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The
Grenadines Rules for Sailing
CUBA
Life Aboard on the Hook
Remote, Single, and Female
BOAT SPOTLIGHT Spring 2016 - Issue #14
Passport 545AC Nordhavn 43 Island Packet 370 Gemini Catamaran
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Cover Spring 2016 - Issue 14-Final.indd 1
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Attitudes “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” Charles Darwin,
By Bob Bitchin
About 3,500 years ago, just about the time the Phoenicians were at the top of their game, a tiny cypress tree, no bigger than a goose egg, sprouted in Central Florida. It was one of the oldest organisms in the world. In 2012 a 26-year-old woman burned it to the ground. The tree was “The Senator.” It stood 118 feet tall and lived for 3,500 years. In that time it survived logging, hurricanes, as well as disease, and the Seminole Indians used it as a landmark. Time. It is the one element of our life that, no matter how we try, we cannot change. Oh, we can change our perception of time, but time just keeps on ticking by. But, put me on a boat sailing down a coast or crossing an ocean,and I find myself controlling time. If you want time to go by faster, sail into a squall. I guarantee you will see time speed by faster than you ever thought possible. Sail into a “high” and see time almost stop. Sitting on deck, maybe tucked into a comfortable bean bag chair leaned up against the mast while the autopilot steers your way, and the hours slow. It seems like the pleasure of the moment will never end. As I try to justify this in my alleged mind, I look at the life of that tree. It was 3,500 years old, but did it live? Did it really live its life? I think not.
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I try to imagine what life would be like if we were like that tree, year after year after year not moving. What were the extent of its “adventures?” Yes, it got to experience some hurricanes. In fact, it probably sat thru thousands of hurricanes. And it sat thru 1,277,500 days in the same spot. That’s 30,660,000 hours of sheer boredom. Jeanne Calment lived 122 years. She lived in Arles, France for her entire life. How much of her “life” did she live? And then there are people like Ernest Hemingway. In Just 62 years he crammed more life into his years, I would wager, than both Jeanne and “The Senator.” You’ll get to a place where you will notice your past is longer than your future. Time keeps ticking by. You can’t stop it. But you can jam as much living into that life is possible. Yes, it’s possible to add life to your future, but you can’t add life to what is passed. One of my personal heroes, Dr. hunter S. Thompson, said it the best way I have ever heard it. “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, “Wow! What a Ride!”
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The Whole N Two Girls + One Dog
Part VII The Canadian Adventure Begins By Jessica Zevalkink
W
e were in the center of Lake Ontario. I was trying to hide the pride of knowing how far we had come, but I couldn’t shake it as the imaginary line separating America and Canada was only a mile ahead. It was nearly two years prior we waved goodbye to the Great Lakes and here we were, re-entering them as different women. Better than the best friends we were when we began, we confidently moved forward, aware of our consequences, with a full understanding of what we had left behind and what could potentially lay ahead. Without words Katie and I operated. Without questions we moved forward. Without answers we were constantly eager.
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Certainly there was no better day in existence to cross through the center of Lake Ontario. The mast laid horizontal on the deck and we continued to operate solely under power. We chugged over a sheet of glass that only presented itself as a body of water based on the ripples trailing behind. I could barely find the seam where the water met the sky. If I didn’t know any better, I would have
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Nine Yards + One 27-Foot Boat
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The Whole Nine Yards assumed we were on a different planet. One where horizons did not exist. Multiple species of bugs hitched a ride in the cockpit since first light. Like me, they looked in every direction and saw nothing but a vast gradient of blues without interruption. A different planet. Why would they leave? Everything we needed to survive was right here. Let me rephrase - everything we needed to be happy - was right here. I was initially perturbed by these bugs and had to repeat over and over in my head to not smash them with satisfaction… but to let the little bug children rest, even if they were using my appendages as their couch. Trent-Severn The Trent-Severn Waterway is made up of 240 winding miles of interconnecting man-made channels where boats can get from the town of Trenton, in Lake Ontario, to the Georgian Bay in Lake Huron. Forty-five locks, including hydraulic lift locks, flight locks and a historic railway chute, transport boats between the lower and upper sections of the waterway. This has become a popular way to travel the Great Loop, as long as you are made up of patience and your boat does not draw more than 5-1/2 feet. After two incredible anchorages tucked in between granite rocks and islands known as the “1000 Islands” we headed for the town of Trenton, on the north side of Lake Ontario. Louise was pushing forward bucking bronco style, head into wind-chopped waves. Unlike the other day, this could have been considered the worst possible conditions to be on a massive lake with a mast on the deck. Somewhere back on the East Coast Katie and I lost our good judgement and apparently decided we were invincible. I swore with some kind of hocus-pocus my concentration would prevent the mast from flying off and sinking, and I was completely focused on holding it in place with the power of my eyeballs. Pretty sure it was working. With all concentration on the mast and nowhere else but, Katie was driving and she pointed out that what-do-yaknow, we weren’t moving forward any more. We had been holding a steady three knots throughout these final nasty miles to Trenton and I looked down at our speed and surely, we were at a standstill. We had become a rocking horse sitting outside of Walmart, someone was feeding us pennies and we weren’t going anywhere.
