The great treasure
In the end, doesn't matter who you were, what did you accomplish, or what did you have, but the friends, the real ones, that you made on the way.
In the end, doesn't matter who you were, what did you accomplish, or what did you have, but the friends, the real ones, that you made on the way.
A really cool video of a Russian flag ship during Antarctic operations. It's true that I never been in Antarctica, but I've spent a lot of time at sea in oceanographic cruises, and was still impressed by this video.
Another non stopping day, and as usual, few items cut on the list.
I installed the backup bilge pump some time ago. I built a tiny table with pieces of a cutting board and some epoxy. The hose and thru hull were ready, it was missing only the electrical part. Yesterday Ricardo brought to me the bilge control panel, and a new DC control panel. All installed today. Now I have a small bilge pump in the bottom, and another independent one, 4 times stronger, around a foot higher, and so always dry. The new DC panel has together a circuit breaker to protect everything, on the top of the individual fuse or break of each utility. I like the idea of one touch cut the whole electrical system of the boat. Not quite true, since I have the starting engine and the charging system behind it, but there is a reason to be like that.
Damn it. Now I need a tiny storm jib. I do have a reinforced jib 4 for the furling and a strong staysail, but now I learn that I need a tiny storm jib with less than 65 sq ft. I thought I was almost going.
I can't win the continuous growing to do list. I need to go!
Every day I realize more that people have no clue about what I'm doing. I guess some of them think that I'm here day after day, having a beer and playing around. Well, on that line, they might think that my trip will be lay back on the sun drinking mimosas and eating sashimi of fresh caught. Common questions are, in a more polite way - So your boat was a piece o shit before? Well, since it's taking so long to fix it! You should had bought a better one! Did you buy it for 25 cents?
Mmm, I think just don't work go in details, but if you have the same questions, in a short answer, Harmony was the best boat that I saw. She has special features very important for what I'm proposing to do. She is not fancy, but build from people that had tradition sailing, South Africans. Boat with the same age build in US are, in general, pretty bad. Of course things changed since that, and if you have cash enough you can find the good stuff. But for my budget, she is the best. She is strong, stable and seaworth. She was ready to sail on the bay when I bought it, but I'm proposing a 3000 miles trip, with most of if upwind. That's not any boat that could do that. I would guess no way more than 1% of the sailboats on Key Biscayne Bay could make this trip right now, and maybe 30%, could survive to this trip after being prepared. Most of the boats around, specially with people living aboard, barely can leave the dock.
Endurance is the word of the day. That's what I've been thinking about. I know that I'm a stubborn mule, or at least that's what was told to me, but how much endurance do I have?
Today i finished to reinstall the middle hatch. Was an OK job. Once I finally reach the very last one, I already did the V-birth hatch (twice) and all the 6 windows, I'm getting good on that. I wish I had used a little bit more material, but will probably work fine. The boat should hold dry now on. The best part is that I can put the teak back and organize the boat again. Was starting to look good. A lot of rain outside, right now.
Tuesday the storm jib went up for the first time. I'm almost done with the staysail. I need a pair of bushes made of delrin and some 101 or boatlife. On the aft part I still need to do all the runners, and I need to get some good thimbles to be able to finish that. The pad eyes are in place, with nice backing plates of high density fiber. Was a nice job, and thanks to Bill for the help. I'll use 1/4 inch spectra for the runners. Great line, but too expensive. Actually, expensive was the staysail halyard, what a bad decision on my side. Better don't even think about that.
I realize that I've been writing a little bit too technical. If you're not a sailor, here it goes. The mast holds only the compression against the deck, but it can't stay up by itself. Actually my boat has a step mast, what means that it finishes on the upper deck. Therefore, the only thing that holds it are the wires around it, called stays. The forward one is the forestay. The back is the backstay. Harmony has a basic cathedral rigging, what means that on the sides it has, on each side, one stay from the top of the mast, called uppers. The uppers are kept away from the mast with a fixed stick almost in the middle way, called spreader. On the spreader base, together with the mast, there are other two stays on each side, called lowers, therefore, the aft lowers and forward lowers. The forestay is probably the most sensitive one. If that goes down, you're a dead duck. One way to reinforce and back it up is to include a "second forestay", leaving the mast a little bit lower than the top and reaching the deck a little bit backward than the bow. This one is called staysail, which also allows to use a smaller jib (staysail) while flying the spinnaker, or give better stability for the storm jib when upwind. My first carbon fiber piece, that I wrote about other day, was the anchoring point up in the mast for the staysail and the runners. Took a long time to make all this system, but I'll use it a lot when I'm upwind on the last run form Trinidad to Brazil, during the storms, and when I'm sleeping, so I'm ready for the worst. My storm jib is strong, but maybe too big. It's more like a really strong staysail. I might need to get a real tiny storm jib before leave.
My first carbon fiber piece getting some tan on the heat lamp. That was a cold night.
Wake up on the V-birth with the hatch on the ceil, right there. The last time I saw this hatch was last night. Is interesting to take the habit to sleep looking the stars every night. I know, sounds cheese, but it is nice. Jump all the mess, that still needs to find a place to be stored or be fixed. Take the bike trough the neighborhood. Nice temperature, slightly chili. Pass by a cat, a fat dog taking his lazy owner for a walk around the block, a squirrel, a raccoon and some birds. Get some nice, not fabulous, but nice pastries on the market and back to the boat to prepare a expresso with freshly ground coffee. That's one of the luxuries that I keep aboard, the coffee grinder.
That's the life on the river.
Miami downtown view from the river, aboard S/V Harmony.
Slow day today, I'm not in the best mood now. I feel like I got a weak cold.
The boom was really in trouble. It was not falling apart, but I wouldn't guarantee that in a storm. After some thoughts with Skeet the plan is - Fiberglass inside to insulate the stainless steel gooseneck from the aluminum boom. That's what I concluded today, but I'm not in love with my job at all. Anyways, need to keep moving. Outside I'll use carbon fiber closing a ring on the first 3-4 inchs, like a pipe. That will force me to file another feeding opening for the mainsail foot in a backward position. No big deal. The last job is reinforce a dent near the sheet anchoring point. It's a small dent, but I can see tiny crack around it. Close to the sheet!! No good. That will be another carbon fiber job, in a C shape. Today I also started to pack the food aboard. It was in a storage on the dock. So much food, and I still need to buy more. Don't know where to pack everything. Tricky to find space, try to balance the weight, plan how it might be consumed, and pack in a such way that will not smash the weak packages neither do noise every wave. I'm positive that I'll need to redo that again some times until get it ready. I keep packing, trashing and moving ashore what is not going. The boat is still a mess inside, but I can see clear spaces showing up. The deck looks like much, but much better. Endless work. I put some pressure on the stays. Saturday Tommy is helping me to tune the mast.
Hey it's me, is that you?
