How do I know it will be better tomorrow? The weatherman told me of course.
Just picked up 2411 liters, 637 gallons, of gas oil, a.k.a diesel. That’s 4533 pounds of fuel, added to the 400 pounds she already had. Dauntless now sits a few inches lower than before, but looks ready to go.
And the engine room smells as sweet as ever, with no fuel smell, just the smell of new batteries and cables.
Now you wonder why all the fuss? Isn’t re-fueling supposed to be easy and routine? Well, if you are driving a car I suppose it is. I’ve filled cars with fuel thousands of times. But on Dauntless it’s been less than 30 times and on Dauntless, nothing is ever routine.
A few of the shenanigans that have taken place while fueling:
Being showered by a volcano of fuel at the Portsmouth, NH fish dock. Luckily, no fishing boat was waiting as I showered and got out of my fuel soaked clothes.
Succumbing to the fear expressed by my friends about running out of fuel, I purposely overfilled the tanks by about 10 gallons before leaving Rhode Island. This was soon followed by the little fuel runoff coming from the port side tank, a few of those extra gallons soon were in the bilge.
The most recent leak last summer that lead to the New Ross Experience. Much like the Jimi Hendrix Experience in Seattle, but more expensive.
And after each debacle, the next fueling are filled with dread; what will happen next?
So, as you can see, I have every reason to be elated about smelling nothing in the engine room.
Best of all, the 637 gallons cost half of what I paid to fill the tanks two years ago in the fall of 2014.
Tomorrow, with a full fuel and water load, Dauntless is ready to take care of business as we head south for France, Spain & Portugal.
Dauntless faces the Brian Boru. Tomorrow they say goodbye for a long time; hopefully not forever.
I keep on looking for excuses not to leave, but Mother Nature, continues to send warning signals that I best be on my way. Right now, the best 42 hour window is from the 13th at 0300L, putting us just off of Brest on the 14th at 22L.
A night time entry, but what else is new!
It’s the only way I can maiximize the good wind conditions as the ridge moves east .
And here is the current surface map to help you understand the wind pattern better:
Atlantic Sfc Analysis
I’ve been watching this for the last few weeks, at first just to get an idea of the timing of the systems and the strength of the winds.
Until yesterday, the prognosis (progs) seemed to indicate a thin ridge of high pressure passing eastward mid-week. Then yesterday, it showed a nice ridge (indicative of fair weather and weaker winds) on Thursday and Friday, with the high pressure area centered just west of Brest.
Now this afternoon, after the 12Z run of weather models, my ridge of high pressure has been squeezed to almost nothing. So for my 2 day trip, this now looks like a 24 hour weather window:
WNW winds down to 15 knots (map shows km/hr)
It’s for this reason, (that the progs can change significantly) I pretty much do not look at any other weather products routinely. There are a number of reasons for this, in short, they all get their weather from the same source and more importantly, the different forecast models may differ in terms of space and time; but for someone not looking at them constantly, as in a full time job, forget it. There is simply too much information to digest fine tune a forecast that much. In addition, there is no point in looking at more detailed forecasts because by now, I know what to look for.
Though if I was travelling locally, like north along the coast, then I would check the marine forecast for that area. But if was just saying what I already could deduce myself, in other words no real local conditions to consider, then I don’t bother looking at it again.
Dauntless needs a little less than two full days. 42 hours, to get from Waterford to Brest, France. So I’ve been watching for the last few weeks, whenever I have internet, to see how often a two-day window appears.
Not very often. There may have been one a few weeks ago, but since that, I’ve only seen good weather windows of about a day. Now, when I say good weather, originally I was looking only for winds on our stern at 15 knots or less. The Krogen runs really well in such conditions, rolling as she is wont to do, but the paravanes reduce most of that.
As I was watching, I had even settled for 20 knots astern, since I saw so few periods with less than 15. Also, since our course to Brest will be 160 True, winds from dead astern would be 160 +180 = 340 or northwesterlies. NW winds occur after a cold frontal passage.
