Felize Cumpleanos to me! 58 Years and still kickin'

Monday, February 28, 2011

Felize Cumpleanos to me! 58 Years and still kickin'

As birthdays go, this has been pretty damned good. I remember my last, in St Marten, which was wonderful and spent with good, new friends.This year's has been spread over several days - with more to come, I think - and each fun in its own way.

Saturday was my birthday and also the cruiser's potluck BBQ here at Fantasy. So, I bought 2 carrot cakes to bring to the pot luck as my contribution. Laying on the beach all afternoon, baking I should add, the manager here, Marianella, came by and told me she was bringing her two girls so spend some of the day here, and would I take them for another dink ride and play with them.

I forgot all about them. After baking on the beach, I walked over to my dock, put a better shirt on, and picked up the 2 cakes, plates, cutting knife, etc. and set off for the 'marina green'. As I passed the pool, to beautiful little Latina faces jumped out at me, from the pool, and I remember my obligation. Dropped off my 2 cakes for the cruisers, and headed back to AF to get the dink and ride over to the beach where my 2 little friends waited with their nanny. I rode them over to the cruiser's BBQ for a picture - proof that I was with 2 beautiful Latin ladies, but alas, very young. They enjoy the ride in the dink, but even more, they like to play a game with my hand pump. They fill it with sea water, I say it is broken, putting my finger in the hole, and when I put my face in to see what the problem is, one of them pumps water into my face, 'surprising' me. It gets a laugh every time.

So, although not perfect, my birthday was pretty nice.

Nice dates, huh??

When I was done playing with the girls, I returned to the BBQ to find that most of the food was gone, but Jerry and Annie shared a spare chicken breast with me, I had 2 different pasta salads, a piece of my carrot cake.

When I arrived, friend Joyce made sure that I got a happy birthday sung to me, and she had also bought a delicious rum cake for me as well. My time with the girls had messed up her plan, but she saved me some cake so I had TWO pieces.

Thank you so much, Joyce. (Paul departed for the States that morning for his next spinal surgery, but not before presenting me with a great LED light strip that I hope will work in my galley. Thanks, Paul.)

Sunday morning, Skip returned from Brick Bay, and surprised me with another cake that he asked Morris Johnson to bake for me. He said Morris was happy to be doing for me, and I am sure that I have made another friend here on Roatan.

This one I shared with more of the workers here who have become friends, than I was able to with the others, but there was enough that night to offer some to Skip, Jean-Marie, the guy who is head of security and who's name I cannot remember for the life of me, and Edsel, local guy who is boat sitting 2 boats behind me. Later, taxi driver Edgar showed up - I think he can smell free rum and Cokes - and had the last piece.

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.