Pointing the bow high into the wind or do you want to race me?

All of us Nauticat owners find out very quickly, that our yachts are no racing sleds. They are darn comfortable cruising yachts but racing? Well, not so fast. Part of the problem is that we cannot point very high and that puts us at a definite disadvantage, while cruising or racing. Part of the problem has got to do with the forestay. If it is not drum tight, your pointing capabilities are even less. The so-so manual solution is to turn the backstay turnbuckles a few times. While this does improve things somewhat, you now must remember to turn them back, too. Plus, turning the turnbuckles is an unscientific way of accomplishing this important task. So, what to do?

During the past couple of years, I have read about hydraulic backstay adjusters being used on those, well, racing sleds. It all sounded very good and made a lot of sense. Then I forgot about this again until the next time, I saw this referenced in the sailing mags. Several weeks ago, I was talking to my rigger and asked him about hydraulic backstay adjusters. This turned into a lively conversation. No wonder. He stood to make some good money on such a deal... :-) ... But, what the heck, we must support the economy and so I agreed to his deal. Bremer Speck has split backstays. They are now equipped with hydraulic adjusters and, wow, what a difference. Pump, baby, pump! I keep them pressurized at about 1000 lbs and can safely go up to 3000 lbs and how easy it is to do. No sweat at all. You wanna race me?

Welcome Aboard! Is what you say to your visitors!

The emphasis here is on "most", especially, those who come to visit with a "six-pack" in their hands... :-)

But, there are other kinds of visitors, which come and stop by. Most of the times, it is just a quick visit, like, when dolphins come to play in your bow wake for a few minutes, which is always great fun to watch. At other times, the visit may last a little bit longer. Especially, when birds do visit. When you are at sea and a bird lands on your yacht, it does usually mean that the bird is exhausted and looking to rest. They may stay for an hour, a day and sometimes even longer. The smart bird heads right down below, where it is cozy and warm and bread crumbs can be found or will be offered. Plenty of stories about such visits can be found on the net. The guy (or gal?) shown in the photo came to rest for just a little bit and then flew off again. He was not much of a talker, either.

How to get a close-up look when the object is 12 meters above the deck!

I have been up and down my main and mizzen masts many times over the years and even though, I am usually very afraid of heights, on the boat, height does not bother me. So going up the mast is a routine. However, sometimes, you remember that you forgot something, just as soon as you come back down and stand on the deck. Now you have 2 options. No.1 is to go back-up, No.2 is..... Well, that is when a digital camera comes in very handy, indeed! I needed to confirm hole locations at the masthead to use for mounting an ACTIVE-X RTE antenna. A couple of snapshots later, using my 10X optical zoom, I now know what to do!

My Hand Still Hurts....

From having had to hand-pump a zillion gallons of motor oil a few weeks ago, when the oil cooler blew and the motor nearly filled-up completely with sea water. See a previous post for a look at the sludge which got pumped out. An additional 5 gallons or so of fresh motor oil was later put through the motor, to help flushing out all of the remaining sludge. The hand-pumping went on for several hours over 2 days. Not again. I sure hope I will never again face such a dilemma. To assist with future oil changes, I have now installed an electric, 12 volts "Reverso" pump, as a back-up to the hand-pump. A valve allows easy switching between the two.

THE Skipper

I have been mentioning Skipper 150 so many times that I thought I should show you a photo of the real Skipper. It is an old and somewhat grainy photo and shows some crooked teeth, but, hey, I cannot deny it, it is me.

Being Green Is Not Easy! Or, My Favorite Yacht!

No further comment required! Or?

Saaiilllling, Part II

Another photo which was taken at the start line in Marion a couple of weeks ago.

Saaaaiiiliing, we are saiiillliing!

Well, I call this my sailing blog, so I should say something about sailing. The best way I know of doing this is by posting a photo. They say a thousand words and it saves me from having to think of something more to say... :-) - I do particularly like this photo! Click on it for a much larger view!

