Monday, April 27, 2015

Extreme Track Plus - Your New Way to Track Us!

Well its about time...I've really been lazy about posting to my blog and so I figured its about time.  We've been extremely busy with sailing, adventures, and boat projects.  But the boat projects that we accomplished in Palmas Del Mar Marina have made huge improvements aboard Catchin' Rays. We got new bad-ass Bushnell binoculars, a voltage regulator for our Nexgen generator (it was acting up), two hand held Cobra VHF's, and a mighty MidNite Classic MPPT solar controller - in fact, its so awesome, I might even blog about it next - it has completely taken our solar array to new levels making at times, a whopping 64 amps per hour during the day off of 840 watts - but that's for another day.  



But what I am wanting to talk about today is the other goody we got in our care package - our new IridiumGo satellite phone/wifi hotspot.  It allows us to use our current cell phones to make calls all over the world.  But not only that, it also allows us to text all month without limits.  But wait, that's not all, it also enables us to download GRIB files anywhere in the world - its how we see the weather, and more specifically, the wind for up to 14 days of forecast.  We download the files to our laptop or smart phone and now we don't have to worry about being close to land in order to get cell phone reception....and getting the wind forecast is something that is a must when traveling the world by sailboat.  



But the reason I'm blogging about it today, is because the IridiumGo also comes with a feature that allows anybody in the world to be able to track us.  We set it up to send the coordinates about every 10 minutes when we're traveling, and about every 4 hours while we're anchored or docked.  I've added this feature to the toolbar at the top of my webpage under the heading titled "Where in the World Are We - Click Here" and although I am still tweaking the link, you'll be able to track us anywhere we go.  If you'd like to adjust the dates seen, click the arrow in the upper left corner here:



To bring out a menu tab, and put in whatever date that you want to see, but I have defaulted it to the day when we first installed the IridiumGO into our boat.  Also, you can click the Map Tab in the upper right corner to overlay a Satellite image if you want to see that instead of a map.



So now, you'll be able to find us anywhere we are and I can stop worrying about if we change our minds mid-sail and decide to go to another island....we'll also be able to send text messages along the way anyway, so its was perfect for what we needed in order to be able to cross big oceans whenever that time arrives.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Video: Episode #5 Sailing the Caribbean - Georgetown to the Dominican Republic

On this episode, we finally leave Georgetown after chilling out for a month and waiting on parts.  And along the way, we catch five mahi-mahi, each one bigger than the last.  At Clarence Town, we make the short ride over to Dean's Blue Hole and snorkel above the 663 foot sink hole.  We also jump off the 40' high cliffs that rise directly above the abyss.  We island hop across Crooked Island and anchor at Plana Cays en route to Mayaguana where we take a quick nap before pulling anchor at 2 am with our sights set on Turks & Caicos.  We then motor across the banks as we get set for our long and dark over-nighter to the Dominican Republic.  

The footage in this episode was taken between March 7th and March 22, 2015.  Check out our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/kevtamus and also like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/svcatchinrays  

Sunday, April 5, 2015

The Cost to Cruise for 3 Months - the data is in!

We just finished documenting our numbers for the month of March and thought we share all the amounts since we set sail from Key West just over 3 months ago.  The format for March has changed just a bit since I've passed this task on to my wife...and obviously she changed how the totals are presented, so watch for category totals as you go down the list.  We also updated the January total because I forgot to add in the entry fee into the Bahamas the first time I posted our costs...so that total has been adjusted.  February was a cheap month because it was spent almost entirely at anchor in Georgetown waiting on parts.  And remember, all these numbers are for a family of 4 on a 42' catamaran...and some of the entertainment costs included my mother-in-law...so at times, there were 5 admission fees and at the 27 Waterfalls, 2 guides were being tipped.  We also stayed at a marina more in March than we have since we left so it ended up costing more than I would have liked it to.  But when everything was calculated, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.


