C'est la Vie is a 1966 Charlie Morgan 34.

Her home port is Everglades City, FL. Our typical cruising area is Southwest Florida, the Florida Keys, the Southeastern Atlantic Seaboard, and the Bahamas. We are C'est la Vie's third owners and purchased her in 2005. We continue to maintain and update this classic vessel. Please post any questions or comments about C'est la Vie or our travels via the comment links below.


Thursday, September 16, 2010

Settling into time alone on C'est la Vie


Along with the variety and quality of my meals (double boca burger anyone?) life is certainly different now that I am solo and working.  The past couple days I’ve spent working on the computer preparing for the upcoming Florida Outward Bound season and laying the foundation for the school’s return to the OBX in summer 2011.  Since I cannot simply plug the computer into the outlet here on the boat, I’ve become a regular fixture at the local coffee shop.   I am looking forward to a couple of days of traveling down east in both the car and kayak as part of my recon of the OBX course area. 

We are still anchored in the same spot at the western end of Taylor’s Creek.  I have now met all of our immediate “neighbors” in the anchorage.  Of the five closest vessels, three are seasonal live aboards that have jobs in town.

I’ve continued my afternoon laps, approximately ¾ mile each afternoon, and have begun to notice some improvement.  I have grown fond of swimming as an afternoon workout and will miss when my time on C’est la Vie winds down.  I’m not up for swimming laps in the Barron River, at least not until cooler weather arrives and runs the alligators back up into the marshes.    Well that’s all in the future… for now I’m going to focus in my double boca burger in paradise – yum!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Here we go round the anchor rode

I drew upon my latent climbing knowledge to free up the rode.  

The most vexing part of untwisting the rodes was my inability to pull up enough rope rode to tie off the line.  Typically I would simply let out some more chain on the other rode and this slack would permit me to haul in on the rope rode.  Unfortunately the twists in the two rodes prohibited this solution.

Using an 8 foot loop of 4mm cord I tied a prussic knot to the rode, ran the cord through the bowsprit, and back to a two to one on deck.  The prussic knot will slide freely along the rode until force is applied to the cord. When force is applied the prussic knot cinches down on the larger diameter line and will not slip.

This system allowed me to secure the rope rode and  take pressure off the twists .  With this system in place the only thing remaining was the grunt work of coiling up the remaining ¾” rode; passing it through the bowsprit; and then  while standing in the dinghy pass the coil around and around the chain rode.

This entire process took about one hour and provided a necessary distraction from a day of working on the computer.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Twisted Rodes


During our absence C’est la Vie seems to have done some spin moves. 

Due to limited swing room and strong daily tidal currents, we set a Bahamian Moor at our present anchorage in Taylor’s Creek.  The anchor set up is effective, but an undesirable by product is twists in the anchor rodes.

Does anyone out there have a good system for avoiding the twists when riding on two anchors? 

My plan is to pull up enough of the rope rode to tie off the anchor side to a bow cleat.  I will then coil up the bitter end of the rope rode and pass the coil down through the bowsprit. With the coil below the bowsprit, I will jump in the dinghy and begin to unwind the rodes.  Once the rodes are free of one another, I can then pass the coil back through the bowsprit and reattach the bitter end to a cleat.

Does anyone out there know of a better way to unwrap the rodes?

My plan is to wait for tomorrow's flooding tide where there will be less pressure on the rope rode.  So if anyone has suggestions please let me know soon.

Life in the fast lane?

Since our trip to FL in late August and our return to Beaufort with our car, life seems to be moving at a much faster pace.   Does the presence of a personal automobile speed up our lives or has fate simply stepped in to speed things up?  Here is a brief recap of the last 10 days…

We drove up the mountains.  Anne caught up with friends in WNC while I spent a few days working at NCOBS Table Rock Basecamp.   We then returned to Mooresville to visit with my family for a couple days.  Anne flew out of Charlotte, NC to join her mom in New Hampshire.  Due to some health issues, her mom has returned to the States from her Peace Corps post in Swaziland.  Anne will remain in New Hampshire until October 1. 

I arrived back in Beaufort today, Monday, and have been scrambling about in an effort to open up the boat & restock the galley.   I also dropped our mainsail off at Omar Sails for some minor repair work.


I’ll be solo on C’est la Vie until the last week of September when I plan to haul out in Wilmington, NC.