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Part VII - The Canadian Adventure Begins
We couldn’t put the sails up, because obviously, we were not a sailboat at the time. I could see our destination in the distance, but it sure as hell wasn’t getting any closer. The engine sounded fine… nothing else sounded peculiar… nothing felt weird. I had flashbacks to the time we lost our transmission in the Bahamas. I began swearing a lot in my head, but those words don’t need to be relayed to express my concern. We turned around and surfed the waves instead of fighting them as we messed with the throttle and shifter to figure things out. Some masts were hiding behind trees not far downwind. Katie pointed Louise towards what looked like a marina hoping to get us somewhere protected. Louise moved at one knot. It is not easy to dissect an issue when you are violently bobbling around. With a lot of good luck we were able to throw our lines to a nice young lad at the Trenton Yacht Club. I got in the water to look at the propeller. Where was the propeller? I only saw a forest of weeds. I began hacking away. A bundle of weeds was so tautly wrapped around the shaft and prop I was actually impressed that all the working parts were still intact. Poor little Louise just had her panties in a twist. Problem solved. The next morning Katie woke up sick. She referred to her sickness as “razor throat” explaining in detail what
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Making Cat Through the We make much of the term “civilization” today, as if it signals a respite from an otherwise inhospitable environment. The word means different things to different people: for some it’s must-have wifi, lattes and spa treatments. For others, it’s access to restaurants and rental cars. I’m happy with an agile catamaran, ice for cool drinks, pristine tropical islands, aquamarine waters and friendly locals. That’s why I love the Grenadines, a small chain of gem-like islands in the Windward Isles of the Caribbean. You might say, I like civilization, redefined. The Grenadines stretch along 40 miles of the Eastern Caribbean in a northeast-southwest direction and are so varied, one from the other, that it’s hard to get the flavor of the entire area in just one visit. The better known islands include St. Vincent, Bequia, Mustique, Canouan, Tobago Cays, Mayreau and Union, but there are dozens of islets in between with one-boatsized anchorages to drop the hook, feel the trade winds on your skin and forget time.
History
Although each island is spectacular in its own right, when taken together and put into context, their unique character really comes to life. A bar-time version of the region’s history goes like this: When Columbus plied Caribbean waters, St. Vincent was known by its inhabitants as Hairoun, which means “home of the blessed” (and today is also a brand of a popular local beer). Over the centuries, the region was settled by various groups like the peaceful Arawak Indians who originated in South America. Eventually however, they didn’t fare well against the new group of warlike Caribs who subsequently moved in, killed the men, kept the women and castrated and fattened some of the children for future feasts. Way not politically correct, I know. Two hundred years after Columbus, Europeans came en masse to settle and embed missionaries who often didn’t stand a chance against the Caribs but were unbelievably persistent, as missionaries have been known to be. Slave ships from Africa soon followed but between the winds and the shallows, some of them wrecked on the nearby reefs. The surviving Africans swam ashore, mixed with the Caribs and created a new group called
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Tracks Grenadines By Zuzana Prochazka
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Black Caribs who, of course, didn’t get along with the original Yellow Caribs. By this time the French and British were also waging half-hearted battles over the territory as well as fighting the Caribs who were in turn, fighting each other. The superior technology of the day, including cannons, muskets and ships, prevailed and the Black Caribs were eventually rounded up and shipped to Roatan off the coast of Honduras. St. Vincent, which spent much of its time under French rule, then became a part of the British colony of the Windward Islands in 1871. In 1979, it and the Grenadines, which together form one country, became an independent state within the British Commonwealth. This succinct, if a bit grim, synopsis of the islands’ beginnings is told and retold with imaginative flair by locals who tend to insert other “historical facts.” Clearly, there are a few parts missing in the telling of this story
