So I am sitting in my little B&B in New Ross, County Wexford, Ireland, watching a Korean Drama called “Marriage, Not Dating”. An apt title for a cutesy drama.
Dauntless gets a new bottom coat. The beginning of the end.
Korean Dramas are my one reliable escape; giving my brain a rest from the planning of tomorrow and the reflection of yesterday.
There is still much to do on Dauntless, and while the bigger jobs are getting done, I do the small things that have been on the to do list for too long, such as:
the installation of a new set of “driving” lights,
adding USB and 12v receptacles in the pilot house and cabins, so I don’t have to lug the different chargers from place to place.
Remarking the anchor chain and cleaning out the chain locker,
Replacing a float switch for the forward bilge pump as well as its check valve,
Finish the installation of the Wallas heater, yes, that heater I told you I finished years ago!
Getting the salt water pump, though new, has never worked. I think it’s not connected in the electrical panel in the engine room.
We should be back in the water mid-May, then I will mosey on down to Waterford before heading north to Scotland at the end of the month.
Then, returning to Waterford in mid-June for a couple of weeks, as I have a quick trip to NYC, before leaving Ireland for good in early July.
I’ll miss Ireland; for such a well-travelled person, I am still amazed that for all the years I have been coming to Europe, 30 plus years at that, I only found the gem that Ireland is just recently. A really shame, considering the amount of time I have spent wondering where I would live if I could live anyplace. Italy and the Netherlands were always near the top of that list, then Korea jumped up in the last 10 years and even Spain has interest. But for an English speaker, Ireland is just like Spain or Italy, except I’m fluent in the language. And maybe because it is such a small country, like Latvia, Ireland is full of wonderful, helpful, friendly people.
The fact that they talk like New Yorkers just makes me feel even more like home. Now I can also see why the Italians and Irish of NY did not always get along so well. They are virtually identical and we all know that similarity breeds contempt.
With Dauntless entering my life, I no longer have to decide where to live. Dauntless has given me the ability to live the life of a gypsy. Don’t like this town, go to the next one. Don’t like this country, go to the next one.
I’m not a negative person. In my life I have fought for those who cannot fight for themselves, kids, students, old folks in particular, but for myself, not much. I don’t like conflict. I’d rather move on. Just another aspect of living on a boat that at least for me makes life easier, not harder.
Seeing the world, being immersed in nature, whether you like it or not, are all benefits of being on a boat and crossing oceans.
Some of you may remember the long term plan was to do to Northeast Asia, Japan & Korea, after my time in Europe was up. That time is finally almost here. Earlier I had thought to spend another year in Europe, in Spain, but now realize it’s time to move on. Life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Corny, but true, much like many of the Korean dramas I watch.
Therefore, I’m excited that in just weeks’ time, we’ll be back in the water, looking a bit different and living up to the name Dauntless.
And with the end of summer will also signal the end of Europe for us for a long time. Oh, I’ll still fly here to see both new and old friends, but Dauntless is heading to places only dreamed about.
See some of the boats that kept Dauntless company for the windy, Ireland winter.
All boats were blocked AND STRAPPED DOWN for the winter winds, that were greater than 100 knots!!!
Cats are FatJust across the boat lift bay from Dauntless. I don’t think she is going anyplace this year either.Tie Downs are evident
It’s not called the “North Atlant
One of the Fastnet boats in the yard. They are based in Waterford.
ic” for nothing.
The Joanna Mary in dry dockA narrow canal barge
One of the Cats of the New Ross Boat Yard. The Travel lift was moving as he nonchalantly walked past.The Sea Hunter was a winner in the around Ireland race back in the ’70’sDauntless was just put in the shed for painting.
Fasten your seatbelt, we’re going for a ride with a few curves; fast ones.
Dauntless in the Boat Yard.
I went by Dauntless this morning, on yet another damp, grey Irish morning that is the reason grass grows on concrete here. The work on the boat this past winter is being done at New Ross Boat Yard, just across the river from the Dunbrody Famine Ship.
Gary, the GRP (fiberglass) guy, has fixed the damage I have incurred the last three years, mostly dents and dings from too many docking maneuvers in which the fate of the western world must have hung in the balance, or at least I acted like it did. Just ask anyone who has cruised with me.
My encounters with the rocks of Finland on the other hand had a more lasting impression. The second rock in particular hit the side of the boat, not under the keel, like the first rock. By hitting the rock on the side of the hull, I almost sliced the hull open much like the Titanic.
The reason we did not have the same outcome says much about the difference between quality Kadey Krogen fiberglass design and construction versus English ship building 100 years ago that in their rush used rivets with too much slag in them, making them brittle.
So due to my inattention, Dauntless ended up with a four-foot-long gouge that did produce a hairline crack that went through the hull. It was not until three months later, back in the river water of Waterford, that I realized it was river water in the forward bilge and not rain water, though at most it was about one bilge pump out a day, only about one inch of water and again, I have always had a somewhat wet forward bilge so I assumed it was just more rain.
