.....the crazy ass things we do? We do them for your benefit. We aim to entertain and please!
:-)
Thursday, December 15, 2016
List from hell update
Generator:
Not as bad as we thought.
But on pins and needles while we waited for Keys Disease to sort itself out with the guy who was to look at our generator.
Finally, our hero and boat guru extradonaire, Boat George tackled the problem himself. And since he has some serious mad skills---fixed our generator.
There really is not enough money in the world to have this guy in our corner.
The heat exchanger header was leaking and the bolts stripped. Previous asshat owner used some sort of silicone to try to seal it and it did not work. So as it gave out it started leaking saltwater, thus corroding crap until we tested it and voila. Alarms go off and genset shuts down.
Below are the before and after pictures of what it looked like.
And speaking of stripped threads, we had to have the ones on our water tank fixed so that we could properly install the new tank indicator on the one tank. Got tired of it saying full and then run out of water in the middle of our shower.
We don't know what to do about dear old Zeus. The marina didn't want it sitting in front of the boat so they placed it in the barn for us.
Not as bad as we thought.
But on pins and needles while we waited for Keys Disease to sort itself out with the guy who was to look at our generator.
Finally, our hero and boat guru extradonaire, Boat George tackled the problem himself. And since he has some serious mad skills---fixed our generator.
There really is not enough money in the world to have this guy in our corner.
The heat exchanger header was leaking and the bolts stripped. Previous asshat owner used some sort of silicone to try to seal it and it did not work. So as it gave out it started leaking saltwater, thus corroding crap until we tested it and voila. Alarms go off and genset shuts down.
Below are the before and after pictures of what it looked like.
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| The silicone used instead of proper gasket. (grrrrrrr) |
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| After soaking and cleaning. |
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| Reinstalled on the generator. The threads for bolting it back on also had to be fixed since they were stripped. |
And speaking of stripped threads, we had to have the ones on our water tank fixed so that we could properly install the new tank indicator on the one tank. Got tired of it saying full and then run out of water in the middle of our shower.
We don't know what to do about dear old Zeus. The marina didn't want it sitting in front of the boat so they placed it in the barn for us.
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Night Moves
Now here's the part of our story where Kim makes Tim SO pissed off at her that she wonders: a) is he going to throw me overboard? or b) get to land and file for divorce immediately.
Answers: a) No. Because I can see in the dark and he can't. b) It was considered, but safe arrival, awesome docking job and a few drinks settled him down.
What did sweet little ole me do? I suggested that we blow all the way home and not stop at Boca Grande. We'd only have a little night sailing to do (oh, and entering our channel.)
He okayed it and off we went. And it got dark. Really, really dark. And he started freaking out. I'm at the helm, I have got a good grasp on all the ATONs and anything else that might be out there. The shrimp boats are lit up like Christmas so I know I won't have to worry about them.
But he can't handle it, he goes down below to....evidently second guess what I am doing. Flies back up, blinds me with the iPad and says YOU ARE HEADING TOWARDS SHALLOWS.
Sigh. Thanks for destroying my night vision. It'll only take 20 minutes to get that back and we are 10 minutes away from the channel.
Also, ASK ME WHAT I AM DOING. I was navigating back to our course to the channel waypoint, but you are looking at your Navionics on the iPAD that has a 5nm lead line to it. I was over a nautical mile from where it even got to 12 ft. SHEESH.
Squabble #1 ensues. Me: Stop distracting and blinding me. Him: YOU NEED TO HAVE INFORMATION! (he was not his normal self at this point)
I see our channel marker (which um....floats, not on a piling at the moment) then I realize....oh crap, where is our track from when we head out? Oh, shit just got a lot more difficult.
So Tim completely wigged out by now turns the boat away from the channel and I run down to get our high power spot light and our radio sets. Now this is going to be a true test of marital communications and relations now.
Tim throws some way points to line us up with the channel, I get positioned on the bow and start doing a sweep of the area because I know there's 3 anchored boats and also, the channel splits in two and we need to head....left. (we didn't)
Squabble #2 over headsets ensues about how stupid this is and he should have never agreed to this.
Once again, the scop must have been working overtime because I am still pretty chill about this.
Tim, slow down, and remember the two things we've learned.
"Don't approach anything faster than you want to hit it."
"The difference between an ordeal and an adventure is attitude. So let's have an adventure."
He wasn't amused.
So, now the scene is set. Tim on helm, dodger completely caked over with salt spray (not that it mattered). Kim seated on the bow with the spotlight. Pitch black. Oh, and the chartplotter is over zoomed.
So below is a little graphic on how it went.
A-Waypoint set. We are heading in. Light is shining off of the channel markers beautifully. We can do this!
B- Kim: Um, Tim. Did you miss the turn off? Tim? I think we are not going the right way.
Tim: OH SHIT. We are heading to the Navy Base. Hold on, I'm going to turn around.
Kim: Wait, let me check. Nevermind.
Tim: Up here I am going to turn the nose of the boat to what I think is our channel marker. Let me know when you find it.
Kim: WHAT? There. There it is one o'clock.
Tim: I can't see shit.
Kim: Watch your depth, veer starboard a little bit until I tell you to stop. Wait. What was that?
Tim: We grounded. Let me get the keel all the way up. We're good!
C- At this point, we have the seeing eye dog routine down. Feeling better, seeing more lights. Tim's freakout is now about DEFCON 3. and then....
D--Kim: Here's the entrance.
Tim: Where?
Kim: HERE. HERE. Markers 1 & 2.
Tim: There?
Kim: Yes. Wait. No. Just go straight!!
Tim: I don't think we should.
Kim: (shines light in water) It's deep enough! Go now!
And by the hair of our chinny chin chin. We slid through the shallows into the nice deep marina.
So to explain that last bit. I told Tim there's the entrance markers to the marina. He started turning, not sure what he was looking at. I started getting very concerned that he'd want to back up or something and the current would pin us up against the channel marker. So, I told him to go. Luckily, it was high tide, the boat keel was up making us draw 3.25 feet and we slipped in with most likely millimeters to spare. Not the best move, but I did fear the worst.
