Equipt – Page 3 – Dauntless at Sea

Lessons Learned Living on a Boat in Northern Europe

So far, as I learn something new every day; I’m sure to keep on learning and even on my last day on Earth, I know I’ll learn something new; like how I die!

Having kicked the cans down the road of Greece and the Ukraine, we can now talk about boats again.

So, what have I learned up to now living on Dauntless in Northern Europe:

Waterford has turned out to far exceed my expectations and at this point, it is hard to think that I could find a better place anywhere in Europe for next year. I have 10 minute walk to the bus that whisks me to the airport in Dublin for only 20 Euros. In NYC, it takes 90 minutes to go 12 miles and that includes three train changes, which means many staircases, up and down. (We got a man to the moon 50 years ago, but NYC still cannot keep an escalator running more than a day or two before it breaks down for three months).

The Waterford City Marina, being right downtown, has given me the best of all worlds. On one hand, I am five minutes from downtown and only a 15 min walk to my favorite bakery and butcher. Yet the dock itself is very secure with a gate that is electronically activated, but it also has a chain and lock, making it really secure. The first few times I left Dauntless for any length of time, I was really nervous, but now only a little bit.

The people in Ireland are very nice, like Midwesterners, but with a NY attitude, meaning they are loud, talk fast and curse a lot, and really nice in doing it and helpful all the time.

Having Julie in NY, Dublin is only a 6 hour plane ride away and the tickets are about 60% of the cost of flying to the continent. So it’s terribly convenient and already, while I like exploring new places, for our next and last winter in Europe, I will be hard pressed to find someplace that has all that Waterford and Ireland offer.

I’m fluent in the language, for the most part. There have been a few times, that not understanding something and having them repeat it three times, I am still clueless and just hope for the best at that point. The first time this happened, one of the passengers on the bus could tell that I did not understand and explained in words I could understand.

I haven’t gotten run over yet crossing the street, only because I look in both directions three, that’s 3 times, before I step off the curb. And every time I do, I think of all of those who thought crossing the Atlantic was dangerous. I’m far more likely to die crossing the street here.

The Lexan storm windows that Julie, Richard and I made and installed in the last days and hours in Rhode Island, have really made a difference. While on the ocean they gave us peace of mind, since I have been here, I am so pleased that they really insulate the boat. Dauntless is far warmer, having the double pane up. In addition, I so not have any condensation problems, as the glass windows stay just warm enough. Two of the storm windows in the pilot house are 4 inches short, and it that one spot, I do get some condensation on really cold days. Well, I did, but have not seen any in two months.

Even without the Wallas heater, this Krogen stays warm and dry. I have been using a little 2000 watt electric heater when I am on the boat. But I have been so pleased that I do not have the dampness and condensation problems I have read about by many who live on their boats in the winter.

I have like 10 lines on the boat, all 5/8” thick. The Fastnet boat docked behind me, a steel boat used to ferry crew to the oil platforms, about the same size as Dauntless, has 4 lines, and they are not even ½”, probably 3/8”.

I suppose that’s the difference between docking a boat that is also our home and a work boat.

More Shenanigans or How Do I Really Spend My Days

I wrote this over the last two days.

I have a 12v heating pad on my bed and it is probably the only thing keeping me from becoming a frozen board by morning. During the last few days I have come to understand that the current for this heating pad is not going through my Victron Battery Monitor. I figured this out by watching the current draw and the voltage, as I turn on the heating pad. The current does not change, but the voltage does.

That’s bad. My initial reaction was to do nothing, but this morning, after stirring the pot a bit on Cruisers Forum, I decided I should do something about it.

Why? Inquiring minds want to know? Because I used a positive lead that also powered this red light that is under my bed stand and over the fluxgate compass. So now, what bothered me even more was that if the heat pad was not going thru the Victron Battery Monitor,(it tells me how much power is left in the batteries and how much I am using at any given time)

It meant that the supply line was not coming from the main distribution panel, which could also mean that it is not going thru any circuit breaker. That’s a problem. While I put fuses on most things I add, I want everything to go thru at least one of the distribution panels and its respective circuit breaker.

That also allows me to know that when I turn everything off, everything is actually off and with no power going to it. Critical when I leave the boats for longer periods of time.

Now as to why there is a red light, in a 2 ft. by 1 ft. night stand is a good question. The most likely reason I can come up with, is that the first owner saw the need to put the little people down there to navigate and provide better information for the fluxgate compass, as it surely needed it.

I guessing the little people escaped once I got to Ireland, because I have never seen them.

But that’s clearly a whole other story.

So, I decided, how hard can it be? I crossed the Atlantic; this shouldn’t take more than a half hour. Whenever you think something shouldn’t take more than a half hour, pack a lunch and probably a dinner too.

