Monday

Monday, December 7, 2009

Monday

Well, let's see where to start. Generator is shutting off again, with a clogged thru hull. Wifi antenna took a dive yesterday, during a rain storm. And, now, I am really confused about the policy for immigration here.

When I arrived here, I thought that the lady said that I had 2 weeks, could come back to this local office to extend for another week. Another week would have to be requested down in Hamilton - a bus ride. So last Saturday, my 14th day here, I went over in really bad weather, by the way, and the man said, no no no, I had 3 weeks, not 2. So to extend, come back here next Monday. So, today is Monday, and I took my time to get over there, about 11 am, and I met the first jerk I have met in Bermuda. And he said that I had to go to Hamilton to get another week. I had had 3 weeks already, and that was that. So, without going into detail, I am getting up very early tomorrow, catching the bus to Hamilton, and will wait in queue and get this squared away.

After Immigration today, I used the wifi at the green building in previous post, and started a repair ticket with the company that made my wifi antenna.

Was sitting yesterday morning, in a storm, answering an email to Joyce, when the wifi failed. Re-loaded the drivers, tried it on the other laptop, and finally went out and brought the antenna down The silicone seal in the bottom was damp. Rain had gotten into the cabling inside the antenna. Could be that it is fried. I dug out the silicone with a dental pick and put the heat gun on it, and tried it again. It sees all the antennas, and their strength, but cannot log in. Great! So, I am back to dinking into town for internet.

The generator thru hull clogged and this time, the impellor self destructed. I am going to have to put either velcro or a zipper on the generator, if this keeps up. But, the freezer is cold again, and things are moving forward. A few posts ago, I put a picture of it, closed up, but this is it with the impeller blades chewed up.

The new one is installed, and pumping water. So that was my day.

I was hoping to move the boat across the bay for this next blow, but now I am going to Hamilton. And I wanted to catch a fish or 2, really sit and just fish, but that doesn't seem to be in my future now. I came to the Dink Club last night for a couple drinks and wifi, and met a former Piedmont pilot - Norfolk - who is based here with USAir now, rents here and owns a home in Florida. Very nice guy. Frank, a local character, and he and I bought each other a round, and had a lot of fun talking, and laughing and telling lies.

Trivia - Yesterday, I spoke with the owner of the fishing boat that was anchored near me the other day, and kept me aboard until it left. I told him I had awakened with a leg cramp. So, Rx is bananas, of course. But Jevon told me that it is bad luck to have bananas on a fishing boat. Never heard that before, so I asked Frank, the 3rd guy last night - used to be a charter captain and, now, all round raconteur, and found out why. Prior to departing on a fishing trip, Earnest Hemingway said something to the effect that 'What are you doing with bananas on board? We are fishing for Marlin, so we don't need any monkey bait.' And from that, it has become bad luck for a marlin fisherman to bring bananas in his lunch.

Enough for tonight. Will see how Hamilton trip goes.

No comments:

Post a Comment

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.