But Gary also discovered a crack in the bulkhead that separates the forward bilge from the more rearward section where the water tanks are. I had seen water dripping from that wall for quite a while, like at least two years. In fact, the paint had peeled away from part of the bulkhead. When I had returned to Dauntless in the beginning of December, Gary had showed me this bulkhead and explained it was not normal and in fact it was cracked, possibly done when I hit the rock last summer. In any case, we came up with a plan for him to repair that damage also and now it’s all done.
Gary also suggested that the good construction of the boat allowed that bulkhead to absorb much of the force of the impact, thus leaving only a hairline crack in the hull and not a gaping hole, ala Titanic.
Now while Gary is doing his part, he will also be painting the upper hull, refinishing the bottom and putting a sealant in the port fuel tank. Michael, Stephen and Denise of the New Ross Boat Yard are also doing their part.
They are cutting additional inspection ports in the port fuel tank to allow Gary to apply the sealant. Besides blocking the boat and strapping her down so that the 100 knot winds that hit this area during the winter did not topple her over, they also are pulling my old holding tank which started leaking once again, so I am replacing it with a new Vetus plastic tank. They will also finally remove the line from my bow thruster which made it in-op for most of my summer cruise, as well as apply a new commercial grade anti-fouling.
While working inside the boat, they have been very impressed with the workmanship of the KK. Even mentioning the quality of the wall in the engine room that walls off the fuel tank: the battens behind the plywood that itself is covered by soundboard in the engine room.
Now while I have already paid Gary in full for his work, I don’t even have a quote from the Boat Yard. Michael said he would give me a ballpark figure tomorrow, (ummm heard that before), but as I drove out of the parking lot, I had not worries.
None.
I reflected on why and it came down to Trust.
Now I do have an idea of the cost, but only based on what I think I know. I have a “great” figure, the “probable” figure and an “OMG” figure in my head, but it comes down to me being at their mercy.
But then we are always at the mercy of professionals we depend on, from our doctor to the bus driver.
Some people try to learn everything the professionals know. They die young, very young. I like keeping my life simple. Oh I worry about a lot of things, reflect on virtually everything, but when it comes to people with more experience than I, either I trust them or I don’t.
And if I don’t, I don’t do business with them, don’t have them as friends and don’t date them.
There is no other way. Only lawyers think they can force someone do what they don’t want to do. But notice lawyers work for others, get paid my others to do what they do. But ultimately, a bureaucracy is result of mistrust, it tries to regulate and specify everything and simply does not work.
When people say that the handshake is the contract, they are saying what I am attempting to say. It’s about trust. No amount of words on paper can make someone do something the way it needs to be done, if they do not want to do it.
So, it’s about trust. Have I been burned by trusting the wrong person, or more like, the wrong bureaucracy? Of course, but all I can is move on. I want to be healthy and happy as long as I can.
Trust is what got me across the Atlantic. Trust in my crewmate and even more importantly, trust in the boat. Knowing that this Krogen was designed and made for far worse conditions that I will ever see. Without trusting your boat, it’s hard to go anyplace where the water is deeper than 5 feet.
So, cinch that seatbelt now, as thinking of the above I had another realization.
Hurtful at that.
I once went on a much anticipated trip with a woman I really liked to a foreign land. She spoke the language, was native in it in fact, so it was a natural to let her take the lead and do the talking.
Within minutes of arrival, it was clear to me that this woman did not trust anyone. Maybe not even me. But her obvious lack of trust of everyone around her, quickly produced so much stress for all concerned that the trip and our fledgling relationship were soon done.
I still have regrets about that, even though the last 12 years of my life have been probably the best years I have ever had.
So why the regrets? Because I let this person down. Someone I clearly really cared about, I was too slow to see what she needed from me: my confidence, my control of events, my telling her “don’t worry honey, I’ll take care of it”.
That’s probably all it would have taken. It’s what I do 90% of the time, the only reason it had not happened that time was because of her language skills. But I have been in many situations where neither of us speak anything and I have always found a way to get by and have a great time doing it.
I don’t like letting anyone down. Friends, colleagues, people I worked for & who worked for me, strangers, doesn’t matter. Never ever.
So while I focused on her lack of trust, I was blind that she had put her trust in me and I had let her down, horribly.
Well actually 19,000 miles in 878 days, but who’s counting? Also 900 Days has a sad ring to it. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read a book, though I’m sure the history channel has an hour documentary which is sure to have a few facts straight.
I’m packing the “large” suitcase. So far, it’s most full of those items that are hard to find in Europe and expendables that I use a lot of and are hard to find.
The orange line is 3/16” Amsteel Blue. I am modifying the lines on the paravanes birds.
Next week, I will be leaving NYC to return to Dauntless. I’m looking forward to it, as I am forward looking, though it is accompanied with a bit of melancholy, as it signifies change, trading my home in NYC for a home on Dauntless, thus having the life of a Traveller.
An ex-girlfriend once told me I was a gypsy, as I had just told her I was leaving Germany for California. Like most of my ex’s, they see the forest far better than I. Maybe if I just cut down those trees, I’ll be able to see better.