Now, 5 hours later, I’m done. I’ll just give you the highlights, which included:

Spending an hour to out back together the Japanese 12v DC outlet, including spending at least 20 minutes putting a little bolt in backwards and not understanding why it didn’t tighten anything.
Spending an hour trying to get a too fat a wire thru too small a hole, then a different wire, then too many shenanigans to mention; before finally drilling another hole.
Getting everything all back together, turning on the circuit breaker only to see a draw of 0.7A when everything was off. Knowing there was nothing plugged into any of the 12v outlets, I quickly checked the propane solenoid, and thank god, I had left it on and it was the culprit.

So after all that, but now, I turn on the heating pad and it’s not clear that I have corrected the problem.

It’s not clear because even though it is raining and of course cloudy, the solar panels still put about a quarter amp into the batteries and I have no easy way to turn that off.

Tonight, we shall see what we shall see.

Nothing Changed!

Once it was dark, by 16:30, it was clear that absolutely nothing had changed. No current being registered on the Victron.

I decided to start watching a new Korean Drama.

So this morning, after my tasty breakfast of lemon meringue pie and coffee, I decided to tackle the elusive heating pad again.

I realized that I had just changed the load source and not the ground and the Victron was measuring through the ground. Duh

This time it only took me an hour. But I sure am glad I had made that larger hole yesterday, otherwise I’d still be f..ing around with it.

Now, I wish I would have thought to wire in an indicator light.

I really wrote this for the folks on Trawler Forum, but thought some of you may like. Please tell me one way or another.

Richard

Rigs, Riggers and Fabricators

Background, How I found John the Rigger and Red the Fabricator

In December, I had come down to see my friend Paul, who lives in Coconut Grove. He introduced me to John Duffy, the Rigger.

John and I talked about what I wanted and I gave him the 120 pictures I had taken of Larry and Lena’s Krogen 42, Hobo. I also gave them the files Kadey Krogen had given me of the blueprints done long ago. A few weeks later, he called to say he had sat with Red, the fabricator, and he gave me a quote of a little less than $10k. I was ecstatic since the numbers I had been hearing for installation of paravanes (flopper stoppers) was in the high teens to mid $20s.

They did say they wanted a rig that was lighter, elegant and took advantage of the materials now available. Admittedly, this did make me a bit nervous, as I was happy to replicate Hobo’s rig.

We decided I’d come back to Miami the beginning of February to start work on this project.

Planning

By mid-February, planning was underway. John and Red had visited the boat a few times and took some preliminary measurements. In late February, they came and told me they had a design that would not utilize an “A” frame as Hobo had, but instead a number of guys and stays, the Fore guys, the “up-down” guys and the line attaching the fish (aka bird) all using 8 mm Amsteel blue. The aft guy would use 3/8” Stayset and John would add two stays to the mast, as well as a compression fitting with two large pulleys (they have another name) for the up-down lines. This would also allow the up-down line to transfer stress from one pole to the other and at the same time both the mast and pole would be under compression.

I was a bit more nervous, as it got further and further away from the design I thought needed to be done. But at this point I also felt either I trusted that John the Rigger and Red the Fabricator knew what they were doing, or I didn’t, and in either case, my course was clear.

My friend Richard was with me and he helped, in that I had someone to talk to who understood my angst, thus allowing me to talk it through. In short order, I told John, “Go for it,” and decided I was all in.

Now, it’s end of February. Having decided I was all in, I wanted to get this show on the road.

For the next three weeks, John would come by periodically, take some more measurements or install some fitting and disappear again for days. He told me Red was working on the fabrication and both Red and John promised I would be able to leave Miami by April 3^rd. (two weeks away, at this point).

Installation

It’s two weeks before my drop dead date (well, someone is going to die). So far, John has installed just two chain plates for the two mast stays. I’m nervous, very nervous.

Ten days before some more action. John assures me that Red has completed all the fabrication and now the installation is just a piece of cake. I’m crossing my fingers, but still nervous. John claws up the mast to install the compression post and pulleys. I start to see he knows what he’s doing.

My drop dead date is the following Friday, a week away. John comes out, brings a few things, and says he’ll start installation Monday.

Monday dawns sunny and bright (I’m in Miami after all). I awake eager with anticipation, like a first teenage date. John comes by, ready to install– no, he is going to meet Red at the solar panel warehouse. I ask to go along, if for no other reason than he will have to return. The warehouse is not far from the boat, and the price on solar panels is so good, I decide to buy 4. This is something I’ve been thinking about and it has never a question of doing, only when to do it. At $110 for a 110 watt mono crystalline panel (47”x26”), this is too good a price to pass up.

