The Captain's Corner

Instllment 5

 

JOURNEY BACK TO THE USA

Unfortunately it was time to head back.  We had to be north of Florida by July 15 and there was the "to do list" novel that had to be shortened.  Options, options… do we bite the bullet and do a 3 day jump to Savannah or head for Lake Worth (Palm Beach)?  Well the weather was somewhat debatable; a tropical storm had developed in the Caribbean and was predicted to pass through Florida, exit north Florida and head to the Georgia coast.  So we decided on option 2 - retrace our route back to the west end of Grand Bahamas Island then on to Lake Worth.  As it turns out, it was a very good decision.

Our trip to Mangrove was "interesting".  The winds were bigger than forecasted.  Not a very good sign.  We were the third boat to arrive and anchor at Mangrove Cay, the fourth would come later (more about that Captain and crew shortly).  The updated forecast for the tropical storm Andreas was for it to exit Florida a little further south than anticipated.  Not good news.  Needless to say the winds were building and the thunder and lightning just added to the enjoyment.  Our anchor seemed to be holding well so we thought it would simply be a bouncy night.

Then the fourth sailing vessel arrived.  He cruised in around dusk, tried to set his anchor twice, finally was successful in a position directly upwind of us, turned his anchor light on and went to bed….two hours later the fun began.  By this time the wind was really strong (I didn't measure it, I had other things on my mind) and for such a shallow sea the waves were fairly impressive.  Fortunately I was still in the cockpit and on watch.  Between the flashes of lightening, I noticed that his anchor light seemed a lot closer than it was before.  Initially, I thought I was just imagining it, but no, he was dragging his anchor and it sure looked like he was headed straight for us.  I tried to get him on the radio (maybe his wasn’t on), I blasted him with the air horn (which was lost in the sound of the storm) so all I could do was watch and get a pole ready (a fat lot of use that would be).  Fortunately he missed us by about 50 feet on our port side….unfortunately his anchor caught about 100 feet directly behind us.  Now we had to worry about dragging our anchor and becoming his bow ornament.  Needless to say, I stayed up all night with the engine running…..just in case.  As it turned out, I was too tired the next day to pay my new friend a visit, probably a good thing.

Of course, this was about the time that my buddy, Mr Alternator, decided to get even for the whacks that I gave him earlier.  He wasn't going to be appeased this time with a diet of WD40.  Luckily, the marina at the west end of the Grand Bahamas Island was just a day away….unluckily nobody had gone into the alternator repair business since our last visit, so we had to take a slip at the marina for $150 a night and juice up the batteries to the max allowing the navigation equipment to work for our crossing.  I did think of doing a Christopher Columbus thing and just head west until we ran into land, however the crew were not amused. 

We left at the crack of dawn the next day so I could get an early start at making bad decisions.  Sometimes you can over think things….  To take advantage of the Gulf Stream, I thought it would be a good idea to bear SW for a few hours then ride the stream NW.  So as soon as we cleared the jetty I turned SW.  Well, the thing I forgot to consider was that the slope of the ocean floor was such that heading us in that direction put us right where the ground swells were piling up.  Holy crap!  I know sailors tend to exaggerate, especially Singer sailors, however these waves were so big that our bow was just breaking the crest and our stern was still in the trough.  Of course I thought that it was only a temporary situation, the second bad decision of the day, and held the course.  After being beat up for what seemed to be an hour, I made, with the help of the Admiral, the first good decision of the day - bail out.  Getting the boat turned around in that situation took timing and a new set of underwear, but we were successful.  And so the day started.

In comparison the rest of the crossing was relatively uneventful, if you ignore the 6 foot seas hitting us on the beam. The 13 hours just flew by.