Internet At Sea

Today, I am on the boat and am playing with my newest toy, the "Skipper 150" Inmarsat FleetBroadband Internet terminal. As you can see in the photos, I am downloading iTunes from the Apple web site and have the Panbo web site open on my mini notebook. At the same time, I have been on the phone, calling my mother in Germany, who shared with me all the news of the neighborhood during that 20 minutes phone conversation. The Skipper amazes me. I have had satellite phones on board Bremer Speck for probably 6-7 years. The kind most other cruisers have, i.e. Iridium and Globalstar. I still have the latter mounted on the wall inside the pilothouse and glancing at it right now, this is one of the rare moments, when it has been able to connect to the satellites. Of course, I could never have done with either sat phone, what I am doing right now. I am typing away on my notebook, connected to my on-board WiFi network, editing this blog post live on Blogger, uploading 3 photos of about 4MB in total, while the download on the primary PC has pulled down 60MB of about 74MB during the past 40 minutes. Me thinks.. The "Skipper 150" is a winner!

A Hydrovane wind vane called Emma!

In a previous post I mentioned "Emma", our "Hydrovane" wind vane.

A wind vane is also referred to as a self-steering and or emergency steering system. The Hydrovane employs an auxiliary rudder to perform its duties and does it extremely well. Just a couple of weeks ago, on our way to Bermuda, we got caught in a Nor'easter for almost 3 days with sustained winds of 60 knots and very confused seas! A normal autopilot would almost certainly have blown its pump trying to cope.

Not the Hydrovane! Emma steered our yacht through it all, while the crew of Bremer Speck sat "high and dry" inside the pilothouse, protected from the elements. I have owned this Hydrovane for almost 7 years now and am extremely happy and satisfied! It is not cheap but worth every penny! I would not want to be without it and I use it every chance I get. A wind vane uses..., guess what?..., ...the wind!... to steer the vessel. Thus, unlike the typical autopilot which you hear grinding below deck, a wind vane is totally quiet. No noise whatsoever! All you hear is the water rushing past the hull. Peaceful an quiet.

July 4 Holiday Weekend and "thank you" Emma!

We spent a week in Newburyport. $1200 in mechanic's and marina fees later, we are sailing again! Woo Hoo! The new oil cooler seems to be doing its job and the Ford Lehman appears to have survived and is running strong. I will have it checked again, anyway. I learned a lesson and have paid dearly for it. We are sailing along the coast as I look out the pilothouse window and am typing this post. The wind is blowing strong at times, then it dies down, to pipe right-up again. Our speed is between 4.5 and 6 knots. Not bad at all. Emma has been steering the boat, ever since Bremer Speck left Newburyport. She is doing an excellent job! I named my Hydrovane wind vane after my late mother-in-law, Emma Orlemann. She sailed with us only once, at age 80, and took to the wheel, immediately.

Would you like some sugar with your Mocha Java? Or, A Bucket Full of Sludge!

After having gotten a 50 miles tow, courtesy of BoatUS, Bremer Speck is tied-up in the Windward Yacht Yard Marina in Newburyport, where we have been staying since this past Saturday. The mechanic visited the boat on Monday to take a look at our problem. And what a problem this turned out to be. The motor was almost completely flooded by water! Well, a mix of some oil and water, which created a grayish kind of sludge, as shown in the photo. Approximately 5-6 gallons of this stuff was pumped from the motor! 2 new oil coolers later, replacing the broken one on the engine, which caused this problem to begin with and the equally old but working cooler on the transmission, the oil leak has been fixed. Now, only water is pumped out through the exhaust, which will make Neptune and the fish very happy! However, With the motor having been full of this stuff, it took another 6-8 gallons of motor oil to flush the remaining sludge out of the motor. This job took several hours. Add 4-5 quarts of oil, check the dipstick, start the motor, let it run for 2-3 minutes. Then use the hand pump to pump the oil from the oil pan. Repeat this process many times.
While I am pretty good working with electronics and most electrical work, I am mechanically challenged by having 2 left hands. So I am amazed that the motor is still running after this ordeal and near-disaster. The 20 years old Ford Lehman diesel sounds good and the oil pressure appears to be back to normal. The proof will be found, when we return Bremer Speck to her slip in Maine, which will very likely include a couple of hours of motoring. Keep your fingers crossed!

Our motor problem may possibly be easier to fix than first thought!

I had posted a request for help on the Nauticat owners bulletin board and several people responded with their suggestions. One did specifically address the oil coolers, of which there are two. One is for the engine, the other for the transmission. I also spoke to people at American Diesel, staffed with experts who do know the Ford Lehman diesel engine inside and out. They agreed that my symptoms point towards the cooler. I had my credit card handy. :-) ... and ordered replacements. I think the total parts bill comes to about $500.00, plus mechanic time for installation, plus marina transient slip fees. The marina mechanic agreed to install the oil coolers prior to the July 4 holiday weekend. WOO HOO! Perhaps, I can go sailing next weekend and possibly, sail South towards Boston for the July 4 fireworks. Stay tuned.

