welcome to our blog!

This blog tells the story of our 22-month sailing journey from Oakland, California, to Bristol, Rhode Island, aboard our beloved Bristol 32 sailboat, Ute. Please feel free to browse through the archives (partway down the sidebar to your left) to see pics and read stories of our adventures in North America and Central America . (Sorry the first 3 months of the trip are missing - they vanished somewhere in an internet cafe in Mexico - but all you're missing is CA, Baja and Western Mex).

If you're trying to track us down now that we're landlubbers, try us at uteatlarge at yahoo dot com. Thanks!

Saturday, June 02, 2007



For the last two weeks, Hebe and Ute have been sharing one "station wagon" to run errands: Ute's inflatable dinghy. The quarter-mile trek to land across major chop, serious tidal currents and powerboat wakes is always a good way to get soaking wet - especially when it's loaded down with the four of us and whatever we need to take to or from land! The tourists at the watefront restaurants always seem to enjoy the show when we show up covered in foul weather gear, trash bags, carrying our laundry, garbage, shower gear, and triple-bagged laptops to get online.



we potted our new plants at the dock to try and save the boats from all that dirt

here's a little video of Ariel coming to pick us up this morning, just to give you an idea of how fun this ride is even just with one person aboard!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So glad you guys stayed in Key Weird long enough to feel so at home. But hey, you haven't mentioned the names of any of your favorite bars, or whether you got to the Green Parrot. Hope Barry leaves you alone, and you can continue on your merry way as planned, though we can't fathom why you'd want to leave such an awesome place as KW. We love ya and miss ya. S & J

Anonymous said...

6/10/07
For those of you following the peripheral notes, A&C are in Ft. Pierce, Fl. (north of Miami/Ft. Lauderdale and south of Melbourne).
UTE got struck by lightning 5 miles o rso off the Ft. Pierce inlet, blowing all its onboard elex but not the through-hull fittings so it's afloat.
[That would have been the anti-climax.]
The lightning apparently also crystalized the key in UTE's propshaft so when they shifted the tranny on the way into the Ft. Pierce Marina it crumbled.
Allen and Cora have a whole story about Ft. Pierce and the rocket shop that fixed the tranny on a Saturday afternoon, but that's just A&C.
The machinists who work for NASA? They were free: "Get out of here. It's Saturday and I want to go out on my own boat."
A,C,T&A did leave a case of Bud -- which may be the most economical "unobtanium" repair ever created.
Needless to say, they haven't had much time for blogging. They're alive, well, and, well, being Allen and Cora.
I'm encouraging them to get up to Melbourne and Titusville where my Car Collector magazine friends can help out. Ellen and I have boating friends in Mystic who have offered to lend a VHF radio and Garmin GPS receiver/plotter to replace the fried units.
We hear Skye Maher has been West generous. Thanks, P.
If you have electronics (I think particularly radar) that's not being used, please communicate with A&C.
It's very selfish, but I think a lot of us would like to see UTE in New England.

Rick Carey

Anonymous said...

We have 10 pottery students that want Cora & Allen to take them on a trip around panama next feburary vacation!!!
-Pottery class of ms. carey
samantha, libby, marrissa, and louise

Unknown said...

o.k. fun day. end of classes. will miss all of my students - they have been great. wish you were here to meet them. another year. hope the boat is recovering nicely and you, both, too. hugs nmc