fetchinketch

I got the “all clear” from the eye doc this morning, so tomorrow we will be headed off to Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island.  Not exactly a major sailing trip, only 24 to 30 hours.  Except for the possibility for scattered thunderstorms, the wind forecast looks great.  We should have an easy trip of it.

We have a mooring ball reserved in Dutch Harbor.  It will be nice to live life out side of a marina for a while!

We’ll have an early morning getting the last minute things ready and the boat good for an ocean trip.  An early bed time, and tomorrow we are sailing!

Our plans aren’t all that precise, because there really are not any big consequences to changing them.  We had hoped to be headed north to Narragansett Bay near Newport, Rhode Island in a few days.  Unfortunately, I (Bill) caught a nasty eye infection that left me looking like the star of a zombie apocalypse movie (and NOT one of the good guys!).

After a week of dosing with various forms of antibiotics, you can once again see the whites of my eyes.  Since the Doctor wants to see me one more time before I leave, our departure plan has been modified to Saturday the 13th.

We’ll spend as much time as we are comfortable with along the coast of New England, going to where ever we can find space and entertainment.  Our only goal after that is to be in the Chesapeake Bay in early October, and then in South Carolina in early November, then the Caribbean before it gets too cold!

Of course all that is subject to change at the whim of the weather, or just our own fickleness!

For those of you who have followed our travels, we have been a bit quiet with posts recently.  My (Bill) family is almost all located within an hour’s drive of the marina where we have settled in, so a lot of time has been devoted to family and friends who I haven’t seen in a long time.  That’s my excuse for my lack of posting!

The marina here is nice, with a few caveats.  When they quoted a 7’6″ depth they were a bit optimistic.  Our 6’7″ draft bumps bottom when ever the tide is less than zero, and the entrance has a significant shallow spot I have found several times.  The marina is also right on the edge of the main channel in and out of the Shewsbury River, a very busy boat highway.  Even though it is marked as a “No Wake Zone” the locals seem to regard that as little more than a suggestion.  As a result we roll and bounce to boat and ferry wakes especially on a nice weekend day. From our dock we have a view across New York Harbor to Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.

We have been out sailing a couple days since we got here, mostly to go fishing.  Slowly I am reacquiring the skill set need to catch the local aquatic culinary delight, the summer flounder, locally know as the “fluke”.

We have been making progress on a couple of boat projects. Yesterday was a bit of an unusual day.  I actually crossed more projects off the list than I added!  A cause for celebration.   We have a new dinghy, and I have worked out a safe, easy, and reliable system for going up the mast which was needed to repair our anemometer.

We are enjoying the weather here more than in Florida.  While there are days here when is it hot, those days are separated by days when the temperature stays below 85, and more importantly, at night it drops below 70!  The other night it went down to 62, a temperature lower than we have seen in many, many months.

Here is an example of our time use these days:  Tomorrow Karen is hopping on the ferry to Manhattan, and I am visiting my Dad and some of his friends. Saturday we are going to visit my brother in his new home, and Sunday we are sailing with some of my oldest and best friends.

We’ll be here for a couple of weeks before heading a bit further north.  We are expecting our first stop to be in Newport, RI.  Then further north as remaining summer time allows.

Sometimes you wonder how the government ever gets anything done…

DHS is the “Department of Homeland Security” a catch-all behemoth of an organization that includes Customs, Immigration, Border Patrol, Coast Guard, Airport Security, and who knows what all else.

This morning a Customs Service helicopter was on what I assume was a routine patrol of the harbor.  They called in a report that in our marina, and the larger one just up the coast,  there were “boats flying foreign flags.”

Two hours later, (They had to drive from Newark) a pair of armed officers show up to walk the dock and find the boat in question.  There were none.  But for a moment, they thought they had found their quarry!  A sailboat with a foreign name!  No flag flying, but you know those sneaky foreigners!  Oh, no…  wait a minute…  It’s from Laguna Beach.  (They had seen Harmonie.)

Other than the silliness of two agents spending most of their day on a wild goose chase for some unspecified foreign sailboat that was up to some unspecified no good, there is the total inefficiency of the operation.

How hard would it be for the helicopter spotter to reach out the window with his cell phone, take a photo, draw a little circle around the boat in question, and email it to the boots on the ground instead of sending them to look for an unspecified boat among hundreds in the marina?

Why don’t I feel so much safer?

In one of our underway posts I mentioned in passing the special downwind rig that Amel boats use.  By special request, here is a more detailed description of that rig. This might be a bit technical for non-sailor types. Also, I have no good photos (yet) of Harmonie sailing off downwind, so I had to find some on the internet to help with my explanations.

Like many things on Amel boats, the basic concept might not be unique, but the execution is uniquely well thought out.  An “old fashioned” rig for downwind sailing is twin jibs, poled out to either side.  This is the basic concept Amel has taken and refined.