If we had grounded, we figured out later, the boat doesn't list. The keel goes up in the trunk and we have a skeg in front of the prop. We wouldn't have just sat flat bottomed like jackasses waiting for SeaTow to come. We were going slow so we wouldn't have got damaged. Just our ego.
We show up at our slip (after being completely fried I thought there was another boat in it--our marina has been known to do that) and completely nail our docking with the help of the guy chartering the Jeanneau next to us.
Big smile to Tim--see? I knew we could do it.
He is still not amused.
Answers: a) No. Because I can see in the dark and he can't. b) It was considered, but safe arrival, awesome docking job and a few drinks settled him down.
What did sweet little ole me do? I suggested that we blow all the way home and not stop at Boca Grande. We'd only have a little night sailing to do (oh, and entering our channel.)
He okayed it and off we went. And it got dark. Really, really dark. And he started freaking out. I'm at the helm, I have got a good grasp on all the ATONs and anything else that might be out there. The shrimp boats are lit up like Christmas so I know I won't have to worry about them.
But he can't handle it, he goes down below to....evidently second guess what I am doing. Flies back up, blinds me with the iPad and says YOU ARE HEADING TOWARDS SHALLOWS.
Sigh. Thanks for destroying my night vision. It'll only take 20 minutes to get that back and we are 10 minutes away from the channel.
Also, ASK ME WHAT I AM DOING. I was navigating back to our course to the channel waypoint, but you are looking at your Navionics on the iPAD that has a 5nm lead line to it. I was over a nautical mile from where it even got to 12 ft. SHEESH.
Squabble #1 ensues. Me: Stop distracting and blinding me. Him: YOU NEED TO HAVE INFORMATION! (he was not his normal self at this point)
I see our channel marker (which um....floats, not on a piling at the moment) then I realize....oh crap, where is our track from when we head out? Oh, shit just got a lot more difficult.
So Tim completely wigged out by now turns the boat away from the channel and I run down to get our high power spot light and our radio sets. Now this is going to be a true test of marital communications and relations now.
Tim throws some way points to line us up with the channel, I get positioned on the bow and start doing a sweep of the area because I know there's 3 anchored boats and also, the channel splits in two and we need to head....left. (we didn't)
Squabble #2 over headsets ensues about how stupid this is and he should have never agreed to this.
Once again, the scop must have been working overtime because I am still pretty chill about this.
Tim, slow down, and remember the two things we've learned.
"Don't approach anything faster than you want to hit it."
"The difference between an ordeal and an adventure is attitude. So let's have an adventure."
He wasn't amused.
So, now the scene is set. Tim on helm, dodger completely caked over with salt spray (not that it mattered). Kim seated on the bow with the spotlight. Pitch black. Oh, and the chartplotter is over zoomed.
So below is a little graphic on how it went.
 |
| Read the events corresponding to the letters below. Red line represents our path. |
B- Kim: Um, Tim. Did you miss the turn off? Tim? I think we are not going the right way.
Tim: OH SHIT. We are heading to the Navy Base. Hold on, I'm going to turn around.
Kim: Wait, let me check. Nevermind.
Tim: Up here I am going to turn the nose of the boat to what I think is our channel marker. Let me know when you find it.
Kim: WHAT? There. There it is one o'clock.
Tim: I can't see shit.
Kim: Watch your depth, veer starboard a little bit until I tell you to stop. Wait. What was that?
Tim: We grounded. Let me get the keel all the way up. We're good!
C- At this point, we have the seeing eye dog routine down. Feeling better, seeing more lights. Tim's freakout is now about DEFCON 3. and then....
D--Kim: Here's the entrance.
Tim: Where?
Kim: HERE. HERE. Markers 1 & 2.
Tim: There?
Kim: Yes. Wait. No. Just go straight!!
Tim: I don't think we should.
Kim: (shines light in water) It's deep enough! Go now!
And by the hair of our chinny chin chin. We slid through the shallows into the nice deep marina.
So to explain that last bit. I told Tim there's the entrance markers to the marina. He started turning, not sure what he was looking at. I started getting very concerned that he'd want to back up or something and the current would pin us up against the channel marker. So, I told him to go. Luckily, it was high tide, the boat keel was up making us draw 3.25 feet and we slipped in with most likely millimeters to spare. Not the best move, but I did fear the worst.
If we had grounded, we figured out later, the boat doesn't list. The keel goes up in the trunk and we have a skeg in front of the prop. We wouldn't have just sat flat bottomed like jackasses waiting for SeaTow to come. We were going slow so we wouldn't have got damaged. Just our ego.
We show up at our slip (after being completely fried I thought there was another boat in it--our marina has been known to do that) and completely nail our docking with the help of the guy chartering the Jeanneau next to us.
Big smile to Tim--see? I knew we could do it.
He is still not amused.
Heading home. Forecast lied. It always lies.
So, with our nifty little Delorme Satellite tracker we can download forecasts to our iPads, and the Park Ranger also posts.
Well, in whatever planet they were on, they forecast 17kt wind from ENE and 2 foot waves.
Not quite.
More like 20 kt winds and 5 foot seas at 2-3 sec intervals. On the nose. On the nose. On the nose.
And the queasies started with me. ShitShitShit. I think it was I was expecting the worst and it was coming to fruition. So, mental started it up.
I ate some Cuban crackers (seriously, there's a reason why you find Cuban crackers and sea sickness meds by an abandoned chug--they work!) Chilled for a bit and the queasy went away! Holy crap, YAY SCOPALAMINE!
So we spent our first 6 hours just bashing away through open water. We knew it would start calming down about Rebecca Shoal Light because the water shallows out. In retrospect--we should have gone of the wind just a bit and thrown up a bit of canvas to create a less crappy ride. But....we didn't.
My anchoring dude--I was channel chick, so I had the helm--did not make sure our decks were clear before leaving, so our snubber danced all over the deck. We expected to lose it as we dived into the swells, but it rode the entire trip home.
