Flicka 'round the world' trip planned

[AdriftAtSea]

Is heather ready??? Has she gotten everything she needed to finish on Flight done? 

Thank you very much, JD, and I hope you also had a blessed Christmas, as our whole family did here at the Neill house.  Unfortunately, Lieutenant Christa Neill Almonte, Heather's baby daughter, who is Operations Officer on the USS Lake Erie, couldn't make it for Christmas AND the embarkation.  So she skipped Christmas, and will be here to see Heather off.  In fact, she'll be sleeping on Heather's boat, FLIGHT OF YEARS, the night before Heather leaves.  And I'll be in the Marina Motel.

CAN YOU IMAGINE ELECTRICITY BUZZING AROUND THIS FAMILY THESE LAST FEW DAYS BEFORE HEATHER DISAPPEARS OVER THE HORIZON?  Something between terror and ecstasy perhaps?

I'm already giving Heather weather forecasts at least once each day now.

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL YOU GUYS!

Gene

[FLIGHT]

WHOA GUYS!

FORGET THE TEFZEL CABLE TIES - AT LEAST THOSE FROM ELECTRICAL TERMINAL SERVICE, INC!!!!!!

I ordered one "bundle", and as I mentioned, the lady said that would be $67.  And yeah, I thought that was a little expensive, but not out of sight.  So I ordered them and they arrived.

Now they have sent me a bill, showing that they charged Heather's credit card for the ties.  But, instead of $67 dollars, they charged her.......

SIX HUNDRED AND SEVENTY THREE DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They multiplied my order BY ONE HUNDRED.  Said I got TEN THOUSAND TIES!

I told the &^%$# lady they were going to go on a twenty foot sailboat.

CAN YOU IMAGINE A 20' SAILBOAT WITH TEN THOUSAND CABLE TIES HANGING OFF OF IT?

THIS WILL BE RESOLVED, OR WE WON'T PAY THEM ANYTHING, BUT DON'T DEAL WITH THESE PEOPLE!

Gene

[FLIGHT]

Hey, LOST LAKE, tell those naysayers of yours - the ones who say you can't take your boat to the Bahamas - to look at Heather's web site at ht+p://www.solo-sailor.c0m/Captain_Heather.htm.

There are several pictures there of Heather, her little brother, my wife and me, cruising the Bahamas FOR OVER A YEAR in an 18 1/2' Alacrity sailboat with no engine!

AND WE HAD A MARVELOUS TIME - from one end of the Bahamas to the other end and back - we covered it all!  Could not have been more fun in a 50 footer!

SIZE OF A BOAT IS NOT A FUNCTION OF SEAWORTHINESS AT ALL.  BUT IT IS TRUE THAT A LARGER BOAT CAN BE MUCH MORE DIFFICULT TO HANDLE SAFELY.  HEATHER COULD HAVE BOUGHT A USED 50' BOAT IF SHE HAD WANTED IT, BUT SHE AND I BOTH KNEW SHE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO HANDLE THE CANVAS IN A VIOLENT STORM CONDITION.  SHE CAN HANDLE THE FLICKA.

And no, ADRIFT AT SEA, Heather has not completed everything she must do before departure.  She's down working on the boat right this minute, shifting weight from starboard to port, to level up her waterline, and she still has a lot of last minute little details to take care of.  But, like Larry Pardy says, "You're never ready to go on a long voyage; you just have to finally leave anyway."

That's sort of why we picked January 1, 2008 at 10:32 am for her embarkation date and time.  We knew she wouldn't be ready, so we just set a date for her to "leave anyway".  But nothing major will be hanging when she leaves; only little details.

Thanks for your kind words,

Gene

[AdriftAtSea]

I see you'll have some extra tefzel cable ties left over...

[FLIGHT]

 >:(It's a funny thing, ADRIFT AT SEA . . . .

In my 76 years, I've probably had a couple hundred folks make mistakes in counting out my change or in charging me for purchases and such.  Just like these cable ties.

BUT NOT ONE OF THOSE WAS EVER A MISTAKE IN MY FAVOR.

HOW COME ALL THOSE "MISTAKES" MAKE MONEY FOR THE DUDE WHO MAKES THE MISTAKE, AND NEVER THE OTHER GUY?

Gene

[FLIGHT]

WOW, WOW, WOW!  IT'S GETTING WORSE AND WORSE!

The manager at the Tefzel cable tie place just now told me on the phone that his bill was correct.  That the small package of cable ties sells for $673!!!!!!!!!

HE SAYS THE CABLE TIES ARE $6.73 EACH!

