Tag: Sailing

June 2019, Life At Sea, Passage Making, South Pacific, The South Pacific

Tales From The Doghouse

We all chase that one thing that seems to always be just out of our reach.  No mater how hard we try, it eludes our grasp and becomes our Achilles heel.  For me it is Dazzler’s Watch Commander.  This is a wonderful 12 volt electronic device that acts like a countdown timer.  It can be set for time periods of 3-90 minutes.  I obtained and used this device for all the single handed passages I’ve done over the last 10 years.  You see it has this really awesome feature that starts emitting a lovely soft beep for about 30 seconds before a 130 decibel alarm cracks through the silence of the night air.  Alarm might be too soft of a word.  Perhaps siren would be better.  You know, the kind on the front of a Fire Truck.   Kind of hard to sleep when that goes off. Whether it is accidental or planned, it’s very effective for waking you up from your sleep.  I’ve tried egg timers and phone alarms, but they didn’t seem to be loud enough and they were too easy to shut off and ignore.  Additionally, it helps remind you on those long passages to stop doing what you are doing and give a good look around and do an electronics check to make sure all is well and everything is where it is supposed to be.  You know, like islands, reefs and any other boats.

All that is well and good.  You see, being a single hand sailor for so many years I got used to the alarm occasionally going off and it never really bothered me.  And besides, who would turn the boat around and look for me if a fell overboard anyway?  The thing is, it seems to always go off when you leave the cockpit to go to the head or onto the foredeck to do something there.  

Well, it obviously isn’t very considerate for it to go off when you have crew onboard.  Especially crew that immediately thinks the worst when it just might accidentally happen to go off….occasionally.  

We use this device to alert crew that for some reason the on watch crew member didn’t push the button before the alarm started and something may be wrong.  That someone, ME, doesn’t always hear the warning beeps because I might be on deck making an adjustment or more importantly relieving myself from the jug-o-coffee I’ve consumed and I didn’t get to the button in time.  The frequency of this device catching me literally with my pants down is uncanny.  There I am mid stream writing my name in the ocean and looking at the stars when the blasted alarm decides to go off.  I just about zipped my thing up in my pants.  What do you do?  Do you pinch it off and race back to the cockpit to deactivate the bloody thing or finish your business and then shut it off?  I can tell you that option one most definitely IS the right answer.  

Once it goes off the awful thought crashes down on you like an avalanche.  Do you think she heard it?  Oh yeah, and remember to gather up your britches first so you don’t trip and really fall over the side.  Besides you can always go finish up after you turn off the alarm.  Oh, and remember too, you can’t un-ring the bell or alarm in this case.  How does it know at the exact same time I decide to answer the call of nature to bypass the warning beeps and go straight to full alarm?  Additionally, why does it always seem to be when Jilly is in the bunk sleeping?  I am starting to believe that it is the handy work of a gremlin or Grape Ape having a bit of fun.  Perhaps neither as it may just be the dreaded old timers hearing reduction disease.

Picture if you will a sexy creature slumbering peacefully while dreaming of her man rubbing endless supplies of lotion on her back whenever she desires only to have the dream crushed when she is violently awakened by a 130 decibel alarm.  You would have thought I had put Floridian fire ants in the bunk with her.  When she hears the alarm, she thinks the worst has happened and I am bobbing like a cork somewhere in open water in Dazzler’s wake watching her sailing off into the South Pacific.  Although possible, it is more likely an old man with diminishing hearing abilities just didn’t hear the blasted thing.  I try to explain that I’m not perfect and it’s just one of my faults.  We both have strengths and weaknesses and this seems to be one of my weaknesses.  Perhaps twenty minutes is too short a period?  Well, any longer than that and your ability to find someone who may have fallen overboard decreases with each passing minute.  Even if we do fall over the life lines, our tether attached to the jack-line should keep us attached to Dazzler. Why does she always have to assume that I’ve gone overboard anyway?

I now call this device the Crew Wake Up Angry Device (CWUAD), our safety feature.  But, I’m telling you it cuts deep when the love of your life is steaming mad and could probably knockout Mike Tyson because her beach dream of endless back lotion has been abruptly interrupted.  I wish I was better at the timing thing with the warning beeps.  I don’t want it to go off, it just does.  I’d like to thank that little gremlin or whoever it is for making me look bad.  Well, actually I’d like to kick its ass! To my sweetheart, I apologize for letting the CWUAD wake you up and interrupt your back lotion therapy session.     

