CHARIS IN PENSACOLA. We spent last night in one of the nicest marinas in Northwest FL. A fitting debut for for such a high class lady. Five hours each way and all systems never missed a beat except the Capitan narrowly missed a humpy little sand bar when the Adrimal pointed it out at the last minute. Please see picasaweb.google.com/lropka for a few pictures of the neighborhood and especially the gormet breakfast served by the Adrimal.
A beautiful sunny day and it all came together as we ventured all of the way to Destin for fuel and beyond. Joan almost fell overboard taking pictures of the dolphins frolicking around the bow. A bunch of big ones! Then 200 gal of diesel (OUCH) at the Harbor Marina fuel dock followed by lunch around the corner on the bay. We ran about 4 hours and all systems worked as planned. More pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/lropka/minicruise
In the Year 2000 Joan and Larry began a two year project to build a cruising trawler to complete their cruising dreams begun in the 1980"s. Six years later "Charis was completed and the cruising has begun. This blog is provided so that we may share our dreams and experiences with family and friends as we continue this long planned adventure. Last year we cruised from FWB to the Chesapeake Bay and this year we are enroute to in Canada. We are having the time of our lives enjoying God's creation.
Charis is 42' built in 1974 as a working lobster boat designed by Royal Lowell and built by Bruno-Stillman. After an unknown career we found her totally gutted in Panama City Fl in Nov 2000 and fell in love with her classic lines. What was planned to be a 2 year project to construct a modest pilothouse design got out of hand and six years later after 18000+ man hours she floats again as a quite tidy little coastal cruiser with ample creature features and a delightful interior crafted from 300 board feet of teak-hand sanded four times by Joan. Along the way she soaked up some 300 gallons of fiberglass resin, hundreds of yards of fiberglass cloth, several truckloads of plywood and 12000 stainless steel screws. She handles like a dream and is well found to begin fulfilling phase II of our cruising dreams.
