I arrived last night at 20:30 after leaving Atlantic City the previous day at 10:00.
Sunset over the NarragansettLeaving Atlantic City
Another solo overnight passage done. IT feels great to be “home”; in this case, home is the Port Edgewood Marina, a few miles south of downtown Providence, Rhode Island. I’m here because the marina people are very nice and they offer extremely good monthly rates. I’m paying ¼ of what I was paying for the week in A.C.
This is also a great place to put the finishing touches on the boat for its July passage across the Atlantic. My friends Richard and Melanie are also here, so it’s always more pleasant to work with helping hands and advice available.
The trip from Atlantic City, 215 nm, almost 400 km, went as planned. I left A.C. with light winds that died down my midafternoon. I retrieved the paravane birds, as they take 0.6 kts, off my speed, and motored on into the night.
By about 1:00 a.m., the winds had increased again form the NW, producing wind driven NW waves 2-3’ high. There was also an 8 second Southeasterly swell. The rolling of Dauntless had continued to increase, so finally I threw the birds back in the water (I had kept the poles extended). As usually, the roll was decreased by two thirds.
By mid-morning I was just south of Block Island. It is somewhat of a coincidence, but it seems whenever I have these long trips, no matter have many boats I see, or don’t see, as the case may be, there is always one, that after having gone hours and hours without seeing anything, a boat will appear that is clearly on a collision course.
Fishing Boat
But I saw him miles away and was getting ready to change course and pass behind him when he hailed me on the VHF. He said he just wanted to make sure someone was paying attention and I thanked him for the heads up.
Finally, 6.5 months, 700 engine hours and 4000 miles later, I’m back; at least for the time being.
Friends and relationships are really important to me, and I don’t like losing them. As much as I love Dauntless, I think I may have lost a friend who can’t deal with the idea of me leaving to travel the world. Being in Atlantic City reminds me not of the usual A.C. loss of money, but loss of a friend.
And that’s the one thing I did not anticipate about this boat life: I really miss some of my friends in NYC. I’ve never had a lot of friends, but have always had some very close ones and most of them are in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. But these past few years in NYC, I became close to a couple of people who really helped me in so many ways, and I really miss their friendship and support. They helped me put life in perspective and made my life richer.
I have always valued relationships more than anything else, certainly more than money. Even when I had little money, what little I had I spent to travel to maintain those relationships.
So to lose a close friend, is a really sad event for me. I just hope that it’s not a permanent loss.
The last two days have gone as well as I had hoped, other than a few operator errors. As I write this, I am about 20 miles of the coast of Maryland, just abeam off Ocean City, MD and about 60 miles south southwest of my destination, Atlantic City. Hopefully, I’ll arrive there at 6 p.m. tonight.
Let’s recap. Since leaving Savannah exactly a week ago, I have been running hard to get north and get home as I have people to see and places to go.
Being alone, makes it somewhat harder, as I do not get a rest at the wheel while in the ICW, must be constantly vigilant, not to get out of the narrow channel and run aground and lastly, since I need to make miles, I have had to put in 14 hour days, just to go 100 miles per day.
Tug Goose Creek and the RR Bridge
The day before yesterday, it was an 18 hour day as I pressed on till 11:00 p.m. so that I could get by a bunch of annoying bridges that only open at certain times during the day, but will open on demand at night, thus saving tons of waiting time.
Thus Thursday night, I got past the Great Bridge and was tied up on the wall between the Great Bridge and the Great Bridge Lock. Locking thru the next morning, I was 12 miles south of my destination, Portsmouth, and thanks to a great tug boat captain, I was being fueled in Portsmouth at 10:00 a.m. All my efforts of the night before would have gone in vain, if not for this helpful captain of the tug Goose Creek,
who warned me in a timely fashion to keep up with him, as there was a railroad bridge, that while normally open, was going to close as soon as his tug passed through, as there was a train coming. So not only did this captain tell me to come as quick as I could and get behind him, he also told the bridge operator that I was running as fast as my little legs could take me and not to close the span on me. That was really thoughtful and I thanked him. It saved me more than an hour and this was confirmed when I saw the parade of boats (that had been held up) come past as I finished fueling up almost two hours later.
I got 620 gallons (2400 liters) of diesel at the cheapest price on the east coast, $3.47/gallon.