 

LAKE WORTH

 We had to take a berth at Sailfish marina, compliments of Mr Alternator, Mr Float and Mr Crapper.  At $150 a day (and that didn't come with a full body massage) we were somewhat motivated to get things done in a hurry.  A quick call to Stuart, my "guy" and saviour, I found out that I could get the parts in Fort Lauderdale (yes the place we started from).  With his connections, I was able to get the alternator fixed (the guy didn't hit it with a hammer, he changed the bearings, go figure), a new float switch and a new hand pump for the head.  Stuart assured me that I would be able to install the new parts with just a little bit of fabrication and wiring.  I rushed back to Palm Beach, aka Lake Worth, with visions of being back at anchor in a day.

The alternator was a snap since I had already taken the thing off twice before and am now double jointed.

The float switch required different skills.  For those of you who don't have much experience around the bilge or haven't had the pleasure of working in one, it's the place right beside the place where all the parts you drop end up.  My bilge looks deceptively easy to access until you actually have to access it.  I had to stick my head down a gap between the genset and the keel bolts while avoiding various pieces of plumbing and wiring all the while trying to keep my glasses on and not knock over my flashlight (I do have a headlamp, courtesy of the Admiral who is not fond of holding the flashlight).  That's when I found out that I was not genetically built to do the job….my arms were too short to reach the screw holding the defective float switch in place.  I was able to get to one of the screws but there was no way I could reach the last one. I did remember my buddy Svein's advice, "don't force it, use a bigger hammer".  The float switch came out in pieces.  Of course the new switch came with its own challenges.  It's a long tube with a float inside and it has to be mounted vertically.  Of course, there's no vertical surface to mount it on.  Fortunately, the previous owner had left an aluminum bar on the boat.  Back into the bilge to get the measurements (guesstimates), cutting the bar to the "right” length and bending it into an L shape, I was ready to install.  It wasn't pretty (the measurements weren't quite right) but it worked.  Now all I had to do was wire it which turned out to be easier than I expected.  I was on a hot streak.  On to the hand pump for the head!

 After putting on my biohazard suit, I took off the broken pump discovering in the process that there was no shut off valve between it and the holding tank.  Great….  Channeling the little Dutch boy, I managed to stop the flow (shit really does flow downhill) and unpack the new pump. Of course it didn't fit.  It’s funny, West Marine won't take these pumps back once they're out of the box.  So, I connected it up - temporarily - and called it a day.

 

I think it is important to mention that all of the work I've done to date has been in extremely hot and humid conditions.  Even with my nose, my glasses would not stay on my face, the sweat just poured off me.  The Admiral has commented that my new weight loss program is working really well and has encouraged me to continue, I'm not so sure!

Installment 4

 

ON TO GRAND CAY!

There were two ways, in my mind, of getting to Mangrove Cay (the first stop on our route).  One was through Indian Cay passage which involved tip toeing our way through two miles of coral reefs then a 15 mile sail…… or…..cruising via Memory Rock which was 35 mile sail.  Given our luck so far, we decided on the longer route.  I had NO desire to have to do an emergency repair to the hull as a result of our first grounding.

The journey to Mangrove was amazing.  It's hard to describe the changing colours of the ocean as the shades of blues and greens seem infinite.  The hardest part of the trip was getting use to sailing in waters, only 8 feet deep in places, and being able to see the bottom whiz by.  Just to make you more focused the charts have a note - visual piloting rules, not all hazards are marked!  Needless to say, I was somewhat focused.

Mangrove Cay lived up to its name.  No wonder the guide books said it was a good place to stop on your way to somewhere else.  It was a small island just barely above water and you guessed it, covered with Mangroves.  Getting the anchor to set was a true test of Shelley and I’s relationship.  The 20 to 25 knot winds that developed (remember what I said about the weather window closing) didn’t help.  We finally got it to hold…at least until the next morning.  Luckily, we didn't move far and there was nothing to hit!

Both Shelley and I were thinking "where's the tropical beach island with the swaying palms?”  Needless to say, we left in the morning.  On to Great Sale Cay!

The journey was relatively uneventful if you discount the strong winds.  The anchorage, however, was much better!  Nice sandy bottom, pretty little bay.  I stripped off my clothes and dove in to check the anchor - the retired person's version of "Blue Lagoon".  We looked at each other and said "this is more like it".  We had a great dinner that night sharing a wonderful bottle of wine that Ross and Chris had given us for just such an occasion and watched the sun set through the storm clouds gathering on the horizon.