So it’s easy, just wait for the front to pass and head out.
But it’s not so easy, as I learned 30 years ago while forecasting the weather for northern Europe and Germany in particular. The North Atlantic is a true spawning ground for low pressure systems. They line up like freight trains, from North America to Northern Europe. And they are moving quickly, averaging 4 times the speed of Dauntless or about 600 nm a day.
But as the fronts approach Europe, they start to weaken as they lose the upper air support that is centered over the North Atlantic. Then with the passage of the cold front, instead of the usual 2 to 3 days of high pressure with NW winds and cold temperatures that one gets in the mid-west, one gets a reprieve of only 6 hours, before the winds jump around to the south or southwest in from the of the next cold front due to arrive in about 18 hours.
It was exactly the pattern I got into in the last three days of my Atlantic Passage two years ago. But then, I wasn’t thinking of the overall pattern, but instead was just so glad to see a few rays of sunshine as the winds dropped to 15 to 18 knots.
Halleluiah
I remember making a snack thinking the worst was over. I was able to find the banging wine bottle. So as the winds picked up again in the next few hours, I hardly noticed. I was like the lobster in the pot of cold water wholeheartedly noticed the water getting hotter and hotter until it’s too late.
But unlike the lobster, I know I’ll be safe no matter what, though I may be miserable. That’s because the first step is to find and have a boat that can do what you want it to do.
After months of planning, thinking and just plain fretting, the batteries are in and Dauntless is no longer acting like a one legged duck.
Another Gorgeous Sunset
How do one legged ducks act you wonder? Without the engine running or being plugged into shore power, we had only a few minutes’ worth of electrical power.
Two of the Four New Yuasa Batteries
And I’d go to sleep, not with visions of sugar plum faeries (or better yet, leggy milf’s) dancing in my head, but with pictures of wiring diagrams and this and that.
So, having found replacement batteries in Kilmore Quay’s Kehoe Marine last month, they got four Yuasa Cargo Deep Cycle GM batteries that were of 8-D size, with 230 amp-hours each for me. Weighing in at 55 kg, or 115 lbs. each and delivered to the Kehoe boys at New Ross Boat Yard (yes, of course they are related).
Waiting for high tide, when the dock was only a few feet above the floating pontoon, we got the batteries on to the boat without dropping them into the water.
Then, the hardest part physically, getting the old batteries out. Perhaps with the knowledge that we could not hurt them, it took us less than an hour to get them out.
I then spent the next few hours re-configuring how the batteries were connected. I essentially made a positive and negative stud that consolidated the all the connections before they went to the batteries.
My friend Ed had given me a new article about the optimum way to connect multiple batteries that was slightly superior to the way I had the older batteries connected. I had had 8 new battery cables made, 2 for each battery, each 2.3 meters long (about 7 feet). This allowed the four batteries to have the exact same length cable to each from the charging source. By having the same cable lengths, the resistance should be equal and thus each battery should get exactly the same amount of charge.
That took a few hours, with a panicked call to Dave Arnold, the electrical guru (who else would be driving around an all-electric car for the 1980’s!).
His call reaffirmed the use of the existing terminal block and Perko switch that was used to switch the start to the house batteries if needed.
Finally, after 8 hours, I was ready for the new batteries. I rigged an Amstel line around the hand railing to the pilot house, thus we could lower the batteries into the engine room and the only struggle was to pull them into place while lowering at the same time.
Two hours later, all was in place, hooked up and ready to go.
All the boat grounds go to a common terminal, then one large cable to the boat side of the Victron battery Monitor shunt. Then one large cable to another terminal post which has all four negative battery cables.
Positives are similar, in that the inverter/charger, the positive from the alternator and the positive from the terminal block (which has a number of inputs from the isolators and thus indirect from the other battery chargers) go to a terminal post, then all 4 battery cables are attached.
In the next days/weeks, as I physically tie the lines and organize a bit more, I will make a new electrical diagram.
