MUTUAL FUN - A SAILING ODYSSEY

Hurrah!, our email address is changing for what we hope is the last time.
As of July 1, 2002, our new address is:
Monarussell1@aol.com

The escapades of sailors Bob Hess(captain) and Mona Russell(first slave).

Bob and Mona are finally setting out on their long-awaited dream of sailing around in different seas to different places. We have been "Planning Our Escape" since 1992 and are finally underway;living aboard our new "home" MUTUAL FUN.

ABOUT OUR SAILBOAT
To view larger versions of the pictures, just click on them-use back button to return to this page.

Our new home was docked in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida awaiting her new owners. She is a beautiful, but more important, heavy cutter rigged Hans Christian sailing vessel. She is 41 feet in length and weighs about the same as a large herd of elephants. There are 2 queen sized berths and other areas that sleep a total of 6. There are 2 heads(bathrooms) that have beautiful white marble counter tops, same as the galley(kitchen).The interior is done in teak, finished with 12 coats of hand-rubbed varnish. She draws 6½ feet, which means she can not sail in real shallow areas but also that she is very stable and sea-worthy. MUTUAL FUN has a 66 HP Yanmar engine for those less-than-windy days. She is laid out perfect for cruising with one head near the cockpit(long watches, lots of coffee) and the galley is laid out in a very convenient manner;u-shaped with the ability for the cook to strap themselves in underway in rough seas(If only we could find a cook. Volunteers, see attached e-mail address.) The list of equipment is quite extensive and everything has been tested and stamped "approved" by a very thorough surveyor. For those who love us, (mommies), there is a very good life raft aboard that will be rechecked before departure and equipped with flares and food and a GPS(Global Positioning System). We have a few luxuries aboard which include a 400 gallon per day watermaker and heat and air conditioning. All-in-all, MUTUAL FUN is a safe and aesthetically pleasing sailboat that will see us through conditions of which I would rather not think about right now. We fell in love with the Hans Christian make of boat in 1992 and we're happy to have met this beauty after over a year of searching both coasts.

TOUR OUR SAILBOAT "MUTUAL FUN"

ABOUT OUR WEBPAGE

Our means of keeping this webpage updated will be through a Compaq Presario 1675, a Cannon BJC-80 color printer and a Sony digital camera that works off a floppy disc and can take 4 still shots or a 1 minute moving picture with voice capacity. At this time, we will be e-mailing our log, pictures and e-mail to Erin O'Bryan-Felty, who has kindly volunteered her services to download the data to our webpage. Please feel free to respond, ask questions or just say "hello" at that e-mail address which is WDA2758@sailmail.com. Our means of communicating is with GPS with e-mail capability purchased through my dear brother who works at Magellan. We rely on cyber-cafes across the world to send text and pictures back to Erin.

PROJECTED ITINERARY

The projected itinerary goes something like this:
Leave Ft. Lauderdale late July. Sail to the Chesapeake and Annapolis, Maryland, then through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal to the Delaware Bay and then on to Newport, Rhode Island. From there through the Cape Cod Canal up to the New England coast to Maine where we will spend many hours devouring tasty sea crustaceans with drawn butter. In October, we will then reverse to Annapolis for the Boat Show, for restocking of parts and socializing. Around the beginning of November, just when I will be thawing out, we will sail to Norfolk, Virginia and then on to Bermuda. After 2-3 weeks of that torture, we will continue southward to the Caribbean for the winter. At this time, if the captain and first mate are still speaking, we plan to have a nice warm siesta in the Islands.

TO OUR FRIENDS AND LOVED ONES

For those of you wishing to join us on any leg of these trips, please contact us via e-mail. We welcome any and all with strong stomachs and prefer those of you that can cook. Please be aware that sailing is not done safely on a set schedule and flying to join us would be best planned as soon as we reach a port. Experience is not necessary as you will get plenty once aboard. Press here to go to the menu and click on First Mate's log to travel along with us.