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. See previous installment: /156499.

Dear Friends,
Well, it has been nine days since saying goodby to my North Carolina friends and the gang at Duck Creek Boatyard. Today finds me in Charleston, SC. I had been hoping that I would be sailing from Beaufort Inlet to here but the wind seems to be nailed to the southwest which is of course exactly the direction that I have been traveling down the waterway for the last week. Two nights ago I was anchored in Bull Creek where I made one of my Youtube videos. This time it was far less tranquil than it was on the night of the video. Within half an hour of anchoring there was a thunder storm raging. During a storm I instinctively find myself counting “Thousand one, thousand two…” after the flash of lightning to figure out how far away the strike was. Twice the snap and the boom happened at exactly the same time or at least so close together that you can’t keep the adrenaline from dumping into your stomach and your heart from pounding. Anchored there brought me to reflect on so much that has happened to me since I was last there. From sailing and having fun on the sounds and rivers of coastal North Caroling to the untold hours of hard but rewarding work getting “Ideath” into better than just launched condition, life has been a fun but challenging whorl of activity. Many of my friends have commented on my love of travel. Of course everything can be taken too the extreme. After getting the boat back in the water the plan was to take the the van back to Apalachicola, ride the bus back and begin the trip back to Florida and close the loop on the year long voyage. Leaving New Bern I drove to Greensboro for one last visit with Dad and family. I then drove to Apalachicola. It turned out to be the “last visit” as my Dad passed away at the age of 92. So I spent a day in a car at 70 miles an hour to get back for the funeral then turned around and made a hurried trip back to Florida. Arriving there I met up with old friends and helped them drive their trawler across the Gulf of Mexico to Clearwater. That night I was on a 17 hour bus marathon back to NC and “Ideath”. In less that a week and a half I had traveled twenty seven hundred and sixty miles. In the past nine days I have covered two hundred seventy-four. I am so glad to be going four knots again. It is certainly a better speed to live my life. I hope your lives are going at the right speed and you are all well.
Love and Peace to you all,
Randy