Quiet Wednesday

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Quiet Wednesday

As you can see by the first picture, this is a very fast-paced life. Since the lobsters escaped the clutches of the Great Hunters, Skip came over with the suggestion that we go buy lobsters in Coxen Hole. Dennis was waiting for the refrigerator repair man to come, so Skip and I went shopping. Dennis knows an English speaking taxi driver named Edgar, who was our guide. Coxen Hole is the Capital of Roatan Island and Edgar is very proud of it. Edgar actually named and described each "town" on our way to Coxen Hole.

We stopped at the Deck Cafe for a beer where Skip and I also shot a game of pool. Neither of us have played in a coon's age so the game took a while. Skip finally won. :-) In Coxen Hole we first went where Skip wanted to buy lobster, then we went to a man Edgar knew and got a better deal. After another stop for a bathroom and a beer, we made some other stops and headed back to Annah Foster. This took us about three hours since Edgar wasn't in any hurry what so ever.

While we were shopping Dennis had to work on the refrigeration unit. I don't believe they got it completely working yet, but Dennis was able to put the extra lobster tails in the ice maker. This evening, Chef Dennis made another fantastic dinner with lobster and curry rice. Skip is going to make a lobster soup for another dinner.

After dinner the music began. My friends Harry C, Harry V, Nicole V and Eric W would have enjoyed this emmensely. Dennis has an electric keyboard and is an accomplished pianist. Dennis has a lot of music to play and does it well. Skip has a guitar and a saxaphone that he plays. Even though they did do a bit of music together, Dennis plays with music and embellishes once he is comfortable with the song and Skip just "jams" on either the sax or guitar. One of the security gaurds came over at one point and sat and listened from the dock. A relaxing evening watching two friends enjoy music together.

Friday, Dennis and I are going snorkeling with the dolphins. He has called Edgar to be our chauffer for the afternoon/day. We will see what today holds for us. Dennis is already starting to tease me about having to go back to my life as we are floating along from day to day without anything pressing. Heck I haven't even read the internet news. I'm completely out of touch -- okay so I'm usually out of touch, but it is relaxing down here in the islands.

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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.