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 Cruisers Net 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: /156986.

Randy Mims

soul of a true sailor and, as you will read in the log below, he is the very essence of the DYI! 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 and play 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, NC. See previous installment: /157772.

Dear Friends,
Let me begin by apologizing to everyone that does not follow me on Facebook or Youtube for not sending a text update when I arrived back in Apalachicola. I posted a video about the nice sail from St. Pete to Apalach but forgot to tell everyone that I had made it. OOPS! Since I arrived, I have been playing a lot of music. In addition to practicing four instruments for half an hour each almost every day, I have played at the Apalachicola Farmer’s Market and various Open Mics. Of course I have resumed doing a Prelude for the church service every other Sunday and play flute along with the organ on the Processional and Recessional. I hope everyone had a great summer. It seems strange that just when you get the faintest hint that fall is actually going to get here that Hurricane season get’s the most active. Back is 2002 I went across the creek from the dock at low tide and cut a hole in the marsh grass. On what I remember as probably the hottest day there ever was, I dug a three foot deep hole that measured three feet by two feet. Out each end of this hole I dug a trench two feet deep that was about a foot wide and eight feet long. Into this trench a went a “landscape timber”. Around this timber I fastened a length of five-eights inch chain. Into the big hole (which of course was beginning to fill with the tide coming back in) I mixed eight ninety pound bags of concrete mix. This produced about a six hundred pound anchor with which to hold the boat out in the creek and off the dock when the storm surge actually gets higher than the dock. When I got back this time I noticed that the buoy that marked the end of the chain was missing. Investigating I found that over the years the massive chain had melted into something that wouldn’t hold a rowboat in place. It took weeks for there to be a low tide that wasn’t in the middle of the night. Thankfully last week the tide was right at about seven thirty one evening. With shovel and post hole digger and a piece of 3/4 inch nylon anchor line that I had prepared with a loop spliced in one end and a thimble spliced into the other I paddled across the creek not looking forward to what I had to do. Actually I had my doubts if it would even be possible. But with a positive attitude and only about an hour and a half till dark, I dug a hole on the side of the block away from the creek and a smaller hole down beside the block on the creek side and lying face down in the mud I began trying to push a drain cleaning snake through the mud under the anchor from one hole to the other. I lost track of how many tries it took but with the light failing I hit the other hole. Hallaluja!! I had my anchor back. This proved to be a very good thing. Depression Nine about which the weather service didn’t seem to have a clue did indeed become a hurricane though thankfully not a powerful one and came right to Apalachicola. I spent last night with IDEATH tied to the dock and fore and aft to the anchor across the creek and with an anchor down the creek. Every hour (until the barometer started going back up) and then every two hours I went out into the thirty to fifty mile an hour wind and the DRIVING rain and checked and adjusted lines and was thankful that the storm wasn’t worse. I love living on the boat. It is not always Fun and Relaxing, but NOTHING is more beautiful than the sunrise after a storm. The air is completely clean and the world is peaceful and new.
Peace and Love to you All,
Randy