Expeditioning and the SV GIRI

SV GIRI was finally outfitted for offshore sailing again.  On the last trip back from Hawaii, the mast broke in a gale.  We jury rigged a solution with a Spanish Turnkey and limped back to North America.  Since the mast footing had to be welded, I had the whole cabin taken out to avoid fire. Surveyors used ultra sound to check the depth of steel and where there was decrease I had 2 huge steel plates welded on.  After that major procedure, the mast and hull of the GIRI were good to go for a few more decades.  My friend Tom who I’d sailed with and had undertaken the work said,
“I made sure that if something went wrong on the GIRI on her next ocean passage it wouldn’t have anything to do with the mast or hull."
I replaced the old workhorse Yanmar engine last year with a new Volvo D40.  Everything on my sailboat has been replaced 2 or 3 times in the 25 years I’ve had the boat.  It’s the third radar and second autopilot. I’ve upgraded the winches to a larger size and better quality.   I replaced the wind generator recently too. I’m on my second generation of self steering vane.  Everything has back up and redundancy.  Three anchors and even a portable electric winch along with a Honda 1000 cc generator.  
Meanwhile I’ve sailed the boat around the San Jaun Islands, Desolation Sound, Beyond Desolation Sound, the Gulf Islands, Queen Charlotte Islands, the Alaska Coast,  around Vancouver Island a couple of times,  my ex wife Sherry and I sailed to Mexico, then  I solo sailed in winter to Hawaii.  Tom and I sailed the Hawaiian Islands together.  Then we sailed back to Vancouver from Honolulu. That’s the trip the mast broke.   Between refitting I've continued sailing in Georgia Strait and  off and on lived aboard the boat for months or a year or two at a time.   I found that it was only when I was actually staying on the boat that I would ensure repairs and maintenance stayed on track.  I’d actually planned with Tom to begin sailing down the coast last year  with a view to completing my original planned sail to the Caribbean through the Panama.
I still need to do a topside paint. It’s a steel boat and the rust marks coming through my last painting a few years back make it look a bit of a scow.  It’s not.  I’ve sand blasted it three or four  times over the years, each time at a cost of $10,000. The last time we brushed and sanded and I painted it myself.  I’ve epoxied and painted the bottom countless times, every 1 to 2 year on average.  Topside painting was the task left to be done.  Sailing in April  with Laura I found that one of the cockpit drains needed replacing too. The Stem to Stern Marina guys , who had done a skookum job with installing the Volvo and upgrading matters in the bilge had pointed the damaged drain out to me.  I’d forgotten till I was in a gale and with water coming over the side had to tack mainly to allow the cockpit to drain so I didn’t have to bail.
Pro Tech rigging had done the inspection and had cut all the new rope so that’s going on next spring when I restep the mast.  They did an amazing job preparing the boat for hauling out by Lynnwood Marina and shipping across the country by Andrews Trucking.  Just last year Pro Tech installed new guy lines around the perimeter and I had some new hardware to replace the stuff we designated as worn. I haven’t replaced the main sail but I got a new genoa and Pro tech installed that and ensured the foresail furling system was in good shape.
The boat was finally ready for another expedition.  Another grand adventure.  Any bits that needed doing still could be done along the coastal hops that would come before any ocean crossing. There’s always fine tuning to be done in the first few weeks of sailing.  Before last heading out to Hawaii my antennae on top of the mast came lose and needed new fittings that would last an offshore beating.  I also had to get the leech of the old foresail reinforced in San Francisco before heading out.
The question for the last couple of years had been  where to sail to next..
 I’d wanted to sail around the world. The standing joke in boat world is everyone buys a 25 foot or more sailboat with just that intention but less than half a percent or less actually get the sailboat our of the main harbour.  Most don’t leave their slip for years on end.  That was the plan too when I  got to Mexico and stayed the year in the Sea or Cortez.  I was headed for the Northern Marianas Islands with a view to sailing around the world when I last stopped in Hawaii.
Pirates is the number one reason I don’t  set out again to cross the Pacific.  Also I’ve always loved the idea of sailing to New Zealand and Australia but I have a dog and dogs are simply not welcome in the Pacific. Stuart the Scotty I’d sailed with before had to endure horrible quarantine in Hawaii and later in Saipan. The people were wonderful but the poor dog lost months of his short  life to jail through no fault of his own. I have Gilbert the cockapoo now.   I really don’t like going anywhere where my dog’s not welcome.
I was in Dublin this spring.  I’ve always dreamed of sailing the British Islands.  Scotland and Ireland are where my grandparents are from. I met an 85 year old solo sailor after he’d crossed the North Atlantic in a little sailboat for the umpteenth time.  Tom says he’d love to sail to the Azores.
My brother became ill this spring. That really brought matters to a head and finalized the course of the future. I’ve always wanted to sail with my older brother. He taught me to canoe. I’d fish from our little skiff with the Johnson motor every summer of my childhood with him and my Dad.  My brother is the mensch in the family, a true salt of the earth man . He  was always the brightest and smartest of the family.  I actually hated following his genius going through school. Everyone remembered him fondly. His teachers would always tell me how smart and accomplished he was .  Meanwhile I got by muddling along at times, even excelling.  
The beauty of Europe is that they welcome dogs. I truly love the history of Western Civilization.  I was  humbled by the 5000 year old architecture of the Palace of Knossos on Crete. They actually had indoor plumbing back then and used natural lighting in amazing ways.  I loved standing on shore and looking at the little harbour of Jaffa in Israel where Jonah set out for Ninevah. That sent chills up my spine.  I’ve loved harbours the world over but those in the Mediterranean are so rich with western history that I find every view awe inspiring.  Athens was particularly breath taking.  Last year I loved being in Istanbul, previously called Constantine, taking a ferry on that fabled strait that separates Europe and the East.  In Israel I felt in my very soul that I was walking in the steps of Jesus but in Greece and Turkey I felt like I was following St. Paul.  And even Alexander the Great.  I loved Italy and Rome and would love to return. The art and people are so enriching.  I was in the south of Spain and Morocco in my 20’s crossing the Strait of Gibraltar in ferries, once in a horrible blow.