Well, in whatever planet they were on, they forecast 17kt wind from ENE and 2 foot waves.
Not quite.
More like 20 kt winds and 5 foot seas at 2-3 sec intervals. On the nose. On the nose. On the nose.
And the queasies started with me. ShitShitShit. I think it was I was expecting the worst and it was coming to fruition. So, mental started it up.
I ate some Cuban crackers (seriously, there's a reason why you find Cuban crackers and sea sickness meds by an abandoned chug--they work!) Chilled for a bit and the queasy went away! Holy crap, YAY SCOPALAMINE!
So we spent our first 6 hours just bashing away through open water. We knew it would start calming down about Rebecca Shoal Light because the water shallows out. In retrospect--we should have gone of the wind just a bit and thrown up a bit of canvas to create a less crappy ride. But....we didn't.
My anchoring dude--I was channel chick, so I had the helm--did not make sure our decks were clear before leaving, so our snubber danced all over the deck. We expected to lose it as we dived into the swells, but it rode the entire trip home.
Thanksgiving Day
We spent a lovely day just hanging out. I actually got in the water...COLD COLD COLD. Explored the fort, and went hiking around the island where it shoaled in 10-15 years ago.
Later that evening I took a turkey breast that had thawed out and cut it into filets for Tim to throw on the grill. Roasted some potatoes and made some stuffing. VOILA! Thanksgiving dinner.
After dinner we were hanging out in the cockpit and big yacht decides to have a fireworks show. SO SO GLAD we were upwind from him. Everybody starts sounding off with horns and airhorns.
Five seconds later, Ranger Simon comes over the VHF. Boat in the anchorage. CUT IT OUT.
Whoops. Five more seconds later, HONK, BOOM.
And out come the flashing lights of the Ranger Patrol boat. Uh. oh. I better get more wine and watch this.
NOBODY FESSED UP. It was awesome. He came over to us, recognized us as dumbass dinghy people and said, hey, can you do me a solid? If it starts up again, get on the radio and tell them it's Thanksgiving. Give the ranger a break. Sure.
I really wanted to get a picture of him leaving our boat with the lights still flashing, but I didn't want to test his good humor with us. We might need to have him pick us up from the middle of the ocean if we take our dinghy back out.
Later that evening I took a turkey breast that had thawed out and cut it into filets for Tim to throw on the grill. Roasted some potatoes and made some stuffing. VOILA! Thanksgiving dinner.
After dinner we were hanging out in the cockpit and big yacht decides to have a fireworks show. SO SO GLAD we were upwind from him. Everybody starts sounding off with horns and airhorns.
Five seconds later, Ranger Simon comes over the VHF. Boat in the anchorage. CUT IT OUT.
Whoops. Five more seconds later, HONK, BOOM.
And out come the flashing lights of the Ranger Patrol boat. Uh. oh. I better get more wine and watch this.
NOBODY FESSED UP. It was awesome. He came over to us, recognized us as dumbass dinghy people and said, hey, can you do me a solid? If it starts up again, get on the radio and tell them it's Thanksgiving. Give the ranger a break. Sure.
I really wanted to get a picture of him leaving our boat with the lights still flashing, but I didn't want to test his good humor with us. We might need to have him pick us up from the middle of the ocean if we take our dinghy back out.
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| Without a motor, yeah, pretty much all its good for. A bird perch. Early Thanksgiving morning. |
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| Standing on Garden Key pointing toward Grassy Key. This area is shoaled in pretty well now. You can see our dinghy nicely upwind of Elysium. |
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| On Thanksgiving, I strolled on my private beach. What did you do? |
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| If you expand, all the birds you see above the island are frigate birds. |
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| Conch sculpture. |
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Monday, December 5, 2016
Reanchoring--with more windlass fun
After our difficulties with rowing the big rubber ducky from our current anchoring position we decided to move to a position that we'd be closer to the beach and easier to dinghy back to. (with more wind protection.) We cleared it with the ranger the day before.
So, off we move up to our new spot. Once again, crazy ass windlass and I accidently jammed it because I thought we had 200 ft of chain, but we only had 100 feet before it turned into this crazy gnarled up join with regular nylon rode, and hold up! The rode isn't attached to the BOAT! Seriously, you would have thought we checked that before. it's nicely coiled up and hanging, so if it had got ripped loose, just a snarled mess of rode would have jammed the windlass, but crap!
(And this is why we are doing our sailing off shore in baby steps)
So, with some careful planning an manuevering (thankfully, we DID have more wind protection) we got the windlass unjammed and plans for either repainting our chain or just getting a longer chain rode.
Once set (again) our sojourn to land was much easier. We were just off what I started calling Dry Tortugas International Airport because of the seaplanes, but I just love watching them. Not a problem. They had plenty of room, and absolutely no qualms about taking off between boats.
So, off we move up to our new spot. Once again, crazy ass windlass and I accidently jammed it because I thought we had 200 ft of chain, but we only had 100 feet before it turned into this crazy gnarled up join with regular nylon rode, and hold up! The rode isn't attached to the BOAT! Seriously, you would have thought we checked that before. it's nicely coiled up and hanging, so if it had got ripped loose, just a snarled mess of rode would have jammed the windlass, but crap!
(And this is why we are doing our sailing off shore in baby steps)
So, with some careful planning an manuevering (thankfully, we DID have more wind protection) we got the windlass unjammed and plans for either repainting our chain or just getting a longer chain rode.
Once set (again) our sojourn to land was much easier. We were just off what I started calling Dry Tortugas International Airport because of the seaplanes, but I just love watching them. Not a problem. They had plenty of room, and absolutely no qualms about taking off between boats.
Some info about Dry Tortugas (and PICTURES)
This is for people who want to visit the Tortugas/Fort Jeff on their own, either by their own boat, or bareboat charter (and yes, there is a company that will let you do it-surprised me, too)
Upon arrival by boat to the Tortugas you will need to check in. Usually you can find the park ranger who will walk you through the process, but if not, there is an area at the ferry dock where you can check yourself in. Super simple process.
