Now … It’s Miller Time

And I’m sick.  Just a cold that I felt coming on last week, but I had been feeling better and I needed to take advantage of being next to the dock and wall (instead of being rafted to fishing boats) so that I could rig the new paravane pole.  It also allowed me to complete the re-rigging of the smaller lines on the winch that pull the birds and the poles up.  It’s now a very easy system to deploy and retrieve when I am alone.

My first morning in Waterford, my winter quarters, somewhat nicer and warmer than Washington’s winter in Valley Forge and I probably have enough food and calories on this boat to feed a family in Africa for a year, an extended family!

It’s one of those typical northern European fall/winter day, a stale gray sky with light rain and drizzle.  Probably good for me, makes me rest, as on sunny days, I have this primordial urge to hunt & gather. So instead I’m watching last night’s Jet’s game.  God, they are pathetic.  The poster child of what it looks like when you have an owner who cares more about appearances than winning.  In other words, they make terrible choices, but instead of dealing with it, they keep on telling everyone how smart they are and there is no problem; simply ignoring the fact that the data (their record) says differently. If you refuse to reflect and admit mistakes, there is not much chance of improvement. Much like Obama, who seems to be re-inventing the Vietnam War in Syria?  I wonder if he has even read books about the War.  It’s the ultimate folly and hubris to think you can to run a war from the White House.  All it does is annoy the enemy and get Americans killed for no reason. The Iran rescue attempt was also run from the White House.  Yes, that failure still rankles me to this day. OK. Basta.

I’m hoping to have Wi-Fi at some point, it will make getting my laptop online much easier and it the main reason I have not posted more in the last two weeks.  I’ll just have to make a better effort to diagnose my phones hotspot issue.

I’m also finishing the Post Mortem for the Atlantic Passage.  It’s a bit wordy, so it needs some editing.  In the near future there are a number of issues:  the Electro Scan system is having issues with the mix motor and long term, I must find and install a diesel forced air heater.

Having spent the last three weeks in fishing harbors, Castletwonbere and Dunmore East, has been really a wonderful experience for me.  Ireland has five official fishing ports, and those are two of them.  I’ve been tied to fishing boats most of that time and the fishermen have been great.

You can see in some of the photos I’ve posted the similarity between this Krogen 42 and the fishing boats.  In fact, almost identical lines.  I had not noticed this before in the U.S., but here is was obvious.  Clearly a primary reason Dauntless is so salty and as I reflect on the passage, as uncomfortable I was at times, Dauntless was in her element and could have taken far more.

In the short time I’ve been in Ireland, I have met so many great people, interested in our passage and clearly these are communities tied to the water. Even yesterday, the person who came to fuel my boat (2400 liters, 631 U.S. gallons) loved the look of the Krogen and took many pictures of her.  Now being in Waterford, this will be a little different experience.  No fishing boats and we’re right downtown, I ‘m currently tied adjacent to the Viking Tower.  Looking out my salon window, instead of tremendous waves, I see a mud flat between the dock and the City wall.  The tidal range here is 11 to 12’.  Dauntless has only 2 feet of water under her keel at low tide.  The river we’re on, the River Suir, is the fastest running river in all of Europe, but it’s really a tidal estuary, but I didn’t feel the need bring that up, as I was being told about the river.  I like being in river like this, as it means far less likely hood of freezing and it’s in constant flush mode.

I finally was able to recalibrate the Victron system, thanks to the help of a Victron Product Manager I met at the Amsterdam boat show.  This system monitors all the current (electricity) going into and out of the batteries.  It’s important to monitor because whenever the boat is not running the engine or generator (which I try to seldom use) all the power is provided by the batteries, so it critical to know how much power has been taken out of them, to a maintain long term battery health.  It would be over $1,000 to replace the batteries, so I want them to last quite a few more years.

OK, let me go see if I can find hydrochloric acid for the Electro Scan and not be arrested for terroristic intentions.

Author: Richard on Dauntless

I’m an eclectic person, who grew up in New York, lived overseas for many years and have a boat, Dauntless, a 42 foot Kadey Krogen trawler yacht. Dauntless enables me to not only live in many different parts of the world, but to do it in a way that is interesting, affordable, with the added spice of a challenge. Dauntless also allows me to be in touch with nature. As the boat glides through the ocean, you have a sense of being part of a living organism. When dolphins come to frolic, they stay longer if you are out there talking to them, watching them. Birds come by, sometimes looking for a handout; sometimes grateful to find a respite from their long journey. I grew up on the New York waterfront, in the West Village, when everything west of Hudson St. was related to shipping and cargo from around the world. For a kid, it was an exciting place of warehouses, trucks, and working boats of all kinds: tugs and the barges and ships, cargo and passenger, they were pushing around. My father was an electrical engineer, my mother an intellectual, I fell in between. I have always been attracted to Earth’s natural processes, the physical sciences. I was in 8th grade when I decided to be a Meteorologist. After my career in meteorology, my natural interest in earth sciences: geology, astronomy, geography, earth history, made it a natural for me to become a science teacher in New York City, when I moved back to the Big Apple. Teaching led to becoming a high school principal to have the power to truly help kids learn and to be successful not only in school but in life. Dauntless is in western Europe now. In May and June, I will be wrapping up the last two years in northern Europe, heading south to spend the rest of the year in Spain & Portugal. Long term, I’m planning on returning to North American in the fall of 2017 and from there continuing to head west until we’re in Northeast Asia, Japan and South Korea, where we will settle for a bit. But now, my future lies not in NY or even Europe, but back to the water, where at night, when the winds die down, there is no noise, only the silence of the universe. I feel like I am at home, finally. View all posts by Richard on Dauntless