The ports along the northern coast of France and especially the sea farer Mecca of Amsterdam have always touched my heart.  But London is my all time favourite city, a place where I lived for a year with my gorgeous brilliant first wife when I was an intellectual and couldn’t get enough of the libraries and museums of that great city.  True I’ve always wanted to return to study at Oxford and Cambridge but other universities captured me with their more mundane designs. But the Thames has never failed to beckon.  Then Glasgow and Edinburgh and last year Dublin and Belfast were the places I was most enamoured with.
I read the Kon Tiki for sure.  But the voyage of St. Brendan is the one that always captured my heart being done in the ancient north Atlantic by Irish monks in leather boats.  As a sailor I’ve read hundreds of books by sailors. It’s been my passion. While I’ve loved the countless true stories of persons who set off in little boats to sail the seas I’ve also liked the historical fiction of the sailing vessels. I’ve especially  liked reading the tales of our naval explorers like  Captain Cook and Captain Vancouver.  The story of Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic adventure and survival is simply miraculous.
There’s the great wealth of historical fiction of the great sea battles of the Imperial navies of Britain and France and Spain that I’ve thoroughly lost myself in during a Canadian winter ashore.  I’ve had thousands of hours of technical reading to do but never has a day gone by that I’ve not read adventures and mostly sea adventures for the sheer joy of it.  Many a trying week of work and a difficult winter has been made less so by reading of the stories of fellow cruisers in small boats.   Joshua Slocum is the great grandfather of the movement  for sure.  My ex wife and I setting out to sail around the world but got  only from Vancouver Canada to Quaymos,  Mexico We both most loved the stories of the Hiscocks and Myles and Beryl Smeeton. Not only were they made of sterner stuff so were the marriages of those earlier days.  No doubt the men were more courageous.   Like many a couple that’s gone offshore  one stayed with the boat and one returned happily to home on land. My ex was a fabulous helmswoman who could get the best out of sails coastal day sailing. I still love the adventure of the sea and love to read stories of all those who’ve travelled upon her vastness and mystery.  Tales of endurance and passage and arrival in exotic places still enthral me.
The trouble is pirates.  And governments.  I’ve found that wind and sea and boat maintenance challenges are more than sufficient for my appetite.  I’ve not particularly liked crew including myself.  The fact is I prefer my dogs company and all else is a bit of work.  In fairness to my lovely ex wife I found when I was a couple of weeks  alone at sea with my own thoughts I wanted to divorce me.  The thought of having to deal with unfriendly strangers wanting to kill me and steal my boat is simply too overwhelming to consider.
I chose to sail offshore with the trusty marine nickel plated defender shot gun. It’s fairly standard equipment for commercial fishing boats since some times one actually has to shoot the big halibut to get them aboard. I have spear guns for scuba and flare guns as well. I even have a cutlass which though real has a greater ornamental function in my rustic below deck Captains cabin.  Some might say it’s phallic.  The fact is the shorter cutlass is made for ship fighting as there would be no room to swing my Scottish broadsword.  I have these more for fashion or as one might pay for life insurance. I don’t want to use them.  I have a life raft on board too and am truly glad I’ve never had to use it and hopefully never will.  I studied fencing as a youth and as a hunter am an excellent marksman.
However the thought of taking another human’s life, even in self defence, would, to say the least, put a damper on a vacation, for me, a physician who has devoted his life to saving lives.  I remember the joy I felt off the Baja coast when we rescued a couple of men in a dinghy whose boat had caught fire and sunk.  I especially loved the time when my ex and I and a couple of other cruisers saved a baby whale that had got it’s self disoriented trapped and partially beached in some mangroves.  I would rather not have to tell a story of blowing the brains out of some psychopath trying to board my boat.  There’s more than enough adventure without that sort of nonsense. In fact going away to sea is especially enjoyable because it gets me away from some of the drug addicted psychopaths who seem unable to change their mind about seeing other humans as potential food rather than companions. These blokes have been part of my work especially when I worked with the jails. I certainly don’t want to meet this sort at sea.  That would be a busman’s holiday for sure.
In fact I’m happy to be alone with my dog and only just tolerate friends and lovers.  If there weren’t merit in numbers I’d probably just solo sail.  The fact is I get rather lonely after a week or two and actually enjoy my companions at times.  There’s a great deal of laughter when one sails with people who are adults and have got over that “I’’m a victim” stage of emotional development. As a captain I really don’t have patience for whining and passive aggressiveness or attitude.
I have heard that the cruising community has taken to hiring ex American navy personnel in guns boats to accompany the fleet as they passage south and east of Malaysia.  I was in Singapore a few years back and loved it dearly. I loved the rule of law and the order in the community. The harbours in the area are magnificent as well. Unfortunately the el Quaeda has taken hold in nearby villages so that stories abound of pirates killing foreigners, mostly Christians, or at very least stealing their boats and leaving them stranded. I’m very much a Christian but not the better sort that does a fine job of being martyred.  I was thankful that the Lord did this for me and know I’d do a very bad and messy job of dying for my beliefs.
Then there’s the Somalian muslims, a particularly uncivilized lot whose dangerous  stupidity and lack of civilization are becoming epic.  I confess I’ve loved reading of American cruisers who have been attacked by these high speed gun boats with 50 mm machine guns blazing.  The best story is of two ex marines who were sailing together on their separate yachts when a couple of these drug crazed Allah Akubar swearing criminals charged their boats.  The frightening thing was that they opened fire from far off targeting the cockpit and hoping to kill anyone on board. One American armed with a 12 gauge shot gun popped up at the last moment when the pirates came along side with their AK 47 assault rifles in hand ready to board.  With combat trained reflexes and skills he blew all aboard away with repetitive shots from his defender.  Meanwhile his friend at the last moment veered his 7 km maximum speed sailboat into the Somalian high speed tobacco boat riding right over it and sending that boats pirates to the bottom of the sea.