2009 Marion Bermuda Race Aftermath

Well, no fireworks reception for s/v Bremer Speck. As mentioned a couple of times already, we were forced to resign from this race due to extreme weather conditions in the form of a Nor'easter. Well, there is always the next time. So we are talking already about 2011 ... :-) ...!
From all accounts, the 2009 race was not much fun. There were a total of 46 yachts registered for this race.
19 yachts resigned from the race for the same or similar reasons as Bremer Speck.
19 yachts, that is the equivalent of 41% or close to half of all the yachts entered into the race! This must be the worst year ever.
The yachts who made it to Bermuda were greeted by bad weather as well. Unlike, the usually very sunny and warm Bermuda weather, they were greeted by rain squalls and cool temperatures.
The front runner, "Big Bear", who lead the race from the start, blew-out its headsail some 10-15 miles from Bermuda and was forced to motor the rest of the way! Instant disqualification! What a shame! I am sure, her crew worked very hard to maintain that first place position and then this happens. So close and yet, so far.
Looks like our 2 days stay on Block Island (referred to as the Bermuda of the Northeast) was a good idea because it was sunny and warm and we were able to relax for a while.
Now, I have to go and meet the mechanic to figure out what is wrong with our engine.
Keep your fingers' crossed for me!
Cheers,
Ronald Hiemann
Skipper s/v "Bremer Speck"
1989 Nauticat 40
www.bremerspeck.com

About the "Skipper 150" Inmarsat FleetBroadband Terminal

I have made repeated references to the "Skipper 150" in my posts and have been asked to elaborate on what exactly it is and does do for us on s/v "Bremer Speck". The Skipper 150 is an Inmarsat FleetBroadband terminal, which provides worldwide voice, SMS and Internet data connectivity at speeds of up to 150 kbps. While we were underway, we have had several Internet web sites open on an overhead monitor. We surfed the web for news etc. and researched a few things. At the same time, we also made phone calls. Domestic and International. All this while we had up to 3 PC running on a WiFi network. While having cable modem service at home is a lot faster than what I have here on Bremer Speck, the data speed throughput via the Skipper 150 terminal is surprisingly blazing fast, when compared to other solutions such as an Iridium or Globalstar satellite phone. I have attached 3 photos, showing the Skipper 150 antenna pod, which is mounted on an arch over the transom, as well as a product photo showing the brains, the "black-box", together with a corded handset. The black-box has another phone plug to connect a wireless telephone handset. I have a beta test unit on board, courtesy of Inmarsat and Addvalue Communications Pte Ltd, Singapore, the manufacturer. The Skipper 150 is going into production very soon and will be available sometime in mid July. Contact me if you would like to know more.

Safely tied-up in Newburyport

After a 48 miles tow from nearby Boston to Newburyport, we are now tied-up safely in a slip in Newburyport. Tomorrow morning, I shall talk to the mechanic about checking out the engine, to determine the reason for the tremendous oil loss. A post on the Nauticat bulletin board brought several responses. One very detailed response is pointing towards the oil cooler. The response indicates that we were basically pumping out all the oil together with the engine cooling water. The oil never quite made it inside the engine. I hope this is the correct diagnosis because it would be a relatively inexpensive repair. The weather here is miserable. It is Sunday afternoon, overcast and cool.

What is this? Or what else can go wrong?

Have we not had enough, already? What do you think is shown in the photo? If your first guess is "this is a broken off bolt", then you guessed right! But, what did this bolt belong to? You can guess as much as you want. I would bet you $10 that you will not figure it out. So I will make it easy on everybody. THIS bolt was what held the head pump handle in place! You know, the one that pumps water in and everything else out! Now we have lost the toilet, too! I hope everyone is capable of sweating it out because there are few alternatives. During the early sailing days, the head on many ships was outside. Right on the bowsprit. No toilet paper required ... :-)
Google this and you will find this is true. Anyway, BoatUS is towing us now to Newburyport, where Bremer Speck will be hauled out next week. Then the fun begins. I better start printing some money now. I will need it.