You will pay your park fee which is $10/pp for up to 7 days. That has its own drop box. You keep a portion of the envelope as your receipt.
Boaters will have to fill out a boat permit. This is free. As the park ranger explained to us, it's like a float plan for while you are in the Dry Tortugas. How long will you be here? Where will you be? (Loggerhead Key, Garden Key, etc.) how many people.
Also, they will post a daily weather report including marine weather. (which was nice, because our Delorme weather report lied to us.)
So, if you don't do that, the Park Ranger will either hail you on VHF or come out with the forms. They make it very easy to do.
While the ferry is at the fort, the only restrooms will be closed and you will have to go to the ferry. Evidently an agreement they have.
Long time ago there used to be restrooms at the ferry dock, but they turned those to changing rooms and they have self composting toilets.
Once you spend your ten minutes checking in, the park is open.
Or, if you have no motor on your dinghy you spend the next 20 minutes carrying your dinghy to an upwind position from your boat.
But, when you get that done? Oh, que magnifique!
Upon arrival by boat to the Tortugas you will need to check in. Usually you can find the park ranger who will walk you through the process, but if not, there is an area at the ferry dock where you can check yourself in. Super simple process.
You will pay your park fee which is $10/pp for up to 7 days. That has its own drop box. You keep a portion of the envelope as your receipt.
Boaters will have to fill out a boat permit. This is free. As the park ranger explained to us, it's like a float plan for while you are in the Dry Tortugas. How long will you be here? Where will you be? (Loggerhead Key, Garden Key, etc.) how many people.
Also, they will post a daily weather report including marine weather. (which was nice, because our Delorme weather report lied to us.)
So, if you don't do that, the Park Ranger will either hail you on VHF or come out with the forms. They make it very easy to do.
While the ferry is at the fort, the only restrooms will be closed and you will have to go to the ferry. Evidently an agreement they have.
Long time ago there used to be restrooms at the ferry dock, but they turned those to changing rooms and they have self composting toilets.
Once you spend your ten minutes checking in, the park is open.
Or, if you have no motor on your dinghy you spend the next 20 minutes carrying your dinghy to an upwind position from your boat.
But, when you get that done? Oh, que magnifique!
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| Oh, what a pretty girl. |
Ding dong dinghy it.
After we established that we were holding fine, Tim started prepping the dinghy and the Torqeedo. I got our bag ready with anything we would need to check in with the ranger. We discussed the VHF, both agreed to put it in the bag. (It didn't wind up in the bag--dual brain fart.)
So, I come up and I get. "We got a problem." Seriously? Why do you do this to me, Tim?
Evidently while hooking up the Torqeedo and simultaneously bouncing off the stern of Elysium, one of the plugs didn't get aligned right and ZPPPPFFFT! Torqeedo hath been shorted out. Well, f*ck a duck.
Me--the eternal optimist (hah! blaming the scopalamine). Well, baby. We gots oars. After all, we've got years of experience not killing ourselves on the rivers of the Ozarks. Oh, and a crazy kayak trip in Hawai'i that we. were. not. in. shape. for.
So, OFF goes the Torqeedo, into the dinghy I jump with the bag. Oh, did I mention? We forgot the VHF.
So, below pic perfectly shows our goal (ignore plane), nice dinghy beach. It also shows the old coal dock pilings. The first of which was constructed around 1861, yes, kids, when KANSAS BECAME A STATE! The majority constructed around 1898 as a supply stop for the US Navy.
So, as lovely as the water looks. We start rowing our little selves to the beach. But not really, because we are now in a floating balloon in 17 kt winds broadside. We are actually heading to Loggerhead Key, or Cuba, or Cayman Islands. Who knows?
So, the following motivational speech came forth:
"ROW KIM, ROW, ROW! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? ROW"
Reply:
"I AM M******F******"
For some reason, I thought if I sat inside the dinghy instead of on the tube that it would be okay. Not really, you don't get ample enough thrust off your oar if you don't have it at the right angle.
So, at this point, I said, Head for the pilings, young man! What? You mean the partially submerged, wooden stakes poking out of the water? YES. And there's also rusted iron, hope you have your tetanus shot.
So, we crash landed in the century+ old pilings, grabbed one and regrouped. So from there we would frantically oar from one to another, some having old line attached was awesome. We finally got to the point where we had some wind protection and we could paddle like hell to the beach. And we made it!
So, as we pulled the dinghy up on land, Mr. Park Ranger. (Ranger Simons, thankyouverymuch) a young guy, ex-military, said, hey! Was wondering if you were going to make it or not. Yeah, us also, sir. And....one of the first questions asked? Did you bring your VHF? To which we did some kicking of sand and said, we forgot it. Hmmmmm.
Finally, I wanted to get off the "What were you dumbshits thinking" questioning, so I asked, hey, do we talk to you about checking in and paying our park fees?
He was very nice, and gave us a full tour of what we need to do, of course if you make yourself memorable and be polite, you'll be voted least likely to be arrested/ticketed on Thanksgiving day. (story up shortly.)
So, I come up and I get. "We got a problem." Seriously? Why do you do this to me, Tim?
Evidently while hooking up the Torqeedo and simultaneously bouncing off the stern of Elysium, one of the plugs didn't get aligned right and ZPPPPFFFT! Torqeedo hath been shorted out. Well, f*ck a duck.
Me--the eternal optimist (hah! blaming the scopalamine). Well, baby. We gots oars. After all, we've got years of experience not killing ourselves on the rivers of the Ozarks. Oh, and a crazy kayak trip in Hawai'i that we. were. not. in. shape. for.
So, OFF goes the Torqeedo, into the dinghy I jump with the bag. Oh, did I mention? We forgot the VHF.
So, below pic perfectly shows our goal (ignore plane), nice dinghy beach. It also shows the old coal dock pilings. The first of which was constructed around 1861, yes, kids, when KANSAS BECAME A STATE! The majority constructed around 1898 as a supply stop for the US Navy.
 |
| Beach or pilings? Beach or pilings? |
So, the following motivational speech came forth:
"ROW KIM, ROW, ROW! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? ROW"
Reply:
"I AM M******F******"
For some reason, I thought if I sat inside the dinghy instead of on the tube that it would be okay. Not really, you don't get ample enough thrust off your oar if you don't have it at the right angle.
