Hey Somedayers,
We’re in Elizabeth City, North Carolina as of noon on the 18th of Sept. The weather has been great as far as warmth and sun shine but sometimes a little breezy for some of the crew. Yesterday and this morning we were in the Dismal Swamp, ( south of Norfolk Virginia and at the North Carolina state line) jammed a submerged log between the rudder and the prop late yesterday witch stalled the engine. God I hate that; you know when all of a sudden everything that you thought you knew goes thru your mind and ends up with NOW WHAT!. Well… after a few minutes and Lord I need your help we got the log loose and were on our way, Spent the night at South Mill, North Carolina tied up at the bridge, where I’ve spent a few nights before with BananaWinds and some great friends. This morning we left at 0900 hrs. thru the lock at 0915 and commenced to get another submerged log tangled in the rudder, this time losing all steerage. Dammmm! You’re killing me here. This time, we did throw Sharon over, and in a few minutes she gotter lose, good job Sharon. You know it sounded good. Anyway here we are in Elizabeth City, hanging out wondering what you’re all doing , excuse me ,what yall are doin cause I know it’s Saturday and nobody’s working but me. Hey… this is work, besides I don’t have a real job.
Next couple of days look to be on the lite air side 5 to 10 just what Sharon ordered, good for motor sailing and taking it easy. The boat has been great and is very easy to handle but because of the center cockpit it seems to have a lot of freeboard and collects a lot of windage, pushing the boat sideways, frontways, backways, and allways. Hey Boss… I needs a bow thruster here!!
Don’t forget www.koinonia27.com for more of that in depth reporting.
Until We get internet again.
AND
As always, you know who loves ya.
Sail Naked

Hey Somedayers,
We arrived in Annapolis, Md. after an eight hour motor sail in the fog and rain and on my part, with joy and some sadness. Realizing that a little less then of a year ago I arrived here on the Banana Winds for the second time. Chasing a dream , do we really ever catch that dream or do we just fail to realize it. Some people make a lot of money selling that dream , but for me I guess it’s been the freedom . Yesterday also brought me in touch with Jim Southward, who was my first mate on the BananaWinds last trip and also for the sailing season that year. Jim is no longer a first mate but a Captain in Annapolis, Md. It’s always a pleasure to be with Jim, as anybody who has meet him will tell you. My hope is that his dreams will come true, as mine have. Well done, Jim Southward.
Anyway , today we get some supplies (food) gotta have food and (drink) gotta have drink for the journey to continue. Minor fixes for the boat and we be out of here.
As always, You know who loves Ya.
Sail Naked

Day 367 9/12/2010 2200hrs
38⁰58’22” N – 076⁰29’28” W
Well somedayers, Former first mate Jim here. I’m back to do another ship’s blog entry from Annapolis. Capt. Greg is here with our good friends Neil and Sharon from Punta Gorda. He’s helping them take their boat down to Florida. As many of you know, I am now living and working on the water here in Annapolis Harbor, and I’m so excited to be able to act as host for the gang while they’re here for a couple of days. I believe in fate, and fate has played a role in the timing of their arrival here. I work almost every day this time of year, and Greg, Neil and Sharon have sailed into the harbor the day before one of my two days off this month.
Tonight we met for dinner after I got off work and had a great time at The Boatyard Bar and Grill in Eastport. Tomorrow we’re going to meet again for breakfast at Chick and Ruth’s Dinner in down town Annapolis, after which I’m taking them on a harbor cruise on the Harbor Queen. Then it’s provisioning and catching up and just enjoying life on the hook in the harbor, and what a life it is.
Somedayers, I have to tell you that I loved seeing the gang again, catching up with Capt. Greg is awesome. I owe him a lot, I don’t think I would be doing what I’m doing and loving it as much as I am, if it were not for the opportunity he provided me with last year. I am truly grateful, and I am so happy, that I can reciprocate this little bit by showing him and his new shipmates a good time while they’re here.
And lastly Somedayers, I’m sorry to say, the ranks of your membership has dwindled a bit. Admiral Sharon and Captain Neil are no longer among the ranks of the rest of you… As of this summer, they find themselves as “Todayers”, and we are happy to have them with us. And don’t feel bad Somedayers, for it is the nature of your condition that all of you will someday be with us, out here, in the sun. We can’t wait for y’all to join us, and until then keep dreaming.

From all of us in Annapolis, we bid you fair winds and calm seas…
Banana Winds standing by on ONE SIX… clear.
P.S. let’s all keep Neil, Sharon and Greg in our prayers and wish them a successful voyage the rest of the way to the Gulf Coast.

