Whole again

Daring young man in bosun's chair

The mast work was finished and the masts reinstalled yesterday thanks to the daring young man in the bosun's char (see picture to right). BTW - it isn't me in the chair. The re-installation went smoothly. I spent close to three hours putting the booms and sails back on and sorting out all the lines. The end result is a boat that I can sail again.

A sailboat without mast(s) is a bird without wings. Between the absence of the masts and the attendant mess (see picture below, right), I have felt weighed down - almost crippled. With the masts back and some semblance of order on deck, I feel much freer and lighter. I can spread my wings and fly again - soon.

That is not to say that there isn't work to be done. The masts have all new internal wiring. This time it is done right which means that it is different from the way it used to be. That means I have come up with a new way to get it all hooked up. Not a huge problem - just another thing to get done. Once the wiring is finished I think I am down to just needing to get everything stowed properly for sailing and I can be off.

Home (not so) sweet mess

With this most recent delay, I won't be moving to Richardson Bay to do my shakedown sailing until after Christmas. I'm hoping things check out quickly once I am there. I will be anchored out rather than tied up at a slip. That means no plugging in to shore power. That, in turn, means that I will not have any kind of heat on the boat. With the nights getting down into the low 40s, that is not a wonderful prospect.

Disturbing news from Mexico. Apparently one branch of the Mexican government has decided to go wild on checking boat paperwork for foreign boats with the result that a large number of boats are now forbidden to leave Mexico until they prove that they have the proper paperwork. In most cases, the paperwork is OK but the boat owner was not present when the officials showed up to check it so the boat was classified as illegal. Read more about it here. Maybe I will go to Hawaii for a month instead if the situation isn't resolved by the time I am ready to leave San Diego. I would be happy to renew my acquaintance with the Hawaii Yacht Club. I stayed there when I sailed my boat out from San Diego in 1976 and then again when I ferried a boat from Hawaii to Guam in early 1977.

I probably will not post again until after the Winter Solstice and the insane religious and commercial activities that go with it so I will take this opportunity to wish you a Happy Winter Solstice. Remember, solstice is the reason for the season.

Please! No rock and roll!

I am still waiting to get the masts back in the boat. The main has been rewired and is ready to be reinstalled but the mizzen has disappeared off to the rigger's shop. Possibly it will be back today.

The time since the last post has been spent in doing the last minute things that have to be done before I can head offshore as well as a few projects that I had intended to postpone until San Diego. Since I have no hard deadline for departure, I am planning to revert to the original plan.

When the masts are back in the boat, I will move over to Richardson Bay (Sausalito) where I can anchor out and verify that all my live-aboard systems work. I can also do day sail forays into The Slot (the Golden Gate) where I can usually count on finding some wind in the afternoons. That will let me do more checkouts on the rigging and the wind vane.

When things look really good, I can head out onto the open ocean and around the corner to Pilar Point Marina in Half Moon Bay. From there, I can do more day sail trips to do final shakedown on the open ocean with the kind of wind and waves I can expect for the trip to San Diego.

When the boat is ready and there is a suitable weather window, I can shove off for San Diego. Since I plan to spend Christmas with family in Placerville, that puts departure off until January - maybe around the Wolf Moon - the full moon of Jan 16th.

So - what does this have to do with the title of this post?

Nothing.

However, for those of you who have limited sailing experience...

One problem with being offshore for more than 24 hours is that it is necessary to sleep. Sleep is best accomplished in a bed. But sailboats are not stable platforms like the average landlubber's bedroom. When the boat rocks, the sleeper rolls. So how does one manage to sleep under these conditions?

The solution is a device known as a lee cloth (or lee board). A bunk is normally situated against the hull of the boat. The hull keeps the occupant from rolling out of the bunk in that direction. On the other side, some kind of restraint is required. In the old days, it was a board running the full length of the bunk. These days, it is usually a net or a cloth. Mine is made up of sections cut out of an old sail. See the pictures to the right.

Most of the time, the boat will be sailing in such a direction that it will roll to one side and back toward the upright position and will stop short of upright because of the wind pressure on the sails. When the boat is headed straight down wind, this is not the case. The sails are out to the side so they do not dampen the rolling as the boat approaches the upright position. This is when the intrepid sailor finds out what things are not well secured on the boat. Typically, there is a lot of banging and crashing as things shift from one side to the other of the storage areas each time the boat rolls past upright.

It is also the least comfortable point of sail for sleeping. The sleeper will roll from one side to the other of the bunk as the boat rolls. Ideally, the bunk is quite narrow so the lee cloth holds the sleeper firmly against the other side of the bunk leaving no room for rolling from side to side.

And that, my friend, is how not to rock when the boat rolls.