We decided not to move the next day - it might have had something to do with the high winds – so we decided to wait it out.  Nothing had really changed the next day, except the direction of the wind, and that was now making our anchorage a little bumpy.  Since Grand Cay wasn't that far away and had a better protected anchorage, we decided to press on.

To get into the anchorage at Grand Cay you have to navigate a relatively small channel between the reefs.  To make it more interesting, the chart indicated a minimum depth of 6 feet VPR (visual piloting rules), the winds were about 20 knots and chopping up the water.  I managed to get into the anchorage in spite of the fact that the depth sounder indicated that we passed over a 6 foot section (I guess we draw a little less than 6 feet) with winds that had picked up to 25 knots.

We had a decision to make….do we try to anchor or do we get a slip at Rosie's Marina?  Fortunately we chose the latter!  We had been trying to hail Rosie's without any success so when we saw a spot at the end of the pier we decided to take it since the wind was really howling now!  A lot of shit was happening at the same time - the depth sounder was insisting we were in 6 feet of water and the wind was not helping us to get close to the pier.  Fortunately, two other cruisers rushed out to help us out.  They took our lines and secured us to the pier.  I thought it was a pretty good docking regardless of all the crap that was going on!

 

I asked Gilles (a wonderful French speaking fellow from Corsica who initially spoke to us in French, being that we were flying our Canadian flag and quickly turned to English when he realized how poor our French was, ha!) whether or not we were okay depth wise. as we had learned he was a very skilled and practiced sailor.  He assured me "no problem".  We had arrived!

 

Installment 3

OUR FIRST GULF STREAM CROSSING

The crossing was relatively uneventful although sailing in the dark for 2 1/2 hours was an interesting experience.  I didn't run into anything and we had favourable winds and seas.  This was our first taste of being out of sight of land.  I was surprised how easy it was to become disoriented if I didn't pay attention to my heading…there was no landmark to aim for!  The changing colours of the ocean were breathtaking.

The previous owner hadn't installed the manual waste pump correctly so my vigorous pumping broke the coupler that held the bellows together.  I put a plastic bag around it to collect the seepage (no shut off valve) and put the repair on my to do list.  This list was becoming more like a novel.  Somewhere around twelve hours later, we arrived at West Bay, Grand Bahama Island.

After entering the sheltered basin, we dropped anchor and I took the dinghy over to clear customs.  It was a relatively painless process in spite of the mountain of forms (thank you, England, for leaving a bureaucracy behind).  When we got back to the boat, I thought I would start the motor to charge the batteries.  Surprise!  It wouldn't start.  It was getting late and with a grand total of about six hours sleep in the past 24, I decided to deal with the issue in the morning.  Fun fact….exhausted brains do not mix well with tools and problem solving.  As we were getting dinner ready, a guy on the shore in a uniform was trying to get our attention.  For some reason he wanted to see me.  I told him I would be in shortly and he disappeared.  I went back to the customs folks and asked them if there was a problem about where we had anchored.  "No problem man".  So we decided to enjoy the evening and prepare for the expected "fun" that tomorrow would bring.

The next morning I decided that I had better run the genset and charge up the batteries before trying to figure out why the engine wouldn't start.  Surprise!  Again…are you starting to see a pattern here?  The alternator decided to pick that particular moment to seize.  Making matters even more interesting, the guy from yesterday showed up in a boat and informed me that we weren't allowed to anchor in the basin and that we would have to move!  Pointing to the smoke billowing out of the companionway, I told him that we weren't going anywhere until I fixed our most immediate issues.  Note I’ve gone from one to two issues, overnight!  I love my boat, I love my boat….  He wasn't really happy but I think he could tell that this was not the time to get into an argument with a frustrated "Captain".  "See me when you've fixed your problem" we're his parting words.  So much for Bahama time!

