lundi 21 septembre 2009
051107
I may have emerged from months of seeing us drowning in ice cubes, smashed to smithereens by angry orkas, rolling head over heals by freak waves, starving in a rocky life raft, retrieving dead crew members from the sea, being run down by oil tankers... months of horror fueled by reading of all the worst that could happen to us.
020207
Change of boat, change of route, change of climate... redo all the lists. With this different boat our problems of space and weight are solved but there are new enigmas: of leaving from a unknown country on the other side of the world; on a a boat we don’t know; new weather systems; very hot instead of very cold... I still wake up once in a while in a life raft rolling under breaking waves of ice water, or some very important item I forgot pops up in my head and I can’t get back to sleep till I’ve worked it out. But things are calming down a bit. I will never get everything done, it will not be perfect, and/but we will survive. Esa is still hanging in there and being a great help, Pops helps once in a while, Arik is supporting, and the kids are a bit scared. I’ve been trying to work out a watch system. I’ve looked at any number of solutions, none of which seem optimum. Most that seem to work out logically are multiples of 2 hours, which seem out of sync with my experience, which is more a 3-hour sleep cycle... Security is everyone knowing how and when to use all the alternative ways of doing almost everything. Sensitive areas are: sail maneuvers, electronic and celestial navigation, collision avoidance, first-aid, communications, engine use and repair, emergency procedures... These are the systems.
150408
Only 2 weeks to go before heading to Trinidad. The last few days have been even more wild than usual: final discussions with prospective crew, packing and piling up too much stuff I don’t know where I will put, programming, bombing and reprogramming laptops, printing out charts, pushing on friends with incredible equipment deals that just don’t seem to get here, trying to make sense out of medicine lists... not to mention yet another pair of socks, calls to the yard, calls to Esa, calls to... and calls from...
Our crew is now 4 : Esa, Jorgen, Juha, and I - a solid crew.
Route/time simulations are coming in anywhere from fantastic to terrible depending (today the we might make it to Gibraltar in 3 weeks).
I went up to Stockholm last week and hauled 30kg of stuff off of Galatea II (who smiled in relief), but left the Duogen behind. Just too much weight to carry.
I am feeling a lot calmer about this trip even though it is a lot longer. 5000 miles from Trinidad to Perpignan. There seem to be two approches to the route : the classic route to Bermuda, across to the Azores and on to Gibralter and Perpignan; or the direct route NE to the bottom of the Bermuda high and then zigzagging east till we pick up the north winds on the other side. The position of the Azores High is our problem. We want it at its’ most southern limit so we can sail over it with favorable winds. If these are our conditions (which is highly unlikely) and they stayed this way for a long period (which is impossible) we would run NE from Trinidad at our most efficient angle to the wind (the most speed, as close to the direction we want to be going with the least amount of stress) and hope to catch SW winds that will run up the outer edge of the line of dark triangles (the cold front of the principle L (and subsequent Ls) and then head more ENE as the winds shift to NW after the fronts. We would be aiming for the second ring around the top of the H where we would hope to find our SW W and NW winds to carry us though the Azores to the Med. If this H is very far north we will have a more complicated route playing with the southern edge of the H till we can catch the winds from the NE then N and then NW on its eastern side. This is an overly simplified analysis because all this is moving fast and we are moving slowly. There is often another H around Bermuda which combined with the Azores H can create a barrier. In this case we would have to come very far north making it worth while stopping in Bermuda, or even ending up in Newport. This is a very simplified view but the basic approach is go as fast as possible in the right direction safely...
I am surrounded by very patient loved ones: Anne, Luca and Alix, Arik, Enrico... as I get closer to leaving I am becoming increasingly one track minded and most certainly very uninteresting to listen to.