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but you can see evidence of it, especially on St. Vincent (with its fortifications) and Grenada, both of which are worth a few days for land tours. You can charter in St. Vincent and cruise south or alternately pick up a cruising cat in Grenada and go north (although you must check in if departing from Grenada which is a different country). The winds are typically from some angle north or south of east and there’s usually more of it in the Eastern Caribbean which makes for much more challenging sailing than say, the British Virgins. Heading north from Grenada, the first major stop will be Union Island that’s visible from a ways off due to its highest peak, the 900-foot Mt. Parnassus that you can’t miss. The main town of Clifton provides great shopping with an open-air produce market and several grocery stores including one that sells gourmet coffee, chocolate and bread. A sundowner at Janti’s Happy Island is not to be missed. It can only be reached via dinghy because it was built on the reef out of thousands of conch shells gathered by Janti, the happy owner. A drink is mandatory because when again will you be on an island created entirely by an enterprising local? If the trades are kicking up, Chatham Bay, on the western side of the island, makes a good anchorage. This large bay, with a long beach, has many shack restaurants including Shark Attack that advertises “Figure Licking Good Food.” A rum punch is a must – figure licking is optional.
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Scuttlebutt
All the news that fits
We’re adults. When did that happen? How do we make it stop?
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Nautical Trivia “Is everything hunky dory?” How many times have you heard that question and wondered, “what the *!%# is “hunky dory?” (Wanna cheat? The answer is on page 46)
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Don’t Let It Break You!
Jessica Lloyd-Mostyn Our windlass has broken. There are certain things on your boat that it’s relatively easy to do without and there are others that, when they suddenly stop working, can stall your plans, your mind and ultimately your spirit. Sometimes you tackle a whole bunch of boat problems in one go. We had just one such period when we first bought our yacht as part of getting her fully bluewater ready to set off from the UK. But nothing lasts forever and we found ourselves frequently needing to explain to family and friends that, just because you spend a lot of time and money on mending things, it doesn’t mean that your boat suddenly becomes infallible. A boat is really like a house combined with your car and put into an environment which is constantly attacking it. Saltwater and sun eat away at whatever they can with no concept of mercy. In fact, much like home ownership, having a boat means constantly maintaining it as things will always, without doubt, break. There are some items that you can have back-up systems for, like a GPS, or a generator, or a second ground tackle set-up of anchor and chain. But there is a limit to what we can all carry and there are few boats that can boast a second dinghy, a back-up stove or a spare mast. Plus all boats become more and more bespoke as time goes on. Our 24-year-old French
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All systems “GO” sailing to Cuba
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Don’t Let It Break You! windlass on a British boat built in South Africa with a Japanese engine, that is currently in Mexico, illustrates quite well how complex a collage of additions and modifications you can be dealing with. We’ve found that the real trick is all connected to attitude and how well you are able to adapt to a mind-set of just plain rolling with the punches. Things break, and no amount of money or diligence will make this fact avoidable if you want to actually use your boat and go sailing. But if you can lessen the emotional toll that each breakage takes on your outlook, then it becomes an awful lot easier to deal with what the seas want to throw at you. Consider each one to be a Above: Jessica at the helm in Antigua. Below: James on winch - St Kitts. At the lesson in disguise. bottom you see their boat being hauled on a travelift for out-of-water repairs. This is particularly useful when You can find haul-out facilities all over the world. planning for an ocean crossing. You walk around and go through the boat both above and below decks and ask yourself, “What happens if this breaks?” Some of these running repairs and damages you can prepare for and others will be tests of your engineering ingenuity. It’s amazing how much you can do with duct tape… But there are some failures which, due to either limited finances, geographic remoteness or sheer lethargy, you simply learn to live with for a time. You see, there is a happy accident that is born out of things breaking: you learn. It seems that a large part of determining how essential each individual piece of kit on board truly is would be to have it break and see how well you can manage without it. Also, by taking apart the carnage and studying the remains of the latest item to stop functioning, you really do manage to discover a whole lot more about your boat. We were without refrigeration for a good eight months of our journey so far. We’d had a chest fridge that was working when we left England, but it was behaving funny by Gibraltar. When we were crossing the Atlantic we shut it off altogether, fearing that we were losing battery power when the issue was really a faulty voltmeter. By the time we were mid-Caribbean the compressor totally conked out, so we just decided