So, at this point, I said, Head for the pilings, young man! What? You mean the partially submerged, wooden stakes poking out of the water? YES. And there's also rusted iron, hope you have your tetanus shot.
So, we crash landed in the century+ old pilings, grabbed one and regrouped. So from there we would frantically oar from one to another, some having old line attached was awesome. We finally got to the point where we had some wind protection and we could paddle like hell to the beach. And we made it!
So, as we pulled the dinghy up on land, Mr. Park Ranger. (Ranger Simons, thankyouverymuch) a young guy, ex-military, said, hey! Was wondering if you were going to make it or not. Yeah, us also, sir. And....one of the first questions asked? Did you bring your VHF? To which we did some kicking of sand and said, we forgot it. Hmmmmm.
Finally, I wanted to get off the "What were you dumbshits thinking" questioning, so I asked, hey, do we talk to you about checking in and paying our park fees?
He was very nice, and gave us a full tour of what we need to do, of course if you make yourself memorable and be polite, you'll be voted least likely to be arrested/ticketed on Thanksgiving day. (story up shortly.)
Land Ho!
About an hour out of Ft. Jefferson we caught up with our anchoring buddies from Marquesas. Of course, Tim was like: Great, a bunch of us trying to anchor at once. Thirty minutes later, I said: Look behind you Tim. A 105 motor yacht with its launch leading it was steaming up our rear.
Look! A boat parade. I was back being mistress of all things entering channels, so no pics of our boat parade.
Approaching Dry Tortugas is a bit odd, you actually have to loop around the Fort to get to the anchorage. Some charts show the land bridge, some just report shoaling between the key that holds the fort and the key that is the bird sanctuary. (It's a solid spit of land, folks.)
So after I got us lined up in the channel for Tim, I prep our headsets and what I we need in mind for anchoring. Not too confident in our windlass, with good reason. We got one problem solved with tightening the clutch, and I realized the second problem was the remote up in the bow wasn't working correctly. Tim had put tape to protect the down button, but said tape was making the remote stick in down position. Exciting stuff.
But, we got anchored. Hung out for a bit. As usual, everybody swung one way, but we went another. I think it has to do with the shape of Elysium's hull and that big hunk of grounding plate, she just moves a bit differently.
Watched the motor yacht plant themselves right in the middle of the sailboats and thought, well, this should be fun.
They seemed okay also.
Look! A boat parade. I was back being mistress of all things entering channels, so no pics of our boat parade.
Approaching Dry Tortugas is a bit odd, you actually have to loop around the Fort to get to the anchorage. Some charts show the land bridge, some just report shoaling between the key that holds the fort and the key that is the bird sanctuary. (It's a solid spit of land, folks.)
So after I got us lined up in the channel for Tim, I prep our headsets and what I we need in mind for anchoring. Not too confident in our windlass, with good reason. We got one problem solved with tightening the clutch, and I realized the second problem was the remote up in the bow wasn't working correctly. Tim had put tape to protect the down button, but said tape was making the remote stick in down position. Exciting stuff.
But, we got anchored. Hung out for a bit. As usual, everybody swung one way, but we went another. I think it has to do with the shape of Elysium's hull and that big hunk of grounding plate, she just moves a bit differently.
Watched the motor yacht plant themselves right in the middle of the sailboats and thought, well, this should be fun.
They seemed okay also.
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| Approaching Fort Jeff. We have to go completely around to wind up where you see the ferry boat. |
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| Our first anchorage. Straight off the coal docks (more about that later.) |
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| Our boat parade friend, Champagne Cher. |
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| Note our perpendicular arrangement with the other sailboats. (However--not the cat.) Straight in front of us is the buddy boats from Marquesas rafted up together. |
Marquesa to Dry Tortugas
After getting up and getting a good breakfast in us. We took off for the Tortugas. The wind was more on our aft so we opted to motor sail it to ensure that we'd make it to the anchorage with plenty of daylight left.
Without the engine having to put forth much effort and just the headsail up we cooked along at a very pleasant 7-7.5 knots with some surfing in open water up to 10kts.
After reviewing the waypoints and chart with Tim, I head down below to get some sleep. The night before I was up a lot, had faith in our holding, but got woke up by a rowdy commercial fishing vessel and then later, by a weird sound. I looked out our galley port and there's freaking bird just hovering at eye level with me. Ghost bird, I freaked out. Tim was not amused to be woken up by this.
Since our back berth is inset between what is the two aft lazzerettes, I utilized the pillows and comforter to make me a little nest to prevent me from rolling around. And whaddya know! I actually got a good solid hours sleep.
Without the engine having to put forth much effort and just the headsail up we cooked along at a very pleasant 7-7.5 knots with some surfing in open water up to 10kts.
After reviewing the waypoints and chart with Tim, I head down below to get some sleep. The night before I was up a lot, had faith in our holding, but got woke up by a rowdy commercial fishing vessel and then later, by a weird sound. I looked out our galley port and there's freaking bird just hovering at eye level with me. Ghost bird, I freaked out. Tim was not amused to be woken up by this.
Since our back berth is inset between what is the two aft lazzerettes, I utilized the pillows and comforter to make me a little nest to prevent me from rolling around. And whaddya know! I actually got a good solid hours sleep.
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Key West to Marquesa
Finally, we are off. We had the wind on our aft quarter, so we could get some sails up. YAY! Lovely sail to Marquesa Key averaging around 6 - 6.5 knots. A bit crazy taking the sails in because my line handler once again thought it would be fun to take a fully loaded sheet off the winch.
Once again a learning moment, instead of trying to go downwind like he asked, I should have tacked to make the other sheet the working sheet. (I had it prepped on a the winch.)
We learn by dumbass maneuvers.