Now, according to my calculations, all the rest of the year should be downhill!
Caffebene in Ft. Lee, a really nice place to spend timeEach morning I watch the feeding frenzy of Blue Jays, Cardinals, squirrels and chipmunks.
But it was a quick trip, 5-days, to New York to tie up some loose ends.
Some lines always need a good whipping.
I also got to spend some time with some good friends, both new and old.
And best of all, I ate Korean food 3x, Japanese 2x, pizza 2x and lastly French once; best of all, I ate so well and gained no weight. Lekker.
When I get back to Dauntless tomorrow, I’ll be doing the preparing to head south to France, Spain and Portugal for the next 5 months.
Such a short trip may seem pointless, but I leave NY today feeling much better than on arrival. Being able to articulate my goals and reflecting on them with friends makes a big difference.
During June, having my friends Brian, Dan and Robin on Dauntless, really helped me put a focus on my goals for the coming years. It is great to have people around as enthusiastic as I.
Then, coming to NYC, talking with friends, facilitated the final touches on the plan. As articulated in my last post, by adding 10 months in S.E. Alaska, everything finally feels like it’s coming together.
Not having to spend all of 2017 rushing someplace will allow me to pause and smell the roses.
Having Dauntless staying put for 6 to 8 months, allows me to visit friends in Europe and probably take a trip to reconnoiter Asia.
I feel unburdened and that’s a good feeling.
So now I can concentrate on the important stuff: What’s with these cats. Here we have a billion-dollar company and they must Photoshop the cover for all their kitty liter bags.
Clearly Photoshopped
Do these people even have cats? One would think someone in this company would think they should show some indication that they understand cats.
Must be dog people.
So, I’ll end on this poster. It fit my two cats perfectly at least in their first year as kittens.
Bad Kitties
A link to the site for T-shirt Bad Kitties T-Shirt
The Atlantic Trade Winds (click on the links below to see the winds move. Click on “Earth” in the lower left corner [of the link, not my picture] to change parameters)Well any number of plans; the current one, 15 months to Japan, now in the 29th day since its start date.
But like all plans, a plan is good only until first contact with the enemy. For Dauntless it’s headwinds, or better said, for Richard it’s the hobby horse ride headwinds produce on Dauntless. The fact that we are consuming half of our fuel, just to go up and down waves, adds to the sick feeling the ride produces.
Yep, it’s a lose, lose, lose situation for all: the timeline, my wallet and my health.
Dauntless in the meantime just motors along, oblivious to my misery.
For my long range planning, other than Jimmy Cornell’s books and pilot charts, on a daily basis I pretty much only look at this: link to current Atlantic map
This shows the current surface winds over the Atlantic. You can see that draw a line from Gibraltar to the Canaries to Barbados and the trade winds are running strong as they have all winter. So no problems there.
The Eastern Pacific showing strong northerly winds from British Columbia to Southern California. Ugh!
(side note, there is simply no point in looking at anything more specific for any period more than two weeks away. Even when I was waiting to cross the North Sea from Norway to Scotland, a three-day trip, I read the marine forecast, but really only looked at this site to figure out when I would have at least a two-day window, which is what I got)
I’ve been looking at this about once a day since fall. Only in the past month have the northerly winds let up south of Mexico and Central America.
My current 15-month plan would require me to be able to travel north from the Panama Canal to Kodiak Alaska in 170 days or about 35 miles per day. Doable with favorable winds, but I’ve been watching and the winds are not favorable, not at all. At this point, at best, I think a quarter of the days would be “good” cruising days and that may be too generous.
The other problem with this current plan is that I would probably be able to rush north out of Central America, but then get stuck in Mexico and the coast of the western U.S. for months on end. Thus passing by places I would like to spend time only to be stuck in places I don’t.
So, Plan B.
I will add a year to the Cruise Plan, wintering in Southeast Alaska.
