LORD'S PRAYER LOG, Part 119:
Thursday, March 08, 2001
Anchored Kidd's Cove, Great Exuma Island, Bahamas
0800 I take on the task of rubbing down the interior teak with Scott's Liquid
Gold Wood Cleaner & Preservative. The wood inside Lord's Prayer is mostly
teak and there is a lot of it, at least it seems that way whenever I take
on this task. The teak is all hand rubbed with the Liquid Gold; as far as I know
there is no other finish that has ever been put on this teak. This is what the
previous owners used and it is what the manufacturer, Pacific Seacraft, told
them to use. It astonishes me every time I apply the Liquid Gold, how
marvelously it brings out the richness of the wood. It makes the interior of the
boat look brand new.
1430 I take a break and go ashore to get some supplies. I check at the marine
store to see if they have a check-valve for a pressure fresh water system. One
these valves on the boat has developed a leak. It probably broke in sub-freezing
weather, as I tried to get away without draining & winterizing the system.
Instead I kept heat in the boat, but the valve is in a location that would
not have felt the effects of the heat. The failing valve isn't a big problem, as
the leak is insignificant unless the system is pressurized; normally I
leave the pressure off and use the foot pump. As it turns out the store does not
have that item, anyway. I can wait until I have the boat home next month to make
this repair. I stop by the Exuma Market and pick up some fresh produce. Next I
refill the 1-gallon spare gas tank for the dinghy. The price of gas is
$3.14/gal.
1545 I return to the boat to resume rubbing the interior teak.
Friday, March 09, 2001
Anchored Kidd's Cove, Great Exuma Island, Bahamas
0745 I continue the task of rubbing down the interior teak. Since the wind is
light, I start the engine to charge the battery.
1025 The interior teak is done. I have practically used up the entire can of
Scott's Liquid Gold. This is the first time I have done the entire interior at
one time in the 40 months that I have owned the boat. It looks wonderful. An
occasional touch-up with the cloth, particularly around the companionway, will
hold it now for a good spell.
1045 I contact PinOak on the SSB to exchange email. This is not a great time of
day to make a transfer and I have to try a couple of different frequencies
before I am able to complete the file transfers. The SSB's 100w transmitter
cycles on & off during the process. This proves to be too much for the
engine alternator to keep up with, so I secure the engine; the batteries are
pretty well up now at about 87% of capacity, and further charging at this
point becomes inefficient anyway. Transmitting with the SSB does a lot of weird
things because of its enormous power. Besides incapacitating the boat's
autopilot, when the transmitter cycles on & off, it makes various lights on
the boat dim if they are on and it makes others wink even though there is no
power to them. We have put considerable time and expense into trying to suppress
this Radio Frequency Interference (RFI). At this point, I have pretty much
resigned myself to living with it. The RFI from the SSB also blots out the
weatherfax, so I try not to use the SSB when weather information is about to
come in.
1050 I turn the wind generators back on, as the wind is now SE 8-10G12. Before I do,
though, I note that the solar panels (4 panels rated at a total of 172 watts)
are putting out up to 8.3 amps as the boat swings on her anchor. This is the
best I have ever seen from the panels. Previously, when they were mounted on the pushpit
rail, 7.5 amps was the best I ever saw and that was with an additional 18-watt
panel, which I did not have room for when the panels were relocated. Clearly
getting them up on the stern arch, where they are less likely to be shaded by
the boat's equipment has made a noticeable difference.
1500 I re-route the control line for the Monitor windvane so that it is out of
the way of the port genoa winch and it is no longer a trip hazard. This way I
can leave the control line in place when the wind vane is not being used. I
also install snap hooks on the windvane's steering lines (that go to the
steering wheel) so that I can connect or disconnect them quickly. With each tiny
little change like this life aboard Lord's Prayer gets better and better.
Sometimes it takes me quite a while to figure out a solution to some minor
little thing that seems a bit clumsy to me; the satisfaction is really sweet,
though, when I finally come up with a suitable modification.
1800 I finish reading Miles Smeeton's "Once is Enough". This is a book
that was loaned to me by Peg & Bill Kirk; they said it was something I
should read and they so right! It is a true story about Miles Smeeton and his
wife Beryl setting out in the 1950's to sail from Australia to the UK via the
old sailing ship route around Cape Horn. They had taken a crewman
with them, John Guzzwell, a single-hander they had met. Their boat Tzu Hang was
a 46' double-ended ketch. Somewhere in the Southern Ocean about 52 degrees
South Latitude and about 900 miles WNW of Cape Horn they encountered a nasty
storm with the sea surface turned white from spray. An extreme sea wave pitch
poled or somersaulted the boat. Beryl was steering. The wave was described as
follows: "Close behind her a great wall of water was towering above her, so
wide that she couldn't see its flanks, so high and so steep that she knew Tzu
Hang could not ride over it. It didn't seem to be breaking as the other waves
had broken, but water was cascading down its front, like a water
fall." After the crash, Tzu Hang was left with both masts smashed, the
doghouse and skylights ripped from the deck of the boat, leaving gaping holes in the
deck, and the rudder was gone. Water was waist deep in the cabin. Beryl had been
thrown clear of the boat (her tether snapped) but swam back to it. In spite of
some injuries, the crew of the Tzu Hang was able seal off the gaping holes in
the deck and to bail the water out with buckets. John, who was an exceptionally
skilled carpenter, had his tool kit onboard. Together they were able to
fabricate a couple of small masts and a steering oar for a rudder. Using spare
sails they sailed the boat Chile, where it was under repair at Chile's navy yard
for nearly a year. John left the crew before the yard work was finished.