So by noon, I was underway, passing out of the ICW forever, into the mouth of the Chesapeake, near Hampton Roads, current home port of the Aircraft Carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), which just happened to be docking just as I was leaving. Impressive sight, though it meant I had to spend the next few hours staying out of the way of her support fleet as they came steaming up the channel from the Atlantic. It only got hairy once, as a large bulk coal carrier, a navy oiler and little old Dauntless all converged at the narrow channel that is the passage over the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel. I snuck around the red buoy just as the oiler was turning into it. He missed me by 900 feet and I was finally in the Atlantic.
CVN 71 TR
Waves and wind were as forecast, so I had already put the paravane poles out and had adjusted the guys. Now the portside pole is slightly bent due to operator error a few days ago. This had the effect of not wanting to fall away from the boat as freely as it should. I, like the little experimenter, I am, decide it really didn’t matter, for as soon as I threw the bird in the water, the pole would have to get to its correct position.
Wrong, wrong wrong as Leonie used to say.
So, as I deploy the birds, by basically throwing them overboard, the port side pole is not extended all the way and the line for the bird has so much slack that the wind catches it and it snags on a small cleat that is on the hand rail of the upper deck. But I don’t see that immediately, so as the bird goes in the water, the line is snagged, so the bird is right next to the stern of the boat, instead of being 15 feet out. The pole is standing straight up though bent back towards the stern. Not good, I think, I put the boat in reverse, to completely stop all forward movement, so I can retrieve the bird and try again. I pull the bird back in, see the snag over my head, climb up on the cap rail to unsnag it and all is well, as I throw the bird back in the water, the pole goes to its normal position. I then throw the starboard bird in and we are underway. A few minutes later, as I am walking around the boat, checking that all is OK and the lines, guys are all well-adjusted, I see that my stern pole and American flag are missing. The only thing left is the stub of the wooden pole where it broke. I wonder how could that have happened? Age Probably?
Then, it dawns on me, as this 40 pound bird came flying around the back of the boat, it must have wacked the flag pole breaking it off. Of course all this happened in full sight of the Navy Oiler, you know, the one that came within 900 feet and they are probably still laughing about it. Just returning from a deployment, they probably needed the laugh more than I needed the flag and pole.
Navy Oiler 8
A week earlier, the crew of the large container ship that passed ¼ mile away while I was stopped dead in the water for more than an hour, must still be scratching their heads wondering what I was doing. They did see me climb the mast (thank you John Duffy for installing those mast steps) to put the up-down guy back thru its pulley. And thanks to my Captain’s class, I knew not to wave my arms signaling distress.
A few hours earlier, I had been experimenting (there’s that word again) with the winch, trying to tweak the system I use to pull in the poles. When done with my experiment (which by the way did show me why a self-tailing winch is different than a regular winch and much more costly) I had retied the up-down guy line, but clearly not well enough. This same guy came loose because I had not properly secured it. When it came loose, all hell broke out. I was standing on the bow, admiring the view as Dauntless cut through the Atlantic blue water, when I heard a not so loud thunk. Thunks are never good and in this case, when I turned around, I saw no pole!
I looked again, thinking my brain was just canceling out stuff it sees all the time and still no pole, but then as I go aft, I see the pole is aimed straight down to Davy Jones’ locker. At least it and the bird attached to it are still attached to the boat. John and Red had designed the paravane system so that in case of a snag or something stupid like this, the pole was the weakest link. So, while the pole did bend a little bit, the bracket attached thru the gunnel (wall of the boat) was fine. It did take me awhile to figure out how to get this pole which is supposed to be extended at a 45° angle from the side of the boat was now at 180° Eeek
The bent paravane pole
Well, it took me awhile to figure that out, but eventually I used the boom to extend the line a few feet away from the boat, so as I used the winch, the line had some leverage that wasn’t straight up. It worked and while I am stopped in the water doing this work, I see the one boat, a large container ship get closer and closer. The one and only boat I see all day and he is going to go right by me. Well, this does make me nervous, as I am underway, but not making way.
So I’m up on the top of the mast, as this big ships glides by. I just had to rethread the guy line thru the pulley and down to the cleat where I made sure to attach it correctly, so it couldn’t slip off again.
The pole has few degrees bend in it, but works fine none the less.
Now the day itself started out strangely enough.
That morning, more than a dozen dolphins arrived to swim with my bow wave and the two birds in the water; I thought it was a great omen. In my excitement, holding the camera with one hand, I open the pilot house door with the other.