Hey Somedayers,
Here we are again, arrived in Atlantic City Wed. 8:30 and was welcomed aboard the Koinonia by the owners Neil and Sharon Hunt. Departed Thursday 8:30am with 15 to 20 knots WNW gusting to 30+ 3-5 FT SEAS. Anyway a great time was had by all, well… maybe not by all, maybe just me. Arrived Cape May, N.J. 3:30pm. We thought we might leave Fri. am. But decided that running against 20knts and opposite tide, makes for a long day. So we are staying in Cape May for one more day. I know what you’re thinking, how hard can it be but this is hard stuff. Being in the sun all the time and getting sun burned watching the world go by and not knowing what day it is, Dammm I’m not sure how much of this I can take but it makes my heart sing. See how happy Neil is and if you listen close you can hear his heart sing . I think that was his heart , anyway we spent the day exploring Cape May and it’s bike week in town what a crazy place to be. Heading for Chesapeake City on the C and D canal. I’ll make sure I include more pictures next posting. Where’s Jimmy when I need him, Oh that’s right He’s hanging out on boats to.
Remember who loves ya .
Sail Naked

Hey Somedayers!

 Well I guess by now, most of you know that in Port Clinton, Oh.  we have pulled the Tropical Attitude for the summer. We’re getting ready for the winter a little early, I will admit, but we are assisting some friends with their boat from Atlantic City, N.J. to Punta Gorda, Fl. I will be keeping all of you great people who still have jobs enlightened on the stress levels of  hanging  around on boats. We did have a great summer this year!  I want to thank all of you who sailed with us this last summer. A lot of you have been with me before and for some of you, it was your first time. My hope is that you enjoyed it as much as I always do. I have never met a person who said I wish the trip was shorter but they have said, I wish the trip was longer.  I’ll be flying out Wed. morning 6:45am. My first mate, Jimmy Southward, would say “at the ass crack of dawn”.  Anyway, this should be another great trip south to Florida. I’ll be posting some picture on the ships log and sending it to all that I have emails address for. Neal and Sharon also have a website that they will be posting to, so you can get two great looks at what we are doing. How KEWL! Is that www.koinonia27.com  So… until our next meeting stay well, SAIL NAKED and God Bless.

Capt Greg Smith

Helper on the Koinonia27

Well.. Here we are again, ready for another great summer. This year, as everbody all ready knows we are sailing a 46-ft Hunter called Tropical Attitude. The only thing missin is Jimmy Southward, the First Mate . Sure do miss that fellow, but never the less we will be sailing this  summer and getting ready for this years trip south.  If your not doin anything this summer and you’re close to Port Clinton, stop  in and say Hi  I’ll give you a tour.  May flies, we’ve had our share this year but hopefully there allmost gone. The fisherman tell me that the fishin has been slow but they have been bigger. Two weeks ago one of the boats came in with ther limit  of Walleye,  the smallest being 20″. That’s the latest in the news from BananaWinds sailing charters Clear and Standing  by.

Attention all “Somedayers”!!!!! We will be back and better than ever!!!! I know many of you were concerned at the news that the Banana Winds was sold. But fear not “Somedayers” your chance to be a “Todayer” is still in tact. Yes, Capt Greg did sell the Banana Winds, but we still have access to her in Florida for any of you who would like to sail the beautiful waters of  the gulf coast. You can call Capt. Greg directly on his cell phone at (419) 466-3699 for more details and to book a trip.

And for those of you that dreamed of sailing the summer in the greatest of The Great Lakes, and the Caribbean of the north, Port Clinton, Ohio. Worry not my friends for we will be at our old berth behind America’s Best Value Inn just like last summer… only better!!! That’s right “Somedayers” not only will we be back, but we’ve expanded our fleet to two boats. We will be sailing a Catalina 32, and a Hunter 46. I am adding a few pics of each for you to see. The first three pics are of the 32, and the rest are of the 46.  This change in our sailing fleet will allow us to build a charter for any one’s specific needs. Including bareboat charters on the Catalina 32 and sailing lessons on either of our Lake Erie boats. And “Somedayers”, we have decided, in the interest of accommodating more of you, more often, we are lowering our price for our two hour sail. A two hour sail will be only $35.00 per person and we’ve lowered our minimum from six people to two. But wait… there’s more!!!!! Sea stories are FREE!!!!!!!

So “Somedayers”, start shopping for some new boat shoes and some Hawaiian shirts, ’cause we’re back and better than ever!!!!!!!

