Another photo

It seemed to me that in the previous photo of Alegria from when we were in Spain, it might be hard to visualize exactly what is going on. So, a few minutes ago I took this picture. Because the two boats that would normally be in the foreground are gone, I have a rare opportunity to get almost a side view.

If it seems like we have way too many fenders, they were expecting gale force winds and above to begin last night. When there are strong winds, and especially waves coming into the Marina, causing the boats to dance around, you wish you had more fenders, and much larger ones. We, on several occasions, have been out, sometimes in the middle of the night, trying to figure out how to best use these fenders. And wishing that we had many more.

Also, she was MUCH dirtier when I arrived, but soap and elbow grease got most of it off. I am not yet done with that. But, one thing at a time. BTW, she looked far worse in person than this photo shows. The stainless tubing in the foreground is on a small launch in the foreground. Those of you in the NW may know Electra, a friend’s boat. If not think “African Queen”.

I had hoped to have time this morning to write about the nice Turkish wedding that I was so fortunate as to attend. Now quite some time ago. But, as is too often the case, I find other responsibilities are calling to me.

I have decided that the pressure is much reduced on me, and have been pretty decadent ever since getting my residence permit. However, I still have things that need to get done in a priority of what, at least in my mind, needs doing first.

I am painfully aware that I will never be a poster child for efficiency, but I do try to have some logic to my actions.

Dave

Lifetime pass for seniors for Amtrak

Some friends sent me an emails about the idea of a $1,000 lifetime pass for seniors on Amtrak, similar to this one

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/05/lifetime-senior-passes-for-amtrak.html?

Modern trains are very efficient movers. They can typically move a ton of cargo about 430 miles on a gallon of fuel. Not only saving the environment, but also saving you money! But, the USA is way behind in train technology and especially public transportation. Detroit has convinced America that they need to have at least one car per person and more would be nice.

My own opinion is that I am all for dramatically better public transportation in America. It is my opinion that most Americans are brainwashed into the idea that that they have to have a car(s). This is only because they’ve never seen good public transportation. Few cities in America have even mediocre public transportation. The places that we visited in Europe so far, have far better public transportation, yet even it is far from perfect.

When I lived in the Seattle area, friends that worked with the Seattle bus company, said that it was difficult to get a good system going. It is expensive to initially install, and obviously in the beginning stages is not going to be very good. So, you’re in a Catch-22. You cannot get riders without a good system. You cannot get a good system without money, especially start up an infrastructure money in the beginning. You cannot get money without riders.

So is one of those, “You can’t get there from here.” Kind of problems.

So, I suggest that the people, like myself, that have enjoyed the convenience, low-cost, and freedom of a reasonable public transportation system, spread the word.

I inherited my mom’s car for little over a year recently. Janet inherited her dad’s car and we used it for a couple of years I think. But, only because we were in areas that did not have good public transportation. Other than that Janet had not owned a car since 1977 and I had not owned one since 1981. If you’ve never had a good alternative, this is going to seem like I am asking you to suffer. But, if you’ve been where you can easily jump onto public transportation that takes you very close to where you want at very close to the time you want, and is amazingly cheap. If then you compare that with the cost of owning and operating an automobile. Initial cost, maintenance, fuel, insurance, parking, the dangers of damage to your vehicle, even when it’s parked. Those costs add up to quite a bit if you’ll just sit down and honestly tally them up. I am assuming that most people never do that. They just think that having a car is what you have to do. It is certainly more convenient than not having any way to get anywhere. But, I think it only looks good because you have not seen any alternative. And frankly, I think that there is a conspiracy to dampen any movement towards public transportation in America. Huge sums of money are being siphoned out of our pockets by gigantic industries and they don’t want that to stop. Quite understandable.

In Lisbon, overnight parking for the typical automobile, which is quite small, cost much more than our hotel room. Fuel costs a great deal more than in the US. But, they have pretty good public transportation, so it makes it easy to decide. Unfortunately, in the USA is also easy to decide in most cities, because you don’t have a choice. I’ve not been to Los Angeles since 1981, but when I was there at that time to go to two stores, in slightly different directions, each about 5 miles away, took all day, and was not cheap. We were using public transportation, and I can understand why people think it sucks.