He VERY RELUCTANTLY agreed to only charge me the $67 plus freight, but he acted like he was REALLY DOING ME A BIG FAVOR!

REMEMBER - DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH ELECTRICAL TERMINAL SERVICE, INC!

Gene

[Frank]

It appears that "PROFIT" truely is not a 4 letter word for those people 

[Lost Lake]

WHOA GUYS!

FORGET THE TEFZEL CABLE TIES - AT LEAST THOSE FROM ELECTRICAL TERMINAL SERVICE, INC!!!!!!

I ordered one "bundle", and as I mentioned, the lady said that would be $67.  And yeah, I thought that was a little expensive, but not out of sight.  So I ordered them and they arrived.

Now they have sent me a bill, showing that they charged Heather's credit card for the ties.  But, instead of $67 dollars, they charged her.......

SIX HUNDRED AND SEVENTY THREE DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They multiplied my order BY ONE HUNDRED.  Said I got TEN THOUSAND TIES!

I told the &^%$# lady they were going to go on a twenty foot sailboat.

CAN YOU IMAGINE A 20' SAILBOAT WITH TEN THOUSAND CABLE TIES HANGING OFF OF IT?

THIS WILL BE RESOLVED, OR WE WON'T PAY THEM ANYTHING, BUT DON'T DEAL WITH THESE PEOPLE!

Gene

Actually Gene, you're making out like a bandit here!  Your order was multiplied by 100, but your bill was multiplied by 10!

So  if 20 of us pay you half price for a hundreth  share, you will have your money back, we will all get a great deal, and you with have 9 thousand ties left yet.

And you're complaining?

I've had deals go wrong in my favor several times; usually I get change back for a $20 when I only paid $10, and I always give it back, even if I have to drive back to the store or wherever... It's all in keeping the good karma flowing.

But one time I returned a phone because I found it $10 cheaper and the retailer then offered me 110% of the difference, or $11. That was great. I paid $200 for the phone, and the competition had it for $190.

Now follow this, when they tried to bring up the SKU number  they thought the phone should have been $50. An obvious computer error, but they began to argue that I should get back 110% of $150... or $165.

No, I showed them the phone, the ad in the flyer, the price on the shelf. They argued. I argued. I called a manager over. We all argued. Finally I was about to walk out and not get any refund when the manager yelled, "You'll take this discount because we're very busy and this is taking up too much of our time!"

"FINE!" I shot back. "Give me my money back! See if I care!" And I actually stormed out mad that I couldn't show these people they were making a mistake giving me all that money.

So I got my $200 phone for $35 and have shopped there ever since. They always have great deals, I don't know how they stay in business. It's a big box store, STAPLES.

Well this is all off topic now.

Can you post pictures for those of us who cannot be at the embarkment?

[Lost Lake]

WOW, WOW, WOW!  IT'S GETTING WORSE AND WORSE!

The manager at the Tefzel cable tie place just now told me on the phone that his bill was correct.  That the small package of cable ties sells for $673!!!!!!!!!

HE SAYS THE CABLE TIES ARE $6.73 EACH!

He VERY RELUCTANTLY agreed to only charge me the $67 plus freight, but he acted like he was REALLY DOING ME A BIG FAVOR!

REMEMBER - DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH ELECTRICAL TERMINAL SERVICE, INC!

Gene

Uggghhh.. On that news, please cancel my half price order....

[AdriftAtSea]

Ouch...  these wouldn't happen to be military spec cable ties, would they??

WOW, WOW, WOW!  IT'S GETTING WORSE AND WORSE!

The manager at the Tefzel cable tie place just now told me on the phone that his bill was correct.  That the small package of cable ties sells for $673!!!!!!!!!

HE SAYS THE CABLE TIES ARE $6.73 EACH!

He VERY RELUCTANTLY agreed to only charge me the $67 plus freight, but he acted like he was REALLY DOING ME A BIG FAVOR!

REMEMBER - DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH ELECTRICAL TERMINAL SERVICE, INC!

Gene

[FLIGHT]

MAN, DO NOT EVER DECIDE TO SAIL AROUND THE WORLD NOR AGREE TO HELP A LOVED ONE PREPARE HER BOAT FOR A SOLO CIRCUMNAVIGATION!

Here we are - FIVE DAYS LEFT - and Hamilton Ferris, the guy who sold us the Air-X Wind Turbine calls Heather, and says, "I just happend to click on your site, and there's no way your new batteries (they're only a month old!) will work with my Air-X.  You'll have to buy two other new very special batteries and an additional regulator - or you won't have any electricity!