As it turned out, the engine issue was a loose fuse in the starting circuit.  This should be easy!  Of course when I removed the fuse to tighten the circuit I dropped the fuse and it disappeared into that secret place on the boat which is inaccessible without taking the whole boat apart.  It's the same place where there are probably enough parts to build a new boat.  Fortunately, I had a spare (thank you previous owner - this time).  Problem solved.  On to the alternator….

Well, the first thing I had to do was remove it.  How hard could that be?  There were only 2 bolts holding it on.  The first one only took 45 minutes but that was simply a prelude for what was coming.  The second one took 2 1/2 hours.  The thing that kept me going was the thought of hunting down the designer of the genset and inserting the bolt into his body in a place where it would take him 2 1/2 hours to extract it!  Remember at the beginning when I said that I didn't see the thrill of getting the last bolt out?  I do now!

So….now I have a seized alternator sitting on our table, now what?  Getting a new one wasn't going to happen before hurricane season arrived.  All I needed the damn thing to do was spin!  I decided to fill it full of WD40, hit it with a hammer a few times (very therapeutic) and twist it with my wrench.  Holy crap, it worked!  And a special thanks to Stu...."our guy" in Ft Lauderdale!

Problems solved!  At least for now….  Shelley and I sat back and enjoyed a lovely dinner and watched the sun set from our little bay in the Bahamas.  As an added treat (and I took it as a good sign…silly me) there was a launch from Cape Canaveral that went right over our boat!  Life was good…..

 

Installment 2

BUYING THE BOAT

 

You would think that buying "your boat" would be a fun exercise right?  Well, you might be wrong.  New or used, catamaran or monohull, how many feet, blue water or coastal, must haves and would be nice, where to buy, sloop, cutter or gaff, comfort versus performance, what you can afford or eating beans, amount of upgrades and fixes you're willing to do, solar, wind or genset, fuel and water capacity; the list goes on and on.  There is a whole industry out there to "guide and advise" you on what the best boat would be and, of course, few of them agree with each other.  It's like trying to follow the advice of every personal development book, if you actually achieved this goal, would end up in the loony bin.  Every sailor has an opinion on what's best but in the end, it's really your own gut reaction.

 

After looking at around 25 boats we decided on a 1989 Hylas 44 CC in Florida.  Was it a good decision?  Of course it was, I'm a sailor and I love eating beans!

 

PROVSIONING AND SHAKEDOWN (aka SURPRISE!)

 

Shelley and I arrived in Fort Lauderdale on May 7th with the plan of spending seven days provisioning and doing the final shakedown cruise.  Looking back on it now, it seemed like a reasonable plan.  We had work done on the boat before we arrived (stuff that had been identified in the survey) so all we really had to do was buy some personal stuff, get to know the boat, take it out for a sail and go.

Surprise number one:

The best analogy I can come up with is moving into your first place (with the comfort expectations of an older person) and your place has toilets you must pump, electricity from a battery, water that comes from a tank and limited storage space.  This in a location you don't really know, uncertainty about what your future will hold and no means of transportation.  Even though we brought about 600 pounds of stuff with us, the provisioning list was extensive.

Despite the fact that we had an extensive survey done during the buying process there were a number of surprises in store - some of them were my choices but most were the choices of the previous owners.  Shelley suggested we ask Stuart (our "guy" who had done the identified upgrades) to join us on our shakedown sail.  Thank God we did!  So what did we discover?

 

Here's the list:

            -  the previous owner had installed a cheaper version autohelm that was not compatible in the linear drive and was destined to fail, which it did

            -  the previous owner had applied sealer on the inside of the water tank to stop a number of leaks and had the tanks only partially filled during the survey so the continuous trickle of water from the tanks went undetected

            -  the 20 amp charger on board wasn't nearly enough to charge the 400 amp hour batteries

            -  the previous owner had epoxyed the low pressure valve together in the water maker system which came unglued the first time we ran the watermaker so the forward berth was covered in water.  This system was trialed very briefly during the survey and no mentioned was made that the valve would require replacing

            -  the bilge float was the cheapest one he could find and was destined to fail, which it did

            -  the interior start switch for the engine had a substandard fuse so sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't

            -  the bimini canvas leaked as we found out on the first rain, torrential rain actually pouring into the cockpit….but, it’s a boat, right?