And that’s when things started to go bad. In my haste to open the pilot house door, go out and take pictures, I managed to snag with my foot the cord and charger for my laptop, which I use for my primary navigation system.
As my foot went to step over the sill onto the outside deck, this resulted in me drop kicking the charger converter into the ocean. I was mesmerized as I watched the cord slide off the deck and into the ocean. The realization came to me immediately that I had no backup, it would be days before I could get anew charger and therefore, I would have to be navigating with my smart phone for the next two to three days. I’d done it before, but it’s not the way to go. All of this flashed before my brain in those seconds.
Then, I realized, maybe one of the dolphins will know this was not a mackerel I threw to them and therefore snag it for me. I looked down hopefully, wishing to see one of them surface with the charger in its mouth. I’m even starting to think how I could retrieve it from them.
Dolphin
Then reality set in, even with a dozen dolphins around, wouldn’t you expect at least one to grab on to this cord and retrieve it for me? I did! I regret to tell you that not one offered to help.
I now think Poodles are smarter.
An aside.
I was curious as to which aircraft carrier this was, so I googled CVN 71 and Theodore Roosevelt turns up. I really admired him, reinforced by my experience as a principal in the NYC school system, as fate would have it, in the Theodore Roosevelt High School Campus. TR’s most famous quote, “Speak Softly, but carry a big stick; you will go far.” I didn’t. During my time, I did the opposite; I spoke loudly and carried no stick. A dangerous position to be in, umm sort of like Obama. (Julie has learned from my mistakes and she is far more like TR).http://www.public.navy.mil/airfor/cvn71/Pages/default.aspx
Well, at least that strategy got me to Dauntless sooner rather than later.
I was escorted out of Georgia by a pair of dolphins.
Dolphins Lead the Way
A great omen to start any trip and as the day has progressed, it has only gotten better. Having put out the paravane polls even before entering the sound, I left the birds on deck, waiting until he water was deeper (I like at least 25 to 30 feet). As the morning progressed however, I didn’t need them. The little wind there had been has produced these little half foot waves from the southwest. As my course in to the northeast, I have a little following sea, which the Kadey Krogen does particularity well with.
Now almost 10 hours later, not much has changed. The waves have grown to one foot and there is a long period swell from the east, so occasionally I get a bigger roll, maybe 5° to each side, with a small constant roll of a few degrees. I still have not deployed the paravanes and at this point, maybe another 1.5 hours to anchor, I probably won’t. But I been reminded how much I love the ocean and I realize that I have not had conditions so benign since late summer.
As I planned my route north these last months, I would look at the ant trail of my previous trip south and an unpleasant feeling would settle in my stomach. The realization that even though I love being on the ocean and have always tried to maximize my ocean time, for I love the air, the color of the sea, the expanse of sky, I had also had a hard winter of it.
Oh, no, not like, virtually everyone reading this. I had no days, weeks and months of frigid winds, mind numbing cold and countless shovel fulls of snow, ice and then coaxing the car to start.
No, it hasn’t been like that, but as I looked at my previous journey, down the coast from Rhode Island, across the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas and back, during the last 6 months, I realized that I had let myself press on ever worsen conditions on a day to day or week to week basis.
In other words, I would tell myself that it’s not so bad, only a little worse than the week before.
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Now, of course, I do have the paravanes, which are a great equalizer, but I had forgotten how pleasant the ocean can be and normally is!
I have also let the schedule push me, not in any unsafe manner, but certainly I have put up with a lot of discomfort.
So today, has been Mother Nature’s way of resetting by expectations.
This summer planning the trip across the North Atlantic, I fully expect conditions to be similar to today. And if they are not, I will wait until they are. But I also know, that Dauntless ready and able to dance on those waves when she has to.
Update
I ended up deploying the paravanes, as the last hour the winds had picked up and that built 3 foot waves off my stern quarter. We were rolling, not much, the usual, 15 degrees in each direction. I made hasty decision to thrown in the birds that had been resting on deck all day.
In they went, and the ride settled down, but then I stressed about getting them back. Why, you ask?
Because about the same time, my auto pilot went TU. If you don’t know what that means, ask one of your friends who has been in the military, and if you don’t have a friend like that. Umm, I suppose there is such a thing as a free lunch.
