Tag: voyage (Page 2 of 3)

August 27, 2008 Wednesday

There was a bit of unwanted excitement last night. At 2:30 AM Nancy woke me. She had a radar contact that was getting closer and was now down to under two miles. The radar trace looked like a rain shower but she was not sure. Through my bleary eyes the contact looked like a rain shower to me too so I opened the hatch and looked outside: no clouds, no moon, and bright stars. So I grabbed the starlight scope and looked in the direction of the contact and saw lights. By now I could see the lights with my naked eye: white lights fore and aft and green. Damn. He was crossing our bow from left to right at high speed. I called Bert from his sleep but he arrived just after the big ship crossed our path about 1/2 mile ahead, making a huge smear across the radar. There was no radio call, no nothing. The big ship simply raced off to the north. None of us are happy. Fortunately no harm was done and I got a very sobering experience.

Bert, now wide awake, took the wheel and to my surprise I fell asleep and slept until 7:30. I guess I was tired. I relieved Bert right after I awoke. All is well but I have five targets on the radar to keep an eye on. There’s a lot of shipping in the Yucatan Channel. At one point I had a freighter on our starboard quarter making 9 knots on a collision course but before I hailed him he altered course slightly and passed 1/4 mile astern of us. I took photos. The Kodan radar is a terrific tool because it will track multiple targets, show their course and speed, and warn of targets on a collision course. An enormous freighter making 22 knots passed us eight miles off so I got photos of him also.

Sunrise in the Gulf of Mexico. Don’t miss the ship in the image. Click to view larger.

The seas were getting bumpier so I stowed the second salon chair on top of my belongings and lashed it down. I was tired of it rolling around in the salon and nobody was using it anyway. The sun was hot by 8:30 AM so I turned on the pilothouse A/C. The seas were getting increasingly rolly with sets of swells coming from all directions. I had heard that the Yucatan Channel was kind of wild and it is. Swells and currents are funnelled into the constriction between Cuba and the Yucatan and the ride was no longer the nice flat sea we had before. The northbound current here is very apparent. We are running full speed but only making 3.4 knots over the ground.

Click to view larger.

Early morning in the Gulf of Mexico. Don’t miss the ship at the center. Click to view larger.

Bert came back on watch at 9:30 AM to check weather reports and his ham radio skeds so I got busy working on the windshield wipers. They have been broken / inoperable for quite a long time but one can’t complain since they are 36 years old. I tried to save the original mechanisms but there was no way. One was shot completely. Two had been previously repaired or replaced and they were cemented in place with epoxy. Why they were installed that way is a mystery. The nuts and backing nuts work just fine without any glue. I spent pretty much all day working on them and ended up having to destroy them and drill out the thick three-inch long brass bushings with a 5/8-inch drill. The project was made all the more interesting with the boat pitching and rolling in the seas. It’s good exercise. But now there are nice clean holes for new wiper motors assemblies to be installed.

Nancy in the galley of M/V Vagabond. Click to view larger.

Another freighter. Click to view larger.

By early afternoon we got into the swifter current in the Yucatan Channel that is the birthplace of the Gulf Stream. At full speed we were making only 2.5 knots over the ground. By late afternoon Bert had had enough and he altered course to the west to get out of the worst of the current, then headed south again towards Isla Mujeres.

August 26, 2008 Tuesday

I awoke at 6:30 AM. Nobody woke me for my watch because Bert rose during the night and relieved Nancy. I did not mind. I relieved Bert and enjoyed the quiet time on the bridge to get organized and do some writing.

The quarters A/C blew the replacement capacitor during the night. It was an old cap so I was not surprised. I dug into the ship’s stores and found more caps and some “rescue kits” which are capacitors that have built-in electronic protection. Very handy that Bert had those in stock. In order to check all of the electrical components on the A/C compressor including the sensor switch on the side of the compressor housing I had to tear the electrical box apart because it was assembled with pop rivets that were not accessible, so I couldn’t drill them out. Oh well. Everything checked out fine so I installed the special self-protecting capacitor and the compressor worked fine, and continued working fine for the rest of the trip. Bert then cooked up a pancake breakfast and I spent most of the day taking photos and keeping an eye on the machinery.

The bridge of M/V Vagabond at night. Nothing on the radar. Yay. Click to view larger.

Early morning in the Gulf of Mexico, north of Cuba. Notice the chain from 25 foot long starboard stabilizer boom to the water. That chain runs down to a heavy steel stabilizer bird with wings that “flies” from 8 to 12 feet underwater. The bird is designed to fly forward through the water with little resistance. The bird will readily dive deeper but resists being pulled up. There’s one on each side of the boat. These greatly reduce rolling motion of the boat for a smooth ride. Click to view larger.