I read the story while I was in charge of advertising for Blue Water Cruising Association out of Vancouver, BC.  Discussing it with cruisers we all cheered the Americans. I think even the vegetarian pacifists were impressed.  Yet its not something I personally want to have to do.  When I was in Bombay, now called Mumbai, I loved the harbour and so wanted to one day sail there. I love India and must return. The people are the most fascinating and so many of my friends are Indian ex pats here in Canada.  Yet the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea seem like places one would only want to go with an American flotilla of war ships, not on a little sailboat with a cockapoo dog.
The other problem has been the governments.  Carrying weapons on board is a major issue with each port.  Most cruisers as a consequence don’t declare their guns and most authorities turn a blind eye but it suddenly puts one in a difficult position. Even if one declares them there’s all manner of insanity attached to this placed there by beaurocratic fools who have never been in a boat themselves.  In Mexico I was expected to turn in my shot gun at the first port and then pick it up again when I departed the country.  The only problem is I was coming from the north and expecting to leave the country hundreds of miles to the south.  Government stupidity is impressive in Canada but by world standards Canada is a genius compared to the silliness of paper work and restrictions elsewhere.  So who wants the hassle especially when a single corrupt official ,and corrupt officials are extremely common in the third world, can impound your boat and arrest you. Increasingly every other nation in the third world seems intent on taking Canadians hostage either officially or unofficially for extortion and ransom.
When I was younger Canadian tourists were welcome overseas and sailors were able to anchor free in harbours so the whole process was pleasant and relatively inexpensive. Now Canadians, indeed all westerners, are seen as mega rich, like Mini Fatuous Kardashians, and a source of easy income.  There are the pirates for sure, then the rapacious businessmen and finally the corrupt extorting government officials.  Friends tell me that everywhere they were charged to anchor and even a fee was charged for landing their dinghies on shore.  Prices go up the minute you speak English. too.  Whites are thought of as racist but they’re the least racist today compared to the racism they can encounter and the tribalism in primitive nations.
Further, the United Nations has created this Social Communism idea of the West being the bourgeoisie.  Meanwhile the local businessmen in all these countries are richer than the richest Canadians. The key to world poverty is not east and west but rather financial distribution within the countries themselves.  In Muslim countries the rich are obscenely rich while the poor are poor yet in Canada while we have rich, wealth is more widely distributed. Our poor indeed are the richest poor in the world.  To the third world though we’re now the enemy. Especially if one is Christian.
I love all the Fillipino nurses and doctors I know and would love to sail to Manilla but that country was only a decade back taken off of the international list of places that are not recommended for small boat cruisers because of pirates.  The South China Seas are completely off the list. Yet I’d love to sail into the magnificent Hong Kong harbour. I’ve flown there repeatedly and love the city and people. The harbour is one of the greatest natural harbours in all the world. Yet who wants to be killed a day or two out to sea by dozens of ignorant communist Chinese  who see all westerners as bourgeoise capitalists.  Communists have forever been poor at creativity and live to steal.  Without theft their thug dominated system would expire because none of the truly creative are rewarded in these principally totalitarian gang lead social systems.  Communism is so often confused with socialism which it is not.
So while I’d love to sail more in the Pacific it’s increasingly been the plan to get to the Caribbean and the Mediterranean and Great Britain.  I loved being in the Bahamas.  It was a truly inspiring moment when I visited Vera Cruz in Mexico where Columbus had landed.  My parents took a Cruise Ship tour of the Caribean Islands and spoke of the variety and diversity of every island for years after.  So yes, I’d love to sail there.
Now my sailboat has been shipped from Vancouver British Columbia here in the west to Bath, Lake Ontario in Eastern Canada.. My brother has developed cancer so the best way for us to sail together was for me to get the boat to Lake Ontario. Overland was the fastest, and probably the cheapest too, at $10,000 cost.  I have to consider how much time I’d lose from work if I tried again to sail it down the coast and cross at Mexico or Panama.  I really am looking forward to sailing in the famed Thousand Islands near Kingston.  Fresh water sailing and fishing will be a welcome change. I’ve got nephews too that want to crew. Then when my brother is better we can take the 350 mile canal motoring cruise down to New York. I’d love to have my sailboat in the New York habour and take a train to Manhatten to take in more Broadway plays.  My friend Laura would love to do some more motor sailing with me as well.  She’s not fond of being in the boat when the wind gets up a bit.
 I know Tom would be up for a sailing across the Atlantic. His eyes light up at the sound of the Azores.  I would love to have my brother along for that passage.   I’ve found it’s only men that want to join me on ocean crossings whereas women have often said they’d fly to meet me in exotic places.   These are dreams to come. For now the boat is going East.  I still want to visit Australia and there’s a medical meeting in Sidney I’ve wanted to attend for years. I may just have to fly there like others do.  I’d leave my dog here because frankly it seems everything in the Australian wild wants to kill us, from spiders to lizards.
imagine Gilbert would rather be with us in Bath.  He’ll be definiely up for sailing on Lake Ontario with his cousin cockapoo Eva. I can see them turning the deck into a dog Indie 500 chase. As a cockapoo I also expect Gilbert would gladly go ashore in France and England.   There he could proudly tell countless stories of his many adventures to his distant canine relatives.
I love that Europe loves dogs.
   

