Sail Cutthroat

37,000 feet, somewhere between Tampa and Honolulu
1 April 2008

It’s April Fool’s Day and that’s right - the fools are headed off - back to Paradise - to make the good ship Cutthroat ready to put to sea again. With the plan to head to Sitka, Alaska on or about the first days of June, there is MUCH to do and not a moment to spare. The last almost seven months on land moved at warp speeds. We enjoyed lots of family time and events that took us from Florida as our main base of operations, to Texas, the British Virgin Islands, Orlando (yeah – that’s still in Florida), Key West (ditto), Jacksonville (ditto),through the Panama Canal, San Diego, and probably other places but my head already hurts reading this. If we were still working we’d have nothing to write about (it’s by far the most convenient reason for blowing off family events), but we would have probably gotten in a ski trip or two. Oh yes, we also remodeled our kitchen in the Florida house…at least there is still a remodeling underway – it just didn’t quite get finished before our departure. Can’t wait to see it when we return in October. Mom’s in charge of it now along with my brother, Chuck. Now I feel sorry for the contractor – NOT! He deserves all the goodness and kindness they will provide.

Our time in Hawaii is already jam packed. Our youngest son, Rob is scheduled to arrive on 10 April with his fiancé, Kaki (yes, that’s a nickname). We look forward to getting to know her before their wedding on September 20th in Beaver Creek, CO. That date ensures we make it back to San Diego by mid-September putting one of those dreaded timelines on our otherwise carefree and “a cruisers plans are cast in Jell-O” theory. Our good friends from the last almost 30 years, John and Suzi Mirus have their timeshare at Ko’Olina booked for a week in May when we plan on spending time together. These events will fit into the very busy schedule of boat work to make sure the Cutthroat is sea worthy, mechanically sound, and well provisioned before the rest of the crew arrives for the passage North to Alaska. This summer is filled with anticipation, a little anxiety, and a need to stay focused, plan ahead, and anticipate the next challenge. Of course, there will be plenty of time to stop and smell the roses along the way…at least that would be the ideal scenario. It seems like we were doing about the same thing a year ago as we prepared to depart Puerto Vallarta for Hawaii. We plan for this trip with a much better sense of what lies ahead. In some ways that is comforting, but in some ways we are more alert to the potential dangers out there. At the top of my list are:

• breakage from chafing (lines of all varieties)
• excessive “washing machine” action causing major breakages due to heavy rolling and that falling off a mountain feeling we got when winds and swells don’t move in the same direction
• loss of the engine – in particular the generator – loss of battery power – a bad thing
• hitting an underwater object like a errant container no longer attached to its ship or being hit by a ship at night.

So, how do we avoid these problems? Stay vigilant and constantly pay attention to what’s happening. The whole crew must be involved with this process.

That brings me to this year’s crew (drum roll, please). This is obviously a hot passage, because we have literally turned down many, many applicants. The screening process was intense, the selection criteria demanding. Our winners had to be willing to endure cold weather, turn down invitations to sail in the heralded Newport to Bermuda Race, get out of work for a month, and have the ability to obtain very expensive cold weather gear (something you just don’t need in Southern California, Mexico, Hawaii or Florida).

The winners are Chuck Wagenseil (my brother and sailing companion from childhood). Chuck has much more offshore racing experience than I do and in addition is a great diesel mechanic. Since Cutthroat is operates in a smoke free environment he just has to quit smoking. So if he gets too cranky along the way, he’s history…good thing he can also cook!

Pat Moneymaker is retired from the Navy and currently is the CEO of a company in Tampa. Pat owned our sister-ship, Carol Ann in San Diego. In addition to being a superb Captain and foredeck monkey, he is our celestial expert…astronomy or astrology – I get them confused…something about stars. I don’t think we’ll see too much of him in the galley, but he as read all the technical manuals for the boat and even understands them. As an added benefit, Carol is doing all the logo embroidery for our crew paraphernalia. She will toss off the lines to us in Hawaii and be there to greet us in Sitka when we arrive. In between, she looks forward to spending the month with her 8 grandkids in San Diego.

Rounding out our skill set is Bob Bergman. Bob also has to get off of work to make this journey, but he comes with a great skill set. As the Service Manager for the San Diego Island Packet dealer, Bob knows all the details and has done much of the commissioning and real work on all the IP’s out of San Diego. He also spent several years on his own boat cruising the Caribbean and East Coast. Bob’s been sailing all of his life – another foredeck monkey and great swimmer (probably not much of that though once we leave Hawaii).

This is the crew for the first leg of this adventure. We’ll swap out Chuck for his son Paul, and John Mirus will return to join us (he did the Mexico to Hawaii trip last year) as Pat and Bob leave. That will be the crew for the trip through the Inside Passage towards Vancouver or Seattle. I’ll leave you in the same suspense that I enjoy right now for leg three – down the west coast back to San Diego. We do have another wedding to be at in Colorado Springs in August…but my head continues to throb just thinking about that one.

Wish us luck, please and we’ll have more to report on a more regular basis once again. As we head out to sea, we’ll try to do a posting daily or as frequently as possible so our friends and family can keep up with our progress. Our cell phones work, 760.390.2772, 760.470.1425, and we’re on Skype. Our email is the same elisemjohn@yahoo.com or cutthroat1941@yahoo.com, or on the boat at wdb9753@sailmail.com (but no stupid retired jokes or anything with an attachment to this address, please). We look forward to keeping in touch!

From Floriduh to Aloha-land we wish you all the best…
Elise and Roger
s/v Cutthroat
North to Alaska - 2008