Enroute to Norfolk

Monday, November 2, 2009

Enroute to Norfolk

Well, I departed Baltimore today, with some - reluctance isn’t the right word, but I hesitated and procrastinated a bit. But finally got away, with Ken’s help with the lines, and after fueling up, it was probably about 1 or 2pm. What did I forget to buy? To do? To bring along? Over and over, it played thru my mind. Well, for one thing, I forgot to clean the wheel that spins to tell me how fast thru the water I am going. Will have to do that tomorrow. Goodbye Baltimore. I don’t think that departing Norfolk, into the Atlantic will cause the same hesitancy. I am READY to get this thing going.

Baltimore:

The Bay Bridge one last time.

I am enroute to Norfolk, on an all nighter. GPS says I will be there about 10am. Will give me plenty of daylight to look around for a decent place to anchor, as well a fuel dock to top the tank off. Dragging the dink behind me. Will put her on deck when I get to an anchorage.Ate leftover fried chicken from Weis Market and leftover breakfast sausage from Whole Foods, and it kept falling out of the bread, so I ate a few off the cockpit floor. Made coffee and think that I will get used to this.. Better not say much more until I hit some waves.

It is 10pm, and a beautiful night, and the moon is full and shining down into the cockpit. Tried a non-flash picture while standing on the 'back porch'. Not much wind, so smooth going, (It will be much different in the Atlantic.) I am very lucky to be here tonight. Embarking on my last adventure. What a wonderful life I have had.

Listening now to my favorite songs: Celine and Frank singing. Satchmo - What a Wonderful World. Willy doing Over the Rainbow. Natalie singing with her dad. Patsy singing Crazy. Brings back great memories, melancholy feelings, and I feel a bit alone. Makes me want to call Anne-Marie. But this is my life, I guess. We shall see what I have to say in about 2 weeks, when, God willing, 1400 miles safely pass under the keel, and I pull into Phillipsburg, St. Maarten. Dink over to the bar where Heini’s are cheap, because they come in smaller bottles, That was a good joke on Paul, last year. Wifi up and send a message out with details of the trip. Yup, we’ll see what I have to say then. (Oh, God. Have I made a mistake?!? Sold the house. The cars. Oh dear, what have I DONE?) I think I am going to love it!
One more entry before I depart. Enough for tonight. God Bless.

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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.