Our second dumbass maneuver was that we anchored, well, pretty much in the Caribbean from what I can surmise. Holy crap. We've been here before and had great anchorage. But our Raymarine chart was really goofy. We could have got in closer. And we were hailed by some boats saying that we could, but we didn't. And we paid the price in rocking and rolling all night long. (and not in a fun way.)
Once again a learning moment, instead of trying to go downwind like he asked, I should have tacked to make the other sheet the working sheet. (I had it prepped on a the winch.)
We learn by dumbass maneuvers.
Our second dumbass maneuver was that we anchored, well, pretty much in the Caribbean from what I can surmise. Holy crap. We've been here before and had great anchorage. But our Raymarine chart was really goofy. We could have got in closer. And we were hailed by some boats saying that we could, but we didn't. And we paid the price in rocking and rolling all night long. (and not in a fun way.)
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| Can't really see, but my boy sails in socks. It was a bit chilly on the water. |
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| I am a bit chillier than sock sailor. |
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| Yeah, we anchored that. far. away. |
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| Requisite sunset pic. |
Prepping for our trip
After a couple of delays due to dead dinghy and trouble shooting a few things, we were ready to finally do a trip to the Dry Tortugas. Seven years in the making using a boat we owned ourselves.
As Tim worked on testing our systems and trying to break the boat, I had the task of provisioning for our 4 days (plus, for safety). The first time I had to worry about that, and also pay attention the fact that we'd be 'pack on/pack off' at the Tortugas, so no trash disposal.
I did a pretty reasonable job with supplies. We have a great set up on our boat with a deep fridge and a freezer (alcohol fridge) in the floorboards. Now that they both have be recharged and have nice working thermostats on them, we have all sorts of configurations for cold storage.
I also went through and repackaged what I could to limit the amount of trash we would have to deal with. I made a mental note to myself to get one of the battery powered handheld vacuum sealers for food for when we have longer trips to make.
All in all, I had more food than we needed, and still plenty of storage left. Big thanks for by Bday present of mobile wine bag that also helped save a lot of space.
As Tim worked on testing our systems and trying to break the boat, I had the task of provisioning for our 4 days (plus, for safety). The first time I had to worry about that, and also pay attention the fact that we'd be 'pack on/pack off' at the Tortugas, so no trash disposal.
I did a pretty reasonable job with supplies. We have a great set up on our boat with a deep fridge and a freezer (alcohol fridge) in the floorboards. Now that they both have be recharged and have nice working thermostats on them, we have all sorts of configurations for cold storage.
I also went through and repackaged what I could to limit the amount of trash we would have to deal with. I made a mental note to myself to get one of the battery powered handheld vacuum sealers for food for when we have longer trips to make.
All in all, I had more food than we needed, and still plenty of storage left. Big thanks for by Bday present of mobile wine bag that also helped save a lot of space.
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| Holds two bottles of wine. |
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| Fridge. Pre-cut up veggies and lunch items in bins down below. (Can't see, but easy to access.) |
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| Rednecks dream: Beer and meat. |
Scop me, baby.
Scopalamine, that is.
The magical little patches that make you not throw up all over the place. Ask your doctor if Scopalamine is right for you.
All my life I have suffered from motion sickness. Trains, planes, automobiles, boats, IMAX, 3D, you name it. Trains and planes I have adjusted to. Automobiles are still iffy if I am riding for long periods int the back of the car. IMAX, forget it.
Boats--yes, and no. Sometimes, just my pressure wristbands and a bonine and I'm fine. Other times, it doesn't matter. And sometimes, just self induced because of imbibing the night before. For reference see Mal de Mar or Sailing with Dummies.
Because of this, I just had been skeptical of scopalamine, what makes it so special.
So, Tim convinced me that we both need to give it a try.
I'm here to tell you, as somebody that gets violently seasick at times, it works. But as one of my instructors I worked with used to say: "There's no free lunches."
You place the patch on at least 4 hours before it's needed. I did it the night before.
It was very, very, very odd for me to not have at least one odd symptom of seasickness on the way out the the Tortugas. And I also think it had this serious mellowing out effect-not a bad thing. I still didn't have an urge to eat, but I didn't have the acid reflux, nausea or vertigo feeling I can get.
Being on a downwind run did help also.
Here's the big side effect thing. You get dry mouth, SERIOUSLY DRY MOUTH. You actually wish there was a dental tech with her little water pick standing beside you at all time. Because of this, I know I have to make sure there's more water than usual on board for drinking. But, drinking water. NOT A BAD THING. I had bought some Lifesavers also, and that helped.
Second side effect kicked in about 48 hours later. Double vision. I could get my calmed down with my reading glasses. Tim actually put my reading glasses on over his regular glasses. Not really an issue except when we did our brief night sailing adventure. But for me, any close reading was completely freaked out.
Those side effects are worth the fact that I can move about the boat and hold watch without having a bucket close at hand and also feeling like complete crap. I now know how it affects me, so I'll prepare accordingly.
The magical little patches that make you not throw up all over the place. Ask your doctor if Scopalamine is right for you.
All my life I have suffered from motion sickness. Trains, planes, automobiles, boats, IMAX, 3D, you name it. Trains and planes I have adjusted to. Automobiles are still iffy if I am riding for long periods int the back of the car. IMAX, forget it.
Boats--yes, and no. Sometimes, just my pressure wristbands and a bonine and I'm fine. Other times, it doesn't matter. And sometimes, just self induced because of imbibing the night before. For reference see Mal de Mar or Sailing with Dummies.
Because of this, I just had been skeptical of scopalamine, what makes it so special.
So, Tim convinced me that we both need to give it a try.
I'm here to tell you, as somebody that gets violently seasick at times, it works. But as one of my instructors I worked with used to say: "There's no free lunches."
You place the patch on at least 4 hours before it's needed. I did it the night before.
It was very, very, very odd for me to not have at least one odd symptom of seasickness on the way out the the Tortugas. And I also think it had this serious mellowing out effect-not a bad thing. I still didn't have an urge to eat, but I didn't have the acid reflux, nausea or vertigo feeling I can get.
