My apologies for the out-of-sequence posting. I was totally blasted
from
the heat and sleep deprivation (why that was in later posts). The
last one
will make more sense after this:

Saturday, July 14. Happy Bastille Day!

Last night was a litany of electronic difficulties. The mobile
maritime net,
which, albeit with a relay, had worked so well before, this time was
nearly
unintelligible to the folks on the other side. While I could hear very
well,
I wasn't well heard. Tonight, I am unable to understand any of the
traffic -
so I'm back to not knowing whether I have a problem, or it's just the
nature
of the solar cycle or some other global difficulties.

Then, after we'd redone a wiring-problem installation of a depth
sounder and
speed log, upgrading to being able to independently switch on the
lights, we
found that the depth sounder wasn't reading the depth, and the speed
log
wasn't working, either. Fast forward to the next day and the impeller
(the
thing that gets pushed around by the water running by it) became
loose,
again, apparently, rotating and providing electronic input to the
display
unit and now we have a speed indicator that works. Another of our
instruments has the same difficulty, but I will pull it out (making a
small
amount of water in the boat) and free it up. We concluded that our
last week
in the marina slip,, with extremely high and low tides, as well as a
case of
the red tide (which killed a lot of small fish and made for a very
nasty
water environment), had gunked up our impellers so that they didn't
work I
have one other minor check point to do in order to see about the depth
sounder - new right before we left! - and hope that it's a simple fix.

We're on 8-hour doubles shifts, which is to say that each pair can get
an
entire 8 hours of rest. Before our expected changeover at midnight,
Erkki
and I elected to let our relief sleep an extra hour, in order to allow
them
more rest. After they arrived, and we had briefed them on what was
happening
with our course, speed, and location, I went to bed. I got a great
night's
sleep, but it wasn't so restful topsides.

Adding to our list of things to investigate or take care of is the
refrigeration. We believe that we are just stressing it immensely,
with all
the constant opening and closing, insertion of warm water and newly-
caught
fish, and the huge amount of heat added each time we trade out one
slightly
colder bottle of water for another, newly poured, 90 degree gallon.
However,
where we used to be able to easily maintain single-digit temperatures
in the
freezer, and 35 degrees in the refrigerator, we're struggling to get
to 20
in the freezer, and are over 50 in the reefer. Back to last night.

There were miscellaneous squalls to be avoided, but, primarily, there
were
issues with each and every one of the instruments in our helm area.
The
speed and depth logs mentioned earlier were already known inoperative,
but
at various times overnight the chartplotter failed, the GPS integrated
to
the chartplotter lost its fix (repeatedly), the other helm-mounted GPS
either wouldn't light, wouldn't acquire the satellites, or wouldn't
even
come on. The speed indicator lost its light (apparently - it's
connected
with the autopilot, which controls the light level), entirely. The
fish
finder, which integrates speed, depth and temperature, is so old that
the
display is difficult to read. Adding insult to injury, the speed
portion is
the other impeller mentioned, which I will have to pull out (opening a
hole
in the boat) in order to free up. Disappointingly, it's also the trip
log,
so our distance traveled will have to be recorded based on the
distances
between waypoints.

And, finally, the lashing securing the boom to the point of the
staysail
where it attaches to the sheet (which controls how tightly it's
pulled)
opened, creating momentary flogging and banging. The killer was,
however,
that it required heading into the wind, in order to take the strain
off the
sail, to repair it. While that job was pretty straightforward and
simple,
the autopilot chose that occasion to hiccup, and the speed, autopilot,
chartplotter and GPS (both of them - the one below which controls the
autopilot, and the one at the helm) all took dumps at the same time.
The end
result was lots of hand-driving to keep the boat pointed correctly
while
repairing the sail, and, in the end, a lack of knowledge of where the
boat
was, and how to get to where we were going, other than by compass.

While driving by compass is ok if you are confident of where you are
and
where you're going, if you know neither, and are in the area of very
shallow
water, as the end of that particular leg of the trip was, it gets a
bit
nerve wracking. In the end, the instruments were persuaded to return
to
duty, and the sailing resumed.

That's the good news - the wind had finally picked up enough to sail,
without having to run the engine. All through the night, Flying Pig
proceeded at a stately pace, timed to get us to our earlier-defined
fishing
hole. Well, as might be expected under the circumstances, with all
that fish
aboard, Phillip - the fisherman aboard - elected to pass on that
exercise
and proceed directly into Key West's Northwest Channel.

Our trip through Key West was uneventful, if also boring (if you
disregard
all the potentials for going aground!), and we set sail on a very
close
reach in order to get to the Gulf Stream once in the channel. Well,
wouldn't
you know, despite being able to tack from our exit directly into our
track
for finding the Gulf Stream, the wind was again light, and,
eventually,
died. Again, we struck the genoa (the big jib on a roller), and
started the
engine.

The engine and all the related stuff has worked flawlessly - except
for, you
guessed it, an instrument. The temperature gauge is flaky at best. It
was an
electronic instrument I got, new in the box, at the first Seven Seas
Cruising Association convention I attended, in the Saturday morning
flea
market. It's worked exactly as I'd hoped in its first few trials, but,
on
this trip, it's totally unreliable. Fortunately, I have an electronic,
infrared, thermostat, and checking the engine temperatures at several
locations along the way have assured me that all is well - even though
I'd
much rather receive real-time info about our coolant temperatures!

Lest you think this last day has been all bad news, last evening,
before
being relieved by the others, Erkki and I were joined, as we
frequently are,
by the off-watch crew (you can't sleep all the time, and nobody's
seemed to
want to read all that much, either!) for conversation and dinner.
Right
after dinner, we noticed a dolphin (well, a porpoise; dolphins are
what we
hope to catch for dinner) jumping beside the boat. We figured he
wanted to
play, and sure enough, he came alongside, did rolls and swoops, and
then
raced ahead of the boat for about a minute before diving deeply. In
between,
I managed to get a few good shots of him, including some of the ones
where
he was looking back up at us, to see if we were watching him!

Our crew arrangements are working out marvelously. Erkki and Phillip
are
great company as well as competent watch standers. As I write this, it
appears we'll make Ft. Lauderdale by mid-day tomorrow. Our entry to
the Gulf
Stream was gentle and gradual. We could see the different color of the
water, but the expected temperature differential never materialized -
perhaps, because it's July, and the water all around is also very
warm.
Initially we got some help with the usual slide that a sailboat does
as it's
being pushed sideways by the sails. However, once we were on our
course at
the edge of the Gulf Stream, we got about a knot of lift to begin
with. Now
that we're fully in the stream, however, we're seeing a 3.5 knot
(nautical
miles per hour) improvement in our speed. We'll stop in Ft. Lauderdale
for
more charts, fuel, water, perhaps deal with some of the equipment
challenges
we've found, and then head back out. If we can get a better wind, our
trip
north should be a great deal faster!

Stay tuned...

L8R


Skip

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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(and)
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You seek problems because you need their gifts."
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