Holding...

When last I wrote, the big item left to check off before departure was to get the VHF/AIS working. Some testing showed that the transmission lines were bad in each mast. Monday, December 9th,  Hansen Rigging came to the boat intending to replace the lines without pulling the masts out of the boat. That attempt failed. The coax cable in the main would not come loose. We decided to pull the masts. The earliest opportunity would be Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Mario was busily working on the anchor roller assembly. It was coming together well - a bright spot in the ensuing chaos.

On Wednesday, I pulled the boat back into the boatyard to have the masts pulled out. It seemed like a pretty straightforward procedure - pull the masts, remove the old transmission lines, install the new ones and drop the masts back into the boat. At worst, it should be a two day effort.

It was not to be. It took almost four hours to pull the main. The main mast goes through the cabin top and is seated on the keel. There is a small gap between the mast and the cabin top that has to be sealed to keep water from running into the cabin. The gap was sealed with a new Spartite collar when I had the standing rigging replaced and the masts reinstalled in the boat. Spartite is one of those miracle compounds that is poured into place and allowed to cure. The result is a collar that exactly fits the space. It is also somewhat adhesive so part of the procedure for pouring the collar is to coat the sides of the hole through the cabin top with a release agent - some sort of slippery agent that keeps the Spartite from bonding to the cabin top. Apparently, the release agent was not properly applied and the collar did bond to the cabin top. When the crane went to pull the mast out of the boat, it lifted the entire boat up a few inches before we realized that the mast was not going to come out easily. When it did finally come loose, it pulled the old coating from the hole around the mast along with the mast. Messy - but fairly easily repaired. In the picture above, right, you can see the hole through the cabin top and a fragment of the collar. Below, left, is a closeup of the hole from below decks.

With the mast lying on horses, the riggers tried again to pull the transmission line. Unfortunately, it had been installed in such a way the it was necessary to pull all of the wires out of the mast. Hansen carted the mast off to their shop to work on it still thinking that the mast would be back in the boat by Friday.










While all this was going on, I moved the boat back to Mario's slip so he could finish the installation of the anchor roller assembly. Here he is at the right, welding the assembly to the anchor roller platform. It is SO much better than the old arrangement - it is much stronger and it will work when the boat is yawing and pitching during anchor deployment and retrieval.





That done, I moved the boat back to the boat yard so their worker could repair the damaged hole in the cabin top.

Friday came. Along with it came the news that the mast could not be ready before next Wednesday, December 18th. Some parts are needed that are not readily available. When they do arrive it will take some time to install them.

So, there is nothing to do but to postpone the departure. Even if the mast is in place on the 18th, it looks like there will be high winds offshore for the next several days so that pushes the departure even farther down the road. It now looks like the earliest I could reasonably hope to depart would be the 21st. That would mean Christmas at sea instead of being with Judy and other family members.

That left me without a place to keep the boat unless I signed up for a $45/day slip at a nearby marina. The boat yard people suggested that I ask Mario if I could sublet from him. He agreed to that saying that the slip will be unused until after New Year. When I asked him what he wanted for rent, he offered it for free! What a generous act of kindness - but it doesn't seem quite fair to him since I am using about $5/day of electricity to heat the boat. He suggested that I give him whatever I think is fair.

The boat yard had finished the repairs by then, so I pulled back into Mario's slip. That gave me the opportunity to install the anchor into the anchor roller assembly and see the finished product. See the picture to the right.





The change in schedule affects more than just me. Howard Brunnings was planning to come with me to San Diego. He had made arrangements to be off work for the trip. I don't know if he will be able to rearrange things to be able to go later. He also wants to be with family at Christmas so leaving on the 21st would not be an option. It is not clear whether he will be able to rearrange his life to accommodate this latest change.

It looks like the earliest possibility will be after Christmas. The good news it that it will give me some time to do some rearranging of storage and take care of some projects that I was going to postpone until San Diego. It will also give me some time for a better shakedown. I can move the boat to Sausalito and do day sail trips outside the Golden Gate. I may move the boat to Pilar Point Marina in Half Moon Bay where I can anchor out while waiting for the next break in the weather.

Once again, everything is up in the air. Stay tuned...

Progress!

The time spent in the boatyard up in the air was not all bad. The biggest irritation was having to be careful about letting water drain out in the galley sink where I do dishes. Each day began with washing breakfast dishes, being very careful to make sure all the dishwater ended up in my slop bucket along with the previous days' dishwater. Next was a trip to the men's room to dump the contents of the slop bucket down the toilet. Not terrible - just annoying.

The good news is that I was able to get a lot of work done.