Many boaters do it, I know it somewhat, but only from the perspective of the Alaska Marine Highway (Ferry) system.
Thus I can spend more time in Central America at the height of the winter when the northerlies are strongest and I can spend 10 months in British Columbia and Southeast Alaska, some of the prettiest cruising areas in the world, full of fjords, whales, birds and bears!
The weather is not that bad and having visited Juneau and Sitka many times back in the 90’s, it will be nice to go back on my own bottom.
Beware that the Japanese Times story about this is a bit of a spoiler and not that accurate to begin with.
But I can tell you that one of the adults tells the two children that since they are a child of iron, they must always smile and basically put a good face on everything because that is what adults must do.
I am clumsy in my explanation, but I did feel it was quite poignant.
Maybe in anticipation of having Dauntless in Japan, I have been fascinated by the creativity of the Japanese in both the written word as well as film. Just don’t tell my Korean friends.
Ireland from 10,000 feet
As I drove on the Belt Parkway heading west to the Verrazano Bridge and ultimately New Jersey, I was
The Coney Island Subway Yard just off the Belt Parkway
amazed at some of the grandiose bridge construction that has taken place in the last few years. This route takes me right past not only my mother’s house, but also her sister’s house (the next to last sibling that died a few years before my mother, the last of the 7 DeLuca siblings) and my cousin’s house of that same sister.
The biggest sigh of relief; bigger than having crossed an ocean.
D on the Waterford dock.
I know it’s hard to believe, but think about it. Boat yards have far more scary unknowns than oceans! I knew I would cross the Atlantic in 4 weeks; Dauntless in the boat yard? Boat yards are the Hotel California for boats; many enter and a good number never leave.
But Dauntless is jaunty, so that’s not going to happen to her; ever, never.
Dauntless left Waterford last October, expecting to be back in a few weeks. Instead it took 10 months and I spend a winter worrying:
Would the leaking fuel tank be fixed?
Waterford, looking towards Dauntless
What about the crack in the hull?
Should I spend the money to paint the hull?
And if so, what colors?
Returning to Ireland the first of April did little to assuage my fears. A windy, wet winter (what else is there in Ireland?) seemed to make everything go slower. Even the inside work, fuel tank, had not been done. Michael & Stephen of the New Ross Boat Yard assured me everything would be done and not to worry.
I worried anyway, but Michael was right and made sure everything was done: On Time and On Target.
This will be our last two weeks in Waterford. It will give me a chance to say goodbye to friends and people who have become like family for me in the last two years. Remember the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker? Johnny, the manager of the City Dock was here to help with the lines. He did look a bit gaunt though and I discovered that he is training for a trek thru the Himalayas next year.
So since leaving New Ross on May 29th, Dauntless and I have travelled 22 days to Scotland and return. 157 engine hours and about 800 nautical miles.
I’ve ordered new batteries and they will be delivered next week, just after I get back from NYC.
Day 16 – 19 Scotland to S.E. Ireland, Kilmore Quay
Evening at sea with the winds behind us.
We are running before the wind.
Our planned stop, at a marina just north of Dublin, has been scrubbed. With northerly winds increasing in strength, it seems best to continue due south, instead of turning southwest towards shore. Winds are 18 gusting to 30.
Chart showing us driving around Copeland Island looking for a less windy place to anchor
We left Scotland on Day 17, late morning to take advantage of the strong, 1 to 3 knot, currents. The plan was to travel until evening, then anchor off of Copeland Island, just to the southeast of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
By that evening the winds were strong out of the NE and as you can see from the picture of our chart, we drove around quite a bit to try to find the most sheltered spot to anchor.
Copeland Island from Dauntless
The idea was that we would wait out and sleep the 5 or 6 hours until he tide turned again. With shallow water and rocks surrounding this island, it was a stressful half hour.
Finally finding the most sheltered place we could with winds only 12 to 15 knots, we anchored in 33 feet of water. I put out 260 feet of chain and added my new nylon
Looking west towards Ireland
snubber.