We get back to the boat, unload the panels and John tells me he’ll be back tomorrow. I’m past the point of worrying.

Well, just as advertised, all the installation was finished by Thursday, giving us Friday to adjust some lines. I was very pleased and upon reflection I realized that the long drawn out process really worked to my benefit, as I was able to understand and absorb what was going on piece by piece.

So something that just a month earlier I had looked at as like magic, now, I knew what every part did and how to adjust or replace as needed in the future.

The installation went so quickly because I was only 80’ from the entrance to Hopkins Carter marine Supply. http://www.hopkins-carter.com/

I literally ran in there to get stuff probably 50 times a day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I will write more about them, but needless to say, being there made this process so much easier.

The Stabilizer Rig

In the end, Dauntless ended up with a rig that clearly was designed by Red and John with a sail boat attitude in that pieces not only had to be strong, but also light. They made it clear they did not want to clutter the boat with heavy hardware and brought a sailor’s perspective to it. Red had also worked on real trawlers and he also clearly understood the stresses the boat is under when rolling and having to stop that roll.

Also, when I told John of my adventures, having one bird in the water, not two, he confirmed the rudder deflection (5°) confirmed the amount of stress the bird puts on the boat. He also told me that’s why he added the two additional forward stays to the mast. How he could know that I would test it asymmetrically on the second day, I can only guess.

Also, when the bird is in the water, the angle between the line the bird makes to the pole is about 45°, which means that the stressed are divided equally between the fore guy and the up-down line to the mast and the other pole through the compression post.

We decided not to put a permanent chain plate on the bow, as I wanted to be able to adjust the lines, so we used the bow and stern hawsers for the guys. I did have to readjust the port side guys by about 6 inches.

The largest waves we have seen so far were 4 feet.

Tomorrow, 16 April will be the real test

The installation of the solar panels is almost complete. The rest of the work I have had done in Stuart, the new Fridge/freezer, the almost new Splendid washer/dryer, and the Katadyn 160E water maker are all ready to go. Also, many small projects, like the wooden frame that covers the generator Racor (which had already been hit twice by the 30 lb. hatch cover). We also got permanent wiring and control for my winch and new lines for the boom pulley, as well as the wiring for the 240v to 120v transformer.

I sold the Sea King satellite system, which won’t work in Europe, and my too-large dingy, which didn’t work for me.

The cold front that is affecting the entire east coast from Nova Scotia to the Bahamas will also be affecting our planned trip tomorrow. With good weather, I had hoped to take a NE course from Stuart FL direct to Beaufort NC. That won’t happen now. Stay tuned, but it will probably be a slow crawl up the coast.

You can follow Dauntless on Marinetraffic.com and search for Dauntless mmsi # 367571090.

An Experimenter

Ever wonder why I get into so much trouble or have so many shenanigans?

By heart, I’m a scientist. At a relatively young age, I decided to be a meteorologist. Even at the University of Washington, when I had the opportunity to meet a lot of kids like me studying to be engineers of some type, I still eschewed engineering, believing meteorology was more “scientific”.

What a dope.

Only some years later, working on a forecast through the night, I realized that in practice, a synoptic meteorologist, is a weather engineer. As we take the science of the atmosphere and put it to a practical use.

Oh, for the hubris of youth. Sometimes I do miss the certainty that comes with inexperience and knowing everything. In a world for me that was once black and white, there are now only shades of gray. Even that, though a better place, and heaven knows the world could use for less absolute people, does have some drawbacks, which I may expound upon at another time.

So on this sunny Sunday morning, 6 April 2014, leaving the environs of Port Palm Beach, fate had me do an experiment, that admittedly, I had decided beforehand not to do, (much like going out on deck, at night alone. I vowed never to do that and my first night at sea, single handing, that got thrown out the window. Remember, no absolutes!)

Anyway, back to the story. As I hauled up my new Delta 55# anchor, which worked like a dream, made even better because Hopkins Carter has the most competitive prices, and even less expensive than even Jamestown, with no stink’in shipping.

I decided to deploy the poles, but leave the fish on the rail. That way, I would not have to go to the fly bridge to deploy them while underway and I needed to adjust the port side aft and fore guys, as port side pole was running about 6 inches too far aft for my liking.

That done, power on, look around to make sure nothing is in front of me and I see that one of the fish already fell into the water, but the other is obediently waiting as directed.

So the experimenter in me takes over. To retrieve the fish, I would have to go up to the fly bridge and retrieve the pole to vertical, go down and pull in the fish. Forget that. I decided to see what would happen with one fish in the water.