So, with no autopilot, I could not do my usual of setting it and retrieving the birds. I had to use the never before contingency plan 4102, anchor in the channel, retrieve paravanes, haul anchor and haul ass.
Worked like a charm. I took less than ten minutes and it was nice to do that without worrying where in hell the boat was going.
Another hour later, I am happily anchored at big Bay Cheek. Turns out the peninsula that is on the other side of the creek, is full of houses. New houses by the looks of it, or better said, house built since the last hurricane wiped them out.
Nuff Said
Don’t you love a political system where you can pretend to be anti-governemt, tea oarty, right winger, etc, but then every ten years get a new house, since you have subsidized house insurance because you were so smart you built in a clear flood plain. And before you think I am a Democrat, the Democrats allow all the crap to happen. We have truly reached a point of total me, me, me in this country. And our politicians are leading the parade.
Sorry, I got carried away.
OK, for all of you that I haven’t offended and are still reading, I hoping I found the fault with the autopilot.
Tomorrow, we shall see what we shall see.
Thanks for Reading
P.S. I think Microsoft Word has the solution to the Washington mess. When the spell check got to politicians, it suggested pelicans. Not a bad idea at all. Replace everyone in Washington with pelicans. Can be any worse. At least we’ll get realistic fish quotas.
On an Obama can even be an eagle, or is that his wife?
Another great song, that brings up so many wonderful times that almost always ended in tears!
Peter Godwin 1982 Album Cover
A lot of tears!! Ok enough reminiscing about Shirley & Laurel
Nothing is sacred – so give me your soul my love
Nothing is wasted on someone like you
Somebody killed me – they tore out my heart my love
Somebody filled me with photos of you
And there’s nothing I can do – the media made you
There’s nothing I can do – cause you don’t exist – you don’t exist
Just images of heaven that take me to hell
Images of heaven – or something for sale
Oh images of heaven – images of heaven
Performed and Written my Peter Godwin 1982
Today is my last day of driving 220 miles back and forth between Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. This drive gives me all this time to reflect and think. Too much time, but I’ll be back to the normal routine on Saturday, as Dauntless and I head north.
I had thought I had found an inexpensive slip at Tom’s River, NJ, but because it’s already late spring, I may have to find an alternative. The weather looks iffy for Saturday to travel on the outside, though it will be improving. We’ll see.
I also thought I had a couple that wanted to accompany me, but that didn’t work out, so it’s me single handing again. Hey, at least it keeps my mind occupied and I don’t have the time to “What if” myself to death and then bore you with the gory details.
Oh, there are no gory details. OK Let’s back slowly away and no one will get hurt.
A few thoughts on the last 2 weeks:
Sea School has been great. The instruction outstanding and effective. Over the years, I have sat though countless adult learning classes and most of the time, one is grateful that they disarmed you at the door, because otherwise these types of classes are so boring, someone is bound to go Postal. But the Sea School turned out to be totally different in always good. Probably much of it was the instructor, a 40 year tug captain who actually knows how to teach (which means his students learn). http://www.seaschool.com/
I passed all of the written tests yesterday, including a very hard rules of the road (in which you must get >90%). But honestly I learned a lot of stuff that I should know.
The contrast between the two cities, Savannah and Charleston is like night and day. Savannah is a gorgeous town, full of old moss-covered, shaggy trees (I don’t know if it’s actually moss, but we northerners know what I’m describing).
Shaggy Trees in Savannah
Savannah seems also very diverse. Charlestown on the other hand has a vibe of, if it was up to us, we’d still be a slave state. Even the Costco in Charleston has a very strange un-Costco like vibe.
I didn’t mind the drive. Check out the pictures I posted on SmugMug, It did give me time to think, far more so than on Dauntless, since driving is a more automatic function. Though as you can tell from some of these posts, sometimes I reflect too much and end up having regrets that really don’t exist. But my friends and relationships are my raison d’être and I can not even dislike someone I once loved. Which actually serves me well, as i quickly forget past injustices, which I believe helps reduce my stress.
I got to talk to some friends who I havent talked to in a while, like my oldest friend from the UW, we met in Lander Hall in 1969. Though that does make me wonder why I have far more long-lasting friends in Europe than the U.S.
OK, enough of this, I listen to different music on Dauntless, pretty much only classical. It puts me in a different state of mine, one I think that is closer to nature. That’s why I love the sea. So, probably the next extensive writing about cars and driving will be next winter as I drive from Holland to Italy. Now, that will be fun, listening to It’s Too Late by Jim Carroll, will have that car dancing on the edge.