It turned out to not be pretty good anchorage, but with my house battery bank totally shot, I had to run the generator all night. In my cabin, I can hardly hear it, but just the thought of the inefficiency and waste led to a fitful sleep. With a ETD of 03:00, at 02:00 I decided, let’s get this show on the road, got up and hauled anchor. The anchor had found about 50 pounds of kelp/seaweed, so it took a bit to get that off, but we were finally underway towards Dublin at 03:13.
Running at Dusk
As the morning became day, the winds got stronger from the due north.
Running due south now, with the wind right behind us, the rolling is cut in half again. A much nicer ride, and actually more direct for our destination of Waterford.
To have gone southwest towards Dublin, only to have to spend a few hours tomorrow going southeast, again with strong northerly winds, was a fool’s errand.
The Maretron Data shows the last three days of rolling, the second and longest, being the worst.
I do a lot of errands. I am trying to less foolish ones.
With the change of crew last weekend, Brian leaving, Dan & Robin arriving, I have had less time to write. Brian is an experienced and accomplished Kadey Krogen boater. He has a new KK48, so our boats have a lot in common. It’s interesting to see both the similarities and the differences. A Compare and Contrast, in teacher talk.
Arklow Dock
I think we both learned a lot from each other and I really appreciated his perspective on the capabilities of my “old” boat.
As the day went on, the conditions became worse, confirming our decision to run though the entire day south.
Approaching the shoal area south of Kilmore Quay
At the worst, winds for much of the afternoon evening were 18 knots gusting to 28 to 31. Seas were a bit lumpy in that there were 6 to 8 foot waves from the northeast, along with the northerly seas. Not a great ride, but certainly better than 3 weeks ago, when I was heading into the same winds and waves.
We got to Arklow about 23:00 and tied to a concrete dock. Finally shutting down the engine at 23:31
A Real Trawler leaves Kilmore Quay
Scotland to Arklow: 28.7 hours, 177 nm, plus 6 hours at anchor, averaging a little more than 6 knots.
The worst was behind us and I was looking forward to our net nightly stops, Kilmore Quay, New Ross, as the Kehoe boys, Stephen and Michael will put on a bbq for us and finally Waterford, where my spot from last fall is waiting for us.
Leaving the Irish Sea behind us, we seem to have left the bad weather also.
The last three days in Scotland have been summer-like: light breezes, blue skies and warm temperatures in the high 50’s and even low 60’s. In fact, temperatures have been so warm that in Ireland they issued a “heat warning” telling people to be careful, put on sunblock and take it easy, as temperatures were forecast to be 19 to 21C or 66 to 70 F!
I’m not making this up nor even exaggerating.
Yesterday, we even saw a whale, two seals, one dolphin and a bunch of birds. First whale I’ve seen since the mid-Atlantic two years ago with Julie.
Life goes on, whales have to eat (and avoid Japanese whalers) and Dauntless has to travel (and avoid rocks and other hard things).
Dauntless on a Mooring
My friend Brian form the USA is with me this week. He also has a Kadey Krogen, though his is new. Much like with Marinus and Marta last year, the Krogen owners in Holland and Germany, it’s hard not to gush about our boats and how they simply take us wherever we want to go.
No questions, no muss, no fuss. Seas get big, we just hunker down and keep on going.
I wonder what they make here
Owner gets confused, we give him easily recognizable signals to get his act in gear and solve the problem. Thus we get to this morning’s shenanigans.
Dauntless has four large (8D) batteries. They are going on 8 or 9 years old. One already died last summer. When a battery goes bad,
Souvenirs
it sucks energy from the good batteries it is connected to. Since its winter rest the three remaining batteries have not acted normally, thus one or more of them is also going bad. In fact, all three could be bad.
So two days ago, I isolated the primary culprit, hoping that the remaining two were good. Isolated means it’s just sitting there unconnected to anything. A dead weight, all 110 pounds of it.
