OK, we are not going 1000 miles (only 600), and our initial move is a bit longer than a single stride, but we are officially underway.
Annapolis Harbor always has beautiful boats!
At 15:00 this afternoon we dropped lines at Bert Jabin’s Yacht Yard, and moved out into the South Anchorage off the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Sometime around midnight the wind is forecast to swing to a favorable direction or the start of our trip. It will likely be a crowded trip south in the ocean. Tomorrow begins the best weather window in the last two weeks, and it is a narrow one. Boats that don’t get underway quickly will have to wait another 10 days or so for the next one. We are expecting a crowd!
The forecast is for a fast and fairly easy trip. We will not have much chance to dally, because we’ll want to be settled in before the next front comes through, but it it looking like all downwind from Annapolis right on to Hilton Head, SC, our first port of call.
From Hilton Head, we will hop down to Brunswick, GA for a few weeks, then to Fort Lauderdale in early December, and from there we will be headed over to the Bahamas near the end of the year.
Our short motor this afternoon was the first real underway test of our engine since we replaced the engine mounts and realigned the drive train. It was AMAZING. Smooth as glass. Over the course of years the drive train had gotten rougher, and noisier a little at a time, so slowly there was no short term change to notice. Now it is so smooth you do not have any change in the feel of the boat when you engage the transmission. This is a good thing, but is also a bit disconcerting and will take some getting used to!
We have been a bit quiet–but busy–during our stay here in Annapolis. A couple significant projects were done, and a bunch of minor ones.
Avoiding Weak Links
The road trip project was our anchor chain. It was inexpensive chain when we bought it, primarily (we have since learned) because the galvanized surface was applied by electrogalvanizing instead of hot dipping. After two and a half years of service, the galvanizing was gone from much of the length of the chain, and it was actively rusting. The rust was not (yet!) severe enough to impact the strength, but is was certainly bad enough to make a mess on deck every time we hauled the anchor.
Electrogalvanizing is the process of using an electric current to plate a thin layer of zinc onto steel. It gives a nice smooth surface, and is quickly and easily done, but the layer of zinc that results is very thin. The resulting product is generally not recommended for highly corrosive environments. Certainly there are not many environments that are more corrosive to plain carbon steel than soaking in salt water! “Hot-dipping” is literally soaking the clean steel in a vat of molten zinc. It results in a much thicker, although rougher and less attractive surface. Live and learn: Do not consider anything except the hot-dip process for galvanizing anchor chain.
When we bought the existing chain about two and a half years ago, I had looked to find a place to see if we could have the old chain regalvanized, but had no luck with finding an economical source. This time I found Baltimore Galvanizing. In their shop 300 feet of chain and the anchor would be priced as a “small job” and be charged the shop minimum of about $300. Compared to $1800 for new chain, this was sounding pretty attractive. Especially considering we could throw in the anchor and have it done as well.
We were lucky enough to have a friend visiting us who had that most valuable of things a friend can have: A pickup truck! We loaded the chain and the disassembled anchor onto Aras’ truck and drove the 45 minutes to the back corner of an industrial section of Baltimore and left the chain with them, and were promised about a week’s turnaround.
Loading about 550 lbs of anchor and chain.
A week (and a day) later… it was done. By this time Aras has left, so we needed to rent a truck to pick up the finished project. Back to the marina, and we load it into the dinghy so we can easily load it back onto Harmonie.
Our dinghy had no problem with the 400+ pound payload of completely rust free chain.
The anchor did not really require regalvanizing yet, having been hot dipped when it was made, but it was showing some wear, and we could add it to the job for no extra money, so why not? On the anchor, we decided to replace the bolts rather than have the old ones reglavanized. The original bolts from Mantus were Grade 5 galvanized bolts. We replaced them with “structural bolts,” also galvanized, and Grade A325. A325 steel has the same strength specifications as Grade 5, the primary difference is the bolts have an unthreaded shoulder, which increases their shear strength.
Reassembling our 105 pound Mantus anchor.