Saturday Morning Sail Near Boston

I awoke at 0500 hours to blue skies and a light breeze and am sailing along the coast at about 2.1 knots. A nice and peaceful morning. It is now 0800 and I am watching one of these huge LNG tanker crossing our bow a mile or so ahead of us.
It will remain peacefully quiet because... our motor is more or less kaputt and sailing is all we can do! We had already noticed some excessive oil useage and that is why I had bought 5 gallons worth in Block Island. We have used about 4 of those 5 gallons since we have left BI 20 hours ago... !!! Scary, to say the least.
Early this morning, the engine pressure dropped again rapidly and I shut-down the engine. When I removed the oil filler cap, I noticed some brown, foamy sludge attached to the underside of the cap. Werner believes that the motor may have water in it. Not good, not good at all. This is probably also a result of the bashing we took during the storm. Unbeknown to me, because I was asleep at the time, Gabi told me of 2 near knock-downs, where the port or starboard rails where briefly below the waterline. I think it was breaking waves hitting the side of the boat because a knock-down would have been noticed by everyone, no doubt.
Rather than wasting another gallon of motor oil, which would probably not provide enough pressure for more than 1 hour, if that, I decided to take advantage of my 25 years of membership in BoatUS. I have called them 1 hour ago and they have arranged for a towboat out of Newburyport, which will tow us into port.
I will have to check what services are available. I know Windward Yacht Yard and believe they do engine repairs. It will be interesting to find out, if anybody answers the phone on this bright and sunny Saturday morning.
Well, I am afraid, that I will support the economy in a big way and very soon!
Stay tuned.

Block Island Retreat

After having hove-to for 2 nights and sailing under bare poles in between to cope with heavy, confused seas, we did eventually make it to Block Island. We went into the Old Harbor and tied-up in front of the Harbor Master's office. The sun came out, it was warm and life was good. Time to relax, dry and air out the boat and ... order 5 gallons of motor oil, to be delivered by ferry from the mainland, because the oil pressure alarm had sounded off a few times to alert us to low oil pressure. We found out that the engine was quickly losing oil. We do not know why. We added 2 of the 5 gallons and the pressure has returned to normal. I am watching, though. Our 2 days on Block Island were very relaxing. We ate out and stuffed ourselves with great seafood. I even managed to go to get a haircut... :-) ... We are motoring towards Marion \ Cape Cod Canal now, as I am typing this post. Not wanting to sound commercial, but the Internet connection via the "Skipper 150" is really great. I love it. Anyway, on leaving Block Island, as soon as we dropped the lines and begun to motor out of the harbor, the huge Cat Ferry blasted its horns and started to follow in our wake. What a sight! It almost felt like she was going to go right over us. The tunnel between the 2 hulls looked big enough. Well, no worries, as soon as there was enough room to pass, her captain "put the pedal to the metal", she rose out of the water and roared right past us, about 50 feet away. You can imagine the wake she left behind her. Very impressive, though. The captain even waved at us as he went by. Or, perhaps, he used his hand to give us a signal. :-) It was hard to see. I am sitting in the pilothouse typing away, watching our course on the big screen PC navigation system and the smaller chart plotter. Gabi and Werner are up on deck, steering and watching as the fog is creeping in and taking our visibility away.

Doggy Style, or, where's my chow?

Nobody seems to have noticed or was scared to ask. That is, to ask about the dog bowls shown prominently in one photo. Human beings eating out of dog bowls.
Yuk. Eek. Well, there is a very good reason for that. I learned this from an experienced delivery skipper, who introduced me to this practice several years ago. The reason is, that a dog bowl is a deep bowl. Thus, keeping your dinner from sloshing over and off the plate. You can grab the bowl and eat out of it quite easily, while holding it with one hand. Whatever food is on the menu, the dog bowl can handle it. During an offshore passage, when the seas can get rough, it is the ideal dinner plate. Woof, woof!

Conversation with the Helmsman, a v ideo clip upload via the "Skipper 150" Inmarsat terminal

I am attempting now to upload an 11.1 MB 720p high resolution video clip, a short 3-4 sentence exchange with my Helsman Werner Hofer. This is a big file. No concerns if you are on land and have cable modem service etc. but quite another, when you are out at sea, where such services have been very limited, or very costly (upwards of $15,000) until now. This is sort of a test to find out how long the upload will take via the "Skipper 150" Inmarsat FleetBroadband terminal, which I am beta testing. If you will be reading this post, then the video clip upload was a success. It looks like the upload went well. Between uploading and processing, it took 18 minutes.

Humbled by the seas!

