s/v Annah Foster - My Last Adventure by Dennis Doak: Bermuda - Overcast but still beautiful and 76 degrees again today

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Bermuda - Overcast but still beautiful and 76 degrees again today

So, I said I would post a couple pics here today, and even with overcast skies and this wind, it is pretty nice here. I have not left AF since this blow started, although earlier today, I decided to take the risk and leave while it was more calm, but winds are back up and I will sit still and tend anchor watch instead. I am learning this stuff slowly, or rather, getting USED to this stuff slowly, and don't know yet what to feel confident about and what to worry about. But surely do not want to come back out in the dink, to find my home and all my possessions run aground and pounding on some rocks down wind, so caution is my prime thought these days.
Below is a home in the anchorage area here, and their front yard is where AF would be found most likely if she dragged anchor.

And looking this direction, you can see where I would LIKE to be anchored on the right, and the little town is in the left half. Govt House and a couple restaurants, grocery, and Bermuda Dinghy Club with restaurant and laundry. They are cleaning up the square, have built a little platform, and are painting the main buildings for the queen's visit in a week or so. Guess that will be my Thanksgiving.

Below is a pic of my anchor set up. The line on the right, going over the bow, is the snubber and it should be way out there down taht anchor chain instead of knotted so close to the boat. Note the other chain, on the port, left side, awaiting, should I start to drag. I will drop it and let out line as fast as possible, and do the snubber knot correctly.

And, for Erik, a pic of the jib situation. I wound it up too tight when I started moving the other day in that ordeal, and now there isn't enough line on the spool to reel it all the way in, so I have this bit of sail out there helping me swing back and forth in the wind. I can fix it, but choose to wait until the winds and waves are more calm, unless it becomes a real problem.

Today, I cleaned up the aft cabin, (I think I will have to move the folding bike onto deck in the future. It is strapped well to the aft ladder, but really gets in the way all the time.) and removed a fitting to take to shore when I can, as well as writing a list of parts needed. I let the wind generator spin and looked at its wiring, and think that possibly the blocking diode is blown, letting current flow backwards, shutting the genny down even when it is blowing 25 knots. Next, I am going to tackle re-stowing the forward head, which is piled to my shoulders with stuff. I need to find the flaring tool and some others at the same time.

Wondering what to make with these old bananas. Probably banana nut cake or muffins, but who knows? Banana pudding sounds good, if I can find one of Mom's pudding mixes.

Getting by just fine. Had a great, and helpful email from a fellow I met back in Baltimore, who drives a schooner boat with a big pointy piece of log sticking out the front. Thanks Mike. It was a big pick me up. And I talked with Paul a bit this morning for some advice on getting the jib down and folded when this blow stops, so I can take it ashore to the sail loft.

Winds are starting to gust, and knock me around a bit, so time to go forward again and check things out.

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About Annah Foster

Annah Foster is a 1980'ish Morgan 462. She is a USCG Documented vessel and the year on the document is 1979, which I believe is the year the keel was laid. She is known as a ketch, which means she has 2 masts, and the aft mast is forward of the rudder. She also is a center compartment boat, which means the helm is located between the 2 masts, which are, by the way, the main and the mizzen. She is equipped with roller furling on the jib/genoa sail which is the big triangular sail on the front. Her empty weight, or rather displacement, is 33,000 lbs, which is fat for her length. Mr. Morgan believed in thick fiberglas for strength and I am told that at places it is often found to be 2 inches of solid fiberglas. Her keel has encapsulated lead weighing 8,000 lbs.

She boasts 2 staterooms, - v-berth forward with separate head and twin beds aft with separate head, including the famous bathtub. The configuration of the aft stateroom could easily be changed with a change in the mattresses to an almost queen berth, port to starboard, but currently she has twins, running fore and aft, with 2 large mattress cushions separating them. There is also a ladder and sliding hatch aft for egress in an emergency, to the aft deck, which I call the back porch. I bought some director's chairs for it and have sat there many evenings enjoying a drink and sunset. The aft deck is also the location of the propane gas grill, storage for the 2 outboard motors, Yamaha 4hp 4cycle, and a Yamaha 15hp 2 cycle, which power a new Apex Lite 10'6 inflatable dinghy, which can hang from the installed davits.

The main sail has 2 reefing points on jiffy reefing and the mizzen has 1. No lines lead to the cockpit but the jib, main and mizzen sheets.

She has a Switlick 6 man life raft mounted aft the mizzen mast. And, an emergency tiller aboard.

She is equipped with a Perkins 4 cylinder diesel engine, powering a Hurth transmission and turning a 4 bladed Max Prop, which feathers when sailing, and reverses pitch in Reverse so that she has the same thrust as in Forward. One unique design flaw is that the propeller shaft exits the boat at 3 degrees off center, making the port prop walk in reverse, even worse. The engine is equipped with about a 90 amp alternator with a very good voltage regulator.

She also has a Westerbeke 5.7 kw diesel generator, which produces 110 v AC power, and charges the batteries thru a 40 amp charger. I also have a Honda 1000 watt gasoline powered generator for emergency 110v, and an automotive battery charger aboard.

She came with an old Windbugger wind generator, not quite perfectly mounted. Stowed in the V-berth, there is a replacement AirX marine wind generator and 8 foot mast waiting to be installed, along with the controller, and 2 solar panels, which are half the possible wattage the controller can handle.

She has 3 4-D AGM batteries for the house bank and a type 18 start battery - all are 12volt.

The 4 gallon water heater will heat with both engine cooling water and 110v AC power and is equipped with a mixing valve to prevent scalding.

Tankage - Water - 110 gallon port and 85 gallon center tanks
Fuel - 175 gallons
Range when new at 2250 RPM is almost 800 nm.

Currently, her refridgerator and freezer are 110 volt AC, with several holding plates each which must be manually started and stopped. She has waiting to be installed, 2 Cool Blue 12 volt systems, with automatic controls, but truthfully, I don't know where the new holding plates will fit.

Electronics -
She is equipped with 2 VHF marine band radios, one at the helm and the other at the nav station, with repeater at the helm, and a hand held low power VHF 'walkie talkie'. Also, at the nav station, she has a Single Side Band HF radio - SSB with a Pactor 2 modem making her capable of downloading NOAA weather fax and Sail Mail emails and Grb files. onto a dedicated IBM laptop. She has as primary a Raymarine E-80 Chartplotter at the helm and a smaller Garmin Chartplotter for back up at the helm, a handheld Garmin Chartplotter, and an older Furuno GPS at the nav station. She has an older Raytheon black and white 24 nm radar at the helm, with a repeater at the nav station. She has a RapidFix 406 EPIRB, emergency locator beacon, that is hand activated. She has a new Clarion AM FM CD player, with input for computer or MP3 player on 3 sets of individual speakers - cockpit, salon, and aft cabin.

For those who do not know me, I named her for my parents - Annah Margaret and George Foster Doak. It is through their beneficence that I am able to live this dream and I felt that I should dedicate my boat to honor their memories.