Here is a photo of an Amel running with her downwind rig fully set:

The two sails combined are large, over 1400 square feet.  The second sail is called a “ballooner” and is made of lightweight nylon.

Most of the time when boats are sailing straight downwind they roll very uncomfortably.  When twin sails like this are trimmed properly (which means not too tight!) they dampen the roll completely.  We ease the sheets when using this rig out until the top 15% or so of the sail is right on the edge of luffing.  We can watch one sail’s head fill, and then the other constantly pushing back against the direction of roll as the boat sailed along totally flat even as the following sea rolled underneath her.  With just one sail on one side, the boat rolls dramatically as the top of the sail alternately fills and then luffs.

So far this is nothing you might not have seen written in a book about cruising sailboats  75 years ago.  Joshua Slocum used a variation of this rig sailing around the world in the 1890’s and he didn’t invent it.  Amel’s modern implementation of this old system make it very easy to use.

First, are the poles that hold the sail out.  Unlike standard whisker poles, each pole is two pieces, with an articulating joint at the shrouds. This means the outside length of the pole can pivot back and hook on the rail.  Like this:

Attached to the pole are four lines.  A topping lift, a fore guy, and aft guy, and a downhaul that are tied off at marks, no fancy adjustments required.  With the sheet fit into the block on the outboard end of the pole, the outhaul lifts, and the fore guy pulls forward, and it is ready to go.  The first time we did it it took us 5 minutes.  The second time, it took half that.  So, Amel Invention #1 is the easy-to-rig twin poles.

Amel Invention #2 is even cooler.  Carrying that much sail is great when the wind is light, but if it picks up you need to reduce it quickly.  Ordinarily, that would mean taking down the 2nd jib.  Captain Henri Amel had a better idea.

When you put up the ballooner, its halyard would normally prevent you from using the roller furling because it would get twisted around the top of the headstay and very bad things would ensue.  On an Amel, the halyard is used to raise the sail, which then is caught by a latch at the top of the roller foil. Then you take the halyard down. Now you can roll both sails together.  Like this:

The foil actually has three tracks on it.  One for the jib, one for the ballooner, and the third track is used when you want to take the ballooner down.  The halyard is used to send the “mouse” up the foil which opens the latch holding the sail.  Pull it down and stuff it into the sail locker up on the bow. Easy!

Here is a more detailed visual of what happens at the top of the mast:

This system allows a two person crew to fly a huge sail plan even in changeable weather, because they know that they can easily and quickly reef down if things get gnarly.

Many modern boats on passage will fly a spinnaker during the day that is taken down at dusk so they don’t have to deal with the takedown of a free flying sail in the dark if a squall comes up. On an Amel you leave your tradewind rig up all night, and if the weather turns bad a lone watchkeeper can easily furl both sails.  So at night on the Amel, you go flying past the “faster boat” because you’re sailing at full speed all night.

Some details of the poles:

This is the outboard end of the pole. The pin retracts so you can drop the sheet in, and the whole assembly rotates around the pole axis, and of course the sheave turns.

The articulating joint at the shrouds. Originally made by FranceSpar, that company has been out of business for many years. The fitting on the inboard end of the pole is a standard big boat spinnaker pole end. The socket that receives it is modified to fit the end of the jockey pole, and to be able to swing in and out, and pivot up and down.

This is a wider view of the holder that clamps on the shrouds that supports the outboard end of the jockey pole.

The inboard end of the jockey pole has a composite ball that fits in a socket welded to the mast. A pin drops through to secure everything.

This is a rig that most other sailors do not understand, and hence do not appreciate. On most other sailboats there is no combination of sails that allows you to sail straight downwind with any efficiency, safety and connivence. Yes, most sloops or ketches can run wing-on-wing, but that introduces the danger of a catastrophic accidental gybe that has to constantly be managed. On many boats, a wing-on-wing configuration also can cause the boat to roll intolerably under some wind and sea states. Proper sail trim on the ballooner rig as described above prevents this.

There is no question that a very large, free flying sail–under the right conditions–will get to a downwind destination faster than this rig; but that sail is a great deal more difficult to handle, and typically is confined to a narrow window of wind strengths. It can not be reefed, and is an all or nothing thing.

We arrived yesterday afternoon, safe and sound at the Sandy Hook Bay Marina.  I have updated the posting about catching the wahoo with photos, so if you’re interested, page back and have a look!

The marina is nice, so new that all the facilities aren’t completed yet.  We came in at close to low tide, when the current was ripping across the entrance of the marina.  We found the shallow spot just inside, but were able to back off and get positioned to get into the slip.  A strong cross-current had me making several passes before getting lined up well enough to get in.  Struggling with getting into the dock was entirely to be expected, since a number of my family members were on the dock to greet our arrival.

Back to boat projects!

Time: 10:10 local
Lat: 37 33N
Log: 73 03W
Distance from Port Canaveral: 667NM
Distance to Sandy Hook Bay Marina: 176NM

The models have us arriving at the Marina between 1 and 6 PM tomorrow.