I’ll let you know how it turns out.
But back to Dauntless. There is still a lot of work to finish on the boat, but hopefully we shall be back in the water by early May, ready to start an odyssey that will not end until arrival in South Korea 850 days later.
We’ll start out slowly for the rest of this year and into next winter and spring, but as 2017 ends, it will be busy.
Oh, by the way, $20/day for 900 days, $18,000 for fuel alone. I have to start watching my pennies.
Twelve hours from now, I will be snugged into an aisle seat on Delta Airlines, watching the minutes drag by like hours.
As many times as I have taken the red eye to Europe over eh past 30 years, I still dislike it, a lot. In fact, I’d rather go to the dentist.
Now, I do like my dentist, a lot. Sometimes I even dress us just for her. One has to stay in the game, even if only in the dugout. When I stop flirting with people, it’ll be time to swim with the fishes.
Speaking of which, in spending more countless hours trying to get my pictures organized once again, I ran across some of our Atlantic Passage pictures.
The water was so blue even with the wind causing some white horses, as many Europeans call whitecaps.
August 28, 2014 250 miles SSW of Ireland
I know it was only months ago when I was gazing at the map in dismay, seeing I have over 1200 miles to do, alone, in September. With summer long gone and autumn rearing it’s windy head I was not looking forward to those miles.
Now I miss it. I can’t wait to get underway again. Listening to the purr of the Lehman, the quiet swish of the Krogen hull cutting through the water like a hot knife in butter, is truly music to my ears.
But I still have 5 months for that to happen.
Tomorrow morning, I will arrive in Dublin, even rent a car, for the first time in years in Ireland. I need to go to New Ross, check on Dauntless, so some winter stuff, minor stuff, defrost the fridge, etc. Talk to the people working on the hull making her look pretty again. And for the right price we will even paint below the cap rail. On Wednesday, I’ll go to Waterford (about 20 minutes away, 3 hours by boat) for two days.
But as much as anything, I am going to Ireland for these four days just to be there, to wish a Merry Christmas to so many of the wonderful people I have met in Waterford. I spent about half my winter last winter in Waterford. IT turned out to be a good mix (half in US, half in Waterford). This year I am already a bit bored in NYC. There is only so much I can do here.
So the plan is New Ross tomorrow, Wednesday & Thursday Waterford, then on Friday fly to Treviso and drive to my friends in Budoia, the little town, very little, that is as much as my home as NYC is.
Three weeks in Italy, almost all with friends will be wonderful, though to mix it up slightly, Julie, who join me on the 23rd, and I will spend New Year’s Eve and day in Venezia. Then taking the water bus to the airport on January 2nd. That will be a first for me. I hope it’s foggy, fog is fun when someone else is doing the driving.
The pictures of interest column on the right posts my Instagram pictures and I will try to post a picture a day to give you an idea of my latest hi-jinks.
And the dollar is getting stronger and oil is in freefall. Can’t ask for much better than that when you have a motorboat that still must cross two oceans and a few seas!
The Krogen along the wall in Gdansk. The marina is on the right. But our price was right!
I’ve written about many aspects of the Dauntless’ Summer Cruise 2015, the good, the bad and certainly the ugly. How ugly I’ll find out next week. But now, I thought I would share a few more mundane issues that I think will be of interest.
Let me say up front, that if you have any questions or comments you would like to share privately, please email me. My contact information is somewhere in WordPress.
A few interesting tidbits. No, not Tim Horton’s Timbits, (Sorry New Yorkers, even if you have visited one of the Tim Horton’s in NYC, it is Tim Horton’s in name only. The version sold in New York is owned and made by the same person who owns the Dunkin Donuts franchise in NYC. Needless to say, the only thing they have in common is the name).
Type of Overnight
Days of Trip
Percent
Cost
All
128
100%
$ 2,562
Marina
59
46%
$28.15 / night
Dock or wall
32
25%
Anchored
17
13%
Tied to land, with stern anchor
8
6%
Dock in Canal (Scotland)
5
4%
Underway overnight
7
5%
I merged the two categories of marinas and docks because I was a bit arbitrary during the course of the summer. Generally a marina means a marina as we know it with amenities like: an office, a secured dock (but not always), showers, laundry, etc.
Dock or wall is just that, a dock that is floating or a wall . Sometimes I paid, sometimes I didn’t. In general the prices were cheaper since they had little or no amenities.
But again the line between the two types, dock or marina is not that large. A good portion of the marinas had no security; while some cheap docks did. The last dock we stopped at, Arklow in Ireland, was free, and within 30 minutes, two different guys (fishermen) came by to tell us the security code of the gate.
Since we are talking bout security, maybe in the first weeks, I felt a bit apprehensive with the no security, but I’ve been in Europe enough that after I bit I did not even notice. Much of the Netherlands was like that. The river, canal wound through the center of town, there were bollards placed in which to tie. You then found the nearby post, the same as one uses to pay for car parking. You paid your 12 Euros and placed the sticker on your boat. This included electricity that I usually did not bother with.
