Chase, Yamaha, and Christmas Party

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Chase, Yamaha, and Christmas Party

Two nights ago, the day after I slipped on the steps, I pulled the dink up and climbed in to clean that fuel filter, since it had really let me down the day before. It runs so consistently well, and then, for no apparent reason, starts acting up, and it is not something new. Has been like this since I bought the boat. But I cleaned the carb really well this summer in Pittsburgh, and it has been pretty reliable since I arrived here. (For non boaters, the dink is my car. It is the way to get to the store, or restaurant, or town. St George is a very cruiser friendly town, with a nice dinghy dock, and some businesses have one as well. When you live on anchor, you must have a reliable dink. ) So, I cleaned the filter, took a screwdriver and started playing with the mixture, idle speed, and even touched the timing just a bit, and for the first time, I thought it was purring wonderfully - the timing adjustment was a new fix for me. That night, I went over to the dink club with laundry, for supper and a few beers. It stalled as I arrived and was very hard to re-start. There was the local mechanic at the club, and he loaned me a screwdriver in case I needed it, with an appointment to see him the next day. I got her started again, and about 50 yards out of the club marina, she stalled again. At a certain speed she runs great, though. The seas were just too rough to go too fast. But, I got home OK.

When I was paying my tab at the restaurant, my Chase Visa was declined. I had just paid the bill online - I try to pay it twice a month. I used my debit, and left. When I got onto AF, late, with the engine troubles, I used Skype on a poor wifi connection to call them, and in 5 calls managed to glean that 1- the card was compromised 2- it was reported to Chase by a police agency 3-there were Netflix charges on it 4-there was nothing they could do but cancel it.

Yesterday, I took the the dink over to Bryan's dock on the south shore of the bay, with the 4hp aboard, in case I had to leave the 15hp. Bryan worked on it for over an hour, doing the same things that I do, and did, and finally was sure it was better. I said, "Put your money where your mouth is," and untied the painter and he took off in it. About 75 yards later, it failed. And failed again, and again, and again, and eventually, he disappeared from view, blown by the wind. He finally made it back, and the engine was offloaded and taken to his shop. We put the 4hp on and that is what I will use until Monday. Goes kinda slow in this wind, that is for sure.

I stopped at AF and got the Acer and went into Bermuda Yacht Service, to use Skype on their hi speed wifi, and called Chase. Nothing they can do but re-issue the card, and it will be weeks before I can get the new one after it is mailed to Florida, forwarded to me in some port, activate it, and be able to use it. Glad I have the Master Card hidden away. Did a bit of grocery shopping, came back to AF and put some nicer clothes on, with my rain gear over top, and went in to the Christmas Party.

This is a long shot from the south shore. AF is to the left.

A closeup of AF from the South Shore.

While waiting for Bryan to come back in the dink, they towed in the long aluminum boat, on the right. That is the smaller government tow/rescue boat on the left. This boat, from what I heard on the radio, had lost her steering like I had.

Very, very nice party, and met some new friends, but knew about a third of the folks there, from meeting at the Dinghy Club or other businesses. And, of course, the cruisers that I have met, as well. The young couple whose 28 Cape Dory lost its mast were there, and I congratulated them on getting the new one installed.

Drank a beer called Carlsberg Elephant, and found out why they chose the name. It is about 12 or 16% alcohol, and two make you tipsy, for sure. Guess if you drink too many, you feel like you were stepped on by an elephant the next day. Good traditional party food, and lots of fun and laughs. Left early though, before it got out of hand.

Below is Town Hall with Christmas lights. I was standing to the far right when I saw the queen.

Met a nice French couple on - what else? An Amel. They have invited me to visit, and have offered to ride along to the fuel dock with me, to fend and handle lines. Very nice. Older couple with decent English, although he asked her in French a few times to clarify what I said.

So, I am waiting for the 15 to be fixed. Bryan is as amazed as I am about it. He also thought he had it running perfectly. I think that it could end up being a flaky power pack, but he still things carb troubles. We shall see.......

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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.