Being on a downwind run did help also.
Here's the big side effect thing. You get dry mouth, SERIOUSLY DRY MOUTH. You actually wish there was a dental tech with her little water pick standing beside you at all time. Because of this, I know I have to make sure there's more water than usual on board for drinking. But, drinking water. NOT A BAD THING. I had bought some Lifesavers also, and that helped.
Second side effect kicked in about 48 hours later. Double vision. I could get my calmed down with my reading glasses. Tim actually put my reading glasses on over his regular glasses. Not really an issue except when we did our brief night sailing adventure. But for me, any close reading was completely freaked out.
Those side effects are worth the fact that I can move about the boat and hold watch without having a bucket close at hand and also feeling like complete crap. I now know how it affects me, so I'll prepare accordingly.
LED lights
We finally, got the lights replaced this trip. No small feat considering there's over 40+ lights on the boat.
However, in replacing them we found an oh so important reason to get non-halogen lights on the boat. If you haven't replace them yet, make sure you at least replace the one in your engine compartment.
Another thing we learned is the rheostat (#fancywordforlightdimmer) cannot make LEDs go completely out, so Tim installed an on/off switch for the salon.
He also supplied my galley and my vanity light with a bit brighter LEDs. What a guy.
However, in replacing them we found an oh so important reason to get non-halogen lights on the boat. If you haven't replace them yet, make sure you at least replace the one in your engine compartment.
Another thing we learned is the rheostat (#fancywordforlightdimmer) cannot make LEDs go completely out, so Tim installed an on/off switch for the salon.
He also supplied my galley and my vanity light with a bit brighter LEDs. What a guy.
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| My job: Sort and unwrap. |
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| The old halogens with our melted cover from engine room. |
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| Close up of how plastic had melted--oh, did I mention? ENGINE ROOM. |
List from hell
Here's the list after we took our first blue water sail. Holy crap. However, some of this list started before we ever left the dock. I will address some of this in posts to follow. See below for what we hammered out.
Generator: Tim tested it in the dock and it ran for 5 minutes, sputtered and crapped out. Then we got what every boat owner wants to see: Water leak alarm on the generator panel. So, we gots Mr. Generator put to bed. Just found out today that there was a crap ass silicone 'patch' on the generator that failed and there's a lot of corrosion and dry hose. So, if we had ran it, we most likely would have set the boat on fire. F*($k. We didn't, but now we have some big B.O.A.T. units to shell out to fix this problem.
OC tender: To take a line from the musical Hamilton. "You married a Icarus, and he's flown to close to the sun." My boy dreamed big, but he dreamed bigger than what the little tender could handle. So Zeus is dead. (Pulp Fiction: Zed's dead, baby) The the combination of the attachment points to the davits and the weight in the dinghy-and possibly the Key West summer heat-Zeus suffered some serious structural distortion. If we had tried to keep her on the davits, even without the weight of the Torqeedo batteries, she would have shredded on our way to the Dry Tortugas. Thankfully we didn't get rid of Tiny Dancer or the other Torqeedo yet, so we got them rigged up.
Senders: Waste tank sender already fixed, it got stuck. Water sender has bad threading and we can't get it fitted to our tank, so we will get it grinded to right threading or they will send new one.
Stern light: We replaced our nav lights with LEDs just to find out that now, they are always lit. Long story short-because I am not the electrical guru on the boat. The diode that leads from the main power switch of the electrical panel to the nav lights went bad, so there was a constant short that provided enough ampage to power an LED light. Got that? No? Yeah. Email Tim if you want more info. However, it got fixed after we got back, and Sparky is so proud of himself of that. I got to sit at the back of the boat like a jackass going, IT'S ON, IT'S OFF, IT'S ON, IT'S OFF.
All things anchor: More details in a bit, but remote is bad, snubber needs upgraded, and where the chain meets nylon rode is not good. As in, jams up the windlass not good.
Propane/stove: Tim installed new sensors for propane in the galley. It's either placement or sensitivity, but the damn thing would go off as soon as I tried to cook. So, I get something started in the oven, start the stove. BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP and it does its job by killing the gas, but then I have to restart everything. By now, the stove has had a bit of a build up of propane, so I'd open it and it would set off the sensor again. Newly invented cuss words during cooking on the hook this time. Generator shot, so no microwave.
I think the one thing is Front spot light, and more on that later.
Generator: Tim tested it in the dock and it ran for 5 minutes, sputtered and crapped out. Then we got what every boat owner wants to see: Water leak alarm on the generator panel. So, we gots Mr. Generator put to bed. Just found out today that there was a crap ass silicone 'patch' on the generator that failed and there's a lot of corrosion and dry hose. So, if we had ran it, we most likely would have set the boat on fire. F*($k. We didn't, but now we have some big B.O.A.T. units to shell out to fix this problem.
OC tender: To take a line from the musical Hamilton. "You married a Icarus, and he's flown to close to the sun." My boy dreamed big, but he dreamed bigger than what the little tender could handle. So Zeus is dead. (Pulp Fiction: Zed's dead, baby) The the combination of the attachment points to the davits and the weight in the dinghy-and possibly the Key West summer heat-Zeus suffered some serious structural distortion. If we had tried to keep her on the davits, even without the weight of the Torqeedo batteries, she would have shredded on our way to the Dry Tortugas. Thankfully we didn't get rid of Tiny Dancer or the other Torqeedo yet, so we got them rigged up.
Senders: Waste tank sender already fixed, it got stuck. Water sender has bad threading and we can't get it fitted to our tank, so we will get it grinded to right threading or they will send new one.
Stern light: We replaced our nav lights with LEDs just to find out that now, they are always lit. Long story short-because I am not the electrical guru on the boat. The diode that leads from the main power switch of the electrical panel to the nav lights went bad, so there was a constant short that provided enough ampage to power an LED light. Got that? No? Yeah. Email Tim if you want more info. However, it got fixed after we got back, and Sparky is so proud of himself of that. I got to sit at the back of the boat like a jackass going, IT'S ON, IT'S OFF, IT'S ON, IT'S OFF.