Yanmar 26 hp diesel Marine Engine - SV GIRI

The SV GIRI is getting a new engine.  My Yanmar 26 hp diesel was bleeding oil.  It had already been rebuilt once.  The SV GIRI is a 39.9 foot Folkes steel cutter rigged sloop.  This Yanmar was installed with the GIRI at the time she was built in the late 80’s.  Though the GIRI is a sailing vessel, the fact is the Yanmar was definitely her “IRON Jenny”.  A lot of coastal wind is simply not conducive to sailing to schedule.  In the days of wooden sailing boats captains had time to wait for changes of wind. They had no choice. The steam engine ships surpassed the sailing vessels simply because they didn’t rely on the vagaries of wind.
This Yanmar made the journey to the Queen Charlotte Islands a couple of times and saw the coast of Alaska.  The GIRI circled Vancouver Island a couple of times as well. It crossed the Strait of Georgia and sailed the  Coastal Islands and the San Juan Islands countless times.  A favourite weekend for me was motoring to Vancouver to Nanaimo Friday night with autopilot then sailing back wing on wing Sunday afternoon. I can’t say how many times I’ve done that.
Sailing and motoring out to Barkeley Sound was also a great adventure I did a couple of times for the excellent salmon fishing. Then Victoria and Saltpring Islands were all time favourite destinations where dolphins invariably joined me or Killer Whales circled the boat.  Campbell River and  Texada Island to the North, Desolation Sound and beyond Desolation were also favourites.
The Yanmar took me down to coast to San Francisco once with crew and once solo. With crew I sailed to Mexico’s Sea of Cortez where we wintered.  Finally that Yanmar accompanied the GIRI when I sailed her solo 25 days in winter to Hawaii through winter storms.
Then with crew I sailed the Hawaian Islands before coming home again 34 days, slowed a little by breaking of the mast and the need to jury rig a Spanish  tourniquet to do the 1000 km left of the nearly 3000 km passage.
Since then I’ve been sailing and motoring around the Strait of Georgia.  A boat’s engine isn’t just for locomotion.  With the Yanmar my boat speed was predictably 5 knots.  But for trolling for salmon I also used the motor motoring around 2 knots, a speed particularly appealing to salmon and ling cod.  Thanks to that Yanmar I caught a lot of glorious fish trolling over the years.  Off shore we caught the finest tuna cruising with the motor running 2500 rpm at 5 knots. 3000 rpm was Full Open Throttle but I usually ran the engine at 2500.  
The Yanmar also is the boats generator.  Everything electrical on the sailboat relies on energy from banks of batteries:  lights, VHS radio, Hamm Radio depth sounder, anchor winch, windshield wipers, spotlight, down rigger, converter for television, dvd player, computers and iPhones.  Sailing across the ocean with the glory of the the magnificent downwind trades I still charged the batteries with the Yanmar every day for an hour.  When I am at dock I can recharge the batteries with shore power.  I do have a wind generator and solar panels but the diesel engine is the mainstay for generating power.
I loved my Yanmar.  It was a true and wonderful trooper for a quarter century of service.
Now Stem to Stern Marine has the GIRI up on deck. The Yanmar is out of  the GIRI. It's like the heart of the ship has been removed.  Almost sad to see her there.  The Giri’s empty chest waits a new Volvo 40 hp replacement  . I can only hope and pray the Volvo is all my Yanmar has been.
The Yanmar has been an integral part. Thank you Yanmar.  A new engine will be exciting. I'd almost replaced this Yanmar with a newer version but Volvo had a 40 hp that fit the space and this year's Volvo was built more specific for sailors needs than the similar Yanmar. I just hope Volvo will serve me as well and be as friendly as the Yanmar has been. I've bled the engine myself so many times, replaced injectors, water pumps, starters and alternators.  I'll just have to learn the Volvo now.  The Yanmar served me well. Thank you Yanmar for the great workmanship and attention to excellence.

Dry Dock - SV GIRI

It's that time of the year. Boat work and bottom painting. Tom had my sailboat hoisted out at the boat yard. The paint job from last year has done well. A new coat of bottom paint will be all that's needed. The zincs will be replaced though they've survived pretty well too.

Finally the prop and shaft can be repaired. Jim finished the new autopilot and now all that was needed was for the prop problem to be solved. Nothing major found out of whack just a few little things all of which conspired to slow the GIRI progress in water. One of the prop fins is very slightly dinged and this can be fixed by the machinist. A new prop has been ordered but won't arrive in time for installation this haul out. So it will be the spare and my present prop is still in pretty good shape with lots more years wear. Spares are always important.

Couldn't help but reminisce about all the times I've had the boat 'on the hard'. I remembered the first time Sherry and I had it out on the Tide Grid at the Fisherman's dock with ropes holding it in place because we were misalligned and the ship threatened to fall off the grid. We all painted the bottom fast that time. In those early years we had the boat out on a tide grid a few times as well as on the hard at Granville Island.

Then there was the motley crew of barely sober painters that Joe brought along one year to do the job, the heat of the sun causing several to leave after the first hour.

Sherry and I had the GIRI sandblasted in Thunderbird Marina North Vancouver, living aboard using the portapotty and hauling water from the ground faucet. We had it sand blasted and painted too when we sailed to Mexico and had the boat out on land in La Paz.

Tom was with me painting the bottom with Laura's help on Granville Island. Then the two of us were grinding and painting the bottom in Kona, Hawaii. It was on land for the welding at Mosquito Creek and bottom painting a few times.

It's amazing but it's been a dozen times at least in the last roughly 25 years years I've owned the GIRI. Each time it's a strange experience, I imagine, like one would experience, if they saw their house being hauled away on a trailer.