Right now we are motoring between weather systems, bright sun, flat sea, and no wind. If the forecasts are right, once we get back in the breeze again, it will be a straight line sail to the tip of Sandy Hook at the southern enterence of New York Harbor. Oddly, here 50 miles offshore we have suddenly been invaded by a variety of flies and bugs. I’m guessing they were blown offshore during last night’s storms and are just happy to find a hard place to land.

We avoided the worst of the weather last night, but watched storms around us on radar and in the sky. A thunderstorm at sea is a dramatic visual event, and once you can tell on the radar it is not coming in your direction, it is even a pretty one.

Time: 16:10 local
Lat: 35 01N
Log: 74 40W
Distance from Port Canaveral: 501NM
Distance to Sandy Hook Bay Marina: 323NM

We are 40 miles east of Cape Hatteras. A very busy shipping lane with lots of vessels heading north and south along the coast. A complex and difficult place to navigate, and historically a dangerous one. The number of wrecks marked on the chart are beyond a casual count. Because of the geography here, the winds blow harder, and the currents are strong and variable, and easy place to get in trouble if you are not paying attention.

The southwest wind that had been pushing us smartly along has gotten a bit more forceful in its approach. Now blowing at 25 knots, we are moving at 7.5 knots with 5 to 8 foot seas following us.

Two issues last night. We tore a sail. Not a critical one, but one that helps us go downwind with speed and comfort. Getting it down in the wind and dark was quite the project, but we managed. The other is more of an annoyance than a major issue. Our anemometer for some reason stopped working. Now we just have to guess how hard the wind is blowing! No real chance to trouble shoot yet. Hopefully not something to complex to fix!

The weather forecast is for a dark and stormy night. Basically more of the same we have right now, except with the chance for thunderstorms. Should be nicer tomorrow a bit further north.

Time: 18:20 local
Lat: 32 55N
Log: 77 30W
Distance from Port Canaveral: 315NM
Distance to Sandy Hook Bay Marina: 479NM

No motoring today! Just awesome sailing weather. Clear, sunny, warm, but not terribly hot and 15 to 20 knots of wind pushing us downwind at 8 knots, and current adding to that. In the last three hours we covered 31 miles over the ground. Amel boats have a bit of a special sail setup that makes sailing downwind fast and comfortable. On many boats it is not a popular choice to sail straight down wind.

The wind and current has been a bit strong than the weather model forecast, so we are ahead of where we expected to be. It’s still a bit early to make an accurate guess, but the computer says we’ll be arriving at Sandy Hook early in the morning of the 26th.

Time: 17:20 local
Lat: 30 44 N
Log: 79 56.6W
Distance from Port Canaveral: 144NM
Distance to Sandy Hook Bay Marina: 648NM

The winds last night were light and variable, but enough to keep moving. We kept push on until about noon, when they dropped the less than 4 knots, so we fired up the diesel to keep moving. Now, we are in the full blast of the Gulf Stream, we are being pushed along by a current of between 3 and 3 1/2 knots. Our cruising speed under power is about 6.5 knots, so we are flying along at almost ten relative to the ground.

Much more sealife visible around the boat today. Several pods of dolphin, lots of flying fish. Karen even spotted a turtle. We took some time to set the fishing lines this afternoon.

Karen woke me from an afternoon nap (Hey, this Captain stuff is hard work!) to look at what she first thought was a whale, which turned out to be another group of dolphin. A few minutes later, the drag on one of the rods screeches the announcement that we have been bit! I throw the engine into neutral, and on my way to the stern, I see it is the “big” rod. The largest lure, trolled the deepest.

Karen clears the other lines out of the way, and all I can do is hold on while line peels off the reel, and the fish dives deep, violently shaking his head trying to throw off what he thought was going to be a tasty dinner.

Half way back to the surface, he dives again. Pulling 80lb strength wire rapidly off the reel. For a little bit he runs back toward me, and I think he has gotten off, but getting the line tight again, he’s still there.

A few more shorter runs, and I get him up to the side of the boat. It’s a big wahoo. Karen is ready with the gaff, and gets a perfect head shot. She hands the gaff to me. While I hold his head up, she dispatches the fish by squirting vodka in his gills. He’s heavy enough getting him up over the rail takes all I have.

We didn’t weigh him, but did bring up the tape measure. 5 feet 5 inches. Steaks and fillets now fill our freezer!

For those of you who may not know the wahoo, it is a long, streamlined member of the tuna family. One of the fastest swimming fish in the ocean, with a mouthful of razor sharp teeth. Their modus operandi is to lurk deeper in the water column, looking up for their prey.  They charge up from below, chop the unlucky target in half with those fearsome teeth, and come back for the pieces.

Now THAT’S a set of Choppers!!

Here is what we caught him on.  This lure was new and unmarked when it went in the water…

Battle scared!

In Hawaiian the are call “Ono”, which also means “delicious”, which they are!