10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 1909 010508
Chaguaramas, Trinidad: Power Boats is an Incredible yard filled with rugged looking boats and sailors that have stepped off of circumnavigations. Most people painting there own hulls, no chi chi here. It is hotter than hell from 1000 to 1600. Jorgen and Juha are having a hard time, I’m too busy to notice the heat. We got in at around midnight after endless lines at immigration and then customs and then another customs and then tare 60 kgs of baggage apart and explain tools and kitchen stuff and drugs and a pile of wires and a pillow and.... I woke up at 04:30, rummaged around inside and then out and about at sun rise. Naomi is looking good, the hull is solid and clean, the cabin a bit worn, and lots of odds and ends to get rid of or replace..; and don’t forget the grease for the winches that are blocked and, and. Juha took the old name off the stern and put on a new adhesive NAOMI but the formal christening is in a day of two when I can find a way to kill the obsolete symbolic serpent - supposed to shoot it with a rifle, but I will have to do the deed stabbing dirty harbor water with a kitchen knife. We roamed around a locale boat store to stay in the air conditioning but I didn’t have the energy to attack my page of «need to gets» - will have to wait for another opportunity. NAOMI got clean of her white plastic covering, so I was able to untangle too many rough and dirty halyards while the guys slept away. It is now very dark, my computer screen is all we have on to save electricity, Jorgen just woke up from a nap, or rather I just loudly suggested dinner and he pulled the rag off his head.
10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 0800 040508
Chaguaramas, Trinidad: NAOMIi went into the water on Friday, it was a tense moment: we had a visit from the Boat Doctor at 08:00 to start up the diesel («no problem») which didn’t start of course and had to be tinkered with, parts to be bought, sweat and blood.... Paying my outstanding bills (must be paid before launching in case one slips out to sea with some unpaid debts), I discovered that we also had to clear locale customs and immigration in Chaguaramas, so we raced off by boat taxi to the administration area and wasted 3 hours - revenge on all the hard times we give our own visitors. Back at the yard we got NAOMI was lifted off her supports, driven to the ramp and slowly let down into the sea. She didn’t sink!!!! we got on board and motored to our slip, First impressions were great, I didn’t hit anything, the engine didn’t die, we weren’t washed out to sea and left abandoned for eternity in the Saragoss sea... Our dutch neighbor was having a rest on deck in his hammock in between romps with a his day prostitute. Our slip is across an little inlet from a night club - NAOMI shacks well into the night to 80s and 90s trash. (a petite souvenir for Pops and Jorgen from Alesund in Norway - GALATEA was rammed at 03:00 by a drunk couple when the nightclub let out. In our slip the riggers fine tuned the standing rigging. We are still discovering new odds and ends in endless plastic boxes in nooks and crannies. We all have our weird ways, we obsess about some things and let others slide. Yesterday I took apart the mast winch which was totally seized up - it looked like it had never been opened. Esa got in late last night (and lost one of his numerous bags with all our emergency food (which must be very light to compensate for the extra tons of gear we absolutely need for the trip), we were saved by a forgotten bag of finnish licorice. We walked around the yard and NAOMI till late and and everyone is still asleep (Esa under some blankets - thanks Mel). I’m up every morning at around 0600 to work out or do some yoga (forgot my mat but am using the artificial grass door mat - found in the fore cabin under two Danworth anchors) before the sun blasts down at around 0900.
10°40.89N61°38.041W at 2200 050508
Oh man oh maaann yesterday was terrifying: we discovered that we had forgotten to put in the through hull log wheel before launching. It took a while to surpass the fear that I was about to voluntarily sink our home with all our dreams (and piles of junk)(but not Esa’s lost luggage) right here in the harbor. I took the cap off with my left hand and placed the log in the hole with my right hand while i received a nice strong salty blast of harbor water in the face. Wow incredible to be still alive. Next was the toilet that I tried to fix but impossible to find the trick to getting that new rubber flat flap into the little hole on the side of the base while curled around the bowl in a cramped bathroom, and yes it didn’t still smell like shit all over my hands...; then it was the generator that wasn’t charging, the wires to the stern antennas that were just too short, the rigger that didn’t finish, the stores that just don’t have what need... and still really hot. Today went better : we found the plug to the alternator regulator that the Boat Doctor had inadvertently pulled out when trying to get the engine started the other day; got 2 shelves that were missing cut and installed; the rigger almost finished, the water maker man came but we couldn’t find the switch or we found it but it wasn’t the right one or the only one or it had once been the right one but was no longer... we then went off the the other side of