I Bid You Fair Winds & Calm Seas

Banana Winds standing by on 16…. Clear

Last Log Entry

26⁰55’46” N – 082⁰03’54” W

We made it “Somedayers”. We are in Punta Gorda, Florida at Fisherman’s Village. I’m sorry that I haven’t posted a log for a few days; I’ve been kind of dreading this one. This Log entry is the last one that will be written by me as a crew member of the sailing vessel Banana Winds. We have left the boat to her new owner. You read that right “Somedayers”, Capt. Greg sold the Banana Winds. The new owner is a man who is planning to charter her out of Fisherman’s Village. Capt. Greg and I spend the last two days making her ready for her new owner. We took all of his “Stuff” off of her and cleaned her up a bit. Plus we had to do a little more work on her transmission just to make sure that it was ok after our problem the other night. This is the first log that I have written from someplace other than the nav-station in the pilot house on the Miss Banana. I have to admit, it seems a little weird. So, let’s recap what has transpired up to this point. If you remember almost two whole months ago, we were in Port Clinton, Ohio and we were making final plans to depart for Florida. We left on September 10, 2009 with four people on board. We had Capt. Greg and me as the professional crew, and we had Perry Martin and Jim Bryant as novice crew. After crossing Lake Erie in three days Steve Cheimets joined the crew as the only other member beside Capt. Greg who had ever transited the Erie Canal. And then, two thirds of the way through the canal we were joined by our final crew member, Tony Lacko. We started out as strangers and quickly became friends. One of my favorite authors, Richard Bach, said in one of his books, “You’ll know your friends better in the first ten minutes you meet, than you’ll know your acquaintances in a lifetime”. I can tell you that I truly count each and every one of the crew of this trip as one of my friends, and will do so for the rest of my life. And breaking one of my own rules, I’m going to speak for the rest of the crew and say that they feel the same way. So, let’s look back at the journey it’s self, our trip took us through eleven states and 2327 nautical miles. We saw endless wildernesses and thousands of birds, we encountered enough wildlife to rival the greatest zoos in the world and were visited by dolphins on a daily basis once we made it past Virginia (I for one have loved the dolphins). We have met fellow boaters from all over the world. Some of them have had lavish vessels that I can’t even estimate the value of, and we met some (like Mikey) who sailed modest little vessels that many would see as derelicts. But all of us are basically the same; we’re all Travelers, Gypsies, Pirates and dreamers. And yes “Somedayers”, this trip is over, but as long as any one of us, Capt. Greg, Cookie, LT, Gaffman or me Jimmy, are still walking on this beautiful earth our journey will go on. For we each carry a part of each other with us as we go on. So don’t feel sad for us as new “Somedayers” ourselves, because we have never felt sad for you. With every ending, comes a new beginning. I for one can’t wait to see what happens next. So “Somedayers”, this is Banana Winds wishing you fair winds and calm seas and signing off… Clear.

One last thing “Somedayers”:

I can’t tell you all how much it has pleased me to know how many of you have enjoyed reading my logs. I volunteered to be the log author for the trip, mainly because I was planning on keeping a log myself and also because I just enjoy writing. Many of you as “Somedayers” have sent replies and I have read them all and I want you to know that your praise has made it easy for me to continue. I have decided that I want to have a hard copy of the entire thing that I will be having spiraled bound and edited and published at a print shop. All the daily logs will be included as well as every photo in full page and full color renderings. I’m also going to write a special introduction and a prolog. The crew has told me that they all want to have a copy as well. They made the suggestion that some of you “Somedayers” might want a copy. If that is the case I would be flattered and honored to make that possible. If you want one please send me a note to my personal E-Mail capt.jim.southward@gmail.com and I will be happy to let you know how to get one from me. Having not yet put one together I’m not sure what my cost will be, (I’m thinking less than $30, but I don’t know) but I will only be charging you what my costs are. I worked only for tips on the way down, and if you choose to include a tip for my time and efforts I can promise you one thing, I will squander it on my future sailing adventures. Or if you wish I will post it to my favorite charity… “BUY JIMMY A BOAT OF HIS OWN” which as of now it is still a not for profit organization. For me I can tell you that writing this log over the past 59 days has been a reward of its own. Thank you all so much for reading it.

