Hamilton Trip

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Hamilton Trip

I have put off sightseeing, because I felt there was important stuff to do, things to fix, and break, and fix again, here on AF. But my necessary trip to Immigration in Hamilton forced the issue, and so today I was a sightseer a bit.

Sandra at BYS - green bldg in previous post - told me yesterday to get up early and get on the bus, and be there when they opened, so that is what I did. The bay was glass when I left AF, and dinked in. It was the first time I locked the hatch! Really wanted to open up the dink and fly, but took my time. The all day bus pass was $12, and gets you on the ferry system as well, so after an hour's ride on what ended up being a crowded bus - I even offered my seat to a woman and stood the last 15 minutes - I stepped off at the bus terminal downtown. The ride was very nice and picturesque, and the drivers, both in and back, were amazing to thread the bus through some pretty narrow bends.

A couple blocks walk to the Federal Building and I had my number for the line. And was the next called, too. Met with a very nice, attractive, and very formal young lady who extended my stay here another 2 weeks. I was shocked when I heard the date - a couple days before Christmas. I HAVE to get out of here!

Scooter parking on Front Street, where I ordered a lot of booze, duty free, saving, perhaps 1/3 to 1/2 of US cost. It will be delivered to the Customs dock here, and I will pick it up when I am cleared to depart:

Walked out and found the Lemon Tree Restaurant, which 2 different men told me was a great girl-watching spot at lunch. I didn't get to hang around for noon but had a nice sandwich, which the fellow below wanted me to share:

And I wish the picture below showed better, but this old, very distinguished Bemudan came in, got a coffee and opened his paper, to be joined by the lady. But, after he lit a cigarette, I saw what is my image of an Old English Bermudan gentleman. Dressed to the 9's and very elegant. (The picture really was NOT taken to get the lady in the background, who was diligently reading some report, and making notes.)

When I left, I had to hurry as I had to get to the ferry terminal for the trip to the Navy Yards; ferry departing at noon, where I walked about 5 blocks and turned around and rode back on the same ferry. It is just a tourist spot, and where the cruise ships tie up. And I had been told there was a West Marine type store there. Oh, well.

These photos below do not do justice to the beauty and elegance of the homes you see from the ferry ride.

I understand that Ross Perot and Michael Douglas have homes here, but have no idea where. Supposedly they can walk the streets without being accosted by fans or photogs here. Wouldn't mind bumping into Catherine Zeta-Jones on the street!

I heard some news relevant to the blog. I recently reported 2 boats in trouble. A Canadian, who has not been found, and a man with broken ribs, also single handing. He was reported to have been removed from his boat, and the boat left adrift. That was incorrect. The latest is that he refused the lift off the boat, and when it was located again a few days later, they found him in the cockpit, dead. BYS has just been hired to go out, locate, and bring in the boat. Should arrive tomorrow.

Met a fellow this evening on a 54 Hylas, from Charlotte, NC. He was a top manager, or possible partner, I think, with The Oxford Group, for whom I worked at one point, doing the plumbing on one of their condo projects. But he doesn't know the same folks that I know, if you understand me.

So, that is the end of another wonderful day - beautiful weather today - in Bermuda. Going to dink in and find the captain of the Charlotte boat, and have a beer. He sailed a Morgan 46 for 8 months, he said.

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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.