Everyday Life.....

Monday, February 28, 2011

Everyday Life.....

Life for me is pretty basic and becoming something of a routine. A good routine, mind you. (Lately, I get up at 8am, make my coffee and drink it with a local sugar biscuit, run my little jog out the beaches, do some needed sit ups and a few push ups, and internet.) The trade winds are back - strong at night, but keep the clouds cleared away and the sun on the beach can bake you, and you dont know it because of the breeze. So a few hours on the beach, reading - I read about 3 books a week lately - or watching the ladies walk by. A few orange juices followed often by a few rum and orange juices, rum and Coke, or beers. Some lunch on the boat, or early dinner sometimes, a nap often fits in late in the day, and after some dinner, return to the bar to see what is about that night.
Occasionally, the routine is broken by some nice folks - sometimes boaters, and other times, guests at the resort. Below is Emilio and his daughter, Paloma. He is a retired Iberia Air pilot, flying for a tiny airline in Guatemala now, and she owns a small restaurant in what they describe as a beautiful village in Southeast Spain. She sent me photos on Facebook, and it is beautful. Also, her mother owns a small hotel in Morocco, and the photos of that are amazing.
This wonderful couple have an amazing friendship and closeness now, and I was glad to invite them for another rum and Coke on AF, along with my buddy, Rene - the Austrian, who bought me a beer in Guatemala one day. His gf, Petra has returned to Vienna, and he is deciding where to leave his boat for the season - return to the Rio Dulce, or leave it on the hard here at the new ship yard.
Anyway, Emilio and Paloma are 2 special people and I am so glad to have met them.

You might remember that I feed the Watusas every day. I whistle and they come running. Because I am alone, there are never any pictures of me doing it, but Skip was here one day on his boat, and asked to 'feed my kids."

A funny thing happened the other day. When I whistled and they came running - about 5 of them just now - I noticed a small iguana coming as well. Now he responds and comes running, and has started to take the bread or cookie out of my hand, like the 'rabbits' do, although he whips his tail at them - his defense, even with those mean countenances. I understand that a large one can leave quite a welt on your leg if they whip a man.

So that is a taste of my life lately. Not too special, but - hey, not too shabby, either.

Life is good.

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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.