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Life is maintenance, and maintaining your winches and other gear can add years of life to them. On the right, hauing out in New Zealand. to do without. It proved much easier before then gave us a better understanding of how much than you might imagine, particularly as refrigeration saltwater we took in through the stern gland, and how is the main power drain on most boats. As we were much fresh water came aboard from rain. island-hopping we were always close to land so we I imagine that there are many of us who are simply bought ice to fill up the now defunct chestcontent to have a dinghy that needs a top up pumping housing and used it as a cooler. No problem. each time it’s used. A chartplotter that’s acting up can Similarly, our autopilot stopped working. On our easily be replaced by an iPhone with the right app and last ocean crossing we were sailing with two friends on board, so we were content to hand-steer as there were always enough hands willing. Once we were back down to only the two of us on board, it seemed natural to continue to hand-steer. We both think that we became better sailors as a result of this loss. No autopilot meant that we played with our sail-trim more so that we could balance the boat better, especially when sailing upwind. We had several passages where we didn’t need to touch the helm at all. Our automatic bilge pump had never worked which wasn’t much of an issue until the first time that we planned to leave the boat for a long period, which was during hurricane season. Had we not had the deadline of the impending downpours and storms, it would probably still be on the list. Autopilot out? They added a wind-steering system to handle the helm And having to use just the manual pump so they could enjoy the trip until the autopilot could be repaired.
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L i fe s t y l e A Look at Why We Do What we Do
Ever wondered why people love the boating lifestyle? Well, here in the Lifestyle section folks from all over the world give an insight into what it’s really like out there. If you have a photo you think tells a good tale, why not send it to us? We prefer you send a digital pic, in as high resolution as you can. Tell us who took the pic and where it was taken. We will probaby throw it into our “digital pile” and pull it out someday. We won’t send you any money, but you will be famous worldwide! Email to: Lifestyle@Cruisingoutpost.com.
Shot by Herb Bradley at Prince Edward Yacht Club in Picton, Ontario, Canada of sunrise and the promise of another lovely day on the water
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By Captain Jeff of someone trying to get in
Casco Bay, Maine, of Shannon and Glen aboard Sea Mist
By Danny, Sam Francisco
Olivia Frank, Tobago Cays
By Hector Sanchez, Honolulu
By John Buckpitt of his “cruiser.” Oh yeah, he gets to pick up abalone while he’s out... in Australia!
By W. James Watt, Salem, MA
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By Scott of dolphins swimming off Kauai
By Peter, Biscayne Bay Channel, on a day off with friends
If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you!
Bill Payne in Puget Sound, house being transported across the sound on the 2nd day of passage to new foundation
By Don Boger, sunset in Pensacola Bay, FL, from Gypsy Soul www.cruisingoutpost.com
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C u ba
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Photos from Cruising Outpost Archives & NV Charts
New Rules, Regu la
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s r e s i u r F & C ts r h a o C r n s o u lati By Capt. Michael L. Martel S/V Privateer
Cuba beckons. It has been calling American sailors for the half century that it has been off limits to us, its siren song all the more alluring because it has been forbidden fruit. But now it’s becoming more accessible very quickly, with hurdles and obstacles melting away like the drifts from a late-spring snowfall in New England. I’m anxious to go cruising there as soon as I can. For many, the urge to hurry comes from the feeling that present-day Cuba will be akin to a 1950s Caribbean time capsule. Get there before it’s spoiled, before these friendly people learn how www.cruisingoutpost.com
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to f leece the cruising sailor with exorbitant fees, tariffs, and the like. There seem to be so many places in the Caribbean that were once nice little harbors to anchor and go ashore to a secluded beach, now overbuilt with private resorts and villas, no anchoring, or at least no going ashore. How long will it take Cuba to become like that? For certain, the infrastructure to support a huge influx of cruisers every high season isn’t there yet; not enough marinas, not enough chandleries, not enough shore-side restaurants. But again, to some, this is ideal.