This morning, I was dismayed to see the voltage of the batteries was below 12 volts. That’s bad; very bad.
When I started the engine to charge the batteries, that’s when the fun started. First the voltage went to 14 (normal), but within seconds back down to 10. That made no sense, that implies a problem with the regulator or the alternator.
I shut down the engine, not wanting to cause any damage to electrical parts and put on my thinking cap to try to figure out what was going on and how I could fix it.
In a true coincidence, I’d been recounting to Brian and incident I had had with my Alfa Romeo Montreal eons ago. I had shorted out and thus broke one of the ignition systems (it had two) and I had to limp down to Italy on only 4 of 8 cylinders.
Thus I thought the first place to look was at the battery bank, where the batteries are located and connected to each other. Sure enough, within seconds I feel the ground cable can be moved by hand. Didn’t seem like a lot, but it could explain the problem.
After tightening the cables, all happy that I found an obvious problem, I go to start the engine and for the first minute everything looked fine and normal. I’m watching the battery monitor which tells me not only voltage but also how much energy the batteries are giving or getting. With them being discharged so much, they should be getting a lot now.
So I’m watching the numbers, the number of amps, rise: 5, 10, 16, 20, 25 exactly as it should.
Then, just like that, I see minus 40! Immediately followed by a low voltage alarms from all over the place.
I kill the engine again. Boats have at least two electrical systems. Dauntless has two, the 12 volts system just like a car and a 120 volt system like your house. The engine alternator makes 12 volts, the Inverter changes it to 120.
I did the only thing I could do. I turned off the 120 system totally. I needed the engine to run obviously, but Dauntless does not need any 120-volt power.
Turning off the 120 system, solved the problem. The batteries were now charging at their normal rate and the voltage was fine.
The 120 system has every appliance on its own breaker (a combination fuse and switch). I turned off everything before I turned the 120 power back on. Now it’s just a process of elimination, turn 1 on, see what happens, turn 2 on see what happens, etc.
As I got to the water heater, all became obvious even before I hit the switch. Last year, I had changed the circuit the water heater was on so that I could have hot water via the solar panels and inverter on circuit number 2.
When I was docked in marinas, I had the water heater plugged into the shore power. But the previous night, I had run the generator and had connected the water heater to the boat system. Therefore, it now mattered that I had not turned off the switch when I turned off the generator last night.
Thus as the batteries were being charged, once the voltage got high enough after a minute or two, the Inverter decides to send power to the water heater, thus the -40 amps reading.
As stupid as I felt, the euphoria one feels by solving a problem on your own in the middle of nowhere, overwhelms any sense of guilt, remorse and even stupidity.
One thing about boating, even if you caused the problem, you get double credit for solving the problem.
Egads, I think there is a whiskey (Scotch) in every port. What a coincidence!
Beautiful weather, fair skies, light winds, flat seas. (I love flat seas, amoung other things, some of which are flat!) and some whiskey for medicinal purposes only.
Day 8: 74 nautical miles (nm), 9 hours, 33 min running time, average speed 7.7 knots
The Caldonian MacBrayne Ferry. This was the first ferry we took in Scotland 8 years ago. Life Happens.
Light winds, flat seas and we even saw a whale. The first whale I’ve seen since the Atlantic crossing two years ago. Sorry no picture.
The beautiful conditons make the miwery I went through to get up to Scotland in those ferocious winds and wnaves worth while.
Scotland is one of the most beautiful cruising areas in Europe. Green hills, many isolated islands, and a lot of sheep; what more can one ask for?
Brian, another Kadey Krogen owner, and I have spent the last week getting Dauntless ready for action. This was made harder by the fact that we were underway as often as we could be to get to Scotland sooner rather than later.
Sheep and Lambs
And while I have not eaten haggis yet, I have drunk more scotch whiskey than usual and am even drinking the ouyde jenever that Henk and Ivonne brought me last year. Honestly, I like it as much as most whiskeys.
