Odda Sea - Life Aboard An Allied Princess Sailing Yacht

Well, its been a quiet week or two since my last post. Well, quiet might not be the exact word! Since Ida came through, I’ve shared Aletheia with a couple of guests including my uncle and brother. My uncle and I went for a short 3 hour cruise up and down the ICW here just to have some fun and put the sails up. This was the first time I did the docking myself, and I got her in stern first without ever touching the dock! This trip really boosted my confidence in my ability to handle the boat (in fair weather, at least) and showed that I’d retained the knowledge my instructors had given me. It was also really great that my brother could visit because he shipped out overseas shortly afterwards.

Since that trip, I’ve been quite busy. A significant portion of the electrical wiring on this boat is about to get a huge makeover. I’ve already “cleaned house” on two out of about 5 “spaghetti bowls” of wire, and I’m ready for the reinstallation of quality stuff. I’ll take some pictures as I go.

Also, the fresh water system is getting an overhaul, and I’m slowly getting stuff moved in and organized. I threw away the v-berth foam cushions as they were nasty and full of mold and the foam had fallen apart. I’m looking for a good and not terribly expensive source of latex foam for sleeping on.

Anyways, that’s about it for now. No pics this time, but don’t worry, I’m taking them as I go with this electrical project and I’ll share them at the end so you can see what I accomplished.

If you’ve got any questions or want information about any specific modifications, please leave them in the comments.

So, we rode the storm out last night with the sails and sail covers double wrapped, two lines from each point to the dock, and a couple fenders. She rode through it beautifully, I must say. I slept in the rear quarter berth and was out cold up until the wind was so loud I couldn’t sleep anymore, and then I just kept a careful eye on what I could see on deck. I had to go out once to increase tension on one line but other than that, she was perfectly set. Once the worst of the storm had passed, I went back to sleep and woke up to a lovely foggy morning on the bayou.

I’m boiling water for coffee and will soon get out and take some photos of everything.

Welcome to Orange Beach, AL!

Capt’n Matt and I pulled her into a lovely marina in Orange Beach on Friday. We tied her up securely and she’s riding nicely with the floating docks. I had to head back to Atlanta quickly, so we didn’t have much time, but as there is now a hurricane (Ida) on the way, I am heading back down early Monday AM to check on her and see if I need to move her further inland.

One problem for another: the engine is fixed, but she desperately needs new batteries - her old ones won’t hold a charge very well at all.

Anyways, just wanted to let you all know she’s safe and sound for now. Wish me luck with the hurricane preparations!

Today, Aletheia got a present - her name in vinyl on her stern! The new vinyl I had made for her looks awesome and Anderson did a great job applying it. Unfortunately the old vinyl making up her previous hailing port left a significant color difference in the paint and we didnt’ have time to sand that out and buff it down, so we have the faded outline of “Florida USA” right above the clear, sharp blue vinyl lettering saying “PORTLAND OR”. I’ll post some pics shortly, but she looks SHARP.

So, having satisfied all of the requirements for legal operation of the vessel, we finally took Aletheia out for a sail today. Anderson’s friend Matt, a fellow Captain, joined us as Anderson’s schedule doesn’t allow him to captain the boat on her cruise to Mobile, so Matt joined us to get acquainted with the vessel, to meet me, and to just have some fun sailing. Her first sail under her new name, and except for a barnacle-encrusted prop, she handled beautifully. Frankly, I think she let the prop get muddled specifically so she could leave the dock under sail alone, a feat the three of us accomplished brilliantly. We looked like such excellent sailors - its a shame nobody was around to see. She sailed gorgeously in the light air, and her handling was very smooth and precise. She thrilled both captains I had aboard as well as myself with her poise, her character, and the simple but elegant fittings and equipment she has which make sailing her quite enjoyable.

Other good news for today: the engine overheating problem we had previously is definitely gone now. The engine held at 160 degrees perfectly under full throttle as we cruised back to shore. Cap’t Anderson did a very interesting maneuver, diving into the water and under the boat with only swim trunks on in order to clean the prop, which earned him a six pack of beer in addition to his daily pay.

As a result of this very successful shakedown cruise, we have definitely solved the major issues and concerns we previously had, and I think she’s ready for a three-day jaunt to Mobile.

We leave in the AM!

Well, here I am back in Panama City. Got here yesterday to get the boat moved out of Florida. I started running down the checklist of major stuff to do/fix. Today was all engine work. With the help of Captain Anderson Barnes, I completely flushed the cooling system, both the raw water side and the fresh water side, and we did some maintenance on the strainer as well. We hope we’ve eliminated the overheating issue.

I moved a lot of my stuff onto the boat as well and got a lot of it unpacked and stored. I’ll work on organizing later on when I have time to focus on that topic. For now, it was mostly “get it out of the way, but findable later if necessary”. I wanted to make some tea, but I didn’t have a mug, so I went down to Starbucks for coffee and noticed that a few of their mugs were on clearance, so I bought two that I liked. Even on clearance they are expensive, but hey, they are nice mugs and I’ll enjoy them.

Anyways, I need to get back to the boat and finish up putting the engine together and hopefully giving it a test run.