This is a large and complicated problem, and we are not going to solve it here. What I ask is that each of you, honestly, figure out how much money you can save if you did not own any powered vehicles. Be sure to do a proper job of calculating total cost of ownership. When you really start thinking about it you will discover that there are all sorts of hidden costs.

Once you understand how much you’re really paying for the convenience and pleasure of owning them, then imagine what if you could do all the things that you want to do quite easily at 10 or 20% of that expense? See if that idea has any appeal to you.

Thanks,

Dave

Janet climbing aboard in Spain

Peter wanted a photo of Med Mooring. Here is a shot of Janet about to climb over the bow in Spain. We put the bowsprit near the dock, pier, land, whatever, and climb over the railing. As you can see it would be harder to climb over the stern.

Dave

Lightning a little closer than one likes.

I was just told of a video at

http://www.zuma-paul.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html

Go down the page to
Thursday, 30 June 2011
Leg 14 – Hamble River to Brighton via Portsmouth

there is a video named
Leg 14 – Hamble River to Brighton via Portsmouth

At about 4:12 into the video, while he was filming lightning strikes in the near distance, it appears that one struck his boat, perhaps 3 feet in front of the camera. (Warning! This, very understandably, causes him to use strong language.) Turn off the sound if this might upset you.

Actually, although the closest I have been to a strike that I saw was in Costa Rica in 1987 and about 100 to 300 yards away, it seems to me that a strike 3 feet away would be VERY different than shown. There was a severe concussion of air in that Costa Rica strike. Janet & I were standing in the cockpit and were looking in the direction of the strike and were quite impressed. The atmospheric concussion that it caused was a strong physical blow. Even at at least 100 yards distance.

It was daytime and yet the flash was very bright.

I said, “… that I saw.” Because, in Texas in about 1960, I was in my Uncle’s house on the Gulf Coast and one strike had the flash and the boom at exactly the same time. We were indoors and I never learned what it struck, but I think it was much closer than 100 yards. Because of the absolutely no perceptible delay.

With the speed of sound commonly about 1,126 ft/s, there must have been something like 0.25 to 0.75 seconds delay in Costa Rica, but our senses were so overloaded that I was not counting. I sort of recall some small delay, but after so many years, I am not sure.

In any case, it is an interesting video. There are often small side strikes and I suspect that is what happened. He is very lucky to be alive.

Dave

Beginning to decompress

Someone asked about the paperwork and why it was so important.

I have finally launched Alegria and gotten the new, 5 year papers for her. (Like a visa for the boat.) and a 3 year multiple entry visa for me. The reason this is so very important is that under the new rules in Turkey I would have been required to leave at the end of May and stay outside of Turkey for 90 days, then I could come in for 90 days, then I had to leave for 90 days. This is a major hassle, because the permits for the boat are fairly expensive, and a bother. To check out of Turkey and check into Greece and then check back into Turkey makes it quite expensive. It would make Turkey no longer an interesting place to cruise.

I am also told that early next year they plan to require that you get your extended visa in your country of origin. This would add at least $1,500.00 and a lot of bother to every time I wanted to get the visa renewed. And it is not clear, that if in the future it will only be available for one year at a time.

I have been working very hard since my return to the boat. And, of course, I was working very hard for the prior three years. So, I am certainly going to try to decompress, and blend more enjoyment into my chores. Living on a boat there are always a lot of chores. One of the jokes is that, living on a boat, you can never hear, “There is nothing to do.”

Is very possible that there’s nothing to do that you WANT to do. But I can promise you, that if you own a boat, even a brand-new boat, there is always a list of things that need doing. There were things that needed doing when we flew to the states three years ago, and in our absence, the list has continued to grow.

Fortunately, over the years, we have made Alegria quite low maintenance, in every way we can think of. But, no boat will ever be zero maintenance. And, as I have repeatedly mentioned on the blog, there is a mountain of stuff that needs to be correctly stowed. And the inventory that we have of where everything is on the boat, is many years old. An inventory is only as good as how well it is kept up. When you get a new thing or get rid of an old thing, or if you move something to a better location, you must tell the inventory.

