sounds super,” said Nancy looking around the boat in anticipation of the three days they would be spending on the boat during the Grande Isle Regatta.

Bess whispered to George, “I didn’t understand any of that. What’s a v-berth and what does aft mean?”
George opened up the door to the v-berth. “See how it’s pointy at the end, like the letter V? The v-berth is located up at the bow of the boat. Marvin and Shelley’s cabin is located aft, or rear of the boat. Don’t forget the other nautical terms I was telling you about the other day. The kitchen is called the galley and the bathroom is called the head. Left is port and right is starboard.”

Bess furrowed her brow. “It’s all so confusing. Why can’t sailors just use normal English, like the rest of us? Wait a minute, do I smell chocolate?”

Bess turned around and saw Nancy handing Shelley a plate of delicious looking brownies. “Did Hannah make those?” she asked. Hannah Gruen was Nancy and her father’s housekeeper and was known for her home cooking. “She sure did. Hannah thought we might enjoy these after dinner tonight. She also sent along some cinnamon rolls for tomorrow’s breakfast.”

“Oh, that was so sweet of her,” said Shelley. “Here, let’s tuck these away safely in the galley so that they don’t fall off the counter while we’re underway.”

Marvin poked his head down the companionway. “Are you all ready to get going? I’d really like to get anchored before dark.”

“Girls, why don’t you tuck your bags in the v-berth for now and then come up and help us cast off,” said Shelley as she made her way up the ladder and into the cockpit.

A few minutes later, Marvin started the engine while some friends on the dock untied their lines and helped them get off the dock. Marvin pointed the boat towards the inlet to the marina and steered them out into Pine Tree Bay. Nancy’s blue eyes sparkled as she looked around at the picturesque bay surrounded by rolling hills covered in pine trees.

Shelley pointed towards the far end of the bay. “That’s where we’re headed. It’s a lovely spot to anchor at night and watch the sunset. We’ll be well positioned there to make our way to the starting line in the morning for the race to Grande Isle.”

“Nancy, do you want to take a turn at the helm?” asked Marvin. Nancy smiled and said, “Sure, I’d love to!” Marvin showed Nancy which heading to take and moved aside so that she could grab the steering wheel in the cockpit.

Nancy could feel the wind blowing through her hair as she pointed the boat towards their anchorage. As she looked around her enjoying the peaceful surroundings, she noticed a white catamaran coming up quickly on their starboard side. If the boat continued on its course, it was going to ram into them!

“Look out Nancy!” shouted Marvin. “Quick, turn to port.” Nancy expertly steered The Scarlet Slipper out of harm’s way towards the western side of the bay.

The catamaran passed by them and then veered off to the east. George grabbed a pair of binoculars and exclaimed, “I think that’s the catamaran we saw in the boatyard yesterday. I can see its name on the side, Party Time, along with a blue dolphin. It’s definitely the same one. And guess who’s at the helm. It’s that guy that pushed Nancy down to the ground and then took off in a hurry when we questioned him about the items that were stolen at the marina!”

Just then, The Scarlet Slipper came to a halt in the water. “Oh no,” said Nancy. “I think I’ve grounded the boat!”

Tune in on Saturday for the next installment of Nancy Drew Investigates – H is for Ham Radio.

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It's important to check your charts, whether electronic and/or paper, to know where shallow waters are. In some cruising grounds, the water can be notoriously shallow and you have to be able to visually read the water color to know how deep it is. (Chart of New Zealand's Bay of Islands courtesy of LINZ.)

There's a saying among sailors, "If you haven't been aground, you haven't been around." Eventually, everyone ends up grounding their boat at some point. Hopefully, you run aground on a soft sandy bottom and can easily get your boat back off. Unfortunately, that isn't always the case. Either you're stuck firmly and can't get off without assistance or you end up grounding on something hard and unforgiving, which damages your boat, like it did to my friends' old boat over at MJ Sailing. (You can find out more about what to do if you go aground on Cruising World and Boat US.)

When we were sailing in the Bahamas, we had to pay attention to the color of the water so that we didn't ground our boat. The water is so clear, and you can see right down to the bottom, that there were times I could have sworn that it was only a couple of feet deep, which would have been a problem as our draft is five feet. I would scream, like I imagine Bess would, "Scott, watch out, we're going to touch bottom!" But we didn't.

It took a while, but eventually I got a little bit more comfortable with reading the water color. Just a little bit, mind you. It still freaks me out. Bess and I have a lot in common that way.

I worry about grounding our boat and doing damage to it. What do you worry about?

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F Is For Flares | Nancy Drew Investigates {A To Z Challenge}

During April, we're participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Every day (except Sundays), we'll be doing an alphabet themed post starting with "A is for Anchor" and ending with "Z is for Zodiac." Each post is an installment of "Nancy Drew Investigates the Case of the Missing Anchor" - so you may want to read the posts from the beginning, in order to follow along with the story (click here for the first post and here for an index of all the posts). At the end of each post, you'll also find some random thoughts on the day's particular topic. So, if Nancy isn't your thing, feel free to skip the story and go straight to the end.   