So now we've got two some-kind-of-special batteries and a some-kind-of-special-additional regulator coming NEXT DAY AIR!  But I'm not in good enough shape to do the work, and Heather's mechanic friend can't do it 'til MONDAY - THE DAY BEFORE DEPARTURE!

If there were any cliffs in Florida, I'd go jump off a cliff!

[AdriftAtSea]

The two P24 batteries you had originally only gave Heather 75 amp-hours of usable electrical storage, since they were 75 amp-hours each.  Given that she's going to be running a CARD unit, nav lights, radio, etc... that seems awfully low.  What size/type batteries did Hamilton Ferris tell you to install???

[Lost Lake]

Oh wow Gene, that's terrible news!  Didn't the AirX list acceptable batteries?

And to air freight batteries must cost a fortune!   You could probably buy a dozen ties with that kind of shipping cost!

Look at the bright side, you found out in time to change them out, and you don't have to pay a chopper to fly them out to Heather in the middle of the sea...

[CharlieJ]

This is very interesting, since the AirX sites (ALL of them) claim that it will charge any battery bank from 25 to 25,000 amp hours.  Nuttin nowhere about special batteries.

[Pappy Jack]

Hi Dr. Gene,

Best wishes to your daughter and her family. I first read about her voyage sometime ago and at that time she was going to do it with a Nor-Sea 27. I was just wondering why she changed to a Flicka Both are excellent boats and I have confidence her ability and her Flicka, although it would be too small for my fat...head Well, give a hug from all of us at sailFar!!!

Fair winds,

Pappy Jack

[Frank]

Heather Neill and her Flicka s/y FLIGHT
of YEARS. The weather isn't cooperating for her departure from
Steinhatchee, Florida on January 1st She may have to wait for the
storm to blow through. Given the shallow nature of the northeastern
corner of the Gulf of Mexico, this sounds prudent...

To those of you kind folk who are coming to see me off…I have a bit
of unhappy news. The weather forecast for New Year's Day is:

Small Craft Warning
Winds 12-24 knots
Seas: 3' every 4 seconds (15/minute)

That wouldn't stop me from leaving Steinhatchee, Florida since I
could sail out under a single or double reefed main and working jib.
No Problem.

The next day, January 2, 2008, is the problem. The weather forecast
calls for:

Hazardous Conditions—use Extreme Caution
Winds 22 — 29 Knots
Seas: 14' every 8 seconds (7.5/minute)

Since I would have to heave-to or lie to my sea anchor all day
January 2nd and I would not have been able to get far enough from
land on January 1st, I would still be in the shallow waters of the
northeastern Gulf of Mexico with many hazards, there may be a delay
in my departure from Florida.

Watch for future updates...

(copied from Flicka site)

[AdriftAtSea]

I can see how the weather on the 2nd is the big problem...14' seas every eight seconds... not much fun—especially in a 20' boat.

[Lost Lake]

I don't see this information on Heather's site yet, solo-sailor.com. Too bad for her, she's itching to go!!

[Frank]

This was posted a few hours later on the Flicka site..."UPDATE: Heather Neill & s/y FLIGHT of YEARS


HEATHER WILL BE EMBARKING AT 10:32 AM NEW YEAR'S MORNING!

Thank you very much!

Gene & Heather"...

[FLIGHT]

My dear sailor pals -

Several things:

1.  YES, ABSOLUTELY, HEATHER WILL BE EMBARKING STEINHATCHEE NEW YEAR'S MORNING AT 10:32AM - COME THE PROVERBIAL heck OR HIGH WATER.  She says, "I'm gonna' have to get used to bad weather, and this is as good a time as any."  And she won't even TALK about delaying the departure.  So - if you were going to attend - COME ON!

2.  AdriftAtSea - yes, apparently you're right.  But I HAD talked with someone at Air-X, and he had told me our new batteries would be adequate.  But now the big boss, Hamilton Ferris - and we trust him totally - says no.  And he IS selling us the new batteries at his cost.  Plus an additional regulator.  And he says we must have a "dump" something or other.  Some sort of device which dumps excess electricity coming from the Air-X.

Every heard of that?

 And they only have to come from Orlando - some three hundred miles or so - so the freight won't be out of sight.

3.  And - hee - hee - hee - Lost Lake - no comedian - I can't buy a dozen ties for that cost!

4.  Yeah, CharlieJ - I'm with you!

5.  Pappy Jack - we changed from the Nor-Sea to the Flicka when the owner of Nor-Sea bilked Heather out of $30,000!  Long story.

6.  Don't worry, Lost Lake, she WILL BE GONE at 10:32 the morning of the first!

So all is well here.

And thank each of you so very much again for all your kind words to Heather!

Gene