We were always pretty good at that, but we were never perfect. It is definitely time to create a new and accurate inventory. Also, it is time to get rid of a lot of old things so that the boat is not so crowded. We must keep many spare parts, and we have a large selection of ‘junk’ that is being saved because it is useful raw material when you need to make something. But space is limited and many tough choices will have to be made about what is worth keeping and what is not.

A common term for living on a boat the way Janet and I have for so many years is called “cruising.”

Cruising has been variously defined as ‘doing boat maintenance and exotic places.’

Or walking for many miles on a hot dusty road, or in a cold driving rain, carrying a heavy backpack, a load of laundry, and some bottles of water and/or fuel. All the while thinking how lucky I am to be here doing the things I love.

It is also been pointed out that cruisers can only be successful if they have very selective memories. The nature of the beast is that you have to put up with a lot of poop. Things that no rational person would really ever want to do twice. Or even once. But they go with the territory, so you do them. And you forget about how much you hated doing them at the time, but you remember all the many good times. The beautiful sunsets or dawns. The front row seat to watch nature. The wonderful people that you meet, and if you’re lucky, meet again in other ports. The joy of traveling in an RV, where you can take many belongings with you and have your own home, kitchen, bed and bath. But this RV enjoys traveling on water. Which means that you can go, at least in theory, over a huge portion of the globe.

Janet and I always preferred warm places. T-shirts and shorts, Palm trees, warm water to swim in, that sort of thing. However we have friends who enjoy the high latitudes and routinely sail to the Arctic or Antarctic. So, I guess that means there a lot of wacky people out here.

Well, I need to go organize something. More later.

Dave

I have been approved

I have been approved for a 3 year Residence Permit. Like a 3 year visa. I do not have to worry with the 90 days in Turkey, then stay out 90 days.

Big relief and many thanks to the many who helped.

Dave

Dave arrived back at Finike, safe and sound

I arrived back at the Finike marina, about 1 o’clock with two other boats that wanted to come into the marina close behind me. When the third boat in line called and asked to have the pilot boat, come out and escort them in, the marina said that the pilot boat was busy. We should all enter the marina very slowly and wait for the pilot boat to meet us, but there will be a small delay.

Well, it’s a fairly substantial marina and it made perfect sense that the little hard bottom inflatable with usually two marineross in it, would be busy helping one or several other people. So, especially being first in line, I just slowed way down and kept looking around for the little boat.

I don’t know how long the man had been standing there waving at me, but I finally realize that one of the marineros was standing on the end of our pier waving. When I waved back he signaled that I should come in. So, since I knew exactly where I was going I proceeded on in. But, I had asked that they bring out an extra marineros, that would get aboard the boat and help me. Janet and I have done this operation quite a few times. There are many things that can go wrong. And that is with two on board. It is sometimes more stressful than others. But, even in the best of times, it is a handful for two people. Three or more people would really be nice.

The usual situation here is that there is a long pier. They have permanent anchors down the middle of the fairway with strong lines attached that become small lines and go over to where the end of your boat will be tied up perpendicular to the pier. These are called slime lines, or probably more correctly messenger lines, or various other names. The first 20 feet or so of the line is pretty much guaranteed to be a major ecological preserve of marine life. Hence the name slime line. It usually has a float at the end to make it harder to drop in the water and lose track of it. Typically they are small lines. Commonly 3/8 of an inch, about a centimeter or less in diameter .They often did not even untie it from the pier they just come in and pick it up and run along it leaving the original end secured to the pier and as they work their way out that pulls up a more substantial line, two or three times the diameter of the slime line or messenger, that goes to the permanent anchor down the middle the fairway. In this marina they normally come out in a small boat and pull up the substantial line and hand it to the boat as they are approaching. So one person on Alegría needs to be adjusting the tension on that line and tying it to the correct part of the boat at the correct time.

One person needs to be driving the boat, to get us into it usually a very narrow spot, with big valuable boats on either side. And our priceless boat in the middle.

One or two people need to be at our bow, to throw lines to the pier, and usually be handed back the end of the line to attach to your boat. They almost always used two lines to the pier. Most boats back in, so that their stern is against the pier, or sea wall, whatever. The line from the anchor then goes to the other end of the boat.

