s/v Annah Foster - My Last Adventure by Dennis Doak

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The jib is bent onto the furler now, thanks to Mack, one of my new Canadian friends. I helped them a bit yesterday morning, picked up the jib, did a bit of shopping, and then Mack and I came out to AF and got it properly installed. So, that is one job now complete. Mack is an interesting fellow, having traveled the world in the Canadian Navy, and was even a submariner for a time, I guess. His stories are so many, and varied, it is hard to place him at any one point in time, to what he was doing then. Child hood, navy career, and post career - he jumps around with such great stories and is full of knowledge of places, foods, sailing tips, and the like, it is like scanning through an encyclopedia. I appreciate his time and efforts here yesterday. A good, new friend.

I was going to take the bus to the capital today, to look around, but have decided to stick around and finish the steering, completely, and hopefully, successfully. We are in for some more bad weather, and I don't want to get caught on the capital streets in the rain. But I MUST get down there to see more of the island before my departure.

I picked up some squid bait yesterday, and will wet a hook again today, while working elsewhere on the boat, and hope to hear the rod jump and bang - it will be tied off - with dinner. Triggerfish is most common here where I am anchored and supposedly will have no scales, and a nice white meat for broiling a fillet. Almost too pretty to eat, though, eh? But the same bait could grab up a Grouper, and that would be fantastic, as they are great fighters, and even better suppers!

But not this big! Caught on a hand line, this fellow must have had an all day fight!

Oh, I almost forgot. A friend I made in Baltimore, but from up Pennsylvania way, with the schooner, Island Time sent me this photo so I could post it. Mike has been following the blog, and occasionally sends me the best emails, with lots of thought, and information, descriptions of things. They are always such a pleasure to read. We met in the rain outside the Irish Pub, the night I brought AF back from having her bottom painted in Annapolis, and caroused Fell's Point a bit for a few nights, and had a ball together. He is a thinking man, and we had such good talks together. Mike hopes to someday cut the dock lines and leave, but his work dominates his life today. He just put Island Time on the the hard for the winter, and is already suffering withdrawal pains, as being on a boat can be such therapy to many of us.

2 comments:

westrongDecember 1, 2009 at 6:03 PM
That's no Triggerfish...that's a Baracuda!!!
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UnknownFebruary 15, 2010 at 12:41 PM
Dennis, Should you run into Kennedy McLeod of Far Star in Marigot Bay please give him my best wishes. I've been following his blog as well as yours and a few others. To jog your memory I was one of the crew on "Island Time" and we met at the Irish Pub in Baltimore.It was wet and cold. Best wishes, fair winds and following seas.
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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.