Power on, Dauntless, like a Top Fuel Dragster, gets to 5 knots in about 20 seconds. As I am moving north, turning towards the east to go out of the inlet (see picture), I decided to stay on the south side of the inlet, as there are bunches of sport fishers, dive boats, skiffs and all sorts of south Florida water life, including a few jet skiers, coming from Palm Beach to the north also turning into the inlet to exit into the ocean.

After carefully measuring the additional rudder, 5°, I need to keep the boat straight with only one fish in the water, I look to my left and see this multitude of boaters racing out of the inlet at Warp 10. F.. this, I throw the other fish in the water, and should a jet skier run into it and get decapitated, let heaven sort out who was right and who was wrong.

Going back to the helm, I confirm the 5° deflection is gone and I see the humongous wake rolling up on me, maybe 4 to 5 feet high. I watch in fascination as it hits the port side of Dauntless and just like that disappears, just like that, they were gone, like Keyser Soze.

We rolled a few degrees. unlike yesterday, before I deployed them a wake rolled me 25 degrees, to each side, that’s 50°

My side decks are dry while underway. Another first.

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Even with that wake, it took just a cup full of water thru the port scupper. Normally my side decks, well not mine, Dauntless’are continually bathed in sea water.

Paravane Stabilizers aka Flopper Stoppers

Robert Beebe’s book, Passagemaking Under Power,http://www.amazon.com/Voyaging-Under-Power-Robert-Beebe-ebook/dp/B001NABXPW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1396820429&sr=8-3&keywords=robert+beebe convinced me from the beginning that we needed a stabilized boat. And even though the edition I read was co-authored, updated by Jim Leishman, a Nordhavn disciple, Passagemaking Under Power makes clear that passive stabilization, flopper stoppers (FS) or paravanes, as some call them, are superior to active hydraulic stabilizers mainly for three reasons:

Dependability,
No drag when not needed
They also work while anchored or not moving

So I knew we needed them. In searching for a boat, when we came back to the Krogen 42 idea, I realized that while we needed FS, they could be added after and that the boat layout (two heads) was more critical, as well as the overall condition (I knew I could not deal with a project boat, one that always needs something fixed or replaced).

Julie and I loved Pay to Play, when we first saw her and we ended up buying her a year and a half later.

So up and down the coast we came and went, I’d ask people, but most only were familiar with active stabilizers that while easy to use, push a button, would cost above $40k.:eek:

Having run aground three times in the first month, while I did expect that frequency to decrease, I knew it wasn’t going to zero in this lifetime. So, it just also confirmed that I needed paravanes.

The Numbers

Here are the numbers so far and as I compile more data, my experience has been that these numbers after only two days will always be in the ball park and pretty representative. If not, I’ll let you know.;)

A small (2 foot) beam sea produces an average roll of 10 to 15 degrees in each direction, with some rolls 15 to 20° (40° total) and 1/8 of the rolls greater than 40°.:eek:

Fish (aka paravanes) in the water, this gets reduced to a few degrees each direction, with the bad ones to about 10° !

Overall roll is reduced by at least 75%.

The fact that I was hit with a 4 to 5 ft. wake this morning, and we didn’t roll at all, says it all.

My life is transformed.

Pictures are at http://dauntless.smugmug.com/

I’ll write about The Rig and Rigger next

Rantings and Ravings

Another Sunrise on the Miami River April 1, 2014

Yes, I am sitting here, still, on the Miami River, watching the sun rise and feeling miserable. Why? You ask yourself, he is in this almost idyllic setting, yet feels miserable? Because he tells you, he is an impatient, spoiled American, whose patience was never very much in the first place. And he adds, there is one of those noisy birds, I think of the magpie family, who sounds like a whole flock, but is just one plain noisy, and probably horny, bird. Every few minutes, my idyllic setting and even noisy bird, is interrupted as a plane takes off from Miami International Airport. Not good noise. Unpurposeful.

I used to have a T-shirt which proclaimed, Jet Noise, the Sound of Freedom. It was, but we were referring to a pair of F-4’s flying over your head at 300 feet. In the 80’s in Europe, it was, and the little left wing meteorologist that arrived in Italy in 1976 and had just voted for Jimmy Carter, saw that world as it really was, and it was not as depicted in the American press. Europeans liked, loved the sound of freedom. I learned to appreciate the goodness of the US, (though still annoyed at our bumbling sometimes) and have not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since!