The far west and far east has the most expensive marinas. The Channel Islands and the first stops in France were $50 per night for a 12 meter boat, as was Tallinn. Helsinki took the prize for the most expensive marina at $60.
The rest of Scandinavia was really good. Stockholm was only $35 and while Copenhagen was more at $45, the small towns I stopped in Norway ranged from $15 to zero.
In the middle, Germany, Poland, Latvia were all great places to visit and inexpensive; in all three of those countries marinas cost about $25.
Poland and Latvia turned out to be our favorite places. In Gdansk, Poland, were right downtown and our Krogen must have been featured in a thousand pictures. We were on a wall right next to the marina. The wall was free, in fact, the second day, the Bosman, the person in charge of the marina, came by to ask us if we needed electricity, telling him no, he said were welcome to stay on the wall since it was free. I was happy.
The Poles love Americans. Like virtually the entire trip, so many people in seeing the stars and stripes came by to say hello and hear our story: “yes, we took it across the ocean on our own, yes, we are from New York, No, it is not a Grand Banks, it’s a Kadey Krogen”
It was also in Gdansk that I met a couple from Stockholm on their catamaran. Like virtually everyone we met on the water, they were so helpful. They also gave me good advice about Navionics charts in that “Europe HD” was detailed enough to use and there was now no need for paper charts.
And all that for $87.
I always run with two different navigation charts, since last year, Navionics and Jepp’s C-Map. I like the color rendition a bit more on the Navionics, but I must admit that I have not seen any significant difference between the two in Europe.
Speaking of navigation, I found it easier than the ICW, in that it is not critical to know whether the channel is going to or coming from the ocean. Instead, in the skärgärd they will declare “pass red on the left or green on the right” or vice versa. Now in that situation, it is different in that once there was a red of the left and a green on the right of the channel meaning I could NOT go in between where the rock was.
In Riga, I was doing something in the engine room when I felt someone get on the boat. Thinking it was my friends, I kept working; but not hearing their voices, I came up to see this couple having their wedding pictures being taken on the fore deck.
Cute. Latvians loved us too.
All in all, we averaged $28 per stay for the 90 odd days we stopped. Not bad considering a hotel room in many of those cities would have cost 10 times more.
Now you do not have to pay for fuel for that hotel room, but even with fuel, the daily cost is only $76 and with fuel at today’s price it Ireland, that daily average would have been $7 cheaper at $69 per marina.
And it’s sure nice seeing the wonders of the world pass by your living room window.
Being back in Waterford is so much like coming home; though I just left home to fly here.
Umm, maybe I have two homes: wherever Dauntless is and wherever Julie is. That’s simple enough!
So I’m back in Waterford to make plans for what needs to be done for winter. Dauntless and I want to be ready to leave Waterford, probably forever, by early April. Seems like months away; it is months away, but everything on a boat takes longer.
Dauntless at low tide on the Waterford waterfront. The crane in the background is still used.
So this morning I made my rounds. Also walking in Waterford, being surrounded by friendly, warm people is the perfect antidote for the last day’s fiascos. I have described Irish as like Italians and Spaniards, but they speak English; but have now come to the conclusion that they are on a level all by themselves. Unlike pretty much everyone else in Europe, the Irish never had an empire, not even the inkling of one nor even the desire.
They use more terms of ___ then anyone else and they truly mean it. Need something; everything stops while they try to solve your problem.
And they curse more than New Yorkers also! Not like “F—k you”; but more like the exclamation, “can you believe we had a whole f—king day without rain!” And they drag out the sound so it is more like “foooking”.
Cute.
At 3:15 p.m. the streets are full of uniformed kids of every age coming from school. It baffles me how Americans, who pride themselves on being egalitarian, can’t see how important uniforms are for kids. Umm, I wonder why those expensive private schools in New York, ($40k per year) make their kids wear uniforms and even limit technology in the classroom. Worst of all, they even make their kids learn the multiplication table. There should be a law against that. But I digress.
I made my little circuit of the town this morning deciding that I was going to make a wholesome dinner today. Yesterday, arriving from New York, I had my coffee in the morning and an ice cream bar, a Magnum Black, for dinner.
My bread from Hickey’s Bread on the left, my butcher on the right, John Molly’s, is hidden behind the truck.
I like cooking for guests, but today I had decided I needed real food. So my first stop was the butcher where I got 4 lamb chops and Brussels sprouts. Then, the baker, where I got some crusty Hobbit bread. Then the second baker, the cupcake guy, as I love his apple pies.
Master of Cakes, Cupcake Couture
I just finished making my coleslaw, No secrets there, real mayonnaise, vinegar, salt, pepper and a tablespoon of Korean hot pepper paste with vinegar.
My Laundry. How could I miss it!
And in cruising through the World Wide Web, I found this link about mayonnaise which I thought to the point.
Well I suppose our Baltic Cruise did have other objectives, but let’s not minimize my fondness for morning baked goods, in particular Danish.
Now, you all know the capital of the Danish; no, not Copenhagen, but New York. And of course, we are talking about the morning pastry, not the people.