Together Miles & Beryl set out once again to go around Cape Horn. The day
after Christmas they were in another storm somewhere below 45 degrees south
latitude with the water turned white once again from blowing spray. They had
taken down all sail and were lying-a-hull with the helm lashed to leeward, when
a breaking wave rolled the boat completely over, once again smashing the masts
and half filling the boat with water. Again the Smeetons sealed and bailed their
boat, fabricated a jury rig and sailed her back to Chile. This time, though,
they had their boat loaded aboard the deck of a ship that was bound for the UK.
Together with Tzu Hang they arrived in the UK. Tzu Hang was repaired there. In
his concluding remarks, Miles states, "As a result of all, I think
this: there are gales and seas which a good ship, a yacht, will come through
whether she lies a-hull, heaves to, or runs before; and there are gales and
seas, particularly in the higher latitudes, which a ship may sometimes meet
with, which she will be lucky to survive whatever she does. Man does his
best, but in the end something else intervenes. It may be the Pilot of the Pinta,
who sometimes, for no accountable reason, brings ships home, and sometimes for
no accountable reason, lets them go."
Saturday, March 10, 2001
Anchored Kidd's Cove, Great Exuma Island, Bahamas
0430 The rain comes down heavy at times. As I lie in my bunk I think dreamily of the
salt being washed off the boat's exterior surfaces.
0617 Sunrise.
0730 The rain has stopped. The wind is calm.
0800 The Cruisers Net on VHF 68 kicks off 10 minutes earlier than usual. This
week is the Cruising Regatta Week at George Town. There are races and lots of
activities planned for the week. According to the cruising guide, this event
presumably attracts as many as 500 boats. The chatter on the radio reflects some
of the organization effort that has gone into preparing for the event.
1245 I take the boat to the fuel pier, where I top the tanks with 7 gallons of
diesel fuel at $2.26/gallon and I buy 60 gallons of water at $0.10/gallon (about
35 gallons goes into the tanks). Engine time is 2,294.7 hours. The credit card
is no good here today, due evidently to the unreliable nature of the phone
system
..
1350 I put the boat back on the anchor.
1600 I touch up the boat's exterior teak trim with Cetol. The Cetol does not
hold up as well as varnish, but it is infinitely easier to keep it touched up
than varnish. There is a lot of exterior teak trim on Lord's Prayer, but it only
takes me about an hour to do the touch-up. This includes going over the side in
the dinghy to get the outside of the rail cap and the rub strake. It is a bit of
a challenge to do this, as there is a lot of boat traffic kicking up wakes that
rock the dinghy, making it difficult to do an adequate job. At some point in the
future I shall have to mask the edges of the teak and do a more
"professional" job. Perhaps that will be when the boat is out of the
water!
1810 Sunset.
Sunday, March 11, 2001
Anchored Kidd's Cove, Great Exuma Island, Bahamas
0500 The wind is absolutely calm.
0616 Sunrise.
0800 I put some petroleum jelly on the gaskets for the boat's ten portholes and
2 hatches to preserve the rubber seals; I also lubricate the moving parts of
these openings. I pump some more air into the dinghy and put some petroleum
jelly on the O-rings to hopefully prevent the air from escaping.
1100 I attend the St Andrews Anglican/Episcopal church service. Like last Sunday the
service is very moving.
1300 I attempt to make some phone calls to family but the phone system is down.
1730 After spending some time reading, I take a load of laundry ashore and toss
it into the machine. The phone system is still down. It does not look like
anyone fixes phones here over the weekend.
1810 Sunset.
Monday, March 12, 2001
Anchored Kidd's Cove, Great Exuma Island, Bahamas
0730 I take a morning swim to cool off.
0800 Over the morning cruisers net, Exuma Markets reports, "the phones are
working again - better than ever!"
1000 I whittle away at my to-do list, which includes lots of little minor
modifications and maintenance. Included in these tasks, I lubricate all the
snaps and zippers on the boat. The marine environment causes these items, if
left alone, to freeze up from salt & corrosion. If I neglect these tasks, I
will not be able to remove canvas tops in event of a windstorm and the snaps
will become so hard to work that some of them will rip out of the fabric when I
attempt to unsnap them. I trim the battens in the mainsail to get their aft ends
within the leach of the sail; this should prevent them from snagging the
lazy jacks and furling lines. I switch some of the hardware around on the genoa
track to get a better lead on my sheets. I squirt the wheel friction lock
on the steering pedestal with liquid wrench; I have been doing this two or three
times a day for the last several days in an attempt to free the knob so it will
turn easier. It became nearly frozen in place while the boat was out of service
in the late fall & early winter. If the liquid wrench does not work, I will
probably have to remove the compass to get at the internal mechanisms of
the friction lock. I hope to not have to do this because it is likely to also
mean having to recalibrate the compass. I also install the mount for the ship's
bell. This task has never even made it onto my to-do list, as it was of a very
low priority. I revise the chain-to-rope connection on my stern anchor so that
it will pass properly through the stern chock. We discovered, when testing
the speed-limiting drogue a few days ago, that the rode got hung up in the chock
and as a result was clumsy to deploy.
1530 I take another swim to cool off.
1630 I go ashore in the dinghy to pick up some groceries and meet my brother Bob &
his wife Dawn, who are arriving by plane.
1745 Bob & Dawn arrive at the Exuma Market and we load their bags into the
dinghy. The ride out to Lord's Prayer is wet, as the wind has kicked up the
water surface.
1830 Upon stowing gear aboard, we return ashore for dinner and a walk around
George Town.
2100 We return aboard.
END OF LORD'S PRAYER LOG, Part 119
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