By the way, those too young to know or too old that you already forgot, should read Robert Gate’s book, From the Shadows, a fascinating account of the White House politics and the world from the Nixon years thru George Bush one. And surprise, surprise (actually I was) that the Russians, yes, the same peace loving, respectful people they are today, actually did promote and fund all of the anti-American protests of the 70’s and 80’s in Europe. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006L9B616/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

OK, I’m really not miserable, slight (gross) exaggeration. Just a bit bored and impatient, as the paravanes stabilizer project proceeds at a glacial pace. I’ve actually been assured it will be finished in three days, but Felix, the guy I’m renting the dock from, thinks three weeks is more like it. Also my back hurts, since the painting project almost three weeks ago and it’s hard to think of witty things to write when in pain.

Then, eerily, for just a few seconds, I hear one of those birds that is on the soundtrack of every Hollywood movie scene in a jungle. Distinctive, loud, but quite short.

Did I mention the dolphins? Yes, dolphins swim by. Julie and I went kayaking Saturday morning and they swam right next to us. Same one, (Who knows?) came by this morning. I threw him a piece of salmon from my breakfast, but I don’t think they like it cooked (smoked, processed whatever). A less picky sea gull soon took care of that piece of offal.

What you think, kayaks? Yes, as we wanted a way to get to shore, without having to use the humongous dingy (I’m also dealing with that issue).

Lastly, yesterday evening, I rode by bike to the cutest Dairy Queen, I’ve seen in a long time. Old time, with only ice cream. Getting into a conversation with another patron, he told me he was coming here to this same DQ 50 years ago.

Dairy Queen - a Glimpse of the Past — Dairy Queen – a Glimpse of the Past

OK. John, the Rigger and Red, the Fabricator, should be by any day now, so I better get dressed.

wpid-storageextSdCardDCIMCamera20140329_090536_NW-20th-St.jpg.jpg — Dauntless Awaits

wpid-storageextSdCardDCIMCamera20140401_071413_NW-20th-St.jpg.jpg — New Deck Lights

I want to conclude the Bahamas Adventure with the Christmas Disaster

But before I tell the rest of the story of the summer Canada trip, in which there will be midnight dives, midnight docking, 12 knot currents, flying trawlers, flying people, swinging booms, crushing dinghies, crashing seas, the bureaucracies of the world at their best, BoatUS on the edge, Canadian customs, the ever vigilant USCG, pilot ships, thunderstorms, rain, ships passing in the night, lobster pots, lobsters, big tides and of course fog, fog and more fog.

I want to conclude the Bahamas Adventure with another lesson learned and disaster narrowly averted.

Christmas Eve, My crewmate, Chantal, and I returned to Bayshore Marina in Nassau. She would be leaving to visit her parents the next day and I would be picking up Julie and two of our friends, Karen and Jason, who were coming back for more adventure, having shared some of the shenanigans of Maine this past summer.

The trade winds had continued to blow steadily out of the East and ESE at 15 to 22 knots for the entire week. They were forecast to continue the next few days, so I decided to use the following seas they would produce and head to Andros Island. Overall course would be WSW, so the winds and seas would be just off our stern and provide a great ride, as Dauntless loves having her rear end goosed.

I had already noticed and thought about two issues, two yellow, if not red flags. The first being the lack of anchorages in the area we were heading for and the second being that no one ever mentioned cruising to Andros island. Everyone talked about the Abacos, the Exumas, Nassau, etc. here was this big island, just 45 miles west, whose only redeeming value was that they produced much of the fresh water for Nassau. Furthermore, looking at our planned anchorage, it would require an hour long threading of a narrow, unmarked channel. I would use my very accurate, so far, Explorer Charts, and my Navionics app on my Samsung Note, as well as the Navionics chart on my Raymarine Chart plotter (6 years old data). I felt confident that we could handle whatever came our way.

But I figured we would be getting off the beaten track. How bad could it be?

So Christmas Day starts out rosy and pink. Beautiful sunrise, we get underway, backing up out of the marina, everything ship shape. I had even written out and gone over some new household procedures with our guests, since a few things had changed since the summer. I was feeling very organized and experienced!

Hubris.

First hour, we have to head SE to get around New Providence island (the island Nassau is on), it’s a bit of a rough ride with 3 to 4 foot seas rolling the boat 10° to 20°. But after an hour we turned southwest and the ride totally smoothed out. A little after noon, we reached Tongue of the Ocean, where the water went from the Bahamas depth of 10 to 20 feet to over 4,000 ft. deep.

I took this opportunity to stop the boat, putting her in neutral. The month before, I had taken a similar opportunity to take a swim. Any thoughts of swimming quickly evaporated as dauntless broached (waves turning the boat perpendicular to the waves) within two minutes with a vicious roll almost 40 degrees. As I used the wheel to pull myself up, I quickly put her in gear and pushed the throttle up to get steerage back. No damage done, a little lesson learned.