We will continue using the CWUAD for passages.  In the meantime, I’ll be sleeping in the doghouse every time the blasted thing catches me off guard and wakes up the lovely sleeping soul in the V-berth.  Who knew an electronic device could be so evil that it could transform even the sweetest creature into a fire breathing dragon looking to tear up the south end of a northbound tiger (me)? Who knew?  I didn’t know, but I do now!  It’s a good thing she loves me and thinks I’m so damn cute.  Right?

Until the next story from the high seas and bliss in paradise, this is Captain Dan from the doghouse in the South Pacific.  

Cheers!

Captain Dan and Jilly

PS  It’s a good thing there isn’t a CWUAD in the doghouse.  LOL!

New Zealand

The Boom Lost Its Goose

It has been a pleasant sail during our first 24 hour period from Tonga on our way to Fiji. The winds have been all over the place between 4-14 knots from the south southeast. It wasn’t until this morning that the winds began to have a consistent velocity. So what do you do? That’s right sparky….Dig out the asymmetrical spinnaker and rig it up for the downwind.
A side note here….I learned a little trick from Michael Danielson of PV Sailing in La Cruz. If you are going to fly an asymmetrical sail almost directly down wind in light air, drop your mainsail to the first or even the second reef point then let her fly. You see the main tends to block the lighter winds from getting to your spinnaker and thus causing it to falter and have a difficult time staying filled. But, with the main mostly out of the way…Bammm! You have a good combination that works well dead down wind. Thanks Mike.
Okay back to sailing. We flew the spinnaker with the reefed main from 0900-1700 hours. After dropping the sock and bagging the spinnaker, Jilly noticed something didn’t look right with the bracket that attaches the boom to the mast. Also know as the gooseneck. When I started to investigate the bracket and mast, I observed that the starboard side of the bracket had lifted away from the mast leaving an approximate 1/4” gap where there shouldn’t be a gap. Okay, I thought this would be an easy fix. I remember reading somewhere that all boat projects are a broken bolt away from a three day project. Well, we found the head of the snake and had to deal with it. As I popped the first 1/4” rivet into place on the bracket, all looked good. Ha ha ha! That’s when it happened. The other side pulled completely out of the mast and we were looking at the gooseneck completely detached from the mast. Holy smokes Batman. That’s when all the fun started. We had to remove the old rivets as well as the new ones we had just put in.
What caused all this? Well earlier in the day I kept hearing a funny sound like something popping on the boom. No it wasn’t rivets being installed rather they were probably working themselves lose to a point of failure. I didn’t see anything obvious, but I kept hearing that noise. This day Jilly was under the weather and not feeling good so I had a long watch during the day. Needless to say I should have investigated the sound more thoroughly. The gooseneck is articulated to allow the boom to move up and down and side to side. It moved up and down very well but as it turned out, the side to side thing … not so much. In fact it was stuck and didn’t move at all. This put excessive loads on the mast/boom connection and caused the rivets to work a larger hole in the mast and eventually pull out. We don’t have a welder onboard, but we do have a drill. We ended up having to raise the bracket up about two inches and drill new holes. Fortunately, Dazzler is equipped with 1/4” stainless steel rivets and a handy 1/4” rivet tool for installation.
Tip number one: Don’t forget to use Tefgel or some other type of metal insulation for dissimilar metals like aluminum and stainless steel. The gooseneck on Dazzler is aluminum and the pivit pin is stainless steel. I did give the outside of the stainless steel rivets a good coating of Tefgel before popping them into place.
The issue was with the large stainless steel pin that wasn’t moving from side to side. You know what they say about the bigger hammer. I sprayed penetrating oil along the opening and even tried a small torch to heat it up a bit. After about thirty minutes of beating the bracket into submission from side to side, I got it loose enough to operate. I did try to disassemble it, but the small bolt protruding out of the bottom of the bracket couldn’t take much more of the hammer abuse I was giving it. Sometimes you just need to know when to quit. If I broke it out here, 300 miles from Fiji, it would be a long motor trip and then lots of trying to get parts mailed into Fiji or couriered via friend express. If I continued pounding I am sure the small bolt would have broken off. Then what? I decided to leave it together until I can get a new part from the states in August or possibly sooner.
Now that it was back together we had to see if it was going to move side to side. We unlocked the boom and bingo it was back into the realm of the living and working somewhat properly. Until I get the replacement parts I’ll have to keep a lubrication schedule and constant observations. All in it was about two hours before we completed this task. There is always something to keep you hopping if you own a boat.
If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen out there. Thanks Captain Ron! So, be prepared. I’m not sure when you have enough specialty tools. I guess it comes down to how independent you want to be. Parts are in the same category. When is enough, enough? Perhaps when you have one pair of shorts, a raggedy Hawaiian shirt with two buttons and two flip flops that don’t match anymore. LOL!
Until next time, fair winds!
Captain Dan & Jilly