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When we last left you, Bess had accidentally dropped an EPIRB in a sink full of water, which set off a false alarm. She consoled herself with a lot of chocolate chip cookies. Just as she was starting to get a tummy ache, everyone heard a hissing noise and saw a bright light.

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As the girls hurried up on deck, Marvin yelled over to his wife, Shelley, “Honey, quick grab those work gloves and toss them to me! Someone threw a flare onto our boat.” Shelley darted over to Marvin, handed him the gloves which he quickly put on in order to safely grab the lighted flare and toss it overboard.

Everyone peeked over the side of the boat and watched the flare fizzle out in the water. Nancy looked out across the marina to see if she could see who tried to harm Marvin and Shelley’s boat, but didn’t spot anything or anyone out of the ordinary.

Shelley walked over to where the flare had struck their boat. “Fortunately, it looks like it landed on the old sail cover that we had bunched up on the deck. It burned through the canvas but didn’t damage the fiberglass deck below.” Shelley breathed a sigh of relief and hugged Marvin. “You saved our boat, dear. I don’t know what we would have done without your quick thinking.”

Bess stared at the burnt sail cover and asked, “What was that thing?”

George looked at her cousin and said, “Don’t you remember Bess. Shelley talked about flares during our safety briefing. If we get into an emergency situation, we light a flare so that someone can see that we’re in distress and come to our aid.”

“I don’t think anyone was in an emergency situation when they threw that flare,” Bess gulped. “I think someone was trying to send us a message to mind our own business and stop trying to investigate what happened to Marvin and Shelley’s anchor.”

Nancy looked determinedly at the burnt sail cover and said, “Nonsense. They can’t scare us off. Besides, nobody got hurt and The Scarlet Slipper is fine.”

Bess shook her head, “I don’t know Nancy. I think we should tell the police what happened and let them handle things.”

“Fine, Bess. We’ll inform the police. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t continue our own investigation.”

Shelley came over to where the girls were standing. “Why don’t you three go home and get a good night’s sleep. We’ll tell the police and the marina office what happened. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.”

“That’s a good idea,” said Marvin. “Go home and we’ll see you back here tomorrow. We’ll head out of the marina to Pine Tree Bay and anchor for the night so that we’re ready for the start of the regatta on Saturday.”

Bess smiled and said, “Perfect. That will give me time to go shopping for a few last minute items I need for the weekend. I saw the most darling top with a sailboat embroidered on it at one of the boutiques in town. It would be perfect for sailing in the regatta!”

“Oh, Bess. Shopping is all you ever think about,” George sighed. “When you’re not thinking about boys or ice cream sundaes, that is.” Nancy grinned and turned to Marvin and Shelley. “Okay, we’ll see you two tomorrow. We better get going so that Bess can hit the shops.”

The girls waved goodbye and headed down the dock to Nancy’s blue convertible. As Nancy went to unlock the door, she saw a note tucked underneath the windshield wipers which read, “Keep your nose where it belongs or you’ll find yourself in a watery grave.” She quickly tucked the note into her pocket before Bess and George noticed. “Hop in girls and let’s head back to River Heights.”

Tune in on Friday for the next installment of Nancy Drew Investigates – G is for Grounding.

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Our flare gun and flares. They might seem like toys, but they're not.

For some of you, this installment of "Nancy Drew Investigates" might make you think of Captain Ron, the classic sailing comedy movie starring Martin Short and Kurt Russell. In the movie, a flare gun is accidentally fired off and burns a hole in the deck. Thank goodness, catastrophe was averted on The Scarlet Slipper and the flare only burned through a sail cover and not the deck, otherwise this story would have come to an abrupt end. Fortunately, I'm the author and in charge of the story and what happens to all of the characters. I feel positively giddy with the power of it all.

Anyway, it just goes to show you that flares can be a pretty dangerous piece of equipment to have on board, especially in the hands of bad guys and clumsy people. However, flares are an essential piece of safety equipment. We've got them on board Tickety Boo, in compliance with Coast Guard regulations. We have four red handheld flares, four red meteor flares and a 12 gauge flare gun. All of our flares were updated in 2015. We've kept our old expired flares as back-ups. (You can find out more about flares on the Boat US site and the Coast Guard site.)

There are also some nifty new Coast Guard compliant electronic flares, which won't burn your hands or your boat, but they're pricey and our current flares are up to date, so we won't be investing in them anytime soon.  (You can find out more about the pros and cons of electronic flares on Cruising World).

Are you a fan of Captain Ron? Scott loves this movie and could happily watch it over and over again. I tolerate the repeated screenings of this movie and could happily not watch it over and over again. If you're not a Captain Ron fan, what's your favorite movie?

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E Is For EPIRB | Nancy Drew Investigates {A To Z Challenge}

During April, we're participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Every day (except Sundays), we'll be doing an alphabet themed post starting with "A is for Anchor" and ending with "Z is for Zodiac." Each post is an installment of "Nancy Drew Investigates the Case of the Missing Anchor" - so you may want to read the posts from the beginning, in order to follow along with the story (click here for the first post and here for an index of all the posts). At the end of each post, you'll also find some random thoughts on the day's particular topic. So, if Nancy isn't your thing, feel free to skip the story and go straight to the end.   