So, when it is all over with, you have a fairly stable situation. Boats, usually touching each other, side-by-side. Hopefully with big fat fenders in between to prevent damage. These are the rubberlike inflatable things that either are sausage shape or teardrop shapedm hanging over the sides of the boats to minimize damage. As I said, you have two lines from the pier to one end of the boat. In our case the bow. In one line from the permanent anchor attached to the end of the boat away from the pier. A few marinas have two permanent anchor lines, which is much better

This is all great once it’s over with. The trick is getting into this configuration, with the wind blowing and sometimes a small current in the water, without hitting the boats on either side and damaging or being damaged.

You really need to be in several places at once, so it helps to have several people on the boat, one or two on the pier and a person in a small boat that can intercept and hand the anchor line to the boat and very often act as a tugboat, to push or pull or assist in various ways, that become apparent at the last instant and require very fast reflexes and a knowledge of the physics of the whole situation.

As an example, several years ago wherein the marina that had one particular marinero that did most of the dinghy work and we really did not like him at all. He seemed to us to be very incompetent. He would tell you or even require that you do things that were very dangerous and unnecessary and we have seen him act as a tugboat and decided he needed to push a boat and towards the pier, but did it with such force that they rammed the pier causing significant damage to their boats. But he seemed oblivious to the problems that he caused.

However, one day, we discovered that a small power boat with two engines next to us that was owned by a Dutch couple. They had a local agent charter it out 50 weeks out of the year, to earn money, and for two weeks of the year they came to Turkey to use it themselves. This would’ve been fine except that the gentleman did not have a clue how to run the boat. Even that would’ve been okay except that he was birthed right next to us. So, for two weeks, we had to try extremely hard to make sure that at least one of us was on Alegría at all times. The marinero staff at that marina knew that this guy was a loose cannon, and they tried very hard to intercept him as he entered the marina. They would take over the controls and drive the boat themselves. Bless them. However, occasionally, he apparently snuck in without them knowing. One such time, he had the boat completely out of control, going at much too fast, sliding sideways and about to run into us. The afore mentioned marinero that we did not like, probably had noticed the loose cannon coming into the marina and was hurrying in his small inflatable boat to catch up with them.

The disaster materialize very quickly, before much could be done, however the same afore mentioned marinero, in a blink of an eye, inserted his rubber boat in between Alegría and the out-of-control powerboat. He had less than a 10th of a second to spare, but became a perfect large fender and protected us both from major damage. Our estimation of his value skyrocketed at that moment. If we had a daughter he could’ve married her! Living proof that not everyone is all bad.

But back to my arrival. When I got close to my berth, I realize that there is one marinero on the pier, and one is quickly climbing out on the deck of the boat next to where I am supposed to dock., with the slime line in his hand. This is definitely not the best way to do the job, but all things considered it looked like it would be acceptable risk. I did a reasonable job of coming in all long side the boat and he handed me the slime line and we got some lines ashore. All without running into anything or having to use full emergency power from the engine.

One of the people on the boat that I was now along side of, kept giving me instructions about what I was doing wrong. English was not their first language, and I hope that the cause of the confusion. Because, what I thought he was saying, clearly had nothing to do with reality. The things that they wanted me to do, would’ve made the situation that they were concerned about worse not better. But I was having trouble explaining that to them in a manner that they understood. There is a nearly infinite reservoir of things that I know nothing about, but tying a boat up to a dock, and vector sums, and which way the boat is going to move if you put a line on it in a certain place, pointed in a certain direction and pull, these are things that I think I understand quite well.

However, the marineros were now repeating the process with the second boat in line. So, I asked my antagonist if we could continue this conversation later. Let’s get this new boat tied up first. It was coming in stern first. As I say, the more common way. But for most people a more difficult way, as you have to come in and turn around and then back into a place with great precision. It can be pretty comical and very expensive the first 50 times you try it. And especially when the wind is blowing and other things are happening to change the equations.

The people on that next boat did a reasonable job, but there were some unexpected surprises. Like when the slime line got caught in the fenders and the wind caught the boat and kept trying to push it into the boat on the other side.

But it all had a happy ending, with everyone wearing big smiles. I never did see where the third boat went. So then, I turned around to continue the conversation with the man who felt that I was doing it all wrong. However, he had been replaced by another man. As far as I know there are three men and a woman on the boat. This new man started what seemed to me to be a different conversation, and so I asked, “Is everything okay with the way we are tied up?”