There were about a dozen places along the 300 foot of chain where the zinc coating had “glued” together the links enough that they had some trouble going through the anchor windless. A couple whacks with a hammer, and those came free easily. The significantly rougher, lumpier surface of the hot-dipped chain compared to its old electrogalvanized finish means the chain does not “flow” as well and makes a significantly taller, steeper pile as it comes into the chain locker. This really isn’t an issue on Harmonie because the Amel Super Maramu has almost 4 feet of fall beneath the chainpipe. This should get better with use, as normal friction in handling wears off the larger lumps and bumps.
Overall, this was a very satisfying project. We spent less than 25% of the price of a new chain, including the truck rental, and we have a chain that should give us years of service before needing to repeat the process.
Keeping the Cold In.
The most time consuming of our projects was a complete replacement of one of our old chest freezers. The original box as constructed by Amel was not very well insulated to start with and after more than 25 years the insulation was saturated with water from condensation. The result was we consume a lot more power keeping it cold than we should and we also had problems with keeping food fully frozen.
The new freezer compartment was insulated (mostly) in vacuum panels, and was basically constructed of a box of 5mm epoxy coated plywood, a layer of insulation, and a second inner box of more 5mm epoxy coated plywood. Easy to build with strong, inexpensive, good looking, and readily available materials. Hinge and latch hardware were reused from the original.
The vacuum panels we used for insulation are made by Panasonic for high tech building and refrigeration insulation. Panasonic claims they will have at least half their insulating capacity remaining 12 years out. One inch thickness of these panels is rated at R60, roughly the equivalent of a FOOT of high quality polyurethane foam. The do require care in installation to be sure they are not subject to any kind of mechanical damage that could puncture the skin. Also, they are available in a limited range of sizes, and can not be cut or trimmed, so designing something to fit in an existing space can be a challenge.
Shiny, new, and a perfect fit. For those of you who might not have seen these, the line is run up to a hook overhead to hold the lid open for easy access.
In addition to the greatly improved insulation, we designed a double gasket system to make sure the warm air stays out, and the cold air stays in, where they belong. A system of plastic baskets also helps organize the food storage, and allows excellent circulation of cold air helping to avoid the warm spots that plauged the old box.
A tight fitting lid, double gaskets, and baskets all help to improve efficiency.
From Here
As cooler autumn weather takes hold, it is time for use to begin our southern migration. We will start moving in four or five days down the Chesapeake Bay. We will most likely pause at Norfolk, VA and hold for weather. From there, to Hilton Head, SC, then to Brunswick, GA, then to Fort Lauderdale, FL, then to the Bahamas at the end of December. From there, we really do not yet have firm plans.
Our project list is shrinking as we dive into things.
Our shore power extension cord had a bad plug, that over-heated and needed replacing. Not a complex or difficult project, but an important one.
With that done, we attacked a couple of Rule #1 violations. To refresh your memory, the Three Rules of Boating are:
Keep the water out of the boat.
Keep the people in the boat.
Don’t hit anything.
All Amel boats are built with the expectation that they will always comply with Rule One. We strive to keep it that way, both for the good of the boat, and our own comfort. So any leak is an issue that needs to be addressed because we do not tolerate leaks of any size or location..
First up was the aft cabin hatch. The plastic lens was coming unglued from its frame, and had started to leak. Since this was right over the foot of our bed, this was a priority. The lens was removed, cleaned up, and reglued in place with silicon.
Reglued, and leak free.
Next on the Rule One list was the overhead hatch in the saloon. This was replaced when we had major repairs made in this area two years ago. We have been happy with the style and function of the hatch, except in severe conditions the gasket leaked. Not good. See Rule One above.
We contacted Vetus, the manufacturer. As you might expect their first response to a warrantee inquiry was to claim that the installation was faulty. Rather than try to argue out that right off the bat, we figured we’d replace the gasket for a few dollars. We got the part number for the replacement gasket, and ordered it in.
Hmmm… the new gasket looks NOTHING like the original! The factory gasket was solid rubber with a shape molded to match the frame. It was held in place with a arrow shaped extension that fit into a matching groove in the frame. The new gasket is a round, hollow, stick down gasket. It looks like a generic replacement gasket.
After considering our options, I decided that we would try the new gasket. We’d surely be no worse off than we started, even if it leaked a bit. It took quite a bit of fussing to get it fit into the hatch frame, but it did go in. A test after the install with high pressure spray from the hose showed: NO LEAKS! Success! Hopefully it stays that way for a while.