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Cuba - New Rules
And by all accounts, the big island of Cuba, the largest in the Caribbean, is stunningly beautiful with countless possibilities for exploration in harbors and anchorages. Recent changes, as recent as this fall, within the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Treasury will now allow many U.S. cruisers to legally visit Cuba in their own vessels on a “temporary sojourn,” provided they meet certain criteria. The duration of the “temporary sojourn” is currently 14 days. These certain criteria apply to three (3) elements: the vessel, the crew, and the duration of the stay in Cuba. Additionally, the U.S. Coast Guard requires a form CG-3300 be completed, submitted, and approved prior to departure. The form is available online. But the procedure is not entirely simple. U.S. recreational vessels (and aircraft) that meet the following criteria are permitted (by exception) to transit to and from Cuba without further approval as a “temporary sojourn.” The purpose of the travel must meet those that have been authorized by the Treasury Department. These are as follows: 1. Family visits 2. Official business of the U.S. government, foreign governments, etc. 3. Journalistic activity 4. Professional research and professional meetings 5. Educational activities 6. Religious activities 7. Public performances, clinics, workshops, athletic and other competitions, and exhibitions 8. Support for the Cuban people 9. Humanitarian projects 10. Activities of private foundations or research or educational institutes
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11. Exportation, importation, or transmission of information or information materials 12. Certain export transactions that may be considered for authorization under existing regulations and guidelines These items listed are considered ‘self-determined’ or ‘Self-Permitted’ and the applicant doesn’t need additional approval or review by anyone else, but the cruiser should be prepared to document and provide legitimate justification if challenged. All other travel to Cuba that does not meet any of the conditions set forth must seek appropriate permits and licenses from various U.S. Government agencies. One category of Cuba travel that is not allowed (and not listed above), is straight-ahead tourist travel, but people are working to change that. In the meantime efforts are underway to extend the ‘temporary sojourn’ duration to a minimum of 30 days to correspond to the usual 30day visa authorized by the Cuban authorities. As a sign that change is indeed happening quickly, there were two regattas from Key West to Cuba in May of this past year (2015) and another one from Pensacola left at the end of October. Restrictions are easing more and more. Soon, many believe, cruisers will be able to go for pure tourism, and that will be a major step. Why visit Cuba? It may seem like a stupid question; Cuba is beautiful, historic, boasts a lovely tropical climate, and the people of Cuba are warm and hospitable. With all that Cuba has to offer, you’d think that the response would be, “Well then, let’s get going and sail on over there!” My response would be, “Skipper, don’t forget your charts.” Then it dawns on the skipper that there aren’t, in fact, any as far as he knows, and there haven’t been any available, either, for a very long time. And there are lots and lots of coral heads mining the entrances to those beautiful coves
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with pink sand and turquoise waters. The problem is that existing charts, if one could get them, were Cuban government charts and even Russian charts; nothing organized, reliable, up to date, continuous, contiguous, or anything of that sort. But now, thanks to cartographers and chart makers NV Charts, there are new, reliable, comprehensive charts available for the entire Cuban coast, just recently released and available in paper and digital format. Using all the available charts from various sources and combining them with newly-available geodata and their own coastal surveys, they painstakingly documented every detail, especially those of critical interest to mariners. It wasn’t easy; Cuba has not been, shall we say, easy to work with until very recently and there are still hurdles to jump. Hasko and Cornelia Scheidt started NV Charts with nearly two dozen professional chart making associates more than 30 years ago. They are sailors and boat lovers who also have a passion for chart making. Not content to rely on everyone else’s data, they bought small vessels and
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equipment, and conducted their own surveys of shallows, channels, and coastal waters of the Bahamas and the Caribbean and Cuba as well. “We made an exploratory voyage to Cuba from the Bahamas in 2009 and 2010 in a 46’ research vessel under German flag and with German crew,” Cornelia relates. “Cuba is a wonderful place and we loved it immediately. Yes, there is music, there is rum, but it is also an island with a marvelous history and lively culture, the largest of the Caribbean islands, and a terrific cruising ground.” After that, the first NV Charts Cuba region was released in 2010 and has now been re-released in an updated and corrected version for 2015 in NV Charts’ new Atlas format. “Cuba is really the gateway to the Caribbean,” she adds. They recently announced the release of all four (4) Cuba chart sets in an Atlas style format. These chart regions cover the northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest quadrants of the island. “The U.S. Government’s issuance of new rules regarding travel to Cuba is a momentous step forward for the boating industry,” explains