I'm thankful these last few years that Tom's taken on the challenge of managing the work. I'm happy to be the 'owner' and glad to remember all the times I had paint in my face or sweated under the hull in the heat grinding away rust. I can't say I enjoy the expense. Haul outs have gone up 10 fold since I began and the tide grids have become fewer. That said there's a lot of pleasure in the continuity and having cared for something so extraordinary as an ocean going blue water ship for nearly a quarter of a century.

With this work done , there's only really cosmetics or minor improvements to be achieved as the GIRI is again restored to her capacity to cross oceans. That said, all I'm really looking forward to doing is some island hopping, fishing and anchoring off the islands in the Strait of Georgia.














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SV GIRI - Boat Work

I live on my 40 foot sailboat some of the time.  Other times I'm in hotels or my motor home or travelling  . When I'm not living on it I'm not fixing it up. I'd like to have it ocean crossing ready and right now it's only probably capable of coastal cruising. In  a snap I'd sail across an ocean but I'm better equipped right now for harbout hopping up or down the Pacific Coast.

Actually right now I'm waiting for a new prop and shaft since hitting a log on my return last year.  I'd just epoxied the bottom of the boat having it on the hard for days so didn't want the cost of pulling it out  until spring.  I'm waiting now to haul out the boat so I can fix the prop and shaft and throw on a fresh coat of bottom paint.  Haul outs in total cost about a thousand and need to be done yearly.

Today I cleaned the boat some. I found my table again and one of the sedans.  I vacuumed everywhere and shook out the mats. To do this  I had to tidy up Gilbert's toys. Back on the boat he went through the pile of them I'd made. They're all over the floor again, the way he likes it.

I topped up the water in the batteries.  Then I made a run to the gas station bringing back a full propane tank and 12 gallons of diesel. I poured that in the tank which the diesel heater stove feeds off.

I enjoyed baking halibut I'd bought at the market in the stove I had installed last year.  I like that everything works and I'm comfortable with the propane situation.

Last year I got a new dinghy and traded my bigger outboard in for a lighter 4 hp I could more easily lift onto the deck of the sail boat from down in the dinghy.  I 've ordered a larger commercial inflatable runabout with bigger engine. That's going to serve for scuba, fishing and be trailable for inland fishing and hunting.

Jim replaced the starter on the main Yanmar engine last year and now has a better starter to replace that one so it will serve as my back up.  It was my back up until the one I had on the engine died last year after many good years of service.

Jim's going to start work on the upgrade to the electrical panel.  The present one has been added to and added to since it was first installed 18 years ago.  There's just been no room for the gadgets I've kept adding.

I took off the old torn dodger panels and they're in being resewn now.  The dodger has done really well for the years of service.

My main concern once I'm back on the ocean is the autopilot.  It's central to my enjoyment of the boat as a solo sailor. My Wagner has been giving me trouble with S turns no matter what I do so it's time to get the technician back.  That's the one thing I might consider replacing before I went on a long voyage not that I have one planned.

It's just these are the things that go on on a sailboat. It's like having a racing car and needing to keep it competitive.  In my case it's not about competition but about it's ability to do what it's meanto which is sail accross oceans. It's more than up for anything coastal and I know it would weather storms in the middle the sea, since we did bring it back from Hawaii and it's much improved from then. I 'd just not want the worries so little by little I'm making it capable of facing the oceans surprises. It was such an incredible trooper of a boat when I sailed solo in winter to Hawaii through storms.

That's what cruisers do.  Boat work.  I'd be a whole lot richer in material wealth living in an apartment but I'm still astonished to be sitting in a vehicle that can go anywhere in the world. I've got the skill apparently and the boat has the capability.  I'd rather have company if I do another ocean passage though Gilbert and I could do it solo.

Anyway those are the thoughts on a never ending project.  Meanwhile I've been watching netflix tv with my personal hotspot.  I must renew my Nexus for land and sea. I've kept up the sea one but I missed the deadline on the online renewal of the land one so now have to make a trip down the street from where I work, since they no longer require we go to the border as before.

Boat Work

My neighbour has been doing the bright work on his boat. Bright work is the sanding and varnishing.  We do it every year or two in Canada but in the tropics even 4 or 8 coats broke down in the sun every 4 to 6 months.  The marine environment is a harsh one indeed. Maintenance is an ongoing issues.  Those who think of owning boats are told to stand in a shower tearing up money and watching it go down the drain to see if they like the feeling before buying a boat.  The same can be said of houses these days though traditionally they appreciated.  Because of the marine environment, the corrosive salt air, sea, and such, the maintenance on a boat is such that you might paint a house every 10 to 20 years but a boat often requires paint in half that time if lucky.  Bottom painting is done every year or 2 and topsides every few years too.  I've a steel boat so I have to deal with 'rusting' whereas those with fiberglass have their own troubles whereas we all feel sorry for the wood boat owners as wood requires the greatest maintenance.
I pressure washed my boat this weekend.  Also I fixed the burners on my stove, repaired a wind vent and am planning on doing some touch up work painting today perhpas. The fact is, I enjoy, boat work.  My problem working is that any project requires time and once started often needs to be completed especially if you're wanting to use the boat.  In the Blue Water Crusing world we described 'cruising' as 'doing boat work in exotic places'.  Any passage usually results in the need for some repairs.  Crossing the Pacific my autopilot failed,, my dinghy was holed and my halyard broke just for starters.  All of that had to be addressed at first port.  Sailing south to Mexico I had to repair my Engine exhaust system and the antennae array at the top of the mast which had broken lose in a storm.  There is always something. In Mexico though I was puttering away fixing or improving some aspect of my boat most days.  There though the work day, a typical feature of cruising, was rarely more than a few hours at most.  I read that hunter gatherer tribes rarely 'work' more than 20 hours normally in a week and that's the kind of life of cruising I miss.
Right now the anchor chain needs to have the lengths painted, every 50 feet, some colour to show me how much chain I've let out. I'll eventually get to pulling it all out and laying it out on the dock and painting markers.  I haven't done that in 5 or 6 years but without the visual markers have depended on 'guessing' how much chain I've let out by the time I run the winch.  Such a project could take a few hours but a snag could cause me to need another day or so to do something that seems so simple.  I always fear starting something like that because if it weren't done by Monday it would need to wait till the following weekend and no one would be happy here with a pile of chain on the dock.
So often I'm hiring someone to do the work and happy these days that I've been fortunate to find those who can do the work. While I'm doing my speciality work they're doing this work.  The fact is I like doing the work myself.  A change is as good as a rest.  That's what cruising is about too. The attraction of retirement for so many people is the open space for 'projects'.  I'll probably get Jim one of these days to install a new wind generator but if I wasn't working and had the money to pay for the project I'd be happy as a clam doing the work myself.  I might not do as good a job as Tom or Jim, whose back grounds are engineering, but I'd certainly have the fun.  I liked repairing and mounting the wind scoop yesterday and getting the gas burner to work on the stove.  I don't know how many times I've repaired or replaced the toilet in the last 20 years.  They commonly break down every few years at best.  But if you come down to a dock there's usually a lot of 'boat work' happening and that's as much part of the pleasure of owning a boat as cruising.
It's good to have an 'attitude of gratitude' during the process as cursing doesn't seem to decrease the likelihood of skinned knuckles and the one screw that refuses to come out or go in.

