Just one small boat project...right?!

 One simple project is never just one simple project...

An oil change, a thorough engine room clean, followed by a quick replacement of some rudder bits.  Easy peasy, done in just an hour or two.  Might even have time to do the second engine and rudder, yes?!

Hahaha...you would think after nearly 6 years living on a boat, we would know better.  After all D’s favourite saying is “everything is broken on a boat, we just don’t know it yet”.

We are pros at dropping the rudders having done it a number of times already both in and out of the water.  This is always one’s downfall...overly confident...because this time could we get the rudder to budge?!  Nope.  Hitting it with a mallet got us nowhere.  D trying to pull it down from under water.  Nope.  More hitting it with a mallet....finally it broke free and dropped out.  

What was the problem?!  The smallest amount of growth on the rudder post between the two rudder bearings.  Gah!?  How could such tiny sea creatures cause us hours of frustration?

Okay, beauty, scrape off the growth, replace rudder parts that started this whole mess and reinstalled.  Job well done...

But of course this is not the end to the story.  Mucking with the rudder means, water comes into the engine room and the now newly cleaned engine room is no longer clean and dry.  So just a quick clean, empty out the bilge and then done!  Yes?!  NO!!

Of course not...suddenly the bilge pump that worked just mere hours earlier with the first clean is not working.  Right.  

This is probably a good time to mention that when I say engine “room”, it is a bit misleading.  It is an area where the engine takes up the vast majority of the space with perhaps a foot of clearance around the perimeter of the engine.  This means trying to access anything on the bottom of this said engine “room”, involves D straddling the engine and basically lying on the engine with his head and shoulders upside down.

And of course any appropriately located bilge pump is in the deepest, darkest recesses possible.  D manages to remove the pump.  From my perspective, I swear he only waved the screwdriver over it and voila like the magician he is, we have a functioning bilge pump again.  Whew!  That is one spare we don’t have and to buy any spares here in French Polynesia basically requires the need to mortgage the boat. 

And for today?!  The second engine oil change and rudder will have to wait for the pain of yesterday to fade.  But not to worry, D did have to fix the outboard engine when it sputtered and died on the girls and I, so he did not get the day off of fixing broken stuff.

The Rollercoaster Ride Continues!

How does one make plans with the constant evolution that comes with a global pandemic?!  The saying used to be “sailors make plans at low tide”, but now making plans are only as good from one government announcement to the next.  As it has been for everyone, 2020 was one hell of a mind trip of trying to create Plans A through Z for us and so far 2021 is shaping up to be more of the same.

We thought our plans were iron-clad....yes, this was naive.  For the last few months our plan of going to Japan, followed by Alaska and ending in BC, has remain unchanged.  These countries have continued to be open to us.  We were merely weeks away from departing French Polynesia for our 5,400 mile, roughly six weeks non-stop at sea, journey to Japan’s shores.  And then....

....our friends start texting us saying “Did you hear....Japan has closed their borders to all foreigners?”  DAMN!!  The new strains of the virus have arrived in Japan and they responded as they needed for the safety of their population.  We immediately email the agent in Japan.  Does this end our “iron-clad” plans??  Apparently, all might not be lost...the take on the new announcement is that there is a loophole for sailboats.  Good news, yes?!

We are skeptical.  Really in a conundrum of what to do.  Once we set sail for a course to Japan, we have very few options where we could stop along the way if Japan announces further changes that would prevent us from entering.  Only Guam and Saipan currently would allow us to stop with a 14 day quarantine on board.  Of all those little island nations you can see on the map between French Poly and Japan, just TWO would allow us to stop.  And to be clear, we fully respect the sovereignty of these nations to do what they need to do to protect their people.

To put this distance in perspective.  If it were possible to sail straight across Canada from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast, we are planning to sail the equivalent of a round trip across Canada.  So the question remains, what the heck do we do?!  Do we leave on this long trip that does involve leaving during the cyclone season in the Southern Hemisphere to sail through where typhoons are born in the Northern Hemisphere to attempt to reach a country that is on the brink of a lockdown?!  