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Flotsam & Jetsam
Dominica’s Indian river In our second year in the Caribbean we finally had the chance to visit one of the most known touristic places in Dominica. Personally, I’m not very attracted to tourist locations but this one, after spending one year hearing everyone we met talking about it, had to be visited! We were in Martinique for some months and decided to go north with a friend who had just arrived from Saint Lucia, where he had taken over a secondhand catamaran. We had found it for him during our six months stay in the neighbor island. The friend and family were getting to know their new home and were planning to sail as far north as possible before heading back south for the hurricane season, so we decided to go along and follow them until Guadalupe. We didn’t know that French island yet. They kept going north and we stayed some days in Guadalupe, visiting Point-a-Pitre, Les Saints and some other locations before heading to Portsmouth in Dominica. In our previous stop in Dominica we decided to stay in its capital, Roseau, after an ordeal of several
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By Joao Gomes
days at sea with technical problems on board. Roseau was welcoming and a safe port for us to lick our wounds! However, staying in the capital of the Nature Island didn’t give us the chance to visit other places and we were too tired to move anywhere. So this time, we went directly to the place to visit, Portsmouth and the Indian River. I was, let me confess, expecting to see something very special because so many people talked about it and recommended a visit. However, apart from being positively surprised that one is not allowed to fish in the river, my expectations stopped there. I don’t mean that the Indian River is not a place that deserves to be visited. Of course, like any other natural places, it deserves to have cruisers and other visitors spend some time meandering in its waters, exploring what nature still has to offer. However, it’s not allowed to be visited without a guide. And, not to forget, but the biggest selling point now is the fact that it was used for some shooting of the
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movie Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man’s Chest. Some of the movie props (Johnny Depp’s house, the pirate bar, etc...) are still there and are maintained by the local authorities to assure that the tourists have something to see. Unfortunately, no information is available at each site. We went on a tour led by a local boat boy turned tourist guide that specialized in the Indian River. We won’t name names, but he’s mentioned in most sailing guides! Boat boys turned river guides was a clever idea from the government to solve a problem with boat boys
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Flotsam & Jetsam
Hot & humid cruising in the Musandam By John Simpson
bi
The Straits of Hormuz from the Gulf into the Indian Ocean are undoubtedly an extremely busy place for large crude carriers. Tension between Iran and the rest of the developed world continue to make the Persian Gulf place an energy choke point. More than a quarter of the world’s oil passes out through this narrow channel. Strangely enough, as a sailing coach in Oman I became a regular visitor through these Straits. We’d just finished our biggest yacht regatta in the Middle
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East at that time (part of it a 360-mile race from Dubai to Muscat), having used the Straits twice, including delivering the boats to the race from Oman. Musandam Naturally, my interest grew in visiting the area, even vaguely suggesting to my Omani boss, Salem, that after the racing it would make an interesting cruising ground. Maybe we could run a course on one of the Gulf of yachts in the southern part of the Oman Straits (the Musandam), which is governed by Oman, starting before the summer heat arrived and made the peninsular completely unbearable.
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I’m sure it helps to be barking mad when making your living as a sailing coach, or have crazy ideas about finding interesting places to sail! But after discussing this odd idea in a meeting with his other colleagues, Salem came up with a great proposal. The racing team (as many as wanted) would deliver one yacht to the Omani Naval base in the Musandam. This was a reward to the sailing team after excellent results in the President’s Cup Regatta. Once there they could have the rest of the week to take a break: chilling out, visiting various places of interest, enjoying some excellent fishing, diving and small boat sailing. Most of the lads would then go home, leaving a few key players who would spend the second week sail training with a young officers course. These midshipmen would then help sail the yacht back. It was gratifying to find quite a few of the good racing sailors wanted to come; roughly half out of 20 volunteered. It’s not difficult to understand why some
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Cruising Outpost 111 2/1/16 2:23 PM
Tech Tips
from Capt’n Pauley’s Workshop There are a lot of little things that can make your boat easier to use and more enjoyable. Here are some tips from Paul Esterle, the author of Capt’n Pauley’s Workshop. More can be found at www.captnpauley.com.