I just finished putting the groceries away. Tomorrow, I will get the boat ready for Action on the North mid-Atlantic on Saturday. Weather and Sea state will determine route. You can follow me on MarineTraffic.com search for Dauntless, mmsi 367571090
One final tidbit. I will send this to Our Man in China to get his take. His blog is http://dispatchesfromchina.wordpress.com/
But once you start to think it is; it won’t be. It’s also the title of one of my most favorite songs, “Could This Be Heaven?” by Original Mirrors. Released in 1980, I heard it for the first time in 1982 while in Germany. I taped it from SWF3, Südwestfunk drei, still one of the best rock stations of all time. They played a wonderful mix of American, English and European songs in the style of the original album FM stations of NYC in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s.
But I digress, being in the car, listening to certain songs, is almost like having a time machine. I am transported instantly to the time and place where that particular song had an impact. In this case, it’s 1983, I’m driving between my home near Pirmasens to Baden Baden and I am taking these very small roads through the Alsace of France (which is really German, just look at the town names). I loved this route, little traffic, little hassle at the border and some great roads, through beautiful forests and medieval towns. But the best part was the driving, flat out for the most part, especially once I got off of B10.
In France, there was a particular spot that I knew well, as it was quite technical. The road had a little rise, that caused the car to almost get airborne, but it also curved right in the middle. So one had to set up the car knowing where you were going to come down. And while the car did not get airborne, it was so light on the suspension that it was only going to go where you pointed it when it took off.
Every time I hear, Could This Be Heaven?” I am brought to that place, and the joy I felt when I took ti perfectly. I had Canadian friends at the Canadian Air Base at Baden Baden, so for a while I was taking this trip monthly. It was heaven.
But then, so why did I leave?
Three years earlier, I was listening to another song, not as dramatic, nor as catchy, but for me, somehow it epitomized my year. I had fallen hard for a married woman, but she was a good catholic and wasn’t going to change anything, even though she wasn’t very happy. I remember walking on the flight line at Ramstein to say goodbye and the tune on SWF3 was “American Music” by Prism.
“American music you can hear it all over the world. Right now somewhere this minute there’s a radio playin on And it’s playing that rhythm and blues…”
I was the one leaving, having to return to the U.S. It took me quite a while to get over her, and this pretty upbeat song, always brought a sadness and even now, 34 years later, I still get wistful.
This brings me back to the point of this story. As Brad pointed out in his comment, in Quantum Mechanics, you can know a time or a place, but not both. Once you decide you are deliriously happy, Fate will intervene. I’ve had too many deliriously happy months that took years to recover from. The pain was so out of proportion to the actual loss. Shirley, the woman mentioned above was a friend, a genuine nice person and so very faithful,much to my chagrin. The sense of loss I experienced was so out of proportion to the actual loss.
So now on Dauntless, I am living the life that I have planned. I’m content knowing that I am not deliriously happy.
Dawn Patrol connotes many things, but most of all for me, the sense of being up before anyone else and being on watch.
For what? Who knows, but then that’s the point.
After joining the Air Force in 1976 and being deployed overseas, my first “Exercise” (USAF fighters come from US for one to two weeks, to fly and do stuff from a NATO base) that I participated directly in was named Dawn Patrol, Gioia del Colle, Italy.
My drive this morning, 1:56, 127 miles, fastest do far this week, gives me too much time to think.
I think of duty.
“You have to go out, you don’t have to come back”
Taking this class now, which is all about, keeping your passengers safe, makes me cringe when I think of the two captains, Italian and Korean, who were the first off their sinking ships. Two countries I dearly love, yet the Desks have let people be in charge who had no honor, no sense of duty.
In the whole terrible episode recently in South Korea, with a high school class perishing on the ferry to Jeju Island, the only person who took responsibility was the poor vice principal of the school. In his suicide letter, he apologized for advocating for the trip, and coordinating it.
I just had a piece of the best pecan pie I have ever eaten.
I’m in Savannah, Georgia, but the pie comes from South Carolina.
My Morning Drive
So, after our retreat from the ocean, we realized that we would have to come up the Inter Coastal Waterway (ICW). We made an ambitious plan to travel 100 miles per day, from sunrise to two hours after sunset, for three days.