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When we last left you, Marvin and Shelley had just taken the girls through a safety briefing aboard The Scarlet Slipper. Bess had gone down below to get some more cookies when the others heard her scream.

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Shelley poked her head down the companionway way and asked, “Bess, are you okay? What happened?” Bess looked up and stammered, "Um…it just…it just…it just slipped out of my hand and into the sink and then this flashing light went off!” Bess started to sob. “I’m so sorry! I’m already doing things wrong and we haven’t even left the dock.”

Shelley climbed down below, took one look at the sink full of soapy dishwater which Bess was pointing at and shouted out, “Marvin, quick get your cell phone! Our EPIRB got wet and was accidentally set off. We need to call the Coast Guard and let them know that it’s a false alert.”

While Marvin was calling the Coast Guard and Shelley was drying the EPIRB off, Nancy and George came down below to comfort Bess. Nancy passed Bess the plate of chocolate chip cookies. “Why don’t you sit down Bess, have a cookie and tell us what happened.” Bess set on the settee and quickly ate several cookies, while wiping the tears from her face.

George grabbed the plate from Bess and said, “That’s probably enough cookies. No wonder you’re always on a diet. Now, tell us what happened. How did you set the EPIRB off?”

“What’s an EPIRB?” Bess asked, while eyeing the plate of cookies. George sighed, while moving the plate away from Bess. “The thing you dropped in the water, silly. It’s an emergency position-indicating radio beacon. It transmits a signal if you’re in distress and need to be rescued. Shelley and Marvin told us all about it during the safety briefing. Weren’t you paying attention?”

“They talked about so many thing that I just couldn’t keep track of everything. And then, those two guys walked by and said hi. I guess I must have gotten a little distracted,” said Bess as her eyes started to well up with tears again.

Nancy sat down next to Bess and put her arm around her shoulder. “It’s okay Bess, accidents happened. But, how did you end up dropping the EPIRB in the sink?”

Bess wiped her eyes and said, “Well, as I was coming down the companionway, I saw it lying on the chart table. I thought I would bring it up to ask Marvin and Shelley what it was. I had it in my hand when I went into the galley to get the cookies. Then I stumbled and the EPIRB fell out of my hand and into the sink. Was it the water in the sink that set it off?”

“Yes, being immersed in water is what caused it to go off,” said Nancy. “It’s what would happen if the boat started to sink. The EPIRB would go off and let the Coast Guard know that we were in trouble.”

“Oh my goodness Nancy! What are the chances that this boat will sink while we’re racing in the Grande Isle Regatta this weekend?”

“Don’t worry. We’ll be fine. Here, why don’t you have another cookie.”

Marvin poked his head down the companionway and said, “It’s all okay. I’ve alerted the authorities that it was a false alarm.” Bess breathed a sign of relief. “Oh, that’s good. I’m so sorry about this Marvin.”
“It’s okay dear. It was just an accident,” said Marvin. “Why don’t you girls come back on up into the cockpit and we’ll finish covering off a few things.”

As they started to make their way up the ladder, they heard a hissing noise and saw a bright light through the port lights. “What the heck is that?!” Marvin exclaimed as he dashed out of the cockpit and onto the deck.

Tune in on Thursday for the next installment of Nancy Drew Investigates – F is for Flares.

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The box our EPIRB came in has details of the Survivor Club, which you can join if you use your EPIRB in a life-saving emergency. Doesn't really sound like a club I want to be part of. There's also a reassuring picture of a helicopter rescuing folks off of a sinking ship. I hope I never have to experience anything like this.

Poor Bess. If I set off our EPIRB accidentally, there wouldn’t be enough cookies in the world to make me feel better. A couple of things went wrong here. First of all, Bess picked up a piece of equipment she knew nothing about. That’s a no-no. Don’t touch stuff on boats if you don’t know what they are or how they work. Also, don’t flush a ton of toilet paper down a marine toilet. Let’s hope Bess doesn’t make that mistake. {Hmm...maybe T should be for toilet?}

Second, Bess shouldn't have been carrying it around while daydreaming about chocolate chip cookies and the two guys who said hi to her earlier. Lastly, the EPIRB shouldn’t have been left out on the chart table. It should have been tucked into a compartment in the ditch bag or secured in a bracket where it is readily accessible. Bess probably shouldn’t have eaten too many cookies either.

An EPIRB is an important piece of safety equipment. When Scott and I made up our list of things we needed to get for our new boat, an EPIRB was one of the top priorities. We purchased an ACR Global Fix Pro from Defender last year. It cost a pretty penny (over $400 on sale), but they threw in a free ditch bag to ease the pain a bit. We’re really hoping this is one of those things we “wasted” our money on and never have to use.

If we do have to use it, the EPIRB sends out an emergency message with your unique identifying number to magical satellites in the sky. The satellites then send an emergency message, along with your details to a Rescue Coordination Center, who then coordinates with the nearest Search & Rescue operation. If all goes well, Search & Rescue hones in on your homing signal and saves the day. (If you want to know more, check this out on the ACR site. If you want to know more about EPIRBs, you can find more information on the Coast Guard site.)