Installing a Quarterberth Port A big problem on most boats is the fact that most quarterberths suffer from a serious lack of ventilation. There is a solution for this. The addition of a port opening into the
cockpit provides a ready source of airf low, and it’s not that difficult. To start, a plywood pattern is cut with the exact size of the required opening in the
The exterior of the new port
The view from in the quarter berth.
154 Cruising Outpost
pg 154-155 Tech tips edited.indd 2
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Tech Tips from Capt’n Pauley’s Workshop center of the area you plan on installing the new port. This should be measured carefully. Then the plywood ring is fastened in place where the port opening is to be. After that, a follower bit in a router is used to cut the opening. The router bit will follow the plywood pattern. Flexible black plastic foam, the kind used to pack
The follower router bit showing the ball bearing that rides on the plywood pattern.
electronics, is saturated with epoxy and pressed into the space between the cockpit wall and the quarterberth sidewall. Once the epoxy/foam has cured, the remaining space around the opening is filled with epoxy filler, providing a solid plug to hold port fasteners. The port is then fastened in place. Use a good sealant around the port to eliminate any leaks.
Simple Protective Fender Boards Most cruising boats have a collection of fenders aboard in all sizes and shapes. However, there are times when more protection is needed, such as in locks or against rough bulkheads and/ or pilings. You can make your own fender boards from commonly available materials, which can save your boat’s finish. Start with two tubular fenders spanned by a section of 2x8 or 2x10 lumber. Deflate the fenders and use rope lashing fastened in place. Then, inflate the fenders, which locks the board in position. You may opt to cover the board with scrap indoor/outdoor carpeting. Add drop lines fore and aft to hold the fender in place. The boards can be used either horizontally or vertically, dependant on what the surface is you are trying to be protected from.
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pg 154-155 Tech tips edited.indd 3
That’s it! Easy, inexpensive and adaptable to all sorts of surfaces.
Cruising Outpost 155
2/1/16 3:34 PM
The Bosun’s Bag Hard To Find “Stuff” For The Cruiser
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174 Cruising Outpost
*pg 173-177 Bosun's Bag.indd 2
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*pg 173-177 Bosun's Bag.indd 3
Cruising Outpost 175
2/2/16 11:46 AM
* Cruisians I’m cleverly disguised as a responsible adult.
*A small, exclusive group of people who are mentally ill and feel, for some reason unbeknownst to anyone, that by getting on a small boat about the size of a jail cell and heading out into the most inhospitable place on Earth (the ocean), they will somehow enjoy themselves.
Caitlyn Shipley likes to get out and sail whenever she can. She’s from Las Vegas, but now lives in Annapolis where she can get more sailing in with her dad, Doug, on their Hylas 46, Dream Catcher. At her day job she works with helicopters, so when she’s not on the sea, she’s in the air!
Meg (she’d be the one on the left) and little brother Rusty Everhard are seen here enjoying their Spring Break on a sailing getaway in the Exumas. They both enjoy the sailing life. Now that they’ve been broken in, it looks like they make good crew too! The photo was sent in by Susan Everhard.
This is Dennis Mullen & Marlene, on Ocracoke Island with Different Drummer tied up at the National Park Service docks during the Blackbeard’s Pirate Jamboree. They were ending their 7th year of “6 months on & 6 months off” 10,000mile cruise. The photo was taken by Capt. Archer Watkins.
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Andy Crawford is a marine biologist who went searching for the perfect waves to surf and great scuba diving. He sailed into Bocas del Toro in 1999 and never left. He is great at bongos and loves to sail, surf and dive.
This is Roger Hughes on his new perambulator, which his daughters have named “The Bichin.” The name refers to his broken leg. He has a North Carolina tag to prove it and he’s been designated as a dangerous driver. When it heals maybe he will be a better driver.
This is Daniel on his way back from Catalina to Marina del Rey during a storm that took out Avalon Harbor. He was on a training cruise to get his ASA certifications and had been in Avalon Harbor with many of the boats that got destroyed in the storm. He was smart and got out before it hit the hardest. Sarah Marker is a drug dealer! Well, actually she is a pharmacist. She has a handicap ‘cuz she’s married to Rich Marker, our head cartoonist and Art Director. www.cruisingoutpost.com
2/1/16 4:44 PM
Parting Shot
A summertime raft-up in Hadley Harbor, Buzzards Bay, MA
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