You would think the answer is obvious.  But it is not for us.  All four of us have absolutely fallen in love with the idea of sailing to Japan.  So we are back into the wait and see pattern 2020 gave us.  We will wait for early February to see how things evolve for Japan, see if a full lockdown is announced, before we make a final decision...or ultimately we wait to see if the decision is made for us.

In the meantime, we try to make the most of being caught in a spectacular part of the world.  All of us on Maple wish everyone a very Happy and Healthy New Year!

Ringing in the New Year hiking on Bora Bora.

 

Character Building?!

We arrived safely in Corfu Friday morning after our first two night passage.  It was wonderful to see the beautiful fort greeting us again.  Hard to believe it is nearly three months since we were last here and yet it feels like it was yesterday.  

It took us 48 hours from the time we pulled up the anchor in Lastovo, Croatia to Corfu, Greece.  We had a bit of a shaky start to the day.  As I started to pull up the anchor the control for the windlass (the lovely machine that pulls up the anchor for me) went on the fritz.  It completely died.  Grrrr!  Once we opened up the remote control we discovered it clearly was no longer waterproof and the circuit board inside was corroded.  Well good ol' Darryl to the rescue.  Honestly there is clearly nothing that boy can't do, who knew a Commerce degree and 15 years working in insurance would make him so handy.  He just happened to have a two-way switch on board, so he spliced the wires and used the switch to create a temporary controller for the windlass.  After an hour delay we were on our way.  

We needed to check out of Croatia and fuel up before we could leave.  We went from where we were anchored in Pasadur, around the island of Lastovo, to Ubli where the port police and fuel dock are located.  Sure enough the port police were not around and had to be called for us.  We were told it would be a 10 to 15 minute wait but it turned out to be more like an hour to hour and a half wait.  (Enough time for Ella and I to bake muffins.)  So from when we first attempted to pull up the anchor at 8am, to finally pulling the anchor at 9am, we did not officially leave Lastovo until 11:30am on Wednesday.  

Overall the two days went really smoothly.  Unfortunately winds were light on day two so we really did far more motoring than sailing.  We had a too close for comfort lightning storm heading into our first night but managed to not get hit, which seemed miraculous considering how close it was to us.  We had visits from dolphins on each day.  The second time was amazing as the four of us sat at the bow with a front row seat to the dolphins playing in our bow wave.  What an incredible experience.  As Ella said “this is WAY better than the Aquarium”. 

I wasn't going to bother trying to capture the dolphins in a picture as I knew it wouldn't happen, instead got the next best thing which was a picture of us enjoying the personal dolphin show.

We also had the odd experience of squid jumping onto our boat both nights.  I had no idea that squid jumped.  The morning after our first night we had two stow-a-ways, who did not fair well from jumping on deck.  The second night no squid were left behind, but they left massive amounts of ink spots all over our deck and down the side of the hull.  Any tips on removing squid ink from gelcoat because it is proving challenging to remove???

We wanted to use them as bait for fishing but we were too scared to have the fishing line in the water while the engines were on.  The last prop wrap was just too recent.

Then there is the night sky.  To have nearly no light pollution other than our instruments, and steaming and navigational lights, the stars are beyond incredible.  I will admit I am not one to really pay attention to the sky normally.  But to sit there during your night watch and see the expanse of stars, the milky way and even saw two shooting stars (although Ella corrected me saying they would be meteors, not shooting stars) were stunning.  It is really the best part of the night watches. 

By 8:30am on Friday morning we were heading into Corfu!  We headed to the same anchorage we used three months ago.  What a difference three months makes.  Clearly the charter boat season is nearing its end as last time we were here there were dozens of boats in the anchorage, this time there were only two of us.  However, apparently our ability to anchor has not improved in that three month period.  It took us FIVE tries to anchor the darn boat.  Our anchor does not like weeds and this anchorage has only random sandy spots.  With Ella at the bow desperately trying to spot the sandy spots for me to drop anchor it was a challenging hour to get the boat secured.  After two nights with limited sleep, Darryl and I were at this point less than patient with each other with each failed attempt.  But Ella persevered and found us a sandy spot we were finally able to get the anchor to stick.  Whew!