Maintaining an Offshore Sailing Vessel and Home

It is said that if you think of buying a boat, you should first stand in a shower ripping up $100 bills and watching them go down the drain. If you like this then you're ready to buy a boat.
I've had the GIRI some 20 years or more.  It came to me barebones with nothing done on it that the manufacturer hadn't considered basic.  I've outfitted it for 3 major offshore expeditions.  It's also served as my home for many years,  if only for the reason that when I'm not on the boat, I like to forget about it and little work gets done. When I'm on the boat I'm forever reminded of all the big and little things that need to be, should be, could be done.
In comparison to a house, because of the nasty marine environment, all that salt and other minerals, plus fungus and such in the air , causes everything to break down or need repair in a half to a third the time a house might.  Marine toilets, called "heads", last a few years then leak.  I've replaced mine a half dozen times.  Most of these I've done myself. Usually it's just the pump mechanism.  Like a car a boat has an engine, in the case of the SV GIRI, a 26 hp Yanmar, 3 cyclinder, diesel.  I've had this rebuilt once, replaced the alternator three times, the water pump twice, the starter once, and the exhaust system a half dozen times, as well as doing the injectors 3 or 4 times.
I've done each of these jobs a couple of times myself and when I don't do it I have to hire someone.  The people I hire usually cost more than a doctor makes.  In early days it was hit or miss. Everyone charged an arm and a leg but half the people didn't know what they were doing. Neither did I.  Thanks to their arrogance, ignorance, rapaciousness and downright deeply evil best intentions I almost died on some occasions.
That said I've had some of the finest work men, tradesmen, technicians and engineeers on my boat. As I've owned it more I'm fortunate that I know enough and have enough experience that these days charlatans with drug addictions and psychopathic tendencies don't work on my boat.
That reminds me of the fellows who would come first thing in the morning, take my key, not work all day, show up when I came home at 8 from a day of work, bang about for a couple of hours and charge me for 12 hours of work, while I was putting in 12 hour days myself and not getting a break from these guys in the evening,  till a friend told me the scam they were working on me, 2 weeks later, having observed them from afar.  I won't even go on about the electrical work done, where the main power cable from the alternator to the battery was spliced under the engine so I couldn't find why my batteries died in a storm in Juan de Fuca at night leaving me without lights, engine and having to sail between tankers in high seas.  No one splices power cables on boats and only the evil try to hide an error on an offshore sailing vessel.
One of the principle reasons for doing work oneself or knowing how to is that mostly there's no British Columbia Auto Association to come to the rescue expecially in Mexico or a thousand miles out at sea. I've had to jury rig and repair whatever breaks on my own solo sailing or at anchorage in the Charlottes or some other isolated place I've been  sailing about. It's one of the reasons my boat has repair manuals for most everything I have on the boat and many times I've sat with a book and worked through the night trying to solve a problem, following wiring diagrams or whatever till I got something, usually rather important, working again.  Thanks to radio and satellite phones I've been able to get instructions on occasion as well.  Like the time Tom and I broke the mast on the GIRI coming back from Hawaii and phoned for instructions on how to Spanish rig it to keep it upright.
Again, bad workers are these days the rarity. It's a sad reflection on my mind that I remember the very few people who almost caused my life to end whereas I don't think first of the marvellous welding,  electrical work, painting, through hull repairs, shaft repairs, engine repairs that have all contributed to my safety. When I was 25 days offshore there were no failures due to any workmanship.
Vince from New Zealander set up my boat for offshore sailing and Barry the Welder from Mosquito Creek put in the bits and pieces he figured I'd need for safety. North Sails made magnificent long lasting sails.  Tom, my engineering friend, and owner of the SV Naomi, and sailing buddy, (possibly because he was going to be on the boat with me on some of these jaunts) made sure so much on the boat was done to spec and ship shape.  Eric at Pocomarine has always been a source of tremendous information, an offshore sailor himself, he was a long time with Steveston and could be trusted to advise on which product would stand up best to wear and tear.  Quality costs money.  The best are usually the most in demand.  This last year I've been fortunate to have James working on my boat.
This year I've replaced the windows, had the autopilot off and repaired, had the water heater rebuilt, had the exhaust on the engine rebuilt, replaced sump pumps, cleaned the boat from head to stern after the gargantuan job Tom did the year before tearing out the cabin so Barry could weld and repair the mast foot that had broken on our way back from Hawaii.  The area and surfaces had to be cleared completely away so that no fire would start. Tom was utterly amazing doing this job and coordinating the various parts of preparation and clean up after the welding Barry did.  It can be likened to putting a new basement in an old home.
I've epoxied the boat bottom a half dozen times over the years. I paint it with anti fowling paint every year to two. I've used a diver to clean the bottom on off years.  Sometimes I've dove with my scuba gear and cleaned it myself. I preferred doing it myself in Mexico and Hawaii.  Here I've appreciated the professionals.  Most of the bottom painting I've done. Expoxy though is done every 10 years and that's been done professionally a couple of times by the 'experts' only to have their work fail within a year and need to be redone a year later.  Tom and I have done it a couple of times and thanks to Tom's knowledge of materials and perfectionism and ordering me about those jobs have lasted better than the pro jobs.
The only trouble is I've had to take off time from work to do the work.
So often that's the bugbear. I can't work at my work if I'm working on my boat. I love working on my boat. I love my work too. It was the same with owning houses. I loved putting in decks and dry walling and doing electrical work. It was just that I couldn't work in the office if I was at home doing my work.  A doctor friend and I working on replacing our decks that one summer said how sad it was that we actually made more money doing our own construction work and labouring because labour was more expensive than we could afford to pay on physician salaries. We'd each taken a week off from our medical offices to put in decks.  Often the reason there's such a shortage of specialists in a community is because they're not paid sufficient to have them not doing 'generalist' work.
Right now Tom's rebuilding a plane wing. He was redesigning a prop not that long ago.  He says it annoys him that he has to often do the mechanical work on his car because there are so many who are charging specialist mechanic rates but don't do a decent job. It's better for both of us often to just do it ourselves.  The tax system kills us in the workplace whereas we can save so much money doing whatever work we can.  Tom has a house in the country and that's where he's usually doing the work, putting in stairwells  and things.
So many of us are handy men that way. My brother did the whole of his basement, turning it into a living room and always did the maintenance on his car. Dad was working all the time on his weekends building garages, repairing cars, building everything really.
That's me and the boat. I was working on a pump this last trip.  I took all the bits apart to get to where the air was trapped before putting it back together to have the satisfaction of a dead thing restored  to life.   Then I was doing some work on the rigging.  The boat is a home but it also has to survive hurricanes.  I made a list of the next dozen tasks and priorized them. It's a bout a years work.
Now I'd better get  to work myself so  I can pay for the parts.  It also seems to always that one has to do a lot of work to really enjoy relaxation.  Without one you really can't enjoy the other to it's fullest.