Captain Jim Southward

First Mate Banana Winds Sailing Charters

25⁰58’26” N – 081⁰43’34” W

What a day, “Somedayers”. Today we went all the way from Marco Island, Florida to Ft. Lauderdale and back in about 4 hours. If you’ve been paying attention to our position along the way, you know that the first time we came from Ft. Lauderdale to Marco Island, it took us four days. How did we do it so fast this time? We drove, in a car. Apparently traveling by car is way faster. Who knew? But, then again sailors all believe in their hearts, that how you get somewhere is far more important than how fast you get there. So, you’re probably wondering why we drove a car across the state of Florida and back today. It’s simple “Somedayers”, we needed a part, and the closest one was on the other side of the state. You see last night at about 2345hrs, as we were making our way into the channel at Marco Island. When I, while at the helm, noticed that we were losing speed and the engine was acting strange. Capt. Greg went into the engine compartment to investigate and found that we had a serious problem. What he found was that our transmission oil cooler (or heat exchanger) had perished, which had caused the transmission to fill with sea water. That, for those of you who may not know, is wicked bad. We shut down the engine and investigated further to find that the transmission was ok, we just needed to perform some TLC fast. We got things under control and got into an anchorage for the night. Today we found a heat exchanger on the internet from a company in Ft. Lauderdale, hence our road trip. It was strange moving so fast after spending over fifty days never going faster that ten MPH. It felt like we were going supersonic. With the ground going by so close underneath us I kept telling Capt. Greg, “I think we need to find deeper water”. I pretty sure we were aground most of the time, but I guess that’s ok in a car. We got our part, returned to the boat and installed it. All is well once again “Somedayers”. It can be very easy to let these sorts of things ruin a trip; you just have to remember that it’s the problems that make a trip memorable. If we wanted to just relax and have everything work perfectly, we shouldn’t have left on this journey to begin with. Bob Bitchin, who started the magazine “Latitudes and Attitudes” was the one who coined the cruiser’s motto “Attitude is the Difference Between an Ordeal and Adventure”, never were truer words spoken, Thanks Bob. If any of you ever choose to join us on a trip like this, or under take one on your own, please remember those words. Because, the only thing that I can guaranty you is that at some point on your trip, something is going to go very wrong. And when it does, it’s going to suck. At that point you will have to make a decision; you can give up and quit, or do what a good friend of mine told me once. He said, “When things begin to really suck, you just have to embrace the suck and move on”. It’s that attitude that turns an ordeal into an adventure, and in the process makes the memories that you will never forget. It’s like when you go to the fair, some people like the carousel. The carousel goes around and around, it’s safe, it’s pretty, and everyone is smiling. While some people go ride the roller coaster. It is has ups and downs, it goes very slow and then too fast, it makes your stomach turn summersaults, it can be quite scary, even violent and sometimes, while you’re racing for the ground or turning upside down, you feel like you might not be ok. There is nothing wrong with liking the carousel… it’s just that I’d rather ride a roller coaster. And if you do too, you’ll know that as soon as I get off of one, I go get back in line for a second run. Take care of yourselves “Somedayers”, and keep riding the rides you like. This is Banana Winds, going back to get in line again, and standing by on 16… Clear.

25⁰29’47” N – 081⁰31’05” W

We made our turn to the north today, towards Fort Myers, “Somedayers”. We started out before the sun came up, and were treated to a magnificent sunrise. We had been planning to go down to Key West today, but the weather is predicted to get lousy and we didn’t want to get stuck down there. I know what you’re thinking “Somedayers”. If you have to get stuck somewhere, Key West is the place, right? Well, we agree with you to a degree, but we are on a time constraint. So, we cut through the Keys at Marathon, we went right under highway 1 and the Florida Keys causeway, and headed into the Gulf of Mexico.  It was kind of creepy though, there was no wind at all and the sea was dead calm, I mean DEAD CALM!!! There was barely a ripple for about three hours. I took a lot of pictures so you can see what I mean. It was so calm… (HOW CALM WAS IT?) It was so calm that we had a hard time even seeing where the horizon was. The sea and the sky blended into one color. It was quite a sight. The wind did eventually pick up a bit when some clouds formed on the horizon. They say that every cloud has a silver lining. We must be doing something right “Somedayers” because, as you will see in today’s pics, our clouds have gold linings. Our final destination draws closer by the minute, and until we get there, we’re still Banana Winds standing by on 16… Clear.

Update 11/03/2009 1958hrs

25⁰35’27” N – 081⁰35’25” W

We must be really close to our destination, because… WE JUST RAN OUT OF FUEL!!!!!!!!!  In our port tank. So we switched over to our starboard tank, which is full, and re-primed the injector pump and restarted the motor. It really gets your attention when the engine just stops in the middle of the ocean and the Captain lets loose with a string of profanity that could melt the ears off a nun. But, all is well… now. Banana Winds standing, by with paddles at the ready, on 16… Clear.