The plan worked perfectly, sort of. It wasn’t till the second day, that I realized we were still going to be 150 miles short of our goal to Charleston, SC, where I was scheduled to take a class starting at 8 a.m. this past Monday morning. I had simply written the wrong mile marker down.
Well, we made the best of with situation. Found a nice marina just south of Savannah, GA, rented a car, and I’m in that car 2 hours in the morning and two hours in the evening each day.
And every day, as I drive back and forth 4+ hours each day, I reflect on the fact that, while this may seem to be an inconvenience, at least in the end, we ended up making some good decisions and the drive is my penance for having too tight a time table.
The class I am taking is to get my Captain’s License. It will end next Wednesday, and then I take two tests on Thursday. Then, I’ll return the rental car; come back to Dauntless and get underway probably next Friday or Saturday at the latest. I still have 700 miles to go and now I’m alone.
So if anyone wants a little adventure, drop me a line or call. I’ll be leaving Savannah on May 2nd or 3rd.
We turned back; left Sebastian Inlet at 8:00 a.m. dragged ourselves back to Cape Canaveral Inlet at 17:00. And almost got run over by the one ship we saw all day.
Victory coming into port
But let’s start at the beginning.
Day 0 Fueling in Stuart
Getting fuel from the fuel truck meant I had to move the boat to a temporary slip. No problem and an hour later we were returning to our slip. As I went to back in, the current was clearly stronger than the first time I had done this the week before. Having this million dollar Krogen on one side and the fat ass catamaran on the other side, just increased the pucker factor.
On the second try, I even used my bow thruster, but to no avail, as my swim platform made a beeline for the Cat. Wondering what I could do differently to get this to work, I aborted the whole process, left the marina, turned around and docked bow in.
Even that was not so easy, as we had trouble getting the stern tied to the pilings. But an hour later, all was right with the world.
(Except in Portland, Oregon, where the know nothings are emptying a 38 million gallon reservoir because 1, yes, one, person pissed in it!)
No, I did not make that up and if I had, no one would believe such nonsense.
Day 1 Leaving Stuart
Starts like any great day, Dave the mechanic who works on my boat like it’s his, brought me three freshly baked turnovers. I promptly ate one and froze the other two.
Dave and his minion got their work done by 1 p.m., so it was time to cast off. We did so and motored up the ICW into the evening. Now, the wonders of my driving and fog lights made themselves apparent. It was so easy having the markers lit up.
With Lights
We hadn’t seen another boat on the water for hours, so I had no worry about blinding anyone.
Our first attempt at the Vero Beach anchorage ended after I hit bottom twice while trying to approach it. The second time, I had to power out backwards. We aborted that plan too.
Motored on in the darkness, blissfully content with our artificial daylight. An hour later, at 21:30 we were safely anchored at Palm Cove 2. By the way, our new Delta anchor is such a joy. Thanks to Parks at Hopkins Carter in Miami for steering me to the right solution at a great price. I will use them to get all my supplies while in Europe too.
Day 2 Dawned Dark and Early
At 4 a.m. I had gotten up to look around; make sure were in the same spot, all was fine, so I crawled back into bed. Before I could go back to sleep, I remembered that I had meant to put one of yesterday’s frozen turnovers on top of the engine to defrost and warm. So, up I go again, get the turnover and put it on top of the engine, which was still warm by the way.
So at 6 a.m. up again, do my engine room checks and start the engine (I needed to warm up the turnover!)
Without lights
. 15 minutes later, we were underway; I had my perfectly warmed turnover and a cup of my Korean coffee. All was perfect with the world. It wouldn’t stay that way for long.
We had anchored an hour south of Sebastian Inlet, so the plan was to head out to the Atlantic and depending upon the sea state head NNE to Beaufort, NC or, head North to Savanah. Now, even to Savanah it would be 48 hours, to Beaufort, 60 hours, but if the Atlantic cooperated, it was doable. I also knew the weather forecast was for continued easterly winds, but I was hoping that the front would push back to the west sooner than forecast, decreasing the winds and having them come out of the south. Wishful thinking.
As we left the inlet, the fishermen on the jetty looked at us like we were crazy. The waves were about 5 feet from the east north east; this meant that they were just off our beam. We had put out the paravane poles before the inlet and as we exited the inlet I thru the fish (aka birds) in the water too.