• There was wiring to finish up so the solar panels will charge the battery I use for running the anchor windlass as well as charging the main ship batteries.
• Checked the cables that connect the steering wheel to the rudder. They are good.
• Finally got around to installing the panel that covers up the big hole in the aft end of the cockpit where the autopilot panel used to be. The autopilot is defunct and has long since been removed. Now the hole is reduced to a smaller hole for running wires from accessories mounted on the stern rail. I added some some shielding to help keep water out. The wires for the GPS and the solar panels go through the access hole.
• Started to install a stereo. It is much like a unit you would find in a car but the board in it are conformal coated to (hopefully) make it resistant to moisture and salt air. I quickly discovered that my idea for mounting the stereo unit and speakers wasn't going to work. I cut some pieces of teak, glued them to the cabin interior using an adhesive known as 5200. Much to my surprise, it took 48 hours to cure to the point that I dared mount the components on the blocks.
• When I installed the GPS receiver that is used by the AIS (Automatic Identification System), I strung the wiring through the starboard cockpit locker rather haphazardly so I could see if it worked before I did the final wiring. Now it was time to do the proper routing so the wire would not be in the way or accidently get snagged on something and break. The AIS is a wonderful piece of equipment that transmits my boat position, course and speed periodically so other boats with AIS receivers can know where I am. My receiver monitors the other boats' transmissions and tells me if we are on a collision course so I really, really want this to work reliably. Sounds easy but it involved taking out all the stuff in the locker, removing the longitudinal bulkheads that give me access to the engine compartment, stringing the wire through the engine compartment and securing it with a bazillion cable ties to keep it where it belongs. Part of this required me to be upside down, head first into one of the lockers. It was touch and go as to whether I would be able to get out once I finished what I needed to do. This was Thanksgiving Day and it could have been three days before anyone was around to pull me out if I really was well and truly stuck. I did make it - with a few scrapes and sore muscles.
• Got all the wiring done for the stereo. That meant running power leads and a ground from the
  
  switch/breaker panel to the place where the stereo will be mounted. Stringing the wires was a tedious exercise involving pushing wires through holes that I couldn't see well and hoping that they would come out in the right place. Eventually they did. I turned the stereo on and for the first time in two years I have decent quality sound in the boat. My music has been coming from a little bedside radio. It is a good alarm clock but a really poor sound system. I don't have AM/FM radio yet - no antenna. I listened to Bob Dylan "Blonde on Blonde" album for the first time in years. I have put most of my best music on my iPhone. It connects to the stereo either by USB cable or Bluetooth. What a luxury!
• Ran wiring from the switch/breaker panel to the navigation table area for the 12 volt outlets and the USB charger ports.

2 Dec 2013 - Monday

Monday morning finally arrived! Despite the fact that I was pretty busy most of the time, the boatyard was a lonely place over the weekend. I made several trips out on the bicycle to do some shopping but people contact was at a minimum. Even though I don't spend a lot of time talking to the people in the boatyard, it is nice to have people and activity around.

I set my alarm to get up a little early so I could have the dishes done and get stuff cleaned up on deck to be ready to launch the boat and move it to another slip. I got the dishes done, went to the mens room to empty the dishwater and perform my morning constitutional. When I came out, the ladder to the boat was gone! The workers were busily preparing to put Laelia back in the water. Whoopeee!!!

In short order, Laelia was back in the water and I was $1700 poorer after paying my bill. I moved the boat to a nearby slip where Mario Gonzales could start working on replacing the lifelines in the cockpit area with steel tubing that I need to be able to mount the solar panels. It was tricky getting the boat backed into the slip - there wasn't much room for getting turned around - but I made it with help from Mario on the dock lines. It was another lesson in boat handling. In no time at all, Mario was on the boat with a cutting wheel and removed pieces of the existing rail and the lifelines. See picture above. Mario is still saying he thinks he can have the railing done and the anchor rollers in place by Friday or Saturday.

I spent the rest of the day working on installing the 12 volt outlets and the USB chargers at the navigation table. One could be forgiven for thinking that this should be a trivial task - but it wasn't. I had to drill holes to install the outlets but before I could do that, I had to empty out the compartment that was on the other side of the bulkhead where the outlets were to be installed. Then, there was some investigation and planning to ensure that I didn't drill into any existing wiring and that I would be able to reach the backside of the outlets to do the wiring. By the end of the day, I had half of them done and the cabin was, once again, a disaster area. It took me about an hour to clean up wood shavings, dust from sanding, bits of wire and insulation and all the tools that I has scattered about in the process. After that, I could start fixing dinner.

By the end of his working day, Mario had cut away chunks of the old rail and it looked like the picture to the left.