the lagoon to immigrations with Esa to find immigrations closed because the air conditioner was out of order - and just go the Port to Spain. We still haven’t found the american hex wrenches we need or much else on our massive lists. It is quite possible I wont write tomorrow because i have decided that I just can’t give my new toilet to the Boat Doctor, the one who screwed up the electrical connection and who didn’t show up as promised today, so yes I have decided that we will pull the toilet ourselves and take it apart on the dock - no sailing holiday is complete with out a toilet refurbishing, and better here than running in 5 meter seas!!! And how entertaining for the old sailing cronies next to us - the young rich guys in a swan up to their ears in shit... Not to forget Juha and Esa paddling around in the Zodiac filled with water - they forgot to put in the drain plug! this message will be difficult to send - the main office sold Esa a Wifi connect ion today that had expired on May 1st. So, no we haven’t sailed yet, why do you ask? xxxx p
10°40.89N61°38.041W at 1600 070508
What day is it, what time is it, where am???? 1600 is too early to write, my brain is still boiling, should wait till 1900 but I have to get in out of the sun and I shouldn’t bug Esa and Juha who are surrounded by cans and boxes, all labeless cans, and Jorgen has gone off to get some heavy duty garbage bags... Mel the ex owner came by last night and a million enigmas evaporated in instants, it is amazing to be surrounded by hundreds of switches and valves and instruments... Every one has there peculiar way of compensating for forgetfulness Mel’s was to put labels on everything, but you have to know where to find the labeled object. I prefer the user manual method: step one, two,... We got a lot done today but there is still as much to be done.
10°40.89N61°38.041W at 0730 080508
Esa and Juha went off to the super super mega market and only came back with about 30% of our needs - the rest was in bulk, like 4 kilos of peanut butter, 12 liters of milk... While Jorgen and I did wiring, got holes drilled... everything is happening but nothing seems to be getting done, there is always some thing left to do on each project, never completed enough to cross it off the list. Last night there was a moment with no wind in the harbor, so to bring the spirits up, we put up out 95% genoa - it looked like a good solid sail, but we couldn’t find any good looking sheets. I’ve been up since 06:00, took a shower, shaved off the scrub on my shin, did an hour of yoga... I am sitting at the chart table, there are 12 instruments surrounding me, some are obsolete, some should be obsolete, some are mine. I can’t quite sit straight because the electrical panel is open and spilling wires - I was hooking up the AIS but was distracted by some other more important project but i don’t remember what it was. Most likely that project was like wise interrupted... Esa is explaining to Jorgen how to use the SMS in his phone - but there might not be a swedish dictionary, now there seems to be one, but «how does this darn phone know that I want to type Christian?»... The sun is out of course, and the day has begun. Later in the day : we are very sweaty, the AIS is working, the SSB cable has been replaced, the water and oil in the engine bilge have been cleaned up and inspected, the spin sheets are too short, the Boat Doctor is coming by tomorrow afternoon to drill out the bolt on the toilet that I popped, Esa and Juha got the outboard motor smoking and escaped to eat ice cream in a nearby harbor... and we are expected for drinks on Mel’s boat at 1830...
10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 2245 100508
With NAOMI all ready to sail out for our first test run, everything stowed, all but two lines off, the engine warmed up, the wind out of the SE and every one ready, I put her into reverse, there was a slight bang and then the engine ran free. It seems that we have exploded the gear box, or the coupling in between the gear box and the engine. We all froze, all this work up in smoke and in a matter of seconds (this is getting to be a tendency). We were all in shock for a few minutes. When we got our wits back, Esa convinced the Indian lady with the local snack bar to put all our perishables in her cooler for the weekend, I got Mel, the ex owner over, we called the mechanic who said he would stop by tomorrow, I finished wiring the AIS antennas, Jorgen took a nap... For the moment we don’t know anything really. Our weather window is tight, we now have a week to get out of here, before hurricane season. We are basically ready to go... We just got back from dinner and a few pina colatas. If this had happened at sea and we could still charge out batteries i would have continued. Here in a harbor it is difficult to just leave with the engine in pieces, though I am seriously tempted to get us towed out into the bay and...
10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 1400 110508
The day after, the guys went to the beach at 08:00, the mechanic to stopped by around 1000, hard to say how bad, hard to say when it will be fixed, hard to say what caused it, hard to say. Not much else to do about it so I cut my finger nails, read some for the first time here, ripped out some obscolete instruments... I’m sweating profuselly but the heat is bothering me even less than when we arrived.