He seemed to think it was just find and I knew enough not to ask him twice.

There are whole series of things that need to be done when you arrive in the port. Securing sails more thoroughly and putting covers on them to protect them from the sun. Making sure that all the lines are adjusted correctly.

It turned out that their small boat was temporarily broken. The steering cable had died. They fixed it within 20 minutes and then they were back in business. But due to the limitations of not having that small boat they had put me in A87, not my usual A85. While I was gone the boats around me had changed so I didn’t recognize the difference at first. But once Alegría got into the birth, I immediately noticed that there was a of power and water pedestal almost exactly in front of the boat. This is less than ideal, because I put the bowsprit slightly over the edge of the pier, and then climb on and off by climbing over the end of the bowsprit and anchor. That was going to be pretty difficult with the power pedestal right where I needed to be. However, I was quickly able to use an extra rope pulling the bow over to the side enough to clear the power pedestal and solve the problem.

I was in kind of hurrying to put the boat to bed, because I had learned late the day before that an acquaintance who was recently widowed was passing through the marina and was planning to leave the next day. We had corresponded by email and I very much wanted to stop by and have a chat.

Her husband had become very ill while we were gone. And passed away in March 2013. A couple of days ago she had sprinkled his ashes in a favorite place up the coast. So, we were members of that growing club of widows and widowers. Like far too many of you. Unfortunately, there seem to be more and more of us around. I wonder where we get the T-shirts? Probably online somewhere.

Speaking of dying, perhaps a month ago now, there was some excitement in the marina. An ambulance and several official cars, and some police cars, all converged and were here for quite a while. What I know of the story at the moment, was that a Swiss man flew back to the boat and his wife was going to join him in a week or two. She spoke with him every day on the phone. But, he had not phoned for a couple of days. She was worried and could someone please check the boat.

He had passed away on the boat without anyone knowing. I have not heard any official report, but it was assumed to be his heart.

My mother’s brother died in that manner, and they thought that perhaps he had been accidentally electrocuted. Because he was doing boat maintenance on the boat’s air-conditioner. However, he did have some heart problems, and I’m not sure that there was ever an official proof of how he died. It doesn’t really matter. The tragedy for his family, and of course for him, is the same either way. And here we see it again. But someone pointed out what an excellent way to go. He was down on his boat, doing what he loved.

I pointed out that maybe it was because he was down on his boat working on his to do list. And the list was growing so fast, with such difficult jobs that needed to be done, that his heart just couldn’t take it. I hope I have not offended anyone, particularly family and friends of the deceased. I mean no disrespect. It is just an attempt at humor, that helps me soften the blow.

Dave

Boat Jobs

I am, hopefully, about 3 hrs short of retuning to Finike and I see that I have cell phone / Internet access.

Some minutiae about getting ready to go to Greece that may not matter to anybody but me. This is not a complete list by any means.

One of the first things that I found that was going to be really annoying if I wanted to sail away, was that the VHF radio did not work. Our fancy ICOM VHF that we bought just before we left the USA in 2005, had died on us twice due to overheating of the final transistors. The second time we discovered that in their opinion the radio should not be used for more than five minutes out of every hundred. That is you could talk on it for five minutes but then you had to wait 95 minutes before you spoke again.

Nice idea for statistician, but when you need to use the radio it may be because the water is up to your knees and you don’t really want to have to stop talking and wait for a long time. The ham radio that we used to have, and this used to be common in ham radios, could transmit at full power continuously for years and not suffer any damage. It seems to me that of Marine VHF radio should be able to also.

When we found out that ICOM did not come anywhere close to sharing that view, we scratched them off our wish list. Also, as the warranty had just expired, it would cost that much more to have the radio repaired, then to buy a new radio, that is more modern, and has a full warranty. So, we told the repair man to keep the old radio for parts. Our gift.