New Yorkers think they invented the Danish. That flaky, layered pastry filled with or with a dollop of fruit or cheese in the middle.
Never packaged in plastic, and not made from a lot of chemicals and artificial crap, that one gets in the rest of the country. Yes. It was hard duty living in places like Seattle, Denver and of course, the city with the lowest average annual temperature in the USA, Fairbanks, Alaska. But someone had to do it.
A Honfleur Cafe just off the Bow of Dauntless
No our Danishes are always fresh. Places that try to sell day old stuff in NYC don’t last long; unless of course, they are in one of those “new’ neighborhoods, like Battery Park City, that is full people from west of New Jersey, who don’t know any better.
By the way, speaking of Battery Park City, this large deluxe apartment complex, built to the west of the World Trade Center largely on landfill from the WTC and other projects of the 60’s and 70’s. So during Superstorm Sandy, the Weather Channel had their goofy looking reporters in Battery Park City, watching the water rise to almost street level, as its inhabitants walked their dogs and babies, like every other rainy, windy day.
A Wonderful Restaurant in Honfleur
In the meantime, in Brooklyn alone, more than 500,000 people watched their cars float away in 8 feet of water! The water getting as much as a mile inland. Power in the Trump Village buildings, some of the buildings that made Trump senior rich and his idiot son think he “earned” his money just by being born, was lost for a week. Cars were left were the water dropped them for months. It was more than 6 months before banks and food markets were able to open again.
But since the Weather Channel did not show it, it must not have happened. This scene was repeated along the coast of Staten Island and much of New Jersey.
My point is that television seldom can give even a representative picture and never the whole story.
So, back to my quest for the Danish.
I ate a lot of ice cream
At $135 a day, this 120 day quest could have seemed like a waste of money. But, my attitude about money and Dauntless is simple: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. At least until after the fact, as my last post shows.
Ummm
Our quest started in France, the town of Trebeurden. After the mile walk uphill, the offerings were a big disappointment. The little pastry places with coffee and wonderfully baked goods were not to be found.
Next country Belgium, Oostende, only 30 miles from Holland, but finding coffee in the morning was also not so easy.
Then Holland, Zuid Holland to be exact. Pastries much like I am familiar with both in NY and from 30 years of visiting the Netherlands. Delicately done apple and cherry turnovers, but layered far more than in the US. Also far less sweet than in the US and of course, made with mostly natural ingredients and not crap. Flakey, light croissants, almost as nice as the best of France. The coffee is also very good, and the prices are reasonable.
And not yet realizing how much I took for granted those Bäckerei und Konditorei would be open by 6 a.m. and always around.
Two Krogens in Holland
Honestly, after three weeks winding my way thru the Netherlands, Holland, Brabant, Gelderland and Friesland, I was really spoiled. By far it would end up being the most convenient in terms of where the boat was and were the people were. I got very spoiled. Great pastries and coffee every morning. Always warm and fresh and costing not more than $5 to sit, drink a cup of java and enjoy at last one pastry (though I usually always got two).
Germany was next. Bäckerei und Konditorei. The western half, like the Netherlands, only slightly more dour, the people and the food. Not surprisingly, the eastern half, of the DDR, was noticeably more dour. Much like the dwarfs of Tolkien’s Middle Earth; but taller.
Pannekoeken in Brabant. We’ve been coming here for 20 years. Very tasty.
Poland was a treat in every aspect. The 8 days we spent in our four stops in Poland, were the absolutely best for eating. Morning was more about donuts and fried, filled things, but really good, really fresh, tasty and cheap.
Dinners were sublime. Every dinner was fantastic. Beef cheeks, pig ankle, herring tartar; all so exceeded our already high expectations. Prices more reasonable than lands to the west.
I had already planned a 2016 trip back, but Julie point out that Ryan Air would cost about a billion dollars less than taking Dauntless again.
Poland Black forest cake. It’s even better than it looks.
Sad, but true.
Bakery in Liepaja. If you look closely, you can see that those cakes are around 3 Euros.
After avoiding the Russian minefield, Latvia was next. We stopped in Liepaja and Riga, one of our goals for almost 10 years. Again, not enough time in a wonderful place. Riga was much as we expect, but Liepaja was a very pleasant surprise. Extremely inexpensive, one of the few Euro countries those prices did not rise overnight upon the birth of the Euro. The markets, both indoor and outdoor, were fascinating and full of stalls with berries.
More berries than you ever thought possible. In Riga, there were over a hundred stalls just selling baskets and buckets of berries of every kind. Tasty and cheap, after easting the berries of Latvia, you could never eat those cardboard tasting blue berries that are ubiquitous here.
Bakery in Liepaja. this repast, including the THREE bags on the table, and the two coffees cost $8 U.S.
Estonia was the last stop on the Baltic Republic hit parade.
More expensive then Latvia, but lacking some of the warmth we got from the people of Latvia, let alone the genuine warmth and friendship se experienced in Poland.
While the pastry choices were limited, the coffee was very good and they had a loaf of bread with butter and knife to cut bread, which was free for one and all. Right up my alley.