What about you - have you ever done something accidentally that went horribly wrong, like poor Bess with the EPIRB?
 
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D Is For Ditch Bag | Nancy Drew Investigates {A To Z Challenge}

During April, we're participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Every day (except Sundays), we'll be doing an alphabet themed post starting with "A is for Anchor" and ending with "Z is for Zodiac." Each post is an installment of "Nancy Drew Investigates the Case of the Missing Anchor" - so you may want to read the posts from the beginning, in order to follow along with the story (click here for the first post and here for an index of all the posts). At the end of each post, you'll also find some random thoughts on the day's particular topic. So, if Nancy isn't your thing, feel free to skip the story and go straight to the end.  

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When we last left you, Nancy confronted the man who had been following them, but he refused to give them any information. As he drove off in his pick-up, Nancy noticed an anchor and other items in the back of his pick up truck and she discovered an important clue.

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“I’m so glad you were able to find another anchor to replace the one that got stolen,” said Nancy to Marvin and Shelley as she sat in the cockpit of their sailboat, The Scarlet Slipper, a 42’ white sloop with red racing stripes.

“We were lucky that they had the size we needed in stock. You know how it is with that marine store in town. These days, the salespeople seem to be all about the marine lifestyle, whatever that is, and know next to nothing about actual boat equipment! And they never have what you need,” Marvin fumed.

“There, there Marvin. It all worked out okay. Why don’t you pass the cheese and crackers over to the girls,” said Shelley, as she patted his arm. “Well, what did you girls get up to while we were at the marine store?”

George grabbed some cheese and crackers from the tray and said enthusiastically, “We had such an exciting afternoon! We did some investigating on the case, chased down a suspect and Nancy discovered a clue.”

“What do you mean investigating? Shouldn’t you leave that to the police? What would your father think if he knew you were chasing suspects around the marina?” asked Shelley. “It’s a shame he’s away on a business trip this weekend. It would have been fun if he could have joined us for the Grand Isle Regatta. And, he could have kept an eye on you.”

Nancy’s father, Carson Drew, was a well-known attorney in River Heights and often traveled for his work. While he was away, their housekeeper, Hannah Greun, who had lived with them since Nancy was three, looked after Nancy and the house.

“Oh, dad would be fine with it. He’s enlisted my help before and, besides, George, Bess and I make a crack investigative team,” said Nancy with a smile.

“Hmm…well, if your father is okay with it, then I guess there’s no harm. So, what did you find out?” asked Marvin.

“We discovered that a number of other items were stolen from people at the marina last night. There was a suspicious looking guy who was following us around while we were investigating. We chased him back to his boat, Party Time. It’s a white catamaran in the back of the boatyard. When we questioned him, he refused to tell us anything. Then he took off in his pick-up truck and I saw what I think were some of the missing items in the back,” said Nancy, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

Bess interjected, “But, you’ve left out one important point, Nancy. The guy tried to kill you!”

“What?” gasped Shelley. “He tried to do what?”

“Bess is exaggerating,” said Nancy. “He just jumped out and pushed me to the ground, but I’m fine. Listen, have either of you ever heard of Xebec Charters? I found this card underneath his catamaran.”

Marvin looked at the card and said, “Sure. They do fishing charters from the public dock across the bay.” He turned the card over and looked at the writing on the back. “There’s the name Pete and a number written on here.”

“I know,” said Nancy. “I called them earlier and a woman answered the phone. I asked her if Pete was there, but she said he was off on a delivery. When I asked her what kind of delivery, she said they sell used boat equipment and that Pete was dropping something off to a customer. Do you think he could be selling the stuff that was stolen from here last night?”

Marvin fingered the card and said, “I really think you should leave this to the police. Listen, they're coming back here tonight to give us an update on the investigation of our stolen anchor. Why don’t we tell them about this Pete fellow then and they can deal with it. Now, let’s get started with the safety briefing. Shelley, you want to show the girls the ditch bag and what's in it?”

Shelley showed them a bright yellow bag made out of water resistant material with two pouches – one marked EPIRB and one marked VHF. Bess puzzled over what those abbreviations stood for while Shelley explained that the ditch bag contained essential safety equipment and supplies. As she took each item out of the bag to show them to the girls, Bess noticed two young men passing by and waved at them.

Lost in her daydreams, Bess hadn’t been paying attention to Shelley, but then she heard her say, “Whoever is closest to the ditch bag should grab it if the boat starts to sink or catch on fire and we have to abandon ship.”

“What do you mean? Why would the boat start to sink or catch on fire?” Bess started to look anxious and Nancy whispered to Shelley, “Were those chocolate chip cookies I saw in the galley? Those might help calm Bess down.”

“Good idea,” Shelley said. “Bess, would you be a dear and go down below and bring the plate of chocolate chip cookies up here?”

Bess nodded her head and ducked through the companionway. A few minutes later, they heard a splash and Bess cried out, “Oh no!”