Tonight we are on the hook for the first time in 2016 in a quiet cove on the island of Coll called Arinagour. Yes, the home of the first men, or close to it!
I wanted to get to Arklow on time, so I had a bit of rough weather and seas, but nothing terrible.
For 6 months, I had planned all the work that needed to be done on Dauntless this winter and spring.
Dunloagharie harbor, just south of Dublin
Almost none of it was done.
Why, you wonder? simply put, with the boat out of the water, with all the salon hatches open to the engine room and with the general disorder that comes with such work, I found it virtually impossible to do the projects that I had planned on doing. In hindsight, I did not anticipate the amount of turmoil the boat yard work would produce.
My First Sunrise this Year at Sea
So, by the time I left the boat yard of New Ross, we were seaworthy, but a f…ing mess. A salon full of stuff and parts that needed to be organized and put away. A pilot house full of tools that had not been organized as I had planned.
Leaving Kilmore Quay, I was not on a northerly track for the next few weeks. Out 2016 was underway for better or for worse.
Alone, more than I liked or had planned, friends were coming from the USA for the month of June and I felt an obligation to push as best I could to get to the ports we had planned to meet.
Day 2 Kilmore Quay to Arklow to meet Brian from USA.
In leaving New Ross so quickly, it meant even the paravanes, my stabilizers, were not set up. So I ended up rolling my way to Arklow. With winds on the NE bow, we were going into a bit of a head seas, not nice and we rolled a bit, not great, but livable.
Dauntless
Arriving in Arklow, the town has two places to dock on opposite sides of the river. Thus poor Brian went to the north side as I went to the south side. Finally, we talked and he told me he could see me, therefore, I went to him on the north wall.
Remember the new paint job, well, it sustained its firs blemish. Even after setting all the fenders (buoys) that we could, as the tide left and returned, the bow cap rail sustained it’s first scrape.
Another Crappy day. The graph on the left shows the pitching of the boat (that’s how much the bow bounces up and down) this is one of the worst days ever. The graph on the right depicts the rolling. While the rolling was not fun, this was without the stabilizers deployed.
Oh well, you can’t live forever and for millions species of things, they would be quite happy to live two days. My new paint job should feel itself lucky.
Day 3 Arklow to Dunloagharie (just south of Dublin)
A relatively easy, short day, but I had to see the customs guy from Waterford. He was scheduled to be on the Custaim boat for the next 8 days leaving from this port, Dunloagharie (just south of Dublin) so I had decided to make his job and therefore my paperwork as easy as possible. We had arranged to meet him the afternoon after we had arrived. Peter (seems like half the people in Ireland are named after my brother, so it makes it easier to remember their names), on time and meticulous as ever, I had the forms I needed checked, signed and embossed. No European bureaucracy can resist the raised imprint of the embossed seal. Does matter what it says, it’s only important that you have it. Just watch Game of Thrones and it all becomes clear. (though with a bit less killing, maiming and torture that is depicted in the GOT).
Day 4 & 5 Ireland to Northern Ireland
Where did this guy come from? Blackie, whose name suddenly changed after two years to Gigi. We never discovered who Gigi was named after.
Last year I vowed to never go out into head seas or contrary winds.
That determination lasted until Day 4 this year. Am I proud of it? No, I was as sick as a dog. A really sick dog.
I took my medicine. I felt good enough to function. Winds were right on our nose, up and down, first you are looking at the sky, then the bottom of the sea. We even got some spray on the pilot house windows. With a strong 4 knot current running with us to the northeast, but with strong winds from the northeast at 18 gusting to 25, it produced high, 8 feet, steep waves. The steepness of the waves produced all the spray on Dauntless.
Brian volunteered to take the 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. watch and I relieved him at 2. Having a few hours’ sleep helped, but up and down every 7 seconds was miserable.
Brian was back before 6 a.m. and at that time, I had decided to head due west to a cove that may provide us some protection from the wind and seas. About 7 a.m., I left him, but added that if conditions changed, we could continue to head north to Northern Ireland.