Early afternoon Bert stopped the boat for a swim. With the main engine shut down and before I went swimming I added two more liters of oil to the engine. Adding oil seemed to improve the overheating problem. Now with the engine stopped I could get an accurate dipstick reading. The oil level was indeed low.

This is the port stabilizer boom with chain running to the bird underwater, as explained above. Notice the ship in the distance. Click to view larger.

The swim was fantastic. The water temperature was perfect and this time the water was not just tropical clear but absolutely clear. The last time we stopped there were some little bits of sargasso seaweed in the water but this time it was so clear it was unbelievable. The water at this spot was 11,000 feet deep and there was absolutely nothing in the water. Visibility was unlimited. No matter how far I swam from the boat, with my dive mask on, underwater, on it looked like Bert and Nancy were right next to me. Visibility was perfect. The bright sunlight allowed me to see a long way down and I spent quite a while just floating and staring down into the water. The sunlight reflecting and refracting up from below was a spectacular light show. I never saw anything in the water; no fish, not even a single particle of anything in the water. One odd thing I noticed was the saltiness of the water at this spot. It was extremely salty, saltier than any seawater I’ve ever tasted. It was so salty it made my eyes burn.

Carnival cruise ship approaching to pass us astern. Click to view larger.

The same Carnival cruise ship after passing behind us. Click to view larger.

We showered in fresh water and got underway again. It seems the slight overheating of the was caused by a combination of low oil, plus a partially clogged keel cooler, plus 93 degree seawater. With another two liters of oil the engine temperature dropped four degrees back to where it is supposed to be and I reset the alarm back down to the correct temperature. I made triple backups of my photos thus far and developed a scheme for running regular backups of the several gigabytes of photos I expected to take along the way. I sent a short email to my daughter via Winlink so she would not worry. We are sailing ahead of Hurricane Gustav, across its likely path, so we are making all possible speed for Isla Mujeres. The hurricane is still more than 700 miles away so I am not worried but better safe than sorry and we are watching it very carefully. At Isla Mujeres we only plan to make a technical stop, take on fuel, and keep going, getting to Rio Dulce, Guatemala as quickly as possible.

This heron was tired. We’re 100 miles from the nearest land, the northern coast of Cuba. He stopped to rest for a while and seemed completely unafraid of me. Click to view larger.

Sunset in the Gulf of Mexico, north of Cuba. Click to view larger.

Bert cooked up a huge dinner of steak and mashed potatoes. After dinner I did some writing and then went to bed. Nancy has the first watch.

August 25th, 2008 Monday

I got up at 7:20 AM. I was still a bit tired but felt far better than I did last night. Yesterday was a very long day. We ate breakfast and then I did more work on the boat, mainly rust patrol. I also checked the engine oil and found it a bit low so I added about two liters. An accurate oil level measurement was not possible with the engine running.

In the early afternoon we stopped in the middle of the ocean where it was fairly calm with long but gentle swells and went swimming in the clear tropical water. It was fantastic. I grew up swimming in Southern California (green) saltwater but I had never swam in tropical saltwater. The clarity was expected but was still stunning, plus I had not swam in saltwater at all for about 25 years. The water temperature was 84 degrees F. I grabbed a mask and marveled at the visibility underwater. I took the opportunity to inspect the bottom of the boat and discovered that the main engine’s keel cooler was about one-third clogged with barnacles, which explained part of the overheating problem.

Heading south off the western coast of Florida, heading for the Dry Tortugas. Here, I’m facing northwest in the late afternoon. Click to view larger.

After the swim we all showered so as not to track saltwater into the boat and we got underway again. I got the GPS hooked up to my little Eee PC and got my Sea Clear II navigation software running. The little Eee PC does the job just fine. I’m taking lots of photos and videos and hope to edit the videos together to make a little record of the trip.

Here’s a marker light off the western coast of Florida.

Flying fish are a constant presence in this part of the Gulf but they are a species I have never seen before. The flying fish in Southern California can only glide for short distances. These fish in the Gulf not only glide but actually fly for tremendous distances, hundreds of yards and I am trying to capture them on video but it is surprisingly difficult. Each morning we have to check the boat for fish that landed on the deck during the night and pitch them overboard.

View ahead. We’re heading south southwest in late afternoon. Notice the flat calm water. We intentionally departed right after the passage of a hurricane to benefit from the calm wind and sea that occurs right after a hurricane. Under these conditions, the water looks eerie, like oil. Hurricane Fay had just passed and we had a time window between hurricanes, before Hurricane Gustav would arrive. M/V Vagabond sailed along rock steady without using the stabilizers. Click to view larger.

In the late afternoon we discovered that the quarters air-conditioning unit failed (there are four air-conditioning systems on the boat). The quarters A/C is the most powerful unit on the boat and fortunately its compressor is located in the engine room and easy to access and work on. I discovered that the starting capacitor had swelled and exploded so I replaced it with another.

Nancy took first watch and I fell asleep at 11:30 PM.