10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 1800 120508
We pulled the engine forward into the cabin, black oil, green coolant, water - it is amazing how much of these engines is liquid, we build them in our image. We found bits and pieces of aluminum cast bell housing and some other adaptor piece in between the engine and the gear box. I rigged a hoist and lifted the 50 kg gear box out of the cabin and onto the dock to be inspected. We then drove around in Ricky’s car looking for parts - the passanger door busted and something wrong with the starter so we never switched off the motor. We haven’t found them yet. It’s now evening the heat is dissipating, I took a shower because i couldn’t think anymore i was so dirty. The cabin is still covered with engine - we’ll see what happens tomorrow. The good news is that the trade winds have shifted into the NE for the next few days so we are better off here anyhow. Of course the best way to see all this is as part of the experience, discover engine time, learn what a bell housing is, check out the beautiful evening light, finish the wiring, eat some more king fish... but sometimes the experience is extra intense. I’m down to wearing one pair of shorts (wash out in the bathroom sick with hand soap drip dry on the life lines once every 4 or 5 days), two t-shirts (wash one every night) and my crocks. The rest I haven’t touched. Sweat and dust in paradise. Message to my loves : we will not leave before calling you xxxx p
10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 1800 120508
There is a lot to fret about, but frankly, at this hour we are in paradise: sitting in the cockpit the cool breeze from the SE boats rolling at anchor. Jorgen is reading about corruption in Sweden, Juha is trying to replicate an intricate knot out of a book, Esa has gone off somewhere presumably to the showers. And which restaurant do we hit tonight ??? The broken engine parts have been ordered and should be here from 3 to 5 days (hard to know how long they will sit around in customs, hard to know if the mechanic will do the job ASAP, hard to know much of anything). We are all in good spirits, doing the fine tuning, rewiring, oiling...
2200
We just got back from our worse meal ever, like really bad. depressingly bad. It is rare that i walk out of bad movies, less rare that i walk out of bad plays, but to not eat when I’m really hungry - that is extremely rare. Well we got there tonight. So bad that I left half my plate, lost my appetite and contemplated revenge. Good food is essential when adapting the zen or stoic attitude under the strain of broken-engine-frustration. Good food permits one to go with the flow. Imagine an over cooked hamburger so over cooked it was tasteless, probably micro waved to death, on a cold store bought bun with a dab of store bought pesto sauce (it was called «Vespa basil burger») (this was an italian style harbor bar and grill). The fries were as undercooked as the burger was over zapped - frozen fries micro zapped and very mealy... Unfortunately i didn’t attempt a taste of Jorgen’s Lasagna, or Juha’s Penne primaverra salad so I can’t expound on the qualities of the pasta. Esa and i were supposed to split the fries and his salad but after a try he quickly finished off his side, and didn’t try a second fry - I don’t blame him. Tomorrow, day one of the 3 to 5 days, I will eat only bananas. I forgot to mention that we haven’t had any electricity in NAOMI since they pulled the engine, so we all walk around with headlamps while inside - miner style. I have mine on right now so I can go brush my teeth. I have been sending pictures but they seem to have gotten lost in cyberspace. xxx p
10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 1100 160508
Waiting, waiting, waiting... and waiting some more. We rented a car yesterday and drove across Trinidad to a postcard like beach: long smooth sand, palm trees, the reef far out, small waves on the beach..., bought a bag of mangos that were the best I’ve ever tasted, ate terrible hamburgers in a very funky roadside shack, and got home late. I expected to find NAOMI sunk or gone or in cinders but she was still there bobbing in her slip waiting, waiting just like us. Modern times permit us to «track» our Fedex shipment so we can wait with information, but it doesn’t reduce the stress. News from up north is that the very deep low I’ve been tracking (doing some tracking myself) hit Bermuda and a lot of big boats lost rigs. We weren’t planning on being anywhere near there, but that was the low I was hoping to use to mess up the Bermuda high and get us across lower down. The boys have been great. Juha and Esa are working their ass off to make our life easier and exciting at the same time. Just got back from customs at Crewsend, putted over in our zodiac and got the pieces that we finally tracked using the conventional telephone method. So tomorrow I hope to get this boat back under power. The sky is black with the first clouds of our stay, and rain. We must be catching the tail end of the front that hit Bermuda yesterday.
