You only have to spend a short time talking with Randy Mims to know that he has the soul of a true sailor. Randy not only built his 27ft gaff-rigged cutter, Ideath, but each year he single-hands the cutter from North Carolina to the Northern Gulf Coast and back again. “Ideath” is pronounced Idea-th and loosely translates as “house of ideas”. Randy stops along the way to visit maritime museums and, indulging his passion for music, he volunteers to sing in church choirs along the way. He also takes time to share his travels with his friends and has agreed to allow SSECN to post his emails. For more photos and more on Randy, go to http://towndock.net/shippingnews/ideath?pg=1 from TownDock.net in Oriental.

Randy Mims

August 29, 2015
Dear Friends,
Well, for the first time since leaving, I am north of where I started in Apalachicola. Today finds me in Fernandina Beach. (Still in Florida, but just barely) It has been an amazing ride up here from where I came out of the Okeechobee at St Lucie. I listened to the weather forecast for the coast north and the wind prediction was for light and variable wind. Of course it built a little each afternoon but would die after the thunderstorm. I decided to take the Intracoastal Waterway route. The prospect of getting caught out in the ocean this time of hurricane season did not have a lot of appeal. The remnants of Danny were still lingering. In a previous update several voyages ago I explained how while going down the waterway, sometimes the current was against you and sometimes it pushes you along. I am happy to say that the decision to come in the waterway was a fantastically good one. By the luck of the tide, I have been averaging forty to fifty miles a day running the engine two hundred RPMs less than my normal cruising speed. Only twice have I had to contend with a bad current. This translates into going three knots instead of five or six. Several times I magically arrived at major inlets like St Augustine and Ponce-de-Leon just as the tide turned. I had the out going tide sucking me in and the incoming tide pushing me on. The only real trials of the trip have been my wrenched knee and some very fierce thunderstorms. One night I was trying to make it to Daytona. The closer I got to my anchorage the blacker the sky got. I have to admit that the lightning show was most impressive. It seemed to take forever for the red mark where I could turn into the anchorage to arrive. I have to say I am hugely grateful that the blast of wind and torrent of rain waited until five minutes after the anchor was down instead of before. I have stopped and come ashore here because the forecast was that Tropical Storm Ericka as suppose to come here. Some of you will remember that it was here that I sat out Tropical Storm Berol that missed being a hurricane by one mile an hour. Looks like I dodged the bullet as the track when I woke up this morning is that she is going to Apalachicola. Everyone there said I should stay because of the storms. So far my luck is holding and I am having a great time! I hope you all are and that it is starting to cool off where you are a little bit. I’ve posted a couple more videos on youtube and Facebook. Please check them out.
Peace and Love to all of you,
Randy

The Gaff Cutter Ideath

September 9, 2015
Dear Friends,
This update finds me anchored in Taylor Creek in Beaufort (pronounced BOWFORT)North Carolina. Although I have been in North Carolina for the last two days, I consider this the firs t destination in the “Voyage to NC”. This is the first place I have come to in NC that I have friends to visit, people to play music with and a church that when I walk into the choir room people will say “Hey you’re back you’re back!” For those of you interested in statistics, since leaving Apalachicola 32 days ago I have traveled 1092 nautical miles. I had planned to do a lot more sailing but apparently the dog days of summer are not the best from a wind standpoint. Mostly there just wasn’t very much and what there was seemed to always be coming from exactly where I wanted to go. I was trying to remember today as I traveled along where I put my feet on the ground. There was St. Pete where I have so many wonderful friends. The next place was LaBelle, Fl. on the Okeechobee waterway where I bought Ice to try and get the swelling down in my knee and then St Lucie to buy fuel. My next real stop was Fernandina where the last update came from. Since then I have set foot on a fuel dock in Georgetown, SC and one in Carolina Beach,NC. So from Apalachicola to Beaufort I touched the ground six times. I am sure that now that it is getting into September I will have some great sailing days ahead. I am posting a new video on youtube called “One True Reason” I will also share it on Facebook but I don’t really DO Facebook. I hope you enjoy it and share it around. Thank you so much for following along on this journey. Like they say, “sailboat cruising is ninety percent boredom and ten percent sheer terror.” I’ll be sending the next update when that comes along. In the mean time please pray that all the Hurricanes fizzle like the other ones. Fernandina could have turned out VERY differently. I hope you are all going to enjoy the fall. Now I have to go and watch another marvelous sunset!
Peace and Love to you All,
Randy