Tune in on Wednesday for the next installment of Nancy Drew Investigates – E is for EPIRB.

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Our ditch bag, which could double as a carry on suitcase on a plane. When you live in small spaces, like boats, it's always good if things can serve more than one purpose.

One of my tasks on our list of "Very Important But Very Boring Boat Projects" was to put together our ditch bag. It’s one of those things I hope we never ever have to use, but which is really important to have to hand, just in case. There seem to be a lot of "just in case" things one has to have aboard a boat. Usually, they're expensive.

You can think about a ditch bag as a sort of bug-out bag that you might keep in your coat closet or car if you're land based. It basically has what you need to survive should a natural disaster or emergency strike. We've got things like emergency blankets, a knife, signaling mirror, whistle, flares, sunhats, emergency rations, water, handheld VHF radio, flashlight, copies of important papers, cash, EPIRB, collapsible bucket, sunscreen etc.

When we got our EPIRB (more on that in tomorrow's blog post), we got a free ditch bag from ACR. Cruisers, especially cheap cruisers like us, love free stuff. Intellectually, I know it's just a marketing ploy, but I get sucked in every times. "Look, a free ditch bag!" I shout out while I punch in my credit card numbers online.

Our delightfully free ditch bag is bright yellow (like Big Bird) so you can't miss it, has exterior pockets for your VHF and EPIRB and space inside for all of your other emergency equipment and supplies. (Don't worry, VHF and EPIRB will be explained in due course.) Theoretically it can float, but we have yet to test this out. Some people buy ditch bags which are already kitted out, but we decided to stock ours ourselves in order to save a bit of money and customize what we carry in it.

You can find more information on ditch bags at The Boat Galley and Astolabe Sailing.

What about you - do you have a ditch bag or bug-out bag? What do you keep in it?

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C Is For Catamaran | Nancy Drew Investigates {A To Z Challenge}

During April, we're participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Every day (except Sundays), we'll be doing an alphabet themed post starting with "A is for Anchor" and ending with "Z is for Zodiac." Each post is an installment of "Nancy Drew Investigates the Case of the Missing Anchor" - so, in order to follow along with the story, you may want to read the posts from the beginning (click here for the first post and here for an index of all the posts). At the end of each post, you'll also find some random thoughts on the day's particular topic. If Nancy isn't your thing, feel free to skip the story and go straight to the end.  

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When we last left you, Nancy and her friends had discovered that several other boats had items stolen from them. As they were chasing a suspicious looking man through the boatyard, he suddenly pushed Nancy down to the ground.

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“Nancy, are you okay?” asked George as she helped her up from the ground. Nancy brushed dirt off of her navy blue cotton cardigan, adjusted her pearls and said, “I’m fine. Did you see where he went?”

“There he is!” shouted Bess as she pointed to the man climbing up a ladder onto a white catamaran with a blue dolphin painted on the side underneath the name Party Time.

Bess noticed that the catamaran looked different from the other boats she had seen in the boatyard. It had two hulls, instead of one and was much wider than the others. She remembered that her cousin, George, had told her that catamarans didn’t heel over like monohull boats did. Looking up at Party Time, she wished that the boat they would be sailing on in the Grande Isle Regatta this weekend was a catamaran instead of a monohull. Bess wasn’t looking forward to being on a boat that tipped over from side to side.

Nancy marched up to the catamaran, knocked on the hull to get his attention and called out, “Hey, we want to talk to you!” When he didn’t respond, she knocked louder and then started to climb up the ladder.

As she got partway up, the man came out onto the deck and glared down at her. “Get off my boat, missy,” he hissed. “This here’s private property. You should know better than to board someone’s boat without being given permission.”

“You’ve been following us around the boatyard and eavesdropping on our conversations. Then, you pushed me to the ground. Do you want me to call the police and tell them that?”

The man scratched his scraggly beard and looked nervously about. “There’s no reason to get the police involved.”

“Good. Then, why don’t you come down here and talk to us.”

He adjusted his baseball hat, shrugged his shoulders and then climbed down the ladder. “Okay, what do you want?”

“We want to know why you’ve been following us,” said Nancy. George stepped in front of him, crossed her arms and stared at him. “And we want to know why you pushed my friend Nancy. She could have been seriously hurt.”

“Look, I didn’t mean any harm. It was just an accident,” he huffed. “I haven’t been following you about either. This is a public boatyard and I’ve got every right to walk around here.”

“I don’t think it was an accident, but we’ll let that go,” said Nancy. “Why don’t you start by telling us your name and what you were doing last night. There was a string of robberies at the marina. Did you have anything stolen?”

The man walked forward until he was looking down at Nancy with his beady eyes and said, “I don’t need to tell you my name and what I got up to last night is none of your business.” He brushed her aside, got into a blue pick-up truck parked next to the catamaran and drove off in a hurry through the boatyard.

Bess stared after the truck and said nervously, “Maybe we should just drop it and let the police investigate things. That guy looks like real trouble.”