Eating in my bed in the forward cabin. I luxuriated in not having to do anything but hold on as we bounced up and down. My toes held the wall, while my arm under my head touched the opposite wall. I felt so good with every up and down. The Krogen handled it so well. And being in bed, half sleeping, I felt fine. No longer sea sick, by body enjoyed the roller coaster ride.
That’s the tings about our 42 foot Kadey Krogen. It always feels secure. No matter how bad the conditions, while it may feel like another ride on the “wild mouse it still feels secure, like we are on rails.
Soon after I went to bed, I could tell that the seas and winds had changed somewhat. In my sleepy state, I thought about getting up and telling Brian to just keep going north as originally planned. But I also knew that I had told Brian to “act accordingly” depending on conditions. After a few hours of sleep, as the conditions stayed moderate, I thought I should just stay in bed until Brian got us to Scotland. He was doing fine, or better yet, he didn’t mind the ride in the pilot house and I was happy in my bed. What’s to complain about?
I finally did get out of bed and that afternoon we headed into Glenarm, on the northern coast of Northern Ireland.
The next day would find us under the high pressure that gave us fair skies and light winds, finally, easing our way into Scotland.
After 8 months of waiting, repair and refit, Dauntless got underway to day a little after noon. The first three hours are going down the river Barrow and the Suir. Leaving just after high water, we got a little boost of about a knot (1.2mph).
But although we are only going 7 knots, I’m feeling nervous. As I slalom down the river, I actually slow a bit, just a hundred rpms, maybe half a knot, just so I can feel comfortable again.
Much like getting off the plane in Venice, Frankfurt or Amsterdam, picking up the rental car, leaving the airport and immediate being on the Autostrada, Autobahn or AutoRoute, I start off in the slow lane, maybe going 60 to 70 mph, until I get my senses up to speed. This means checking the rear view mirror very carefully, that car coming up may be going double my speed or more. The speck in the mirror can quickly become a problem if I get in the way.
With time, minutes, maybe a half hour, I’m up to speed. Now the issue is can I stand the buzzing this little economy car makes at 100 mph?
In my most recent trip to Spain, I had one of the worst cars ever. Maybe if I drove it off a cliff, it would hit 100 mph, but I have my doubts about that too. So I was bemused to hear this car being touted on the radio ads as having an “over-efficient” engine. You have to hand to those marketing people, they can even change the laws of the universe.
One last comment about cars, slow ones at that. While you may be thinking, good, it’s safer that way, the opposite is the reality. With a slow car, since it takes so long to get up to speed, whatever speed that is, the tendency is to simply not slow as much whenever possible, whether that be for the curve at the bottom of the hill or trying to get past a slow moving truck (in Europe they never go faster than 50 mph!) A wonderful idea you may also think, but then driving becomes an ordeal of passing moving roadblocks and the box of corn flakes now costs $8 since it took a week to go the distance from NNYC to Chicago.
So after going a bit slower for a bit, maybe an hour, I was back in the rhythm of Dauntless and pushed the speed up to 8 knots, what with the river current.
Ireland was having its second summer like day since August 1976, so it was wonderful cruising. Even the little one-foot chop that was on the south coast as I headed for Kilmore Quay was enjoyable.
But best of all was the deep blue water, and as you watch the little waves break, the water is so clear.
Coming into Kilmore Quay was quite tricky, and Michael at the boat yard even drew me a map to emphasize not to deviate from the plan. And when the water beneath my newly skinned and painted keel got down to only 2 and a half feet, I was thankful for the guidance.
There was one space left on the end of the dock, the hammerhead, and happily the people on the English sailboat in from of the spot were there to grab my lines. That takes much of the stress out of docking.
Well, I’ll have another chance tomorrow; that’s after I back out of here!
Today’s trip: 35 nm, 5 hours and 30 minutes, average speed, 6.5 knots.
Dauntless at Sea 