January 2015
Diesel $54.00
Gas $13.00
Groceries $265.00
Diesel $228.00
Gas $23.00
Weech's Dockage (2 days) $100.00
Bimini World Marina (1 day) $55.00
Nassau Habour Club $203.00
Port Starter $200.00
Rent-a-car $112.00
Zincs (4 sets) $150.00
Entertainment/ Dinning $119.00
Laundry $18.00
Electronic Charts $235.00
Guide Book (we forgot to buy Bahamas) $59.00
Scuba Stuff $140.00
Bahama Sim Card for cell phone $20.00
Cell Phone - Carribean $210.00
Pre-paid minuets $180.00
Internet Access $75.00
Containers $11.00
Medicne $13.00
Exuma Yacht Club (1 day) $93.00
Groceries $48.00
Dinning $21.00
Diesel $91.00
Totals
Diesel $378.00
Groceries $313.00
Gas $36.00
Dockage $451.00
Maintenance $462.00
Entertainment/Dinning $140.00
Laundry $18.00
Electronic Charts $235.00
Guide Books $59.00
Scuba Stuff $140.00
Communication $485.00
Containers $11.00
Medicine $13.00
Entry fee to cruise and fish the Bahamas $320.00
January Total $3,061.00
February 2015
Replacement feeder pump for watermaker $44.18
Sirius XM weather and radio $55.00
Jabsco replacement head kit $59.99
Bahamian Wifi (1 month) $107.50
Shipping costs to Raymarine - amenometer $83.61
Shipping costs to Georgetown - misc items $96.70
Hardware - tv cable $19.35
Groceries - Exuma Markets $18.16
Groceries - Exuma Markets $32.13
Groceries - Exuma Markets $49.63
Pump out and garbage disposal $24.00
Dining $22.00
Diesel  $226.57
Gas $15.02
Water - 70 gallons $30.10
Groceries - Exuma Markets $141.05
Laundry $31.00
Dining $56.00
Exuma Market $14.56
BTC - Cell phone minuets  $80.00
DoeBoi Shipping - GPS and Jabsco repair  $77.66
Dining $23.00
Itemized February Total $1,307.21
Totals
Diesel $226.57
Groceries $255.53
Gas $15.02
Water $30.10
Maintenance Items and Shipping to Bahamas (mostly spares) $382.49
Entertainment - Internet Wifi and Sirius XM $162.50
Laundry $31.00
Communication - cell minuets $80.00
Dining Out $100.00
Dockage $0.00
Pump out and Garbage Disposal $24.00
February Total  $1,307.21
March 2015
Communication Turks and Caicos Cell phone sim card and minuets $65.00
Communication DR cell  $25.00
TOTAL COMMUNICATION  $90.00
Deisel at Clarence Town @ $4.69 per/gallon + tax $49.20
Deisel at South Side Marina @ $5.90 per gallon+ tax $287.85
Deisel Puerto Real Marina @ $2.85 per gallon + tax  $117.00
TOTAL DEISEL $454.05
Dinning  $41.75
Dinning  $46.43
Dinning Mcdonalds puerto real $18.00
TOTAL DINNING  $106.18
Entertainment 27 Falls tip $60.00
Entertainment 27 Falls tip entry $46.00
Entertainment Gondala entry $50.00
Entertainment Gondala tip $20.00
Entertainment Sirius XM Weather and Radio $55.00
TOTAL ENTERTAINMENT $231.00
Exit fee Despacho - DR $20.00
Entry fee Puerto Real customs $27.50
Entry into DR x 4 people  $127.00
Entry Turks and Caicos Flags (bought shitty one then good one) $25.00
Entry/Exit into Turks and Caicos $100.00
TOTAL ENTRY FEES $299.50
Gas $28.00
Gas @ South Side Marina 2.5 gallons @ $6.00 $16.05
Gas at Clarence Town @ $4.48 per/gallon + tax $13.70
TOTAL GAS $57.75
Groceries $30.00
Groceries $13.57
Groceries $18.90
Groceries $64.50
Groceries $18.65
Groceries $2.37
Groceries $27.82
Groceries $17.12
Groceries $223.01
Groceries $153.90
Groceries $1.70
Groceries $10.00
Groceries Clarence Town Sea Wind Groceries $118.49
Groceries Puerto plata map, pepsi $12.00
TOTAL GROCERIES $712.03
Internet - Bahamian WiMax $37.50
Internet - South Side Marina $7.49
TOTAL INTERNET $44.99
Maintenance Propellor - 15hp Mercury $60.00
Maintenance Shipping and Duty tax - import parts $87.00
TOTAL MAINTENANCE $147.00
Marina Dockage at South Side Marina @$75 per night + tax $160.50
Marina Electricity @ South Side Marina 77 hrs @ .84 cents gallon + tax $69.21
Marina fee Water @ South Side Marina @ .15 cents gallon + tax $23.59
Marina Ocean World Marina $356.63
Marina Ocean World Marina $245.00
TOTAL MARINA $854.93
Pharmacy $18.00
TOTAL PHARMACY $18.00
Transportation Car $99.95
Transportation Taxi $20.00
Transportation Taxi $20.00
Transportation Taxi turks $20.00
TOTAL TRANSPORTATION $159.95
March TOTAL  $3,175.38


Check out our latest episode below to see what the crew's been up to.