“Nonsense,” Nancy said. “The police are so busy with everything else that I’m sure they would welcome our assistance. Remember, we’ve helped out solving cases before like The Secret of the Old Clock. After all, look what we’ve found out already. Did you see that truck as it drove away? The tarp on the back flew up and I'm sure I saw a Rocna anchor, an inflatable dinghy and other marine equipment. Maybe he was involved in the robberies.”

Nancy walked over to the side of the catamaran, looked down on the ground and exclaimed, “Girls, look what I found! It’s a business card that says Xebec Charters and on the back there’s the name Pete written down, along with a phone number. I wonder what that’s all about.”

Tune in on Tuesday for the next installment of Nancy Drew Investigates – D is for Ditch Bag.

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One of several Gemini catamarans stored at Indiantown Marina. Note the yellow tie-down straps, just in case a hurricane or severe storm blows through.

If you ever find yourself at a marina potluck and feel like the conversation is starting to be a bit dull, here’s a sure fire way to liven things up. Just throw this out there – “So, what do you think is better, a catamaran or a monohull?” – and watch the fireworks start. Monohulls are just that – sailboats with one hull. Catamarans have two hulls. There are pros and cons of the two types of sailboats, although fervent supporters of monohulls would tell you that catamarans are for sissies who can’t stand it when a boat heels over, while rabid fans of catamarans would brag about the fact that they can leave a bottle of wine on the galley counter while they’re sailing with no worries about it tumbling down and breaking.

We vaguely toyed around with the idea of getting a catamaran once upon a time. If truth be known, I don’t like it when the boat gets all tippy. Intellectually I know it isn’t going to tip all the way over, but in reality, it’s something I worry about. Scott tries to reassure me by saying things like, “If the boat happens to get knocked all the way over, it will roll right back up all the way around.” For some reason, I don’t find this reassuring. What happens if the boat does go under water – how long can I really hold my breath? (Check this post out for some strange ramblings from me on the topic.) So, I thought a catamaran might be the perfect solution to the tippiness issue. However, logically, a monohull was a better fit for us. Darn logic.

If we had gone down the catamaran route, I would have been interested in checking out a Gemini. They’re small catamarans, tiny enough to fit in a standard size marina slip, and they seem to have a nice layout. They’re quite popular coastal cruisers and can often be had for a decent price. There are a number of Geminis at Indiantown Marina, like the one pictured above which is in the storage yard. I think it misses its owner and wishes they would come back and take her to the Florida Keys or the Bahamas. (If you want to know more about the catamaran vs. monohull debate, check out this post I wrote a couple of years ago.)

What's your preferred mode of travel - boat, RV, train, plane, camel or something else?

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B Is For Boatyard | Nancy Drew Investigates {A To Z Challenge}

During April, we're participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Every day (except Sundays), we'll be doing an alphabet themed post starting with "A is for Anchor" and ending with "Z is for Zodiac." Each post is an installment of "Nancy Drew Investigates the Case of the Missing Anchor" - so you may want to read the posts from the beginning, in order to follow along with the story (click here for the first post and here for an index of all the posts). At the end of each post, you'll also find some random thoughts on the day's particular topic. So, if Nancy isn't your thing, feel free to skip the story and go straight to the end.

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When we last left you, an anchor had been stolen from The Scarlet Slipper, the sailboat that Nancy Drew and her two friends are going to be racing on during the Grande Isle Regatta.

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Nancy turned to the police officer and asked, “How could something like this happen here? I thought this was a secure marina with locked gates and a security patrol at night.” The police officer tore a form off of his clipboard and said, “Sorry, miss, we don’t know how it happened or who’s responsible yet. But, don’t worry. We’ll be conducting a full investigation.”

He handed the form to Marvin. “Sir, here’s a copy of the police report for your records. I understand you’ll be leaving the marina on Friday?”

Marvin ran his hands through his short cropped gray hair and said, “Yes, that’s right, we’re participating in the Grande Isle Regatta this weekend. It’s a three day event with a race from Pine View Bay to Grande Isle on Saturday. On Sunday, there will be a number of social events on the island including a barbeque that night. Then on Monday, we race back to Pine View Bay with the prize giving that night at the clubhouse.”

Marvin looked over at his boat, The Scarlet Slipper, and frowned. “Somehow, I have to get a hold of a new anchor before the regatta starts.”

“Well, feel free to call the station at any time for an update on the investigation.” The police officer shook Marvin’s hand and walked down the dock to his patrol car.

“Shelley, we better head over to the marine store and see about replacing this anchor,” Marvin said. “Girls, I’m so sorry about this. Why don’t we catch up later this afternoon and we can take you through a safety briefing. You’ll need to be prepared in case anything goes wrong during the regatta.”

“Will you be okay until we get back?” asked Shelley.

“Don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine. I thought we might walk around the boatyard and check things out,” said Nancy. “Come on girls, why don’t we head over that way.”

As Nancy led the way, Bess nudged her cousin George and whispered, “A safety briefing. See, I told you sailing was dangerous! How in the world did I ever let you and Nancy convince me to participate in the regatta?” George shook her head and said, “You’re such a worrywart, Bess. Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”

The three eighteen year old girls walked down a short path which led into the boatyard. Bess looked around in amazement at all of the boats in the yard, resting on their keels and propped up by metal stands. “Gee, what would happen if a strong wind blew through? Wouldn’t they all tumble down?” Bess asked with a worried frown on her face.