Our charts indicated a very narrow marked (with pilings) channel extending ¼ mile due east of the Island, after which we would turn south and thread our way another 45 minutes south to an indicated anchorage at ———-

We did this, arriving at our planned anchorage about 4 p.m., about an hour before sunset. Andros Island has a reef protecting much of the east side. We had worked our way south, with the Island about ¼ mile to our west and the reef, indicated by a line of angry breakers, about ¼ mile to the east.

Seas had built to 4 to 6 feet out of the east. The period was relatively short, about 6 seconds, but we were protected now by the reef and just had some small chop, though with continued strong easterly winds to contend with at anchorage.

Christmas Sunset over Andros Island. What you can't see the island, ... — Christmas Sunset over Andros Island.
What you can’t see the island, …

After getting the anchor set, letting out 100 ft. of chain in only 6 ft. deep water, I didn’t like what I was seeing. In the Exumas, we were normally anchored just west of the cay. The cay would protect us from the wind and waves and the beach would be very close, sometimes within 100 feet of white sand and blue, clear water. I wasn’t seeing that here. Instead, even though the reef protected us from the large waves, there was a surface chop that made the water turbulent. The Island also was far away, maybe a half a mile, though the shallow water was very close. Lastly, we were in a narrow channel, the wind was strong out of the east and to the west of us was shallow water and the island itself. In other words, if we dragged anchor, we would be on the beach before I could ever say, WTF?

We had dinner, watched another pretty sunset and at 7 p.m. two hours after our initial anchoring, as I am finishing my glass of wine, I look at the window and to my dismay, I see we’re dragging, slowly for sure, but dragging none the less.

I call everyone to Action Stations. Fire up the engine, decide where we need to be, haul anchor, move to the new spot, drop the anchor, set it, and wait. It’s not holding. We try again. No luck. And now, our situation is made even more uncomfortable, as we are sitting perpendicular to the wind, producing a yawing motion. While not terrible, I figure let’s try an experiment, let’s put out a stern anchor! With my motto being, there is a first time for everything, we talked it over and while we did not need a stern anchor, it wouldn’t hurt to try it now.

We did, and after an hour of moving, fiddling and other hijinks, we came to the conclusion that it was a waste of time. Luckily, through foresight, luck, the gods or all three, it turned out to be relatively easy to retrieve (I am sparing you the gory details, but suffice it to say, this was an hour long production).

So, it’s 9 p.m., dark, windy and I’m ready for bed. 45 minutes later, the anchor alarm (Drag Queen) goes off. I just up, even bother to put on pants, start the engine and for the third time move the boat. I’m back in bed at 10 p.m. Before even closing my eyes, as I think about the past few hours, I realize that Dauntless has moved roughly a foot a minute ever since we got here, so in one hour, we will again have moved 60 feet and what am I going to do then?

I screwed this pooch and there is only one answer.

Science News & the Miami Boat Show

How are they related?

https://www.sciencenews.org/

Julie recently sent the following email to her science teachers:

Hi science team,

I just spent 45 minute reading new discoveries about the following:

How sleep “flushes” out the brain

New research in progenia, a disease that prematurely ages children

How molecules in 1% of our exhaled breath can diagnose certain diseases

A pink fairy armadillo that is almost impossible to find

Earth might not be inhabitable in 1.75 billion years

The primordial comet ISON

New “robot” limbs for paraplegics that are controlled by human thoughts

I could go on– there was more and it was all in Science News. I truly enjoyed it, and I remembered Richard telling me many times that he thinks all science teachers should read this magazine. He has subscribed for years, and as an earth science and physics teacher, he said that the background knowledge he gained from it allowed him to teach a range of content he otherwise could not have handled if he had only relied on his meteorology degree.

To you– a group of young, inspired teachers at the beginning of your careers– I passionately recommend that you personally subscribe to Science News. It’s very important that nourish your sense of wonder and fascination and discovery that will not get fed unless you intentionally feed it. Start nourishing your passion early and don’t for wait a fictional future when you think you’ll have more time, or teaching will get easier. Think of this year not as a hump to get over, but as the beginning of an ever-expanding possibility to have fun, feel fulfilled, and learn with your students. Now is when you need to be reading and having fun. Set the precedent now to be a science teacher who loves science.

Why Science News? Because it is truly a “digest”– it engagingly summarizes articles from hundreds of science journals. It is a blast to read.

And if this inspires you to go even further and subscribe to more magazines, and seek more professional development and events about science, including those closer to your subject area, wonderful. Gorge yourself on reading fun things about science, math, history– it’s all related. You have inspired me to write this to you, and I will call out similarly to other departments.

Ciao, enjoy this break!