Finally, we had two screws (from the 200+) that we installed as part of our window project that dripped a bit. We got those fixed up as well.
Now we charge on to other things, major and minor…
Our carefully considered plan was to slowly meander up the Chesapeake Bay, with Annapolis as our target for early September. It seemed such a good plan.
But we forgot something we both knew. The Chesapeake in August is H-H-H. Hazy, Hot and Humid. Oh, and there is no wind to sail with–except in the thunderstorms. You can’t even jump into the water to cool off, the local stinging jellyfish (“sea nettles”) are here in huge clouds.
So instead of taking three weeks to hop up from one anchorage to another, we jumped up in three days and are now plugged in at the dock–AC running–as the afternoon’s thunderstorms roll over us.
We have some family visits and travels coming up, and of course the current collection of boat projects, scattered in with doctor visits, and the fall boat show. A bunch of mostly enjoyable busy-ness.
We have two major boat projects on the docket. The vibration isolating mounts for our main engine are getting old and worn out, so those need replacing. We will also be building a a new freezer box to replace the one that was poorly insulated when it was first installed, and hasn’t gotten any better with passing years.
Of course there is always a long list of routine things that need doing, so we’ll be taking care of those too.
Our three day trip out to the Norfolk Canyon and back was a success in every way you care to measure.
First, and most importantly, it was FUN. The 80 mile sail out, and then 80 miles back, was delightful. The weather was perfect for what we were doing when we were doing it. The fishing was great, we pulled up a bunch of tilefish, some quite large ones:
34 pounds of yummy deliciousness from the bottom of the ocean.
Tilefish are about the tastiest fish in the ocean with a flavor that reflects their diet of crab, lobster and squid, but with a very delicate texture. If you ever find them for sale, they command a very hefty price, approaching $50/lb for the fillets.
In the Norfolk Canyon area these fish live on the bottom over 700 feet deep. That’s a really long, long way down, as you find out when it is time to reel in your line to check bait, or reposition the boat. It was for this kind of fishing that we recent splurged on a new fishing toy–I mean “essential fishing tool”. An electric fishing reel. We have been doing enough of this kind of fishing, called “deep dropping” that it seemed like it will be a worthy investment. So far–so good!
One of the things about the ocean is it never fails to surprise. After cleaning this big boy, Karen was below in the galley packaging the fillets for the freezer. I saw some interesting marks close up under the boat on the sonar, and dropped jig to see what I might hook. I hooked into a very large fish that ran off a LOT of line at high speed. At first I was sure I had hooked a yellowfin tuna, but then the fight settled down in to a bit of a street fight–for an HOUR. It turned out to be a large shark. We weren’t able to ID him as good to eat, and legal to catch, so we didn’t bring him into the boat. This, however, wasn’t the big surprise.
While I was fighting the shark, Karen was videoing the action. In the distance, a large fish jumps out of the water, completely clear, and lands with a huge splash. My initial ID is confirmed by a close look at the video. It was an ocean sunfish, a Mola mola. Not a fish I imagined being able to generate the speed to leap clear of the water, but there he was–airborn!
A flying ocean sunfish!
We are back in Norfolk, at anchor. Relaxing, working on some of our video productions. We have a few weeks before we expect to head up the bay to Annapolis.
We came into Norfolk to put some fuel in our tank and to get some fresh provisions. Both of those goals have been accomplished, and now we are headed back out again. Our target is to spend a few day out at the offshore “canyons.” The weather looks like it might be promising for a fishing excursion.
In this part of the coast the edge of the Continental Shelf is about 75 or 80 miles offshore. This is where the ocean drops suddenly from one or two hundred feet deep to several thousand feet. From about here north this steep cliff is cut by a number of steep canyons that are huge wildlife magnets. Several of them would put the “Grand” Canyon in Arizona to shame in scale. We are out there to put some fish in our freezer. Tuna. Mahi-Mahi. Wahoo. Grouper. Tilefish. Barrelfish. Rosefish. Maybe (if we are really lucky!) a swordfish.