When no one answered, Bess looked around and realized that George and Nancy were over talking to a couple of guys wearing white disposable coveralls, goggles and plastic gloves, who were in the process of painting the bottom of a boat nearby. She hurried over to catch up with them.

“Bess, there you are. Wait until you hear this. These guys had their outboard motor stolen last night,” Nancy said. “They also said that some other folks had stuff stolen as well. There’s definitely something mysterious going on at the marina.”

One of the guys pushed his goggles off of his face and Bess noticed that he had attractive green eyes. “Why are you painting your boat?” she asked.

“We put anti-fouling paint on it regularly to keep barnacles, algae and other things from growing on the bottom. It helps us go faster in the water if we don’t have stuff on our bottom,” he said while admiring her long blonde hair and blue eyes. “Are you a sailboat racer too?” Bess looked up at his impossibly green eyes and thought maybe sailing wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all. “I’ll be participating in the Grande Isle Regatta this weekend. Maybe I’ll see you out there.”

George tugged on Bess’ elbow. “We should really let these guys get back to their bottom painting.” As the guys turned back to their boat, Nancy said, “Come on girls. Let’s go see what we can find out.”

The girls walked across the boatyard, stopping to chat with people and watching them work on various boat projects. They could hear the noise of electric tools buzzing across the yard, watched a crane take a mast off of a boat and heard a couple arguing about the best way to install new hatches on their boat.

In talking with people, they discovered that items had been stolen from several boats, including a new galvanized anchor chain, an inflatable dinghy, winch handles and a chart plotter.

As they were walking around the yard, George noticed that a man with a long scraggly beard seemed to be listening in on their conversations. He was wearing tattered khaki shorts, a ripped t-shirt and a red baseball hat which had Xebec written on the front.

George motioned to Nancy and Bess and said, “See that man over there? I think he’s been following us around and eavesdropping on us.” As Nancy and Bess looked over, the man took off and ran across the boatyard, ducking behind a row of boats to their right. Nancy shouted out, “Come on, let’s follow him!”

Bess said, “Are you sure? He could be dangerous.” George grabbed Bess’ arm and pulled her along as they followed Nancy through the boatyard. Just as they made a sharp turn around a row of boats, the man lunged out and pushed Nancy to the ground.

Tune in on Monday for the next installment of Nancy Drew Investigates – C is for Catamaran.

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This is our boat, Tickety Boo, up on the hard in the boatyard at Indiantown Marina last year. Note the rickety ladder? How did I survive getting on and off the boat without breaking something?

I can get where Bess is coming from – I can’t for the life of me figure out how boats stay upright in the boatyard in general, let alone during a storm. See how our boat is propped up with metal stands and balancing on her keel on top of wooden blocks in the picture above? Now, imagine high winds barreling through the boatyard, pushing against the boats perched there. If the winds were strong enough and in the right direction, poof, down your boat goes, toppling others along with it, like a row of dominoes collapsing.

When boats are stored long-term at Indiantown Marina, they make owners secure them with tie-down straps to prevent them from falling over. It's happened before when a hurricane made its way through Indiantown years ago. Who's to say it wouldn't happen again? This is where liability insurance comes into play. Would you want to be responsible for the damage caused if your boat toppled over?

The other thing that strikes me about the boatyard is having to climb up and down ladders to get to your boat. I have a friend who fell off the ladder on their boat last year and ended up in the emergency room. She was one of the lucky ones - nothing broken. Another guy fell off his boat this year and broke his leg. Somehow, despite my clumsiness, I managed to survive our time in the boatyard without breaking anything.

What about you - have you ever broken anything? Did you get everyone to sign your cast? Do kids even do that anymore?

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A Is For Anchor | Nancy Drew Investigates {A To Z Challenge}

During April, we're participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Every day (except Sundays), we'll be doing an alphabet themed post starting with "A is for Anchor" and ending with "Z is for Zodiac." Each post is an installment of "Nancy Drew Investigates the Case of the Missing Anchor" - so you may want to read the posts from the beginning in order to follow along with the story (click here for an index of all of the posts). At the end of each post, you'll also find some random thoughts on the day's particular topic.

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“I can’t believe we get to participate in the Grande Isle Regatta this weekend!” Nancy Drew’s blue eyes sparkled as she looked around at the sailboats in the marina. “This is going to be so much fun." She turned to her two friends and asked, “Aren’t you excited?”

George Fayne grinned and said enthusiastically, “I can’t wait to try out the new spinnaker you were telling us about. Imagine how fast we’ll be able to fly across the water. We’ll definitely win the race.” George nudged her cousin Bess Marvin and pointed over across the water. “See those sailboats out there. That will be us this weekend.”

Bess tucked a lock of her long blonde hair under her pink sunhat and gazed out at the boats anchored in the sheltered bay. She looked nervously at Nancy and George and asked, “But, what if something goes wrong? What if we hit something and our boat starts to sink? What will we do then?”