So, after installing a 150 amp charger, a new autohelm, new sealant in the water tanks (replacement of tanks being put on the to-do list), replacing the low pressure valve, scotch guarding the enclosure and putting the rest on the growing to do list, we were ready to go.

 

 The lights of Fort Lauderdale

receding in the background

 

We checked the weather forecast for the next day, set a departure time of 4 in the morning, filled the diesel and water tanks and set the alarm.  And that's when the "fun" began.  The bilge pump starting engaging every 10 minutes and then the bilge alarm.  After ripping up the floor boards and tracing the leak, we discovered that one of the other water tanks was leaking and the float switch was sticking.  We had a decision to make.  We had to be out of Florida waters by the 27th for tax reasons, the weather window we had was going to close in probably two days and it would take at least five days to fix the tanks.  Since we had two other water tanks (50 gallons) we decided to go.  Shelley sent me to bed at midnight and stayed up to monitor the leaking problem.  We left in the morning as planned.

As they say, there's a silver lining in every cloud, you just have to look for it.  Without doubt we got to know our boat at warp speed and our confidence was high.  We thought we had weathered the storm however there were some more surprises coming our way.

 I’ll share them with you as soon as I check the forecast!

 

Installment 1

Ahoy, Matey!!

 

Editor's Note:  I am happy to introduce "The Captain's Corner"!  This is Gregg's page and as negotiations with his agent have gone well, I have an agreement that he will become a fairly regular contributor.  So please, come on aboard, sit back, throw on a lifejacket and enjoy!!!

When Shelley suggested that I write a section of the blog to share my perspective of experiences along the way in our adventure, my first reaction was "what am I going to write about that she hasn’t already covered"?   Most of what I will share is probably going to be old news to experienced cruisers but hopefully will be of some use to those who have either no or limited experience in being the designated captain of a sailboat you intend on being your home for an extended period of time.

First of all, for all you racers and holiday coastal cruisers, long term cruising is a totally different animal as I'm finding out.  Sure you need all the skills involved in sailing and seamanship but your crew (read partner) really wants the head to work, the lights to come on and to make it safely to the next destination.  The fact that you can make it there in record time is simply a sidebar.

 So what skills are required?  Perhaps it would be worthwhile to share a little bit of my background (for those of you who don't know me, i.e. the two of you who accidentally found yourselves here).  My training has been in engineering which would, on the surface, seem perfect.  I might add that so far, we haven't run into the need to build either a road or a bridge.  Neither have my years of project management proven valuable because, as I have learned, it will cost what it will cost (budget), take longer than you want (schedule) involve stuff you didn't expect (scope), provide results that will never measure up to your expectations (quality) and the management experience is rarely fun (satisfaction of the stakeholders).  I have been fortunate to work with great project teams, who have "made it so", and wasn’t required to worry about the detail stuff.  Not having been one to work on cars and knowing enough about electricity to avoid dying I face new and wonderful learning experiences at every turn.  By nature, I'm not a terribly patient individual and the "thrill" of getting that last bolt loosened leaves me cold.  So, as you can see, I hardly embarked on this journey with the experience and temperament to be the captain of a long term cruising vessel.  It turns out that I do love the lifestyle and am able to endure the challenges while keeping my "eye on the prize"!  I have come to believe the key requirements for being a captain is the ability to accept that shit happens and you must be able to adapt to the situation, utilize what's available, problem solve and above all RTFM (read the f*cking manual!).

So, what am I going to write about?  I don't intend on writing the definitive "cruising guide" but I will share some of my experiences on this adventure ride called "cruising"!

 

I'll be back as soon as I figure out what the heck is causing that terrible rumbling noise that seems to be coming from the engine bay! 

 

Fair winds and following seas.....