Skip, Aren't you supposed to monitor ch.16 or it's equivalent?
On Oct 21, 2009, at 9:10 PM, "Flying Pig" <[email protected]> wrote: > We left you comfortably ensconced in Lake Worth, the Intra-Coastal > Waterway > between West Palm Beach and the luxury of Palm Beach, FL. We slept > in a > bit, had our breakfast of scrambled eggs (we've discovered, through a > recommendation, that eggs, alone, within 2 hours of waking, kick- > starts your > metabolism and doesn't leave you hungry in a few hours), and headed > to the > Municipal Marina to take on Diesel, gasoline and water. > > As this would be our last free water, perhaps, for a very long time > Lydia > took advantage of it to wash down the deck, and in particular the > area where > the chain comes in to the windlass, much marked by the dirty water > which > cascades off the chain, even after we wash it with our bow washdown > hose. > > Given the condition of our prop and keel mentioned earlier, we weren't > surprised to see that our fuel usage had been much higher than > normal, so > perhaps we'll see an improvement, now that we're cleaned up of all > that > impedimentia on the prop. I'll take advantage of the first very > shallow > anchorage we have to go get the rest of the barnacles off the keel. > > In any case, the fuel delivery system there allowed us to very > completely > fill the tank, something which isn't always possible, so it's also > possible > that our fuel burn rate was somewhat inaccurate due to a > less-than-completely-full tank on our last fill. Our practice is > for me to > pull the bung on the tank, and, with our "Marriage Saver" headsets > allowing > me to communicate easily to Lydia on the handle, monitor the level > so that > it comes as close to the nipple sticking down into the tank as > possible. We > do it this way in order to avoid the usual spit out the vent, due > mostly to > foaming, as the tank gets full. In this case, we were able to go very > slowly toward the end, and had experienced very little foaming in the > full-flow segment of our fill. Thus I was able to get the tank full > right > to the brim. As that's the largest part of a triangular shape, the > top of > the tank takes the most per inch of level, and could well have had > as much > as 10 gallons more than was the case on the prior fill. > > We got off the fuel dock at 11:15, and had our sails up by noon. > Chris > Parker had suggested that this would be an ideal time to make the > crossing, > with only light winds for the last several days, and a southerly > wind in the > making. The wind direction was ideal to put up the asymmetrical > spinnaker, > sailing what would turn out to be a very close tack, instead of a > run. I > was very pleased to see that we could sail as close as 60* to the > apparent > wind with it and the main flying. We ghosted along at 3 knots with > 2 knots > of apparent wind, and reluctantly motorsailed beginning at 2PM. Our > speed > went up to 5 knots, still with 2 knots of apparent wind, until, at > 3PM the > wind shifted south, when we discovered that the aysm would carry us > comfortably under 60* apparent wind. At the same time, the wind > filled in a > bit, and we were making 6.3 knots with 5 knots of apparent wind, and > we were > a sailboat again, much to our preference! > > Whatever the wind levels, we didn't want to have the spinnaker up at > night, > so by 6:30, we'd doused it. The modifications which Mack had made > to the > sock worked very well, and we collapsed the chute without incident. > However, getting it down wasn't quite so benign, as we discovered > that our > halyard had chafed through the cover, leaving the core intact, but > having > the cover foul on the turning block at the top of the mast. Later > headscratching led me to believe that we'll have to cleat the > halyard on the > opposite side of the fly, as that could only have happened by the > block not > leading fair, despite our having made sure that the halyard led > topsides > freely, with our hoist line aft. > > In any case, eventually the cover made it through the block, and the > rest of > the lowering and stowing was uneventful. This, however, makes the > 3rd spin > halyard which has come to grief at the top of the mast. The first > one had > been fouled on stowing, and the furler eventually cut through it. The > second one was cut to shreds in the return from the Bahamas when it > was > instantly fouled in the genoa as I tried to corral it in the gale > which > eventually damaged our genoa, again repaired by Mack sails in > Stuart, FL, > during our refit in Saint Simons Island, beautifully. Anyway, I > took it all > down, and will strip/milk the cover back as tightly as I can over > the core, > and only a very short length of it will be lost, as the chafing > ocurred just > before the hoist point. > > Our crossing was as uneventful and beautiful as we could possibly have > wished, and we entered the banks north of Memory Rock, preferring > the wider > spaces and deeper water available there, at 9PM. We saw light rain > at 9:30, > and were on the edge of several squalls which never actually reached > us, > despite pretty much surrounding the area we were sailing in. It > provided us > a good chance to educate our girls on radar, as they were able to > see the > squalls visually as well as on the radar, enjoying the vigorous > light shows > in the distance, but monitoring the direction, strength, and > distance of > them over the radar. None actually got