A Ubiquitous Endeavor

Late Night Decisions, Early Morning Adventures

                       

This trip started as most do for Steve and I. One of us will suggest to do something utterly ridiculous and awesome, and then realize it is actually do-able. On this night, I was driving over to chill with Steve and some guys at about 11:45 pm and thought it would be awesome to make the trek down to Chucktown, as I had work off the next day. Of course, I first dismissed the notion as unreasonable. Then I thought, why the heck not?!

  So when I got to Steve, I told him the plan and he recognized the awesomeness and agreed to go. We talked quickly about what we should bring, then went home and packed. Both of our parents were asleep, so as I write this I do not know whether or not my mother knows where I am. I left a note on the counter, so I hope you aren’t worrying too much Mama! After speedily packing a duffel bag and grabbing the essentials (bathing suit, frisbee, and volleyball), we left Greenville, with a quick pit-stop at Spinx, at 1:05 am. Thus commenced our late night/early morning journey to Charleston.

With some Benjy Davis Project blasting out the speakers, I pulled onto the interstate and started a rapid descent to the lower state South Carolina. Cruise control is so you can consistently go 27 over the speed limit, right? Well that’s how I used it anyway, which probably contributed to arriving at our destination by 3:45 am.

  This is my first time at the Ashley Marina, and it is too sweet. Copious amounts of beautiful boats, the smell of the sea, and the cool breeze on the water; It is just an amazing place and I feel blessed to be living here for the next year. The Ubiquitous is nestled between two huge boats, both of which I would say out-price ours tenfold, so hopefully we’ll become good friends with our neighbors! I’m up early today after a short night’s sleep because I’m just so darn excited to be here, so I’m hanging out in the air conditioned dock-house writing this entry and just basking in the perfection that is sailboat living.

  Well, I must sign off now and go wake up sleeping beauty (aka Steven Gallant) to begin our relaxing day in Charleston! Keep coming back for more updates!

Cap’n Hank.

Ohh Beaufort…

Well, things have been pretty quiet in the boating world over the past month, with Hank and I paying small visits to the Ubiquitous here and there to check on her.  Just recently, however, she has stirred up some big trouble for us in Beaufort, her temporary home.

A couple weeks ago, Rogor and Debbie Light, my dad, and I took the boat from the May River in Hilton Head up to a temporary anchorage right downtown Beaufort.  The trip went really well, and we were really pleased with the engine’s performance (there was not nearly enough wind to really do any sailing).  The only problem was that we had no idea just how “temporary” the anchorage in Beaufort would be!

Today, I got home from running some errands and doing a little work at the office, and found 5 new messages on our answer machine.  The very first one was from the police department in Beaufort.  Now, as soon as he said Beaufort, my heart sank down to my stomach!!! My mind started racing to ridiculous but also very plausible conclusions and speculations such as, “My boat came loose and rammed into a million dollar yacht and I’m going to have to pay for it, probably won’t be able to go to college, be in debt til I’m 50, and never own a boat again….”  Maybe a little much, but I was worried!!  As I cycled through all the messages from the SCDNR officers and the local marina dockmaster I started to piece together the situation.

Apparantly, our sailboat had broken free from its anchor and began to drift down the river! Somehow, by a miracle, she didn’t smash into the very expensive boats only 30 ft away and didn’t drift into shallow water and run-a-ground.  Thankfully a local boater spotted the boat and was kind enough to catch it and tow it into the local marina for safekeeping! So, after nearly having a heart attack I realized every thing was going to be alright! The boat is fine and still floating!

The catch to the story is that this all happened on June 19th, and I didn’t receive any notice of the incident until today, June 28!!  The marina said that the DNR officers had told them that they had attempted to contact us on the day of the incident, but we have received no phone calls, messages, or emails concerning the matter until today, a week and half later!  While I’m thankful the boat is safe and sound, this means I now owe nearly 500 dollars in docking fees at the marina!!!! I am NOT happy about this, but I have been in contact with the dockmaster down there and explained the situation to him and seems confident that the marina will be able to work out a deal with me concerning the price! Fingers crossed!!!

So, the plan as of now is to return to Beaufort this Saturday, the 2nd, with a crew ready to push through the weekend and get the boat to Charleston, its permanent home.  This has been one crazy first month and half of being a boat owner but hopefully we can get it settled and start doing some work on it and make it feel like home!

Until next time,

Cap’n  Steve

The First Night

Early Thursday morning Steve and I woke up, drove down to the boat, and officially bought it. It is now legally ours. In our excitement, we quickly pumped up the dinghy and started rowing out to where the boat was anchored about a quarter mile from the dock; This turned out to be a journey unto itself. We had to row into the wind and against the current. That’s not quite the best conditions for rowing, but it was our only way to get out there. So, after 30 minutes of ferocious paddling (Yes, it took us 30 min to go 400 meters), we arrive at the boat.