Warsaw Pork Knuckle and Beef Cheeks
Coming up: Rocking and Rolling and Rocking in Scandinavia, I am Curious, Yellow and of course, Danishes in Denmark.
Dauntless in LeipajaAnother stop in Holland. Dauntless likes being Downtown so everyone can see her!
This is the table for our Summer 2015 Baltic Sea Cruise on Dauntless
OK. Sorry about the black background, but I have spent too many hours today just f…ing with this “picture” imported from Excel via Word.
Some of the things that jump out at me:
While the Fuel cost was a third of total costs, it wasn’t more.
Eating and food costs were also a third of total expenses.
My morning treat of coffee and some kind of pastry, is not an insignificant cost at almost a thousand dollars.
It really helped that my friends/guests/crew paid most of the marina fees.
By the time I got to Germany, I realized that fuel consumption was actually running much higher than anticipated, around 1.75 gallons/hour. So I made a conscious effort to run at an “economy” speed, about 1400 to 1500 rpms, for the rest of the trip and it clearly worked. I was able to average 1.35 gallons per hour and 3.84 nm/gal at an average speed of 5.2 knots.
By contrast, crossing the Atlantic, the respective numbers were 1.59 gallons/hour and 3.6 nm/gallon at an average speed of 5.7 knots.
All these numbers speak to the efficiency of the Kadey Krogen and the KK42 in particular. We love this boat. She is a tough little girl. Far tougher than me. I really don’t understand why, but I am more, not less, prone to sea sickness than last year or even our first year.
Maybe the weight of responsibility weighs on me more? Maybe I am going out under more adverse conditions? Who knows?
I did get back to NY 5 pounds lighter than when I left in early May. That is nice. But my sense is that being alone on the North Sea for three days will make anyone lose weight. Maybe Oprah should have invested in Dauntless instead of Weight Watchers.
Still to come: I hope to write a summary of the entire cruise; talk about the recent Krogen Owners Rendezvous I just attended and lastly, get my Instagram account up and running so, even if I am not posting, I can at least post pictures with a few snappy captions. Or is that snippy?
30 September 2015, 13:10 hours, we passed the track off of Dunmore East that we had made leaving Ireland 4 months and 5 days earlier on the 25th of May.
Bost in Vadrarfjordr. The Only City in Ireland that Kept its Viking NameDauntless in her New Spot in Waterford
As I motored slowly up the River Suir, it is impossible to describe my feelings. Much like crossing the Atlantic, this was another 4,000 nm, 7,200 km trip milestone completed.
Spread out over four months instead of one, was both a blessing and a curse:
A blessing in that time is spread out, so schedules are more flexible and the scenery is constantly changing, as is the places visited and the foods eaten.
A curse in that it’s almost exclusively coastal travelling and the stress that entails, rocks, narrow channels, and worst of all, expensive marinas.
And much like the Atlantic Passage, coming full circle was a culmination of years of dreaming and planning. As soon as the Atlantic was planned, still years before we actually had a boat, I had moved on to phase two, the first full spring and summer in northern Europe. So of course that meant the Baltic and those lands of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia that were almost totally new to me.
Arklow Inner Harbor
For the most part, if the plan has been well thought out, events unfold as planned. As I look at the Dauntless Cruise Plan that was finalized in April, I pretty much stuck to the plan into September.
Arklow Inner Harbor
Sadly, as I cruised up the Suir, I was occupied with trying to get my cell phone on. It had gone to sleep and never woke up. No sign of life, even when being charged or when I changed its battery.
Today, 48 hours later, I have accepted that its demise is permanent. And sadly today, I just realized that I had not downloaded any pictures since the end of August.
Still of the 600 that were on the phone, I had uploaded a few pictures and videos to WordPress and I have the hundreds of pictures I took with the Samsung K-30, but I like the Note for its ability to take good panorama shots. All of the pictures I post with these blogs came from the Note. That’ll change now.
Now the previous week, I had talked to Johnny, the Waterford City Council guy in charge of the marina and I think a bunch of other things too, to find out where to tie up as the docks were almost full. We had planned that I would call again coming up the river. But now I couldn’t., which always adds to the stress since knowing the spot I was going to is one less thing to worry about.
Trawler unloading in Arklow
Spotting an empty spot at the end of one of the three floating docks (pontoons in British English) there was a sign saying it was a private spot, but any port in a storm, is a lesson I have learned the hard way. Also, there are a number of these marked spots on the dock, but they are not necessarily up to date and the owners had moved on long ago. I was in such a spot all last winter.
Thus I took it, got tied up, changed to my street clothes and then the owner of the spot motored on up, with his wife and two daughters.
Oops.
I went out and apologizing profusely, asked him what I should do, telling him that I had not been able to call Johnny and dreading the response, to move to who knows where?
BBQ in Arklow
Instead he was really nice and said no problem at all; he would just raft outside of Dauntless until I found my place. I thought that was particularly gracious since it meant he had to hang around until I got things sorted out.