After several nights of being bashed around by the Nor'Easter and having gotten very little sleep, finally, this morning, I awoke to sunny skies and flat seas. When you are in a storm, you find all the small leaks on a boat. Bremer Speck is a very solidly built Nauticat. But even the best boat has hidden leaks and we found some. There is some work ahead of me.
We endured a Nor'Easter for what felt like a verry long time. Unlike the other boats in the race, we were late exiting the bay and when we did, we were greeted by silence. No wind. We went in circles for about 12 hours. When we finally got going again, we were on the receiving end of the low and experienced the same to its fullest extent. Woo Hoo. Not.
We also experienced a couple of equipment related failures. With the exception of having to wrestle with the staysail in the storm on the foredeck, everything else was\is just an inconvenience.
At this time, we are motoring to Block Island with about 40 miles to go.

Cooking a meal at sea!

Cooking a meal at sea can be an adventure! The boat is moving all the time and you have to time your moves to assure the coffee goes into the cup and not on the floor. Cooking on a gimballed stove can be fun, too! The stoves stays level at all times but can swing wildly and that may be away fromn you, just when you tried to lift the pot off the stove. For that and many more reasons, it is very important to use a "butt belt" as shown in the photo. This device helps you staying in place. It does not guarantee that everything stays put. You still must be very careful when you work in the galley! A gimballed stove is great because it stays level but it does not save you from the coffee pot jumping out at you when the boat lurches sideways. This happened to me, yesterday, when I brewed some morning coffee. Luckily,I caught the pot and was able to keep it from shattering on the floor. My T-shirt got soaked with coffee, however, and it is now a working tee, when appearances do not matter.

Experiencing a Nor'Easter at sea!

Some people have gotten worried about us since they had not heard from us in about 48hours. One of our friends even called the Coast Guard to report us as potentially being in trouble. I found out when the sat phone (our brand new "Skipper 150" Inmarsat FleetBroadband terminal)rang earlier today. When I asked who is calling, the answer was "Your friends, the U.S. Coast Guard!) I was asked to confirm that everything was ok and that we were not in need of assistance. I happily confirmed this. Not that this is a joy ride. Being at the center of a Nor'Easter with gusting winds up to 60 knots is no fun. Especially not, when I had to crawl forward on the foredeck during the night to take down the staysail, which had blown out a block and was no longer controllable. I was doused by a couple of waves. At least, the water was warm. I wrestled down the staysail and lashed it to the rail. Well, if you have followed our progress on iboattrack.com you know, that we are no longer in the race. As skipper I had to make a decision. Continue on to Bermuda and get clobbered by the Gulf stream or make a hard decision. The prudent decision was to turn around to savely return the crew home and to keep the boat from being battered by the sea. I am not happy about the decision because all of us worked hard to get ready for this trip. But, as the saying goes, better be safe than sorry. There is always a next time. Incidentally, the Coast Guard agreed with my assessment. Things have improved a tiny little it. Given the very confused state of the seas, we are motoring very, very slowly back towards Marion. Our speed is less than 1 knot SOG.
By comparison, the "Skipper 150" speed is blazingly fast. It feels like the average WiFi connection. We have a big 19 inch overhead screen showing iboattrack right now (in addition to the Raymarine chartplotter, we also use the PC and this monitor for navigation with Coast Explorer software). I am typing this entry on my notebook, connected via WiFi. More to follow.

We did finally escape from Buzzards Bay

After having sat idle with no winds for a good 10 hours, we are finally underway again with a course towards Bermuda. The fog cleared out mid morning and we did have sunny skies until the wind arrived... and new fog. But we are moving now, ever so slowly, which is better than doing donuts all night. We were literally drifting in circles all night. No fun. Especially not in thick fog.
While crossing the traffic separation lanes last night, we heard from a container barge, which was closing on us fast. We got out of the traffic lane real fast.
Meantime, my Hydrovane wind vane is working perfectly. Love it. Highly recommended.
Judge by what I have seen on iboattrack.com early this morning, the entire fleet has been dealing with no wind. While we were the last boat to exit the bay, I found all of the others, shown fairly close-by. I have added a photo of the nightview from last night.

We have crossed the starting line!

Now we are trying to escape Buzzards Bay. Luckily, the rain has stopped. Now it is just overcast and the sun is nowhere to be seen. Jockeying at the start line was very intense. But now the entire fleet is under way and spread out over the bay.
More to follow soon.