With the paravanes the roll was reduced 80%. Initially we were hardly rolling at all (plus/minus a few degrees), but as we were heading into the waves we were pitching a lot. Up and down, every 6 seconds. As the morning continued, the waves got higher and veering (moving clockwise) around to the east. Now we were getting 6 to 8 foot waves, with a few of their bigger brothers (10’) thrown in for kicks every few minutes. The waves were on our right quarter, so we still had pitching, but the paravanes were making the rolling tolerable, maybe 8 to 15° in each direction (would have been 50° without). Every once in a while the combination of pitch and roll would be such that the top of the wave would hit the beam of the boat on the pilot house, with water pouring in the gap of the pilot house door that I have been meaning to fix since I first noticed it 12 months ago!
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At this point, 5 hours into our 60 hour trip, we decided enough was enough and turned tail for Cape Canaveral to our northwest. Wind and waves were now on our rear quarter, which did speed up the boat (we had been plodding along at 5 knots), but as the winds had been increasing all day and we all know that the strongest winds are in the afternoon, everything else being equal, we were getting hit with some big waves 8 to 12 ft.
waves
Three merciful hours later I had the Cape Canaveral Inlet in sight and lo and behold, there is this really big ship aiming for the same spot. First boat we had seen in the last 12 hours was now ready to mow us down. After watching her for a bit, they did put out a “Securite” call so they wouldn’t be liable when they ran us down. I radioed them and said I’d been watching them and would turn around to come up behind them.
All went well; it only delayed our salvation by about 15 minutes and an hour and a half later we were tied to a dock wondering what they hell were we thinking?
We had spent a miserable 8 hours on the ocean to cover a distance that we could have done at a serene pace on the ICW in 6 hours. Oh well.
Background, How I found John the Rigger and Red the Fabricator
John the Rigger
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.
Underway with poles out
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 3rd. (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.
Fish in the water
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.
Think about this picture. What is it telling you? What do you see?
Cross Walk in Stuart, FL
Interesting questions, so why am I asking?
On Trawler Forum, http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/recently, there was a thread asking why some boaters were so discourteous, as to cause a large wake (wave caused by a moving boat. Dauntless produces about a half foot wake (wave), most speed boats or faster boats produce wakes 2 to 5 feet in height), which can actually damage boats, property and people (if you’ve ever been in a boat that suddenly rolls 40 degrees on to it side, you know what I’m talking about). It’s not dangerous, but certainly uncomfortable.
There was also a different thread about Coast Guard stops, when they stop a boat and check for safety things, etc. These stops typically last 15 to 30 minutes, which in boater time, doesn’t not seem like a lot (we routinely wait 30 or 45 minutes for a bridge to open), but in the real world, this would certainly be viewed as intrusive. (How would you like to be stopped on the highway every few months for 15 to 30 minutes just to check your paperwork!)
So, the other day, as I was motoring at Dauntless’ normal speed of 8 mph, I noticed a smaller, newer semi-displacement trawler (American Ranger) coming up quickly to pass me on the right. No problem, as I looked out my pilot house door, I happily waved to the older couple driving the boat.
At this point he was probably going twice my speed and would be past me in mere seconds. All of a sudden, he slows his boat. Maybe because he saw me and thought, I better slow down and not wake him.
So he does, but now I had already turned my boat towards his stern, to come up right behind him. That would minimize the wake I had to deal with.
But with his abrupt slow down, everything changed. A potentially uncomfortable situation, instantly became a dangerous one. I had to cut power and make sure I didn’t hit him. But with me trying to stop suddenly, it unsettles the boat and I rolled back and forth, much more than I would have had I been able to continue at my normal speed. At this point, he sees what happened and pours on the power again. Within moments, he was well ahead of me, moving more than 20 mph.
As I reflected on what happened, I thought about the above TF threads and peoples posts.
I thought about what was this boater thinking? I realized that he was oblivious, but my wave sort of woke him, so he decided to “be nice” by slowing, but not really understanding the dynamics of the situation. He didn’t think about the fact that with his semi-planing boat (which means that when he is going fast, his boat’s power actually pushes part of his boat out of the water. Dauntless is full displacement, which means that the amount of water the boat displaces is always the same, no matter my speed or power. If I had a thousand horsepower engine, I could still only go 9 mph!). So when stops or slows abruptly, his boat must settle back into the water, increasing the wake he was already producing. Think of slapping your hand on top of a pan of water.