Our backup radio since about 1984 has been a King VHF, that while old, has always worked. At least until I turned it on a couple of weeks ago. I thought perhaps some sort of memory battery needed to be recharged, so I left it plugged in for several days, but no joy. I was getting down to the wire on leaving, but it seemed really stupid for me to leave without any working VHF radio. We have two VHF handhelds but the older one needs a battery pack, because the battery pack died years ago and when we went back to the states, I bought some of the correct size batteries to install in the old battery pack, but have never gotten around to it. That lack of enthusiasm, is because at the same time, we also bought a nice new VHF handheld that filled the need. But, it has to be recharged, and though I distinctly remember seeing the charger for it when I first got back to the boat, it is nowhere to be found right now. It is on my list of things to look for.

Happily, just before leaving the USA in February, I bought a brand-new, fancy by today’s standards, VHF radio that I was planning to install when things calm down. So, this became one of the reasons that I was up to 2 o’clock in the morning, Thursday morning. I installed a temporary power connection and also rearranged the coaxial cable so that that radio works just fine. I did not have time to hook up the GPS, so many of its geewhiz safety features, like DSC & AIS do not yet work. But I can now send and receive.

Also, even though we always carry paper charts, we have relied on electronic charts since 1999. These require a computer in order to run. In order for the computer to survive more than a day or two, it is required that it be attached firmly to the boat, so that it does not go flying the first time the boat tips or rocks around. Fortunately we were planning to use 3M command strips. Therefore I had quite a few with me (and happily, I knew where they were!), and they did the job. The first attempt did not really work, but the beauty of command strips is that you can take them off again easily. And the second attempt seems to be quite acceptable.

The other requirement is that the GPS be able to talk to the computer to let you know where you are on the world, and the way that I have previously done it since 2005, did not seem to work at midnight or whatever time it was when I tested it. After a bunch of adjusting and fooling around I got it to tell positions to the computer, but the GPS was not being powered by the ships batteries and the AA batteries in the unit, would run out after six or eight hours. Acceptable, but not desirable.

So I jury rigged a system using a USB data cable, and happily the OpenCPN charting software, can understand that that this USB cable is telling the position, rather than the normal serial cable. So the computer, and the digital charts worked fine. Of course, with only one person on board, it is not nearly as easy as the old situation, where Janet would drive, and I would come down and tell her instructions while watching the electronic chart. I realize that many of you have the computer right in the cockpit, but I think that is asking for trouble with an ordinary computer, and the screen is very difficult to read in sunlight. So we have always kept it below in the salon.

Several friends have also purchased a weatherproof LCD monitor, that is daylight visible, and that they can put in the cockpit. They then control the computer using a remote wireless mouse in a zip lock bag. I will probably investigate that option as it would make things much safer for this poor old single hander.

However, since I do not have these new gadgets presently, this meant that I could not do a somewhat tricky approach to the Greek island, that required passing between two rocks and avoiding many small reefs to come into actually a nicer anchorage. But, it worked out just fine to go in the main entrance, which is quite easy.

There was lots more excitement that very long night, but those are some of the biggies. I tested the autopilot at the dock, because I would not have left at all, with it not working. Not when I’m single handing for the first time in many years. But, it seemed to be working fine. Like so many things, it was only when I was actually relying on it that I found out that it was wacko.

Anyway, the whole trip actually turned out very well. But there were many times that I was having more excitement than I really wanted. I did not fall overboard. Primarily because that would’ve meant almost certain loss of the boat, and would’ve meant a long swim to shore. At times I’m not sure I could swim that far.

I wear an inflatable life vest that is also a safety harness and I clip into the boat whenever possible. This means that I have an extremely strong rope that is not very long connecting me to a very strong part of the boat. The idea being that it would be impossible to get separated from the boat. I am very aware that it is extremely easy to get quite banged up, perhaps injured, if I were to fall on deck or especially hang over the side, but in theory one should be able to climb back on board.

I have always enjoyed going barefoot when the weather was nice, but years ago another cruising friends said that they never go barefoot when they’re on a passage of even a short distance. Like a day sail.

I asked them why, and they replied that because it is so easy to injure your feet when you are barefoot. In their case, I think that that was especially true, because I always felt that their boat had a lot of things the jam your foot against. Deck cleats and other fittings that could seriously injure your feet. Fortunately, when we were building Alegria I had already discovered how dangerous some of these common things are, and so we tried very hard to make Alegria is foot friendly as possible. However, and is a gigantic however, in the years since, I have several times severely injured my feet while going barefoot. One time I am pretty sure that I broke a toe. It healed after a few weeks, although I continued to jam it on things before it was completely healed, and had to start the healing process over again several times.