10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 1600 180508
Sunday morning, we swung the transmission on board and down into the cabin with halyards yesterday, positioning the engine with blocks from the deck and maneuvered the engine and transmission together. We went out looking for a replacement for the bent engine mount last night but came up with a corroded monster that we weren’t able to clean up. For the moment we are surrounded by tools and a partly assembled Perkins.... life goes on. No wind this morning so we brought the main up and marked it’s halyard for the reefs. Some seems to have stolen our trusty dock mat that served also for our yoga mat, or maybe it just flew away. Jorgen has read about 46 trash detective novels and might have to go cold turkey soon - finish, russian, norwegian and french are the choice of recycled books in the laundry room. The Boat Doctor never showed today - testing us. So we brought up the main and marked the reef points, did some more rewiring, cleaned the deck... threw out some more rotting food from the now warm fridge. If this keeps on I might even start reading and thinking I’m on vacation.
10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 2300 190508
Just back from dinner with Mel and Jane, the last owners of NAOMI, at 75 they are still sailing the high seas, just the two of them. I started the day at 06:00 with some push ups in the cockpit, while waiting for the mechanic to get here (hoping he would show up, wondering what I would do if he didn’t) he came at around 08:00 and we were at it till 20:00. It was one long day with the mechanic ailing from kidney stones and his assistant and i doing much of the work up to our elbows in sea water and engine oil, nuts and bolts, metal straps, hoses... Through all of this I feel more confident with my crew, they have been helpful and patient. We have another couple of hours to do tomorrow morning on the engine. We are now on the count down - ETD is for Wednesday morning... We have to replace the fresh food that has since been eaten or rotted, go to customs and immigration, fill a mountain of jerry cans with diesel and water, check out the weather and get the hell out of here. Our worldly experience of the Caribbean has been limited to a square kilometer, peopled by odd characters from odd places, displaced souls in a dusty yard, in a sea of petroleum and crab shells. We have sort of gotten used to this trailer park life.
10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 2300 200508
After some gasket gunk to exhaust elbow, we started up the engine, took up the dock lines and headed out of the pass. Nothing broke, almost no weird noises, not an impressive amount power, but a beautiful day. After half an hour of motoring, we have no speedo, the auto pilot seems to work, the wind instruments sort of. We hoisted the main and the 95% and pushed her for all she was work in 10kts of wind in on the flat bay. It was great to put the muscle into the winch, lean into the wind, find the right heal angle and feel the power. I would have brought up the 135% but the mechanic and his assistant were along for the ride on a tight schedule. Later in the day under piles of junk being moved from one side of the boat to the other, and food, and water and tools and rusty anchor chain... we found we couldn’t light the stove and traced the problem to a ground wire the mechanic had left hanging - man we have got to get out of here while we are still in one piece. For the past 3 weeks I have had to listen and find ways to fix a steady stream of problems. Tomorrow morning we take on 400 liters of fuel, some fishing gear, do the formalities at customs and 12:00 is the right time to leave no? xxx p
10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 1500 210508
Full tanks of water plus 4 20 liter cans, full tank of fuel plus 10 20 liter cans stowed fore in the fore cabin and under the cockpit, all food on board, a moment of hesitation, a moment of disbelief, a last look around, a bit of lunch, try to remember the forgotten, fend off the fear that another breakdown... Naomi is heavy, I don’t know her, can’t gage her inertia, am timid with the throttle, never really sailed her. We motor out into the Chagaramas harbor, turn west and then north through the pass in light winds. Entrada Point @ 1500, raise the main with one reef, open the 95% genoa and cut the engine. For a moment we are engulfed in silence and then we are hit by a 18 knots of Trade wind pressure and a 1.5 meter sea, we fall all over our selves adjusting sails, the nose dives into the waves as we pick up speed, we are soon covered in spray, the deck is awash, news comes up from below that it is raining in the for cabin as well as in the clothes lockers (no one seems to have listened to me about packing in garbage bags)... we are off at last but there is no time to enjoy the moment, we are soon pounding along in a boat we don’t know how to sail and there are just too many problems to deal with at once. But it is beautiful!
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