Nancy smiled at Bess and said, “Don’t worry Bess. The people who we’ll be sailing with are really experienced sailors. They’ve even crossed the Atlantic twice. We’ll be in good hands. Why don’t we go over to their slip now to meet them and then you can see their boat.”

The three girls walked down the dock to the far side of the marina, which was located in Pine Tree Bay on the outskirts of their hometown of River Heights. Nancy and George were regular visitors to the marina where they crewed on a friend’s boat during the weekly Wednesday night races. They had tried to convince Bess to join them, but the thought of zipping along on a sailboat while it was heeled over at an uncomfortable angle was too much for her and she signed up for a cooking course instead.

While Bess was busy daydreaming about the various pastries they would be making at next week’s class, Nancy pointed over to a white boat with red racing stripes. “Look, there she is. She’s called the Scarlet Slipper. Those are the boat’s owners, Marvin and Shelley, over there.” They saw a distinguished looking man with dark brown eyes and closely cropped gray hair standing next to his wife, a petite woman with green eyes and blonde hair streaked by the sun.

“It was really nice of my father to ask them if we could sail on their boat during the regatta. Marvin and Shelley have been his clients for years,” said Nancy. “Wait a minute...it looks like they're talking to a police officer. I wonder what’s going on.”

Nancy hurried over to Marvin and Shelley and asked, “Is everything okay?”

“Oh, hi there Nancy. It’s nice to see you again dear,” said Shelley. “And, these must be your friends. Unfortunately, you’ve come at a bad time. We’ve had something terrible happen.” Marvin put his arm around Shelley's shoulders. “Don’t worry honey. The police will catch the guy.”

Nancy turned to Marvin and asked, “What happened? Are you guys okay?”

Maurice walked over to the boat, pointed at the bow roller and said angrily, “Would you believe it – someone stole our brand new Rocna anchor!”

Tune in tomorrow for the next installment of Nancy Drew Investigates – B is for Boatyard. 

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That's our old Rocna anchor, which we used on our old boat in New Zealand. One of the first things we bought for our new boat, Tickety Boo, was a Rocna anchor. They might be pricey, but they bring good peace of mind when you're anchored.

Last summer, a bloggy pal asked me to take a picture of her boat, which was in storage at Indiantown Marina. By the way, if you’re new around here, I live aboard a sailboat at a small marina in southern Florida, east of Lake Okeechobee, smack-dab in the middle of alligator infested swamps and sugarcane fields. Why am I here? Well, it’s a long story – you can read about it here. But, let’s get back to the photo of my bloggy pal’s boat.

Other than the grime on the decks from the continual burning of the nearby sugarcane fields and the usual mold and mildew, which you can’t really escape in southern Florida, everything seemed fine when my bloggy pal initially looked at the picture of their boat. That is, until she had a closer look and noticed that their Rocna anchor was missing from the bow.

Yep, someone stole their anchor. That sort of thing will piss you off on several levels: (1) Rocna anchors aren’t cheap to replace; (2) the folks who stole the anchor probably knew a thing or two about boats, which means they were one of us, fellow boaties and cruisers; and (3) stealing stuff is just bad form.

Someone else had an outboard motor stolen from their lazarette and I wouldn't be surprised to find other folks had stuff stolen as well. Perhaps it was some sort of midnight raid by bad people who went around plucking all sorts of goodies off of unattended boats. I can only hope one or more of them stepped in an anthill full of fire ants and suffered for days afterwards with a painful allergic reaction to the tiny burning bites.

More likely, they just flogged the stuff on eBay and Craig’s List and then spent the money on beer and cigarettes somewhere in the Florida Keys. You’ve probably seen them hanging around in their dinghy somewhere in Boot Key Harbor, smoking, burping and scratching their fire ant bites (and other parts of their bodies which really aren’t polite to scratch in public).

I still get mad thinking about the anchor incident. Not just because it happened to a really nice couple, but because, if you refer back to point #2 above, it was likely one of our own. Cruisers (like RVers and other nomadic traveling type people) stick together. They help each other out. They have each other’s backs. Except for those yahoos who helped themselves to other people’s stuff. They’re not worthy of the cruiser label.

If I was mean-spirited, I might hope that their dinghy springs a leak and they find themselves slowly sinking in alligator-infested waters. A dinghy that they probably stole from somebody else, I might add.

If only we had had someone like Nancy Drew around when the "Case of the Missing Anchor" took place. Nancy would have solved the case in no time, all the time while looking immaculate in her twin sweater set, pearls, faux alligator pumps and matching handbag, without ever breaking a sweat (which is next to impossible in southern Florida). The anchor would have been recovered and justice would have prevailed. Even the alligators would have bowed down to her poise and intelligence.

Instead, my bloggy pal and her husband had to shell out for a new anchor. On the bright side, it inspired my theme for this year's Blogging from A to Z Challenge. An odd theme, but there you have it.

If you want to read the real account of their stolen anchor, check out the scoop here.

Have you ever had anything valuable stolen from your home, RV or boat?

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