Just then, I look down the pontoon, and who do I see walking towards us was Johnny, himself. Now, I was surprised, knowing how busy Johnny is, as well as the fact that the marina (dock really) is just a small part of his job, very small.
Turns out while he had not heard from he, he had spotted Dauntless coming up the river on AIS.
What a relief. I did not want to inconvenient my new found friend Danny any more than I already had. Johnny did have a tight spot for me on the inside of the pontoon, one that I had not considered knowing the water was very shallow on the inside, but in this case it was deep enough.
So 15 minutes later, we were retied to the spot we are currently in. Johnny also called the boat owner in my previous spot to confirm they were pulling their boat this coming Saturday, so I could move back there then.
A wonderful welcome back to Waterford. There are simply no more friendly people than the Irish. Virtually every encounter over the last 13 months had been of this sort. Always willing to help, always friendly to all boaters.
Stopping over in Arklow, the evening before illustrates the point:
It’s a small fishing town. Everyone is so nice. We just stopped in Arklow for a few hours to wait on the tide to turn in about 5 hours.
There was a big sailboat tied to the wharf wall, a commercial dock, with large rubber tires and old timber. I told the sailboat skipper I just needed to stop for 5 or 6 hours. So he suggested I raft (tie up to his boat) next to him. As we were tossing lines, a guy came by on Kayak to tell me the hammerhead on the dock in the small inner harbor with fishing boats was open.
So realizing that was better I moved the boat there and after getting tied up, two different guys, working guys, came by to tell me the access code for the gate and we had a discussion about the tides and currents and the best time to leave.
And of course, this dock was free.
One thing you see in Ireland is that they really like everyone on a boat.
You don’t see the class warfare you see in many places. Fisherman always wave and talk with you. When I spent last September rafted to fishing boats in Castletownbere, Dauntless fit right in, in both size and the lines of the boat. (I wrote about this in the post, “Now It’s Miller Time” sometimes we were rafted 4 or 5 deep.
So my welcome home was better than I could have even hoped.
The Krogen Cruisers have their annual rendezvous next week, so of course I am going to that. I like talking to other owners about our boats and its amazing prowess.
So Tomorrow I fly to my real home, but I’ll be back in a couple weeks to sort out what needs to be done this winter.
In the next weeks and months, I will backfill these posts with the events of the summer that I never had time to write about such as: Cruising with Another Krogen in Holland, Estonia, Finland and Sweden and single handing thru Denmark, Norway and Scotland, the Caledonian Canal and of course, Crossing the North Sea.
Have you ever been unreasonably angry? You know you have no cause to be angry, thus “unreasonable”, but you still can’t shake it.
Maybe not angry; just f…ing irritated.
So I’m sitting on the wrong side of the last locks before town and Neptune’s Staircase.
Maybe because while I understood that I would not get out of the Caledonian Canal system today, I had looked forward to being in town. In the last week I have spent too many days, nights, alone. No one to talk to, no internet, no Wi-Fi, no nothing.
So, I sit here, looking at the beautiful scenery, but disappointed that I’m not in town.
And it’s certainly quiet out here.
The View From Dauntless
But hark; I hear a sound, I go investigate. Alas, it is but the refrigerator compressor.
Welcome to my world.
So, since we last talked it’s been 4 days and 400 miles.
The two day crossing of the North Sea became three days.
A long three days, exactly 72 hours.
I’ve been too tired to write about it. Maybe tomorrow.
Tomorrow is here. Now I’m really tired. Neptune’s Staircase took it all out of me. And then we still had another three locks and a bridge or two to go.
Finally, at 14:00 hours Dauntless is on the sea heading for Oban.
And being at sea you know what that means? Winds of course. 25 knots on the nose. Knocks about a knot off our speed, but I am keeping the rpms higher than usual, 1800 rpms, because the engine has been running cool the last few days have spent basically two days at idle.
I wanted to get this posted, but the pictures had not uploaded and you need pictures to understand what I write some times. I’m not the best when it comes to descriptive detail.
My hands ache from handling cold, wet lines for two days.
It’s Thursday morning, cloudy, rainy, and of course windy, but Dauntless and I are sitting snug in the harbor of Egersund.
Egersund is a medium fishing town and the little central area is just a minute away. We are tied to the endo of the dock near the SAR boat. The marina itself is all finger piers, so I may be to move later, but prefer not to be in a finger.
We entered the fjord just after sunset and then it was another half hour coming up into the town.
Yesterday went as well as I had hoped. Maybe better.
One of the biggest drawbacks to being alone is not the physical stuff, or even docking, but it’s the stuff in my head, and being alone I dwell, maybe obsess is a better word, as my imagination goes crazy.
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Not a Bad Day
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With people around me, unreasonable thoughts come, hang around for a few minutes and then the interaction with others snaps me out of it.
If you watch Cesare, the Dog Whisperer, he’ll make a sharp sound or tap the dog, to get the dog’s attention away from whatever the dog is obsessing about. That’s exactly what I need occasionally.