So, even though when there were two of us we usually went barefoot if we wanted to, for now I am wearing shoes until I get back to Finike. I do not want to take a chance on getting gimped up.

There are ways that one can stay attached to the boat, and we have all the equipment to do it. One way is using a much longer rope, that allows you to stay attached at all times that you’re out of the cabin. For the truly paranoid you can stay attached while you’re in the cabin. However, I made an executive decision to not utilize that. The conditions were so calm. We have very high lifelines. (A strong rope railing that surrounds the boat that is more than knee-high even on me.)

The reason being that the risk of tripping or somehow injuring myself due to that long rope is greater than not having it. And the frustration factor is dramatically higher when you use it. At least that is been my experience the many times I have used it in the past. If the weather had been bad in the motion of the boat had been greater, I certainly would have used it, but when it was practically like being at the dock, I took the risk. Not using the long rope makes moving around the boat so much easier and faster, that I felt it was an appropriate trade-off. Of course, I was also extremely careful when moving about. Was it the smartest thing I’ve ever done? Probably not, but it certainly would was not even close to the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. That’s a long and embarrassing list.

Anyway, those are just a few of the things that kept me up till 2:30 AM the night of my departure. They were predicting strong winds during the middle of the day that would be right on my nose. I very seriously considered leaving as soon as I could. Which would of course be in the middle of the night. And trying to get close to the island and time my arrival to the trickier navigation area near the island after the sun came up. I would just get close to the island and navigate through the hazards in daylight. There are virtually no off-line dangers from Finike until you get quite close to Castellorizo. The water is too deep for crab pots which are a plague in many parts of the Mediterranean. It seems like at least half of the crab pot floats that we have seen are painted black. All black. Is that so that it won’t worry you as you’re going through the dark and can barely see them? This way you won’t be able to see them at all and so be reassured? Under most conditions even makes them very hard to find in the daytime.

Two people would like very much to know where they are. The fisherman who is planning to pull up his trap and take out whatever it is that has been caught, and the boater, who would like to not get the rope around his prop. I cannot imagine what possesses them to paint them jet black. But they did not ask me and I doubt if they care about my opinions.

But, by 230AM I was still 30 minutes to an hour away from being done, and my last project was to pile the large collection of stuff that could not yet be stored where it’s supposed to be, on my bed in the bow. There are two kinds of objects aboard the boat. Objects that are correctly stored in a good place. Hopefully their permanent homes. And objects that are not correctly stowed, which are alsoknown by their propensity to fly about the boat when you go to sea.

I thought it better to get a couple of hours sleep on that bed and and get up at 5 AM and pile the stuff. Naturally, it took longer than I thought to pile the stuff and take a shower. I had planned to leave at first light, which is presently about 5:45 AM, but at least got the engine started at 6:16 AM and got away from the dock without smashing into my neighbor or anything else.

It was certainly not a perfect departure. There were a couple of tense moments when I thought I’d miscalculated, but we did not touch anything and if the pilots have a saying, ‘That any landing you can walk away from is a good one’, then I would say any landing or departure that you don’t break anything is a fantastic one! So this one was fantastic.

The thing that cause stress in this case, occurred when you have a 26,000 pound boat that whatever changes you desire, to turn faster or to go faster or slower, takes a long time to arrange. You have to be planning way ahead. And so, as I backed out of the berth , my haste in putting the boat in forward, to make sure that I did not back into the boats downwind of me, turned out to be significantly premature. If I had just waited a little while longer, before going into forward, we would not have come quite as close to to the sterns of the other boats upwind, and I would’ve been a much happier camper. We by no means got frighteningly close, but when you’re in the business of thinking way ahead, but not very good at it yet, I was not so sure just how close we were going to be.

