More Happy Easter!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

More Happy Easter!

I am not sure if I have written that I hired a man to come to the boat to finish the work on my steering, and had to throw him off the boat, after 2 hours. It is part of the negative stuff that I have been dealing with lately, and I choose not to mention it in detail here, but the event really upset me for a couple days. A few days later, I talked with a friend of my Aussie buddy Graham, and he agreed to come out and finish the work, which went well. He would stop and ask me to look at his work periodically to make sure he was doing it to my liking, and all in all, it was a good experience, although, he has not tender, so I had to ride over to Simpson Bay each morning and return him again at 5 pm.

There is no word, at this time, from the Pittsburgh attorney whom I hired to work on the tax situation. Several weeks ago, he wrote that his assistant's father had passed away, and that it would be put on the back burner for a while, but enough time has passed that he should be able to determine if he has everything to clean up this mess. I feel unable to plan a departure date from here until I know that either it is solved or on its way to be solved. While I wait, I am paying for very good, but still unreliable, internet access here, as well as maintaining a cell phone, which, by the way, costs the same as I paid for my first in 1986 - 25 cents per minute. My first cell, which had a big box screwed under my van's seat, and a hand set fixed to the dashboard, cost me $100 for 400 minutes each month, and as I recall, would not switch me to the next cell as I drove, but would just drop the call.

I have offered some help in the last month or so to my friend Claire, who found a boat to buy - the Marin Gouin - which I think means the mosquito sailor, but don't quote me on that. Apparently, if you mis-pronounce it in French, it means, Sailing Lesbian. She and Bernard and others have had a lot of fun listening to my terrible French, and this has been one source of laughter for them. The boat, a 30 year old CSY 37 was on the hard in Marigot, but was flagged as a Nederlands Antilles boat, and being sold by French Canadians. So the paper process was a bit complicated, and she asked me once to drive to Phillipsburg to inquire, in English, exactly how the paper process would work, and what was required. After she bought the boat, we were required to take the boat to Phillipsburg, about a 2 hour ride, by motor, for a government inspector to see the boat and the safety equipment.

So, last week, she and I and Bernard drove it up to P-burg and back, in one day, and had a good time. My ribs prevented me from doing anything strenuous, but I did use my dink as a tug boat to push her bow around out of her slip in the marina, and upon our return, back in. Otherwise, I acted as interpreter with the official, and had a good time.

Recently, running the generator, I noticed, for the millionth time perhaps, that the cooling water intake was clogged and the generator was about to over heat. Donning mask and snorkel, I dove on the intake and I was able to remove the trash that had been sucked up into the through-hull opening. It was a rather small piece of plastic. This is the kind of trash that really makes life miserable sometimes, although, sometimes it is only seaweed or grass.My good Buddy, Graham, the Aussie, with mate (POM, Dave) returned for a few days to St Martin, before he completes his job on the catamaran he has captained. He takes it next to Grenada, and then flies to London, and then on to Thailand to pick up a different boat. (What a life, huh?) With his return, came several nights of partying. Last week, Claire joined us and we all had a ball, starting out at Toppers for karaoke, and then sneaking up to see my friend Sam, who is now bartending at a topless bar. Claire agreed to go, for the fun, and she and I entered first, and after waiting a bit, Graham came in for the real surprise for Sammy. She took good care of us with the drinks and we misbehaved properly. I am not sure the time when Claire and I returned to Marigot in the dink, but it was pretty late.

Patrons are not permitted to take photos at the topless bar, but I snapped a couple, just of my friends, not the 'ladies', before being told, by Sam, that it was not allowed. Above is Graham, and below, they try to pose for me whilst I try to hide the camera.

We all had a great dinner the other night with Ellison, and his new girlfriend, Lisa, who is crew on a big yacht. They are both so nice, and would do anything for me, I think. They have asked me if I would like to baby sit their dogs for a week while they visit another island, and stay at their apartment, with use of Ellison's Range Rover. I am not sure if time will allow, but it is something that I am considering. We shall see......Yesterday, Claire, and Bernard and I met a couple who just arrived from South America. I visited them today on their boat for a couple of minutes. They are real cruisers, with no refridgeration, or auto pilot, living on a rather small boat. He is from Brazil, and she, perhaps from Venzuela, and a veterinarian, with both French, English, Portugese and Spanish, and is a wonderful interpreter. They have very little money, living on a real shoestring, and are very appreciative of any kindness. Thinking of inviting them out for spaghettie dinner soon. We shall see.

So, that is some of what has been taking up my time here in St Martin. More later......

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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.