All things anchor: More details in a bit, but remote is bad, snubber needs upgraded, and where the chain meets nylon rode is not good. As in, jams up the windlass not good.
Propane/stove: Tim installed new sensors for propane in the galley. It's either placement or sensitivity, but the damn thing would go off as soon as I tried to cook. So, I get something started in the oven, start the stove. BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP and it does its job by killing the gas, but then I have to restart everything. By now, the stove has had a bit of a build up of propane, so I'd open it and it would set off the sensor again. Newly invented cuss words during cooking on the hook this time. Generator shot, so no microwave.
I think the one thing is Front spot light, and more on that later.
Sunday, October 30, 2016
My, turn. The Zeus needs clothes.
Set up for this: "Honey, I'm done. It's ready to be patterned for a cover. You have two hours."
First, should I be flattered that he has faith in my skills, or should I be pissed. I was a combo of both.
Cue in sound of Lisa or Marge Simpson snarling.
So I threw together a pattern based on research and other covers I have seen. But if you don't have the actual object there to finalize? it tain't gonna work out.
So, I go with the basic 'box' design. It means that it will be the shape of the boat, but not fitted and thus windage will be a problem. I installed straps below, but I've seen plenty of covers where that just isn't enough over the bow and stern.
Tim will say it was his idea all along. Tim's life got threatened a lot.
Remember, when the sail loft is open..no 'suggestions' while there are rippers, scissors and hot knives present.
So, another photo story for you.
So, we decide to try the old grommet and bungie cord method of fitting the bottom of the cover, and it worked, and made it easy to slide on and off right before lifting.
First, should I be flattered that he has faith in my skills, or should I be pissed. I was a combo of both.
Cue in sound of Lisa or Marge Simpson snarling.
So I threw together a pattern based on research and other covers I have seen. But if you don't have the actual object there to finalize? it tain't gonna work out.
So, I go with the basic 'box' design. It means that it will be the shape of the boat, but not fitted and thus windage will be a problem. I installed straps below, but I've seen plenty of covers where that just isn't enough over the bow and stern.
Tim will say it was his idea all along. Tim's life got threatened a lot.
Remember, when the sail loft is open..no 'suggestions' while there are rippers, scissors and hot knives present.
So, another photo story for you.
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| The boat is rigged to simulate where I need to put the openings for the davits. |
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| My assistant. She sucks. |
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| After the plan B pattern was put in place. |
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| Once again, my suckass assistant (she is blended into couch). And who knew that thawed out freezer gel packs made fantastic pattern weights. |
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| Finished product after being cleaned of dog hair and chalk marks. |
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| It's the little details...... |
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| Down in Key West, and it freakin' fits (but baggy as I predicted) |
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| Yeah, don't try this at home. |
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| Pleased that measuring by paddleboard is working and the promise of wine for reward. |
Zeus, the one of a kind super electric dinghy.
And my husband our our Kiwi friend Russ will be happy to recreate it for $1 million. That would be in US, not NZ.
Let's start with the basics. The dinghy is a ultra-light (well....at first), carbon fiber rigid dinghy that weighs less than 100lb empty. Cool little dinghy. Actually was tested by the NZ coastal rescue and they couldn't sink it. Go visit their website or Facebook page. www.octenders.com
Tim got together with Russ and explained his plan...to which Russ replied. "You are quite mad, mate."
However, you can't dissuade Tim, he's a man on a mission. To help explain: We found a superlight dinghy and equipped it with a Torqeedo/Battery bank/solar power. It can take one person for a romp at 10-12kts, or it can recharge itself for the practical anchorage to shore trips every day. As back up, you can hook her up the big boat either under shore power or the generator if needed.
We are still testing the actual performance data, but at a normal cruising speed, she lasts a long time.
So first step--we help OC to figure out how to get a boat to the US. You know with customs and all that. I think at first they didn't want to, which is understandable because they were more just a local, make as you go business. But they got through that, and we had the boat shipped to Kansas so that Tim could start his mad genius work.
Think..."It's alive. IT'S ALIVE!" and then cue in Danny Elfman's "Weird Science"
So, below are a few pics. We named it Zeus to keep with the Elysium theme.
Let's start with the basics. The dinghy is a ultra-light (well....at first), carbon fiber rigid dinghy that weighs less than 100lb empty. Cool little dinghy. Actually was tested by the NZ coastal rescue and they couldn't sink it. Go visit their website or Facebook page. www.octenders.com
Tim got together with Russ and explained his plan...to which Russ replied. "You are quite mad, mate."
However, you can't dissuade Tim, he's a man on a mission. To help explain: We found a superlight dinghy and equipped it with a Torqeedo/Battery bank/solar power. It can take one person for a romp at 10-12kts, or it can recharge itself for the practical anchorage to shore trips every day. As back up, you can hook her up the big boat either under shore power or the generator if needed.
We are still testing the actual performance data, but at a normal cruising speed, she lasts a long time.
So first step--we help OC to figure out how to get a boat to the US. You know with customs and all that. I think at first they didn't want to, which is understandable because they were more just a local, make as you go business. But they got through that, and we had the boat shipped to Kansas so that Tim could start his mad genius work.
Think..."It's alive. IT'S ALIVE!" and then cue in Danny Elfman's "Weird Science"
So, below are a few pics. We named it Zeus to keep with the Elysium theme.
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| Gel coat being applied over the base. |
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| Packing for shipping. |
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| Off to the cargo ship. We had the info, so Tim and I tracked it on VesselFinder.com. |
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| After arrival in Kansas, the battery platform was built and batteries installed. |
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| The first part of my involvement in this escapade-a cover for the battery bank/seat. |
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| Okay, it doesn't really have everything on this switch panel, okay, it has everything except cabin lights. |
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| Arrival in Key West. Not all power cells installed yet. |
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| All power cells, and front nav lights can be seen. |
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| Zee Torqeedo. |
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| The control that run from solar to batteries. |
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