Yes, I still love reading Science News, even though now it is a bi-weekly. Maybe once I get my tablet, I will get over the loss of my weekly treat.

So, I spent a full day at the Miami Boat Show. As opposed to boat shows I have attended in the past, this one was business for me as I have a number of upgrades and changes that I want to get accomplished this spring before our Atlantic Passage in July.

Among the changes I am thinking about, planning or getting done:

Paravanes (flopper stoppers), being fabricated now in Miami
Wallas DT40 Diesel heater
Bicycle for me to use in my travels
Isolation transformer to convert 220V to 110 V
K-30 Pentax Camera + zoom to be able to take better pictures and restart that old hobby
High capacity alternator, so I also have a spare
SSB HF radio
Coastal Explorer great looking navigation software
AIS Transponder, so you guys can track me and hopefully big ass ships will see me and not run us over
AIS and VHF Ant, old VHF Ant is broken in any case
Captain’s license , can’t hurt and I will learn something I probably need to know
Fridge and Freezer, it’s between two Italian companies, Isotherm and Vitrifrigo, which will cut my daily power consumption my two thirds, making life on the hook better without the generator. Also will be adding
Solar Panels on top of Pilot House
Rogue Wi-Fi. So I have more choices for internet connectivity
Village Water Watermaker
Samsung Tablet will become third backup (actually my fourth, but who’s counting) and let me bring it with me wherever to monitor boat functions and its movements.

So, as you can see, I have my work cut out for me. Luckily, I have a lot of help in some really good friends, Paul, here in Miami, Richard from Providence (no, not me, another Richard) and Dave in Ft. Pierce, who is a true master of electrical and boat systems.

So, how are Science News & the Miami Boat Show related? For both Julie and I, it has always been about learning and putting systems in place that lead to better teacher teams for Julie and increased efficiently for Dauntless and I.

Also, feel free to email me at DauntlessNY@gmail.com should you have any comments or questions.

Some pictures of the last few days, mostly of the Miami River taken yesterday and the Coconut Grove area can be found at:

Winter in Miami

How I almost Snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory or When a Shortcut, Isn’t!

Chubb Cay to Dollar Harbour, 30 January 2014, Thursday,

It’s Oh Dark Thirty, really, 3:00 a.m. If I want to get to Cat Cay today, it’s 76 nm @ 6.5 knots, that’s 12 hours, plus the usual hour of hijinks, so I either leave now or drive in the dark. Since for the first few hours this morning I can follow the route I took back in December, it’s better for me to leave now in the darkness, but on a known route. I also can’t wait to try my new driving lights, but as there is nothing in front of me, I don’t see anything.

Hauled anchor, at 3:45 a.m. and am now underway. I’m very close to the cold front. Forecasters had it between Florida and Bimini, but the winds switched around last night to the NW meaning it or part of it, passed thru, however, as I get underway, I notice the winds are again from the SE and I can sense buildups just to my west. Sure enough, in about an hour, I am going thru heavy rain for about half an hour. Once again I am passed the front, hopefully this time for good. (Sadly, was not the case and the third time, was at the most critical time.) As the sun came up at 6:30, the very light NW winds just caused barely a ripple on the ocean. Good cruising weather.

I picked up a hitchhiker for about half an hour.

Been anchored here in Dollar harbor (thanks to Active Captain) 30 minutes, since 17:15, a 14 hour day, just got out of the shower and now, finally It’s Miller Time, but I’m having stiff drink. As my mother would say, a highball.

So let’s go back to the videotape. The plan worked well. Would have worked even better had I remembered to look at my Explorer Chart Book of the Bahamas, which was three feet away on the chart table in front of my face all f…day. (the downside of getting up at 3 a.m.?)

So all was going well. By leaving so early, the seas were flat for the first 9 hours, it wasn’t till early afternoon that the southerly waves picked up in the shallow water west of the tongue of the ocean. Small waves about a foot, but once in a while they would hit the boat strangely and cause a disconcerting thump. I’m making good time too, 1600 rpms, but averaging 7 knots.

At this point, it’s midafternoon and I’m only about 10 nm Southeast of the Cat Cay lighthouse, and I am following the exact route I took coming out, but am wondering why I took that route as it seems a little off from what my Navionics charts are saying. Especially when I got to the real shallow area that I had come straight thru last month. Shallow, so cruising slowly for an hour, like 5 kts, with only 1 to 3 feet under the keel. Luckily, as the water got skinny, I made sure I was exactly on that track, though I did test it, by going north and south of the track to see if it improved. It didn’t. OK, so I get thru that part and now I’m 3 nm SE of the lighthouse, but it my Navionics says I can try to get to Dollar harbor by coming from the NE on the east side of South Cat Cay.