closer than 2 miles to us, > but the > peripheries allowed a bit more wind, as we made 5.5-6 knots in 11-14 > knots > of apparent wind. > > Light rain persisted through midnight, and the wind continued in the > 10-14 > range, with our speed remaining pretty much constant in the 5-6 knot > range. > There was a wind shift due to the squalls, eventually, and we moved > to a > broad reach between 2-2:30AM. However, near 3AM, there was a total > wind > shift, one I expected was just a result of the squalls, so I kept > the boat > pointed to keep the sails full as we did a full 360* wide turn. > Shortly, > the wind died altogether, but when it filled again, it was coming > from the > SE, the direction we were heading in. BOOO! > > Eventually, shortly, it died altogether, and the rain increased, so we > rolled in and dropped the sails, and dropped the anchor. We were > comfortably in our berths at 4AM, having turned off the SPOT > transmitter, as > we weren't going anywhere. When we got back up at 10 AM on Sunday, > September 28th, the instructions and methods for using the SPOT > (track us at > www.tinyurl.com/flyingpigspot) were such that instead of turning it > on, we > sent an OK message, and those watching us saw no movement or > transmission > from 4AM. I've since sorted out and proven how to do this in the > future, > labeling our transmitter for a reminder, but, alas, we weren't > transmitting... > > Combined with our confusing 360 broad turn and the lack of signal, a > concerned friend called the Coast Guard, asking them to look into > it. As it > was totally clear both on the radar 24 mile scale, and visually, we > didn't > bother turning on our VHF radio. If we had, we'd have heard the > USCG's call > to us, trying to reach us. When nothing was heard for a very long > time, > they launched a search on our behalf, asking all in the area to look > out for > us, including BASRA, the Bahamian volunteer equivalent of the Coast > Guard. > Of course, we were blissfully unaware of this, and sailed on > ignorant of the > Falcon jet which was dispatched, or of any efforts the BASRA folks > may have > exerted on our behalf. > > As we are a documented boat, we have our phone number as part of the > records, and, once we reached a usable WiFi signal, when we saw > emails from > Vonage, our VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephone service, > which > emails us sound files of any messages we receive, we found that at > 7:11PM, > the USCG, shortly followed by the BASRA folks, had both left > messages on our > voicemail. > > Ironically, just at that same time, I was on the Maritime Mobile > Service > Net, a HAM radio service to log members as they travel. One of the > services > provided HAMs using the Net is to enter our information into ShipTrak, > which tracks Maritime Mobile units around the world. As seen in my > signature line, my call sign is KI4MPC, and, in addition to the SPOT > signals, when I'm able to check in, that service will also show our > position. In any event, as you've seen in my prior posts recently, > we made > the news all over, albeit inaccurately. I'm guessing that my > resetting of > the SPOT, reactivating the tracking, or the ShipTrak was what called > off > the search, because, certainly, it wasn't us. We didn't learn of it > for > another couple of days! For those interested, you can see our > position > reports for the last couple of years by going to > http://.shiptrak.org and > enter my call sign, KI4MPC. Moving the mouse over the dots gives you > our > position and minor reports. Clicking on the log entries at the > bottom and > scrolling will give you all of them from the time we started our > checkins. > > Anyway, we sailed off our anchor at 10AM, blissfully unaware of the > excitement over our safety. The wind was right for a wing-and-wing > downwind > run, or, better, a spinnaker run (but see above about the halyard!), > and we > made 6 knots for the rest of the day as the wind slowly moved around > to NW. > We arrived at the Little Sale Cay mark at 3:30, and our ETA for > Carters Bank > for our anchorage worked out to be 6:30 - just perfect for being in > at dark. > > However, we pulled up a bit short, so turned north by a little to find > shallower water, sailing on to our anchor at 6:30 in 17 feet of water. > After a lovely dinner, we celebrated our effortless crossing with > The Sound > Of Music on our video system, and turned in late at the intermission. > > Monday morning, September 29th, we sailed off our anchor by 10AM, > still > flying the yellow quarantine flag we'd put up under our Seven Seas > Cruising > Association burgee when we entered Bahamian waters, not yet having > checked > in. We still had no radio contact, as, again, the seas were clear. > The > wind remained NW at 8-10 knots, providing another totally restful > day of > sailing. Despite our having had our poles out (ya, I know, we hadn't > checked in yet so didn't have our fishing licenses, but the boat - > and its > license - had been good for a year when we checked in last December, > so we > figured we'd push it a bit), there was nothing on the end of the > line for > the entire trip, including the Gulf Stream, sometimes the best > fishing to be > had. > > However, the wind died at 5:30, so we motored the last half hour to > our > anchorage at Spanish Cay, and had the hook down in 11' of water. We > had > limited WiFi available, so while we were able to learn of the > excitement > over our being "missing in action" we weren't able to call the Coast > Guard, > and BASRA didn't answer the hails over the VHF. However, we did > reach the > marina at Spanish Cay, and learned how to do our checkin process, > which > included a $50 fee to use their dinghy dock, despite our various > guides > having shown it as free. Ah, well, perhaps they were out of date. We > finished The Sound Of Music and piled into bed. > > Tuesday, September 30, we did our usual leisurely start, which meant > that I > didn't get to shore very quickly. We'd been advised that the > Customs folks > were there at 8:30, but had gone home for the day, by the time we > called on > Monday. I made the assumption that they must be available more than > just a > few minutes in the day, so thought nothing of heading in about 10:30. > Imagine my concern and surprise when I saw that the marina, virtually > unoccupied by boats, also had a "Closed" sign on the door, > everything inside > dark, and instructions to call on VHF channel 16. Of course, I hadn't > carried along a handheld, so couldn't do that, so I went exploring a > bit. > > Sure enough, around the corner to the left, I see a small building > with a > prominent sign indicating a door for Customs and Immigration. > However, it > sez to ring the bell or knock, I forget which, now, which I did. No > response. Uh-oh... Repeated, still no response. So, I tried the > door, and > it was open. I walked in to a small office area, looking, aside > from the > connecting room's loud TV in it, like most bureaucratic surroundings - > linoleum floor, sterile walls, and stacks of forms. Judging from the > various piles, aircraft are frequent visitors to Spanish Cay :{)) > > I called out "Hello?" and eventually a woman came from the area with > the > loud TV and processed me very quickly and personably in much less > time than > it took in Nassau on our last visit. I concluded that the Customs and > Immigration agent lived there, and was only required to make herself > available between business hours, otherwise living in the rest of the > building. On my exit, I made sure not to arouse any more attention > than > necessary on the way back to the dinghy. Sure enough, I wasn't > accosted for > my $50 landing fee, and by 12:45, we'd sailed off our anchor, > replacing our > yellow "Q" flag with our Bahamas courtesy flag as we went. > > Our destination was for Powell Cay, a very short hop, as most of the > destinations in the Abacos are, and we got there in short order, > with the > anchor down at 2PM in very shallow water. The ladies headed to the > beach, > while I headed under the boat with my hookah rig, to attack the > remaining > barnacles. The lower part of the keel and rudder were very heavily > encrusted, as were the Dyanaplate, the grounding piece of bronze > related to > our SSB and HAM radio transmissions, and the keel cooler, the thing > which > helps our refrigeration dump its heat. > > The girls, as those following Lydia's log already know, had their > first-ever > skinny-dipping experience, and loved every minute of it. As we'll > find > throughout our early days, at least, nearly always, we're virtually > alone in > the Abacos. We're ahead of the season, so we're enjoying the > solitude. Our > very shallow anchorage allowed me to stand on the bottom, heavily > weighted, > and attack the barnacles and oysters. > > The water was so warm that despite my not having a wetsuit on, I was > comfortable to stay down longer than I'd expected, and not only got > off all > the barnacles but got to cleaning up around the waterline, as well, > where > there were a few. Because of our ablative paint, for the most part > I was > able to crush the barnacles with Max (our silver [stainless steel > painted] > hammer, recall, that we use for opening conch - Maxwell's silver > hammer, > after all), and then scrape the residue off easily, using the flat > sides of > the hammer. However, Max needs a new coat of paint after all that, > as I > pretty well scraped off all the paint which had held up so well for > the last > couple of years. > > I got out just as the girls were returning, and I had the hookah rig > stowed > as they were coming aboard. After our salt-water baths and dinner, we > celebrated our good fortune to be in one of the most beautiful spots > on > earth by watching another earth, entirely, in The Hobbit, and turned > in. > > We'll leave you here, warm and cozy with a light breeze, securely at > anchor... > > Until next time, Stay Tuned :{)) > > L8R > > Skip and crew > > Morgan 461 #2 > SV Flying Pig KI4MPC > See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! > Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog > and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog > > "You are never given a wish without also being given the power to > make it come true. You may have to work for it however." > (and) > "There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in > its hand > (Richard Bach) > > _______________________________________________ > Liveaboard mailing list > [email protected] > To adjust your membership settings over the web > http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard > To subscribe send an email to [email protected] > > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ > > To search the archives > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > The Mailman Users Guide can be found here > http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
