August 26, 2002 – Our yacht is leaving Lake Lanier, Georgia, and being transported to Browns Marine, in Pensacola, Florida, our starting point, by a huge eighteen-wheeler semi. It is about 5 and a half hours getting it to Pensacola, or six including meals. We will get the boat refitted there and then move it to another marina for shove off. In Pensacola, we’re at the boat a lot, but we have some time to see the sights. September 13, 2002 Here our boat is being refitted in Pensacola, Florida, at Browns Marine. We are getting the bottom painted as well as some engine work done and an electric anchor (windlass). We spend several days here, my dad working from his laptop and me doing my homeschool stuff. – Robert Rountree
Saorsa Launched! October 8, 2002 – Saorsa is finally launched at Browns Marine in Pensacola, Florida. Now time for the final preparations – replacing fuel lines, furler line, steering cable etc, etc. But, re-building toilets on the boat beats conference calls with the client any day. – Bill Rountree
October 22, 2002 - Today we are relaxing ( well, my dad is at least,) at Pensacola Beach, while we are waiting for the parts for the steering cable to come in. It was a great time to come to the beach – we saw at least fifty stingrays surfing in with the waves to feed on the minnows near the shore. It was a lot of fun. – Robert Rountree
October 25, 2002 – We are on our fist cruise around Pensacola Bay. We motored for about 2/3 of the way, but sailed for about an hour or so. We averaged around four knots with winds peaking at around 10 mph. As you can see from the picture at the right, we only have our foward sail up (called the jib). This slows us down alot. It wasn’t perfect weather, but it was still really cool. All we had to do was turn on the autopilot and relax. We saw at least three Navy fighters roaring overhead (F/A-18E ‘Super” Hornets), one of them which had its landing gear down. All of this is beacause Pensacola is where the U.S. Navy pilots train. We also saw some dolphins jumping in the distance, and a couple of barges and fishing boats. It was great! – Robert Rountree
We finally shove off! Pensacola-Destin: 10-31-0254.5 nm logged in 11:30 hours. 10/31/02- 3-5 ft. seas, winds 15-20 knots NNE and gusting. Bay waters choppy-rough. Temp in the 60′s. Close reach to close haul the whole way. SOG (speed over ground) 4-7 knots, average a little over five. Caught zero fish with one line in the water towards the end. The main sail did not come up, and only a reefed jib was out most of the time. Only for the last hour or so when the wind died down did the jib come all the way out. Autopilot was on occasionally, but it remained off most of the time because of somewhat rough seas. In spite of the somewhat rough conditions it was a great ride. In the picture above and to the right, we get a visit from a tired bird. It’s an extremely brave little thing— it sat right on my dad’s foot, even as we went crashing through the waves. Sometimes the bow went all the way down almost to the water, and then back up. We each took turns going up to the bow. It was like some sort of thrill ride. We got to fully test our safety equipment. We think that when we make the sail from Destin to Panama City we’ll practice man-overboards if it’s calm with life vests as the victim. Nobody got seasick except the cat, who was downstairs throwing up. We passed downtown Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, Navarre, and Fort Walton. It was really great. I can’t wait until next time! – Robert Rountree