Boat World

Just yesterday I read something about the catastrophes predicted for 2012. Likely the millennial folk who had all the party hats and such ready for the end of the world are trying to figure a way to unload all their unused merchandise.
Still when I hear about Revelations in the flesh and Armageddon, global warming and Al Quaeda, I rather smugly think of my boat. It's about the only time I'm smug about it. It's like one of those bomb shelters from the 60's, a source of comfort. I imagine doing a Kevin Costner in Water World somewhere up the BC Coast.
When anyone asks about yachting we tell them to stand in the shower tearing up $100 bills for a while watching them go out the drain and ask themselves how they are liking it so far.
Everything in boat world costs at least a boat 'unit'. This is the currency of trade in boat world. One boat unit is $1000 and most everything that has to be repaired costs at least a boat unit. The only consolation is that my friend in 'plane world' says that a plane unit is at least 2 or 3 boat units on a good day.
Of course with the economy like it is you can't sell a boat, an RV or a plane for anything like a thousand's of the cost it was to you. People can't even sell houses in the United States so it's readily appreciated it's a buyers market. After the billionaires lost a trillion or two they began to pawn off their luxury yachts, Lear Jets and castles. Hell of thing to do to the luxury market. Imagine people complaining about the poor deal they were getting on a car trade in when some poor rich bloke was losing his shirt trading in his Lear jet and letting go a mistress or two just to get some liquidity in difficult times.
It makes me grateful. My modest working sailboat is still afloat. The rust has been sanded off some of the ugliest places so there's a general 'kept' appearance to this old friend. Jim has been over installing a new solenoid and overhauled starter.
"All the wires in your binnacle are corroded, you know," he commented.
"I know." said.
The boats done a couple of ocean crossings, been up and down the coast a couple of times and kicked around locally for too many years. I can't blame the old girl for wear and tear. A boat is a constant exercise in up keep.
Homeowners do roof repairs at most every 10 to 20 years but boat owners are hauling their boats out annually to clean and repaint the hull which is really the equivalent of a roof in topsy turvy boat world.
I've been blessed the marine head has kept working. I repaired that a couple of years ago but marine heads are notorious for annual noxious breakdowns.
Just as Jim said it would, the Yanmar diesel engine kicked into action and literally purred when I pressed the button on the console. I'd been using a spanner with a fireworks of sparks to get it started only a few weeks back.
When anything is working on an old boat it's a blessing. I'm happy right now that I'm floating. All it takes is seeing another boat half submerged by a dock or lying on it's side on a rocky beach and you can fully appreciate the joy of not having to slosh through water that is really supposed to stay outside the boat but like an unwanted guest got in.
I have memories of these things.
A boat can be a regular PTSD trigger if you let it. Nothing like a fire in the cabin to get the blood boiling. Hadn't thought of that for a while. Remembering the floors awash just seemed to bring to mind the fire. And those were at dock. Like the time when I tied up and the tide went out and the boat was leaning half over threatening to take the dock and everything else with it. A very good time to sit still and meditate, waiting for the water to return. It did and I left that dock as soon as I could.
Mind you ,I've been mighty cold in this boat at the dock as well. There was the psychopath who unplugged my boat after I went to work that winter and it was weeks of returning to icicles in the boat and a traumatized cat before a kind neighbor told me about the loathsome gent. I avoided a stint in jail by restraining myself when I talked to him about the sort of things that should happen to the sort of people who thieve heat from folk in winter. I remember I dreamt of murder and mayhem for weeks after I had heat back and the cat was restored to health.
There's been a host of characters in boat world that aren't nearly as pleasant as the Beachcomber sorts were. Some are indeed the salt of the earth and with time you sort through them. But the marine environment with all the seagull shit getting in your hair and eyelashes can affect a fellows reasoning. I often think of writing the sequel to Trailer Park Boys and calling it Marina Park Boys because the same characters are here, probably more downright evil but equally as colorful.
I just thought of the coke addicts working on boats so they could steal all the owners brass. There was that fellow quite a few years back. And of course the artist who didn't pay the bills and wanted to start a revolution when the remittance fellows showed up to repossess his boat. I remember he always had money to buy a round but when he was finally gone it was found out he owed just about everyone and not a single one of his lies had ever been true.
And that's not leaving the dock.
I was about to have morning coffee so had to fill the water tank. There's a boat between me and the water outlet. The owner has been supposed to move his boat months back but no one can find him. I got a hose over and under and threw all the obstacles and the tank is now filling.
