Well, I've done it again.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Well, I've done it again.

Doesn't look like I will be posting any pictures for a while. The other night I left a hatch open for ventilation all night and didn't hear the rain. The laptop was sitting almost 2 ft away, but the rain that night blew in and soaked it. Water was dripping out the laptop bottom. Fortunately, I had shut it off instead of putting it to sleep, so there was no power on, but for the charger. I have had it sitting about, in different positions to drain/air out since then. Today, I fired it up, after discovering that I do NOT have a hair dryer aboard, just a heat gun, and that is a bit too extreme, and I got a major boot failure. The hard drive, with lot of saved stuff on it may be fried. I don't know at this point. So I am using the old IBM that I bought online and used, for the sole purpose of SSB communication and maybe, navigation. It is a bit old. And has no slot for the card from my digital camera. I bought an adapter/reader a long time ago, but doubt if I brought it along or if I could find it anyway.

I should add that, just before departure, I bought a little notebook/laptop called an Acer. Is supposed to be enough for web and email, only, with a smaller keyboard and screen, but handier for me to take ashore to use WiFi when I get south. Smaller, less power, and I think it even has a camera built in. But I have never taken it out of the box, and didn't expect to until I reached the Carib. So, I will do that sometime soon, and then see if I can load the Verizon software on it so that I can use this phone card, and should be able to post pictures again.

The good news is that this morning, I loaded the dink with the jib, all folded and tied up, and took it into the sail loft for re-stitching the UV cover. It is a tattered mess for about half of the sail. God only knows what it will cost, and it was suggested that I certainly could do it myself, just sewing by hand, new thread into the old holes, but I don't really know anything about sails, and don't want to learn the hard way. It appears that the sail itself is in fine shape, and seems to me to be very heavy cloth, which in this case is great. I had the help yesterday of Drake and Erin, 2 new friends. I mentioned Drake in another post because, he is also single handing, and is the man who towed in a yacht in distress during the same mess I was caught in. A collision, caused by the other boat not standing watch for a few minutes, while Drake went below, has caused about $5k of damage to his boat, and the guy wouldnt even pay him for the fuel he used. They will be departing this week, probably, and are also headed for St Maarten, so maybe I will see them again. Very nice to come out and give me a hand getting the jib down and folded. (I had never done it before.)

I also walked up to the hardware store and have purchased the copper tubing and fittings to repair the steering and will go to work directly on that. It is all stuff stocked by any hardware store, and for only $50 I bought enough tubing - 8 ft - and a handful of fittings - Bermuda prices! Wow. I only bought enough to repair the bad spot that blew, rebuilding about a third of the plastic with copper. I even walked back to the store and bought a Bermuda courtesy flag, for only $30! But, these people have been fantastic to me, and I am so grateful that the island was even here, that I feel that I should show the typical respect that a visiting boat should display.

It is customary, if I understand it completely, when a vessel approaches a foreign port, to display what is still called a quarantine flag - plain yellow. Has been this way for over 100+ years I believe - maybe 200, and in the old days, it meant just that - Stay Clear - The boat was quarantined for some disease. And after you have cleared their customs and immigration, while you still fly the flag of your own nation at it normal place, you fly a small flag of the host nation, on the starboard side of the ship - referred to as a courtesy flag. I have about 25 of them aboard for different countries I hope to visit, but never thought I would ever be stopping this far north, so I bought one today and hoisted it, out of respect.

The other bad news is that, after clearing the thru hull fitting of whatever had clogged it, I ran the generator this morning, and it appears that I have chewed up the blades of the cooling pump impeller. It is a job that I dread tackling, as it took me over a day last year, to figure out where it was, how to get to it, and how to repair it, and then, I lost one bolt holding it in place to the bilge somewhere. As I have said in recent emails, the pump is waaaay over there, on the far, bottom corner, in the most difficult place to reach and get to on the generator, meaning that I have to stand, bent over the generator, and work on the far bottom corner of the unit. Tough on the back, and tough on the patience. I have since learned that it is probably easier to remove the pump (4 or maybe 5 hard to reach bolts, and 2 hose clamps, I think) and replace the impeller on a table top, and then put the pump back into place. Easier than trying to squeeze the impeller into the place with the pump in its correct running position.

So, going to get as much done on each of these projects as possible today and tonight. When I run out of something on one, I move to the next, and when I run out of something on it, then I go to shore and buy stuff.

The queen of England comes here tomorrow about 2pm, I think. The soldiers were coming into town as I walked back from the hardware store towing artillery pieces, and piling out of their trucks, and practicing their drills. And painters are finishing up the little stand they have built in Town Square. It looks like I may be able to stand within 20-30 yards of her, if the crowds are not too big, and my impression after talking to a few is that they could care less. I don't think I would stand to see any American politician, but the queen of England is something special to me, for some reason. I hope I have a good seat and can get a picture or two. I will shower in the morning, and shave, and find a shirt with a collar, brush my hair, remember my passport, just in case, and go in about noon, ignoring the remaining chores, and see if I can get close. Maybe I can get a photo with her... How cool would that be! ha!

So that is it for the current situation here in lovely Bermuda. It is hot enough that you sweat but still cool, as well. Very nice place. Just too expensive.

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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.