We’d been on the boat before, but there was just something different about standing on the boat and knowing it was ours. We were still kind of in awe of it all, it just seemed surreal. So, after taking it all in and reveling in the fact that we own a boat, we surveyed every inch of it to see what was left for us. There were plenty of tools, extra wires, charts, ropes and a bunch of other random and useful things that the last owners left us. There was also an inordinate amount of hot sauce. Not sure what that was about, but the only food left on the boat were a few cans of beans and about 8 bottles of hot sauce. 

After about an hour of being geeking out and being insanely pumped about the boat, we chilled in the cabin and realized we were really hungry and thirsty. It was also at this moment that we realized we had, in our excitement to get on the boat, neglected to bring food or water with us. So we decided to row back to shore and fix that problem. Luckily, the trip back only took us about 5 min because the current was with us this time.

Once we were back on shore, we didn’t want to have to row back again any time soon, so we took a side trip to Hilton Head to swim in the ocean for a bit (after curbing our hunger at Five Guys of course). When we finished hanging out on the beach, we swung by Kroger’s and Home Depot to pick up food and some supplies we needed. 

Getting to the boat was much easier this time because the tides had changed, which was greatly appreciated as we were thoroughly exhausted and the dinghy was filled to the brim with stuff. When we got back on the boat and organized everything, we sat down at the table and had our first supper on the boat (we went fancy and got Subway).  We got to enjoy our meal while the sun was setting over the water, which as you will see in the pictures, was breathtaking. It is hard to beat being on a boat at sunset.

Once the sun was down, we set up shop on the bow and watch the moon rise. It was a very appropriate ending to such and awesome day. Finally, we were too tired to do even this, and so made our way into the cabin and let the sound of the water and the rocking of the boat put us to sleep. 

Leaving in the morning was not very fun, but soon enough we’ll be able to live full time on the Ubiquitous. Steve and his dad will be going down sometime next week, so i’m sure he’ll have some updates for you soon. Until then, check out the new pictures and video!! 

-Hank

Buying The Boat 2.0

Hello all of you interested folk following our blog,

Steve and I shall be waking up bright and early tomorrow morning to make a return trip to our beautiful ship. We’re going down to complete the transaction and officially claim the boat as ours! After getting the formalities out of the way, however, we’ll get to spend the rest of the day doing some cleaning and just straight boat-chillin.

This is going to be the momentous, and euphoric first night on the boat! The moon, the water, the gentle rolling of the boat rocking us to our dreams….should be solid. Not too sure how much sleep will be had though, the excitement of being on OUR sailboat might be a bit too overwhelming. Whatever the case, it is sure to be amazing! 

It’s still pretty crazy to think about how that is going to be our lives for the next few years. Get home from work, hang out on a boat; Wake up in the morning and eat a bowl of cereal, on a boat; Do whatever the heck we want to do, on a boat. You could definitely say we’ll be living the life. Some of it won’t be easy, but it will all be worth it. 

We’ll be sure to take pictures/video of this our first day/night on the Ubiquitous so all of you can experience a little bit of the awesomeness for yourselves. We should be updating this fairly often because a whole lot will be going on in the next few weeks, so keep checking back here! 

-Hank

Steve: Wanna buy a sailboat? Hank: Sure.

On this day, May 15, 2011, Hank Gettys and Steven Gallant bought a boat. A 30 feet long, 11 feet wide mistress of the sea to be exact. Equipped with enough work to keep us occupied for quite some time, with some room to sleep and eat, this boat is going to be an adventure.

 

We found this beauty on craigslist, and then we trekked down to Bluffton with family and sailing experts in tow. With the sellers eager to head off to grad-school, we worked out a deal to take over command of the ship for not-too-steep a price (a necessity given the financial situation of two 19 year olds). 

So now we have a boat, anchored in the May River right outside Hilton Head. We’ll make the trip back down in a few days to make the purchase final, and make the boat ours. We’ll leave her secure down there while we are looking for a place to keep it for the summer in the Charleston area. 

Once we get the boat to it’s summer home in Chucktown, we’ll start to clean it up and get it ship-shape (pun intended, and apologized for). It’ll take some time and elbow grease to get it ready for full-time living aboard, but that’s part of the fun, right?…… 

We’ll be posting pictures, videos and more as we continue on this epic endeavor, so keep coming back for updates and tell us what you think! 

-The Ubiquitous Crew (Hank & Steve)