If you follow our sailing blog (where you are reading this!) you might be interested in the fishing side of our world. We have a Youtube channel that is growing quickly. We have a few videos posted and several more in production. Have a look, let me know if YOU think it’s interesting. If there is a specific topic that might be of interest we’d love to hear about it. Feedback is always helpful. We have a few titles in production focused a bit more on the interests of sailors who might like to eat fish rather than the more hard core fishermen.
While we were sailing offshore the other morning, the weather was beautiful, but not especially unusual, at least at first glance. The atmosphere was very unstable, but on a very small scale. Not something you frequently see a hundred miles offshore. Karen was on watch at sunrise (which meant Bill was asleep) and she got some great pictures.
“The Dump”
The first photo was of a rain shower Karen called “The Dump.” A very small, but obviously very intense rain shower. Just amazing that such intensity can be so local. I think this comes under the category of what a meteorologist would call a “microburst.”
Her next photo was quite a bit more dramatic–and unusual.
Twister!
A long and skinny tornado. Well, technically I guess it should be a “waterspout,” but I doubt the difference matters if you are close to it!
While she was watching this in real time, she didn’t realize that it actually reached all the way down to the water, but if you look closely at the photo you can see the sea spray being thrown up where the funnel touches down. Again, this was really, really local. We saw no strong winds, and no rain on the deck of Harmonie. All the same, we were happy to not be too close to this.
Yesterday’s quote from Karen, aka “The Harmonie Sage,” “When everything is so perfect, why would you want to rush to the end?” It might have be that some people would have found the sailing for most of this trip to be frustratingly slow, but with very few exceptions there was always enough wind to keep the sails full and the boat moving in the general direction we wanted to go, and with at least enough speed to steer.
The calm seas, and quiet left us with a collection of wildlife encounters that have been truly exceptional. By way of example: sailing along at a sedate 3 or 4 knots, we had a small pod of three oceangoing bottlenose dolphin come and spend an hour or more playing with the boat. The big, dark colored, scared, old male, the female and the near-adult young one. Each individual had its own preferred game with the boat. The old male would park himself right under the bow, and lead the way, matching speed perfectly. The female preferred to dart from side to side. The youngster was, in the way of all adolescents, more curious and full of energy. Darting back and forth even faster that its mother, it frequently rolled on its side to get a better look at the boat. At the same time this was going on at the bow, we had a much more unusual visitor at the stern. Coasting along, holding station just a few feet behind the boat, was a very large shark. Although we have seen sharks gather around the boat in the hope of an easy meal while we were stopped to catch fish, this is the first time we have seen one actively following along for extended distances. There was no sense of playful enthusiasm like that displayed by the dolphins, this was all about business…
The wind has now picked up, running 10 to 15 knots. Absolutely perfect, comfortable sailing weather. We are approaching Cape Hatteras in absolutely beautiful conditions. When we make this trip, turning left at Hatteras makes the transition from blue water passage-making to coastal sailing as we approach the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Although it feels like it makes the end of the trip, we still have 150 miles to go before we can drop anchor.
Right now our plans are to pull into Norfolk, anchor, sleep, and make our next move based on weather and whim.
The winds continue quite light, and our progress north is due at least as much to riding on the Gulf Stream as any push from the wind, but it is satisfying and delightful. Except for one short time near a rain shower I don’t think we have yet seen over 10 knots this trip. But coasting along at three or four knots has its pleasures, and is a lot more enjoyable than listening to the drone of the engine. We have no place we have to be for a month, there is no bad weather chasing us, and we are tired of crowds in a marina. Given all that, spending time out of sight of land seems the best place to be!
Yesterday we did stop off South Carolina to do some deep-bottom fishing. Fishing on the bottom in 750 feet of water is a bit new to me, and just to get a feel for the drift and the amount of weight that would be needed I dropped a heavy jig to the bottom, and in 30 seconds was on a fish. Now that is a very long way up…. Very long. I never did find out what I hooked because half way up it was stolen off my line by a large shark.
We rigged up our newest fishing outfit, an electric fishing reel, designed for bringing things up from these depths, and in very short order had our limit of Golden Tilefish one of which we had to rush out of the water at boat side to avoid losing him to another shark.
We stopped in one spot today and tried to repeat out success, but it was not to be. We are off Cape Fear, North Carolina right now, and will likely be anchored in Norfolk in two or three days, depending on weather and fishing opportunities.
fetchinketch 