Before yesterday, I had looked at the route to Scotland 50 times. But even the evening before I left Mandal, I got out of bed to get the tablet to look at the route again. I was looking for an excuse not to leave Mandal. Any excuse. I was in the grip.
But no matter how I looked at it or how many times, it was still clear that if I went direct from Mandal to Scotland, I added 50 miles on to the trip, that’s 8 hours. And it made no sense to add 8 hours to a trip that was already above 40 hours.
I had to leave Mandal and the only weather window I seemed to have was yesterday.
I got off a little later than expected; as I spent some time helping my Danish sailors move their boat. They, in particular, the wife, were so helpful when I docked in Mandal. Besides the ubiquitous wind, there was a current and a vicious steel ladder near the end of the dock that I initially wanted to tie to.
They were not only quick to understand I needed someone to receive the lines, but also, as the boat was getting more and more out of shape, she could see I was getting stressed and gave me some calm, encouraging words. It helped and we were tied up minutes later.
So, leaving the dock late, I then had to go get fuel, which was right by the entrance to the harbor. As I am getting closer, a small skiff pulls up to the dock and I had to wait 10 min for him to finish, but then as he is pulling out another boat jumps in. Another 10 minutes of me making circles in the harbor looking at the crashing waves outside the harbor.
Well, I finally get to the fuel dock and got 500 liters of fuel for $5.20 a gallon, $1.35 per liter (double the price in Ireland, which is a major reason I did not want to leave the boat for eh winter in Norway)
So at 10:35 I FGFU. I’ll let you guess at that.
Within minutes of being in the open water, I realized I got my MOJO back.
Having spent much of the previous day getting ready for action, Dauntless was ready.
I put things away that I had not put away we I checked all the stays for the paravanes and went through the boat from top to bottom making sure everything was secured.
That made all the difference, so when we encountered our first big seas, 6 – 8 feet, 2-3m, everything was tight.
The first few hours were in somewhat protected waters, but then I had 5 hours with the wind and seas on the beam, 6 to 12’, 2-4m.
And that’s when I remembered how well the paravanes work under these conditons. The paravanes are most effective in a beam sea. As the wave approaches, the boat rolls into the trough, just in front of the wave, but then as the wave lifts the boat, the paravanes stop the boat from rolling to the lee side. So as the wave goes under the boat, the boat rights itself and stays that way as the wave passes under the boat.
Now I knew all this, but I had forgotten about it. So I just sat in the pilot house marveling at how nicely that boat was handling all of this.
Depending on the wave period and other things, sometimes the boat would roll to the lee side, but again when that happened, the paravanes stopped the oscillation that would result without the paravanes deployed.
SO now I am waiting in Egersund for a weather window. I’d like two days, but it’s late in the season for that. Right now, I thinking late Saturday or certainly Sunday, arriving in Scotland Monday night or Tuesday morning.
I’ll watch for the next days. I’d like winds less than 20 knots and seas not more than 4 meters and the winds and seas can come in any direction from 80° to 280°, with the bow being at 0°.
I won’t go with any head wind, seas, component.
I’ll try to post some videos. I should get a Go Pro.
I will even drag my 37 pound laptop to the café so you may hear my last words, just in case.
No, I’m not worried about dying; I’m more concerned that one of my faithful readers will die because I left them in the lurch too long. Not my fault. This marina in off season charges $5 per day, yes, that’s five dollars, but for your five dollars you do not get internet.
However, you do get the best laundry I have experienced in 4 months. Only $2 and the dryer actually dries in 40 minutes.
And I’d get free electricity and water, if I deigned to squeeze into the finger piers; I don’t.
Even though I have bene having battery issues the last weeks.
So just a few days ago, I discovered on of the 8D batteries was low on voltage, so it’s out of the program. Today I checked the cabling of the other three. After this weekend’s run, the truth will be revealed.
Norway has been a great experience. I am not saddened with leaving only because it has always been in the plan to return next spring and summer. It will be May and June next year, make your reservations early.
So, a little follow up about weather.
While I have distained weather forecasts, I do look at them. I just don’t trust my life, my health or my boat on them.
So for example, in this case, I have been watching for more than a week. Winds over the North Sea have been as high as 50 knots in the last two weeks making 9 meter, 27 foot seas. Forgetaboutit.
So I’ve been looking for the best two day window I can get at this time of year. A few days ago it looked like Sunday and Monday and maybe Tuesday. Winds 10 to 15 knots out of the NNW or South.
I can live with that, as I have said, I just don’t want a component on the bow. If tomorrow the winds are NW, I will go SW, accepting some extra miles.
Now, I have noticed today that the winds are less than forecast, in fact, down right mild, 8 to 12 maybe.
On one hand that’s good, as it will let the North Sea settle down, but on the other hand it could mean the forecast is a day behind, the next storm system could be coming across the UK not Tuesday, but maybe Monday.
In any case, I am still going, became to me it’s about what is happening now and not in the future. Therefore, as long as I don’t have strong winds on the bow, I leave. I would not leave if I must hope for a change of conditions. .
Atlant
r nothing.
Dauntless at Sea 