3 Dec 2013 - Tuesday

Tuesday was more of the same. I finished the 12 volt outlets and USB charger wiring. I made a brief trip out to do some shopping - pieces needed for boom vangs and a safety tether to keep me safely on board when the boat motion get bad enough to knock me down when I am working on deck.

I also bought a piece of equipment known as an antenna splitter. It allows me to share the VHF radio antenna with the stereo AM/FM antenna. Unfortunately, when I hooked it up, it didn't appear to be working. The cable that connected the AM/FM radio to the splitter was functioning as an antenna  - but poorly. Connecting the splitter didn't make any improvement in the FM signal quality. Most disappointing since I really like to listen to KDFC and they have several relatively low power stations scattered around the bay area. None of them came in very well on the new unit despite the fact that my cheapie bedside clock radio picked up at least one of them just fine. More on this later.

I made up boom vangs for the main and the mizzen using the components I bought at Blue Pelican marine consignment store earlier in the day. I wish I had found this place earlier. They have tons of used gear in good shape at a fraction of the cost of new components. I'm sure I could have saved a couple thousand dollars had I only known.

What is a boom vang? It is a device to keep the boom of a sail from lifting when the main/mizzen sheet is eased (relaxed). Having the boom lift up is bad because it spoils the sail shape. Instead of being a nicely shaped airfoil, it becomes a baggy triangular sail which operates much less efficiently.

While I was working on all this, Mario got the new rails in place and actually finished the port rail - welded and polished and looking great! In short order, I had one solar panel mounted and connected. It is great to see the battery being charged when I have the shore power disconnected. It gives me a feeling of independence. I won't have to hook up to shore power or run the engine to keep the batteries charged up. That will be a huge relief on long passages when shore power is not available and it will allow me to lounge about in an isolated tropical lagoon for days on end without running the batteries flat.

4 Dec 2013 - Wednesday

Mario finished the railing project. He does top quality work. The railings look even better than the original installation - smooth welds, nicely polished. The picture to the right shows the finished rail with solar panel mounted.

I made a quick trip with Laelia to the Grand Marina harbormaster's office to pump out the holding tank and to inquire about the availability of guest slips. No problem - they have lots of slips. I asked because I am beginning to think I may depart from here rather than Half Moon Bay (actually, Pilar Point Marina in Princeton-by-the-Sea.) I don't know for sure when Mario will be finished. It sounds like Friday or Saturday at the earliest. The weather outlook is quite unsettled. If I can make the move to Pilar Point on Monday or Tuesday, I can still do it. The other days look like they will be windier than I care to try single handed on my first venture out. I may just stay here until the 15th - or the first day after that that is safe to start south to San Diego. It Is all up in the air (again/still.)

I got the second solar panel hooked up but it was too late in the day to tell if it is functioning normally.

The other big activity of the day was more troubleshooting on the VHF and AIS antenna problems. Glenn Hansen of Hansen Rigging brought me an antenna on 50' of cable to help troubleshoot the problem. First, I hoisted his antenna and hooked it up to the VHF and the AIS in turn. All is well. I see an SWR of 2.5:1 when I key the VHF transmitter - not great, but OK.

The next step was to climb the mizzen mast and hook the cable to my antenna. Repeating the tests with the VHF and the AIS, I got an SWR of 1.5:1 (outstanding!) and the AIS did not complain about antenna problems. That pretty much confirm that there is a problem with the transmission line. It means having to use a crane to pick up the mast while we replace the cable that runs down the inside of the mast. The connector between the portion of the transmission line in the boat and the transmission line in the mast is inside the mast and is inaccessible without lifting the mast off its base. Bummer!

While I had the test transmission line and mizzen antenna connected, I retried my antenna splitter. It works great! Now all I need is a good antenna on the boat.

Next, I took the test transmission line and hauled it up the main mast, disconnected the boat's transmission line, connected the test line and ran an SWR check. This one came out at over 3:1 so there is an antenna problem. I will have to replace the antenna before I can run another test to see if the transmission line is any good.

This all sounds kind of dry and academic, but it means climbing my "stairway to heaven" to a point 47 feet above the water to get to the top of the main. The mizzen is only about 35 feet. It is a good exercise - both for the muscles and for purging oneself of agoraphobia.

That brings things up to date. I am sitting here listening to the stereo and typing away on the laptop using only battery power. I have also turned on the running lights that I would be using if I were under sail. I figure it is a good test of battery capacity and solar panel capacity. We shall see if the panels can keep up with demand over the next few days. In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I am still using heaters that require shore power. It is going to be awfully cold the first few days offshore! I am hoping for another bout of unseasonably warm weather starting December 15th.

It is exciting to see things coming together. December 15th is approaching fast. I think Laelia and I will be ready. Will the weather cooperate? Dunno. Stay tuned.