And he is typical of the thousands of boaters I have seen in Florida these last months. Most of the time, they don’t do stupid stuff on purpose, they do stupid stuff because they are stupid.
They may have made their fortune being the smartest wizard of wall street, but when it comes to boating, what they had was the million dollars it takes to buy one of those 40 foot sport fishers.
No license, no training, no nothing. This is America after all.
Simply put, they boat the way they drive.
Connecting the dots yet?
Flash back. 30 years ago, I am in Germany, in the passenger seat of my friend Siggi’s 20 year old daughter, Suzanne. She just got her license, so I’m expecting the worst of a typical new driver.
Instead, she drives well, competently. In her car, I am witness to the results of a comprehensive driving training program that not only costs months’ of salary, but takes a minimum of a year, and many times two years, to complete. But when complete, the new driver can drive. Not too fast, not too slow, certainly not over- cautiously, but they drive very well.
Drivers trained in Germany understand the physics of the situation: how a car slows in cornering, and how to compensate. How to brake gently and at the right rate. I see the time and effort of the training in the results of their driving. I’m impressed with a program that I was initially disdainful of as both a waste of time and money for all concerned.
I also understood that she could drive so well because she had good teaching and because she had the opportunity to practice a multitude of times over a year; she was able to learn what she needed to learn.
My 10 years in Europe were a driver’s delight. Speed enforcement was limited to the city limits and your your speed down the miles of twisty roads was limited only by your skill. But that was a real limit; virtually every road was bordered by a drainage ditch. Going off the road at any speed at best meant a totaled car, at worst, you needed better driving lessons in your next life.
So I saw an infrastructure that was about training first and enforcement second.
See any dots yet?
In the meantime, what have we done in this country, the Desks keep on creating rules and structures to enforce those rules.
If the US Coast Guard did not stop boats, how would they justify the infrastructure they have? Do we need better training and licensing for those driving million dollar boats with 10 times the horsepower of the average street car? Let’s ask the Desk.
So Desk, shall we increase the training and license requirements for boaters? Desk thinks:, sure, but then how do I justify the 10 desks working for me and the 100 working for them and the 1000 desks working in my organization? No one gets promoted for managing smaller number of desks, we get promoted for managing more desks. So Desk responds, Sure, but if we do that, the results will not be apparent for years, yet the carnage will continue, so why don’t we increase our enforcement efforts, make more signs, even add some nifty lights, powered by those solar panels and just go after the people who are causing the problems. I’ll only need another 10 desks.
Now, Politician thinks, if he needs 10 more desks, he’ll need equipment for those desks, and I have a company in my district that makes that kind of equipment, plus all that new signage, lights, everyone will get a bigger rice bowl.
Now think of law enforcement in this country, they have millions of desks and they never get smaller.
So back to the top, remember that picture of the cross walk. Think of all the work, money and effort went in to just one cross walk.
Let’s look, the two vertical signs saying “stop,” we see those all over, then there is the orange sign on the pole with arrow pointing out the crosswalk, then there is the large yellow sign with person walking, with flashing yellow light, powered by a solar panel, lastly we have the pavement, which not only gets special bricks, but is also painted outline.
Wow, that’s one crosswalk, I wonder how many desks were involved and how many promotions?
I wonder what the data shows as to how effective each of these features are? My guess is that we passed the point of diminishing returns a long time ago. Drivers see so many warning signs, they ignore them all.
I remember once seeing a pedestrian almost killed because a driver A saw him waiting on the curb, stopped , signed for him to cross, totally oblivious to the car in the far lane, which could see none of this, and was traveling about 25 to 30 mph. When this person appeared in front of their car, Driver B jams on the brakes, and pedestrian jumps up like his life depended upon it (it did) his butt came down near the top of the windshield and he sort of slip along as the car passed below him.
Getting up with just some scrapes, he walks away. Driver B is still palpitating, and Driver A, the “good Samaritan” is thinking about speed demons, since he is clueless that it was he who actually almost got that guy killed.
Living in Seattle, known for its draconian jay walking enforcement, I was struck, not literally mind you, by how many people were killed in crosswalks because they are trained not to look for cars, but to look for crosswalks. I bet more pedestrians are killed in Seattle than in NYC.
Oh, don’t worry about the Desk, he got a promotion and is enjoying his new boat this weekend.
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.
The fish on the rail
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.
Palm Beach Inlet
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.
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.
Dauntless at Sea 