The dog woke me a 5 am. I'd only got to bed at midnight. He's a farm dog for sure but someone has got to get him adjusted to civilized urban hours. A fellow would like to sleep in on the weekend at least till 6.
The crisis in Gilbert the dog world was that he had to pee and poop and actually now knows he shouldn't do that inside the boat. I really am thankful for small mercies remembering too well the unpleasant warm squishy feel of puppy poop between half asleep human toes.
The trouble is that the steep stairs are a bit of a challenge to his short little cockapoo legs. In addition his sister, Angel the cat likes to torment him in return for all the abuse he heaps on her. She really doesn't want to be his squeaky toy and he doesn't seem to get it. So in the boat she's been loving running and jumping from high surface to high surface while he's restricted to the low roads. Because of the limits of space he's rarely far from her whacking paws and he can't get back at her as he does with his famous flying tackles in the apartment where she's more likely to get caught in a dash across the carpet. This morning she was standing at the top of the stairs daring him to try to get out.
Meanwhile he had to pee and was literally cross eyed when I rolled out of bed and shushed her aside so the little guy could make it to the deck. I was delighted he remembered from our last boat trip a couple of months back when he was little more than two handfuls of size that he could pee up at the front of the deck. He did this impressing me to no end. Many a skipper has had a dog that simply would rather develop constipation and uremia rather than pee and poop on the deck. You see these fellows rowing to shore in anchorages with little dogs doing that particular land dog dance utterly desperate for a tree or blade of grass while the rowing grizzled skipper is cursing his luck to have a landlubber dog.
Gilbert is by his toilet habits a full fledged boat dog except he's got to get the hang of the steep stairs so he can get himself in and out of he boat in the morning and not disturb the captains dreams.
As I was up I hauled a freezer full of ruined food ashore. Whenever anything is fixed on a boat something is broken. This time the freezer electricity was turned off and weeks supplies of meat and condiments went in the heat. The dog loved the shore sojourn but was utterly embarrassed to be hauled by his harness over boat lines one after another. In a world without evil he'd be able to jump and run about on the dock but now needs to be carried because of obstacles and short little legs and youth. Watching him relish the trip back up the gang way to run around on terra firma reminds me again how many things we take for granted. If one is at all jaded just hang out with a child or a puppy and regain the eyes to see the miracles of life. Land for instance. And a tree to lift a leg against. Far more satisfying than a stanchion on the moving surface of a boat when balance is everything to the proper syling.
Back on the boat with the coffee brewed, I may just have to consider untying the lines and taking the boat out. The hazards that can befall one leaving the dock multiply exponentially with more obstacles and issues of currents and rapids, propulsion systems and steering systems. All the things that I've had go wrong at some time or other when I least could afford to have just that surprise and somehow I've come through the situation alive thanks to redundancy, training, quick reflexes and miracles. It never surprises me that 90% of boats never leave the dock. Most boat owners are still scratching their heads asking what was I thinking when I got my boat in the first place. Of course if you take the boat off the dock the sheer wonder of boat world explodes upon you with all the sights and sensations of glorious maritime world up close and real. There's no television experience in this gyrating moving rocking reeling 3 d boat world in motion experience. It really makes one appreciate the relative tranquillity and safety of the dock after. And land, glorious land. A short time at sea and a full grown man can be peeing against a tree revelling in the true joys landlubbers so easily take for granted.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Blue Water Cruising Association - AGM

Another year and the Watches have been nominated and elected. Commodore Doherty continues her command of the motley crew of offshore sailors, the dreamers, doers and doners. Currents Magazine continues. Back on the Giri in the cold harbor I was glad to join the warmth and good cheer of sailors come together to maintain an institution that has served so many of us who have set out to cross big oceans in little boats. It was good to see Eric who has moved from Steveston's over to Poco Marine in Port Coquitlam. It's been nearly 8 years since Laura and I collected all the advertising revenues for Currents and the Directory. Since they've divided that job and hired people to fill the position we'd done voluntarily taking over from the volunteers before us. Good to see old faces. The internet site and message board are really doing well. Hopefully this year I'll make a rendezvous.

Marathon.Angerilli

http://marathon.angerilli.ca/ It's so exciting when a boat you know with crew you enjoy heads out. Having experience of the ocean in a small boat you feel right there with them. Marathon had headed out for Mexico. It's late in the season so weather is a concern but the boat is really well set up with good captain and Lou is very experienced crew. This is their offshore in a small boat debut though so it's a very exciting time. My prayers go with them as well as some heartfelt envy.