The jib, our forward most sail, is very important. It rolls in and out like an old-fashioned roller blind. Or rather it is supposed to be able to. However, in the time we of been gone the large ball bearings at the bottom have gotten quite difficult to turn. For some reason the ones at the top which appear to be absolutely identical turn just as nice as you please. Absolutely perfectly. Like new. But the ones at the bottom are extremely difficult to turn. I have no idea why this agony has been thrust upon me. It does not seem to be salt buildup or dirt buildup or any of the theories that have been suggested. But it definitely is a problem. I can get a replacement part from the US for only $140 plus shipping, and it may well come to that, but the shipping would be about another hundred dollars and who knows what customs would decide that I owed them. So, I’m trying to fix it myself. I do not need it for a year. We have other sails and an engine. And I am almost back to the marina.

Now that I will, hopefully, soon have more discretionary time. I hope to forensically discover what the problem is. So that it never happens again. And I may even be able to fix the one I have.

The manufacturer, Schaefer, like many companies, does not seem to understand how marine corrosion works. If I can remove the bearings that from the housing, I would know a huge amount more about what has failed. But I cannot due to corrosion. Having some years of experience in this field, but not nearly as many man years as the manufacturer, I think I could’ve designed it in such a way that you could take it apart after to been in use for several years. But they failed to do that.

Now that I know that that is a serious problem with this unit, when it arrives, I will try to disassemble it and put the best greases that I know of into the best places that I can think of, in the hopes that I will be able to disassemble it in the future if it becomes necessary.

The ball bearings are a special hard plastic that are designed to run without any lubrication and so do not need to be sealed from the elements, in fact a little rain water or seawater once in a while would be a good thing. I think that is an excellent design philosophy. There are two rows of ball bearings, and I am seriously concerned that the problem isn’t the bearings, but is that a little corrosion got in between one side of one of the bearings and the rest of the assembly. This change the dimensions between the bearings and so they are pushing against each other. I put it in a hydraulic press and pushed on it quite firmly, but cannot get anything to move at all. So, am trying running a little bit of grit, Comet and plastic polish as two different abrasives to wear something down and until it’s loose. However, the more I think about it, the more I think that may not be what’s wrong at all and that I need to address what is really wrong. So I hope to build a better hydraulic press, or find someone who has a good one, that will let me try it and see if I can get things to come apart.

Well the thing I was waiting for is ready to be worked on again so I will go do that rather than continue putting you to sleep.

Dave

I arrived safely back in Turkey

Alegria and I arrived safely back in Turkey just before 4PM Thursday. I at Kaş Marina quite close to Kastelorizo. I am berthed at 36 12.3070 N, 029 37.6010 E.

They are predicting bad weather Saturday and the propeller shaft is making a funny noise. Usually that is coral or something grows on the shaft and I need to clean it off. It would have been easier to do out of the water, but I did not know that it was a problem then.

Well, I think I mentioned that I only got 2 hrs sleep last night, so even though it is 5:42PM, I am going to unload the bed and try it out.

Good thing that I piled the loose items in the bunk. We took some big rolls and even so, some stuff went flying. My Stugeron worked great though. I take it for anti sea sickness. No side effects and it is dirt cheap in Turkey. Not available in the USA.

Dave

I tried to send this, using my cell phone MiFi device at 545, but it did not send, even though I was online, just fine at the time. I got up at 0630 and noticed and it STILL will not send. MS Windows Live Mail is not very good. This is typical of the stuff that I have to put up with with MS in general.

Well, I will deal with that later. I need a weather report, to fix the noise in the propeller shaft and to take a shower,

Underway for Greece

I launched Wed before noon. I started the engine at 06:16 this morning (Thur) and Left soon after. I am headed for Greece. The autopilot was goofy for a while and that was bad. I could not do didly if I had to drive the whole way. And the self steering would repeatedly try to take over and go in circles. It is VERY powerful, and if it is screwy, you are well and truly screwed, until you make it happy. The fact that it was turned off did not seem to matter. It was quite possessed for a while.

In true McGiver fashion, I just kept trying things until I found the several problems. Mothers don’t let your kids grow up to neglect boats, to paraphrase the song.

It helped a lot that I designed and built it and have been using and maintaining it since 1977. But, it had me thoroughly  cosmogrified for a while.

I need to go watch more. Popping up and checking the horizon and then coming down to type a few words is not much fun, but I thought I would try to get this off on my cell phone WiFi gizmo if I can find a tower.

I had 2 hrs sleep last night, but hope to get the paperwork all done today or tomorrow and take off a LOT of pressure.

Dave

Written about 07:40AM