Interesting. Not one to pass up an opportunity (to save an hour)I slow down even more and give it a try, within minutes the rudder becomes sluggish, I immediately make a sharp U turn and add power as the depth sounder stopped sounding, which means it’s in the mud, sand. Within a heart stopping 30 seconds, I have at least some water underneath. OK, all is good, I retrace my steps, get back on course a and once again head NW to the lighthouse and the gap between South and North Cat Cay.

Now, in part because of the wasted time, this storm that has been building is now here, so I go thru the narrow cut south (must hug shore to within 100 ft) of the lighthouse in raging seas and wind. 100 m visibility in heavy rain and wind. When I get to the west side, it is far worse, as there seem to be two different wave trains and their both 6 to 8 ft. I realize at this point, that I need sea room no matter what the seas, so I continue west into the deeper water, >40ft, before I turn South,

Now, I’m wondering what to do, The rain is so heavy, I can’t see the inlets or the rocks just to my left, I don’t trust my chart plotter or my navionics App and the wind is from the North, so continuing on and crossing the Gulf Stream is out of the question.

A light dawns, Like the sun burning though the morning fog, I remember my trusty Explorer Chart Book. Open it to the pertinent page and low and behold it has all the answers. It showed why I had previously taken the route I had, plus it showed that the only way to the Dollar anchorage was from the southwest.

I decided to play it safe for once and come all the way south of Wedge Rocks as the channel there looked a bit deeper and wider, on the chart, so I just gritted my teeth and accepted that I would have a rough ride for the next 30 minutes. The visibility was still bad enough I could not the rocks or breakers, so I wondered about turning into the inlet when the time came, but as it was it was all anti-climactic. As soon as I was south of the rocks, I turned, and the seas died down to just 2-3’. Looking at the chart it confirmed the AC advice and it was a piece of cake. I had 14 ft. of water all the way to this anchorage. There was some wind, but absolutely no boat movement (and for a full displacement boat, that says a lot). There is a strong current which is keeping Dauntless parallel to the channel, but this is the quietest anchorage I have had in the entire time in the Bahamas.

Here are two videos, but it’s hard to get WordPress to play nice with pictures. So go to http://dauntless.smugmug.com/Dauntless-Public for the rest of the pictures in descending chronological order.

Finally, It’s Miller Time and here is one of my favorite Miller time T-shirts at http://dauntless.smugmug.com/Dauntless-Public

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Light Her Up Boys

It’s 19° in NY and at least 77° here in Miami. I’m sweltering, But don’t worry about me, I have A/C.

Coming through customs in Nassau, the agent asked me what my purpose of the visit was and I replied, I have about here and she replied, “oh, vacation” and I said, it never occurred to me that this is a vacation and not just a warmer place to work.

I finally finished my lights project. For those of you who may have read of my shenanigans coming down the ICW one night, I decided to go back to my roots. One of the first additions to my first car was changing the headlights to the then banned quartz halogen (Cibie) headlights and I then added two extra lights, a fog and a driving (Baby Oscars). Never could have too much light for those middle of the night drives around Mt. Rainier. If I recall correctly, we could do it in 4 and a half hours from the UW campus and back.

Getting ready for dinner before the Sasquatch made his presence known.

These pictures are not of Mt. Rainier, but of the area between Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens that Julie and I camped in 6 years ago. I loved the logging roads of western Washington and Oregon.

OK. Back to the story.

So Dauntless now has one halogen spot (Hella) and two fog lights (Chinese), with two switches near my right hand below the instrument cluster, going through the switch/breaker in the pilot house panel.

Some details on the lights. The Chinese LED’s are advertised as available in 30 or 60 degree light spread, but I think those numbers looked good to the manufacturer and have no basis in reality. But then that’s what I expected. I actually bought one of each and it looks like the one that is supposed to be 60° had something sprayed on the inside of the lens (to call it a lens is being very generous). In any case, both are very bright (even brighter than expected) and very broad (as expected). The Hella is exactly as advertised. Even on Amazon, they give a great diagram of the
light pattern for each type of light, from spot to driving to euro to fog. I actually got the driving versus the spot, as I can’t see Dauntless going 100 mph (yes, here I do use statute miles, why, because we are on land and our speed is measured in mph), so I don’t really need to see 900 meters down range, 500m will do quite nicely and gives me a bit of a broader beam to catch something let’s say at 200m that my Chinese lights may miss.

And no, I won’t have them on when other boats are around. For some reason I seem to find myself traveling sometimes for days without seeing other boats.

Like when we went to Andros Island and then decided to leave at 10:00 p.m. as I realized what an untenable position I had put us in. OK details to follow in tomorrow’s posting.

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