Land ho!!!  A welcome sight after 48 hours of sailing.

We knew the wind was going to pick up Friday evening but we made the decision to stick it out in the anchorage.  Well…it was the WRONG decision!  Darryl ended up sleeping in the cockpit as we were convinced the anchor would drag and we would end up on the rock wall very near us.  The swells all night were ridiculous.  Including at one point it rocked us so badly that basically everything sitting on shelves, table and counters hit the floor in one noisy cascade!!!  Needless to say Darryl and I had a third sleepless night in a row.  How is it that the girls sleep through it all?!!?

So this morning we made a hasty retreat and moved to a sheltered town quay.  It doesn't offer water or electricity but provides us with protection from very strong winds and swells!  We clearly should have come here yesterday but oh well, we are learning as we go here.  Of course, nothing seems to be easy and we had yet another "character building experience" as Darryl likes to call it (yes, I hate it when he says that!). 

At this town quay, we need to Med moor, which is really, really hard!!!  You have to figure out roughly two to three boat lengths from the dock to drop the anchor and back down on the dock as you lay your anchor chain.  You then stern tie to the dock and the idea is the anchor holds your bow steady.  Well this only works if the anchor actually sticks.  And of course you can't really figure out whether it has done the trick or not until your stern starts pounding against the dock.  So guess what, that is exactly what happened.  So we had to cast off from the dock, pull up the anchor and try it again.  Now you remember earlier how we had to create our own windlass remote, oh and that there are really strong winds and swells?!?!  Right, so the remote for the windlass craps out as I am trying to raise the anchor while Darryl is desperately trying to control the boat against winds gusting off our port side while in a confined space with a lovely rock breakwater off our starboard.  Great combination really.  

So we make the decision to venture out of the protection of the quay to try to sort out the windlass as I am stressed to the max trying to keep the boat off the rocks while Darryl yanks up the anchor by hand.  While out there the swells are ridiculous and our wind indicator records winds up to 33 knots.  It was lovely. Darryl sorts out the windlass.  Decision is made to return to the quay to try to Med moor yet again.  With an audience on the dock forming (which is always my favourite scenario), Darryl does a beautiful job of backing the boat into the spot we had left and I manage to get the anchor to actually stick.  Whew!  If character building involves copious amounts of cursing and yelling at each other, then I guess I will call that a win for character building.  

Now I just really, really need some sleep!!!

Pretty much sums up sailing for me!

 The Other Coast by Adrian Raeside

© Creators Syndicate, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

October 13, 2013 from www.gocomics.com

Murphy Strikes Again

A wise man once said “If anything’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen out there.”  Truer words have never been spoken when it comes to the day we experienced yesterday.  After spending a month in Venice where Darryl accomplished a great deal of work on the boat in both maintenance and improvements, we needed to leave to start our trip back south.  We left Venice on Tuesday with the plan to sail overnight to Zadar, Croatia arriving Wednesday around noon.  Well best laid plans and all….

By Wednesday morning we were experiencing horrible swells and 20 knot winds.  To put it simply it was miserable.  However, my seasickness was not to be the worst of the day.  It started when the port engine shut down.  It didn’t take long for us to realize what had happened.  The halyard (in non-fancy sailing language that is a rope) for the main sail had been swept off the front deck, had made its way to the back of the boat and had cleverly wrapped itself around our port propeller.  Lovely.  Okay…interesting.  (Although stronger language was used.)  They don’t teach you this in sailing school, although they do strongly suggest you avoid running over stuff that can result in this exact scenario. 

This meant Darryl had to get into the water and attempt to cut the rope free.  After much diving down, he managed to at least cut the rope off, but couldn’t get the tightest wrap off.  Darryl is such a rock star, coming out of the water bleeding from a ton of barnacle cuts on his hands and legs without a complaint.  Now with the halyard cut, it meant we could no longer lower the main sail.  So we are now down an engine and limited use of a sail.

But hey, the beauty of catamarans is they are equipped with two engines.  No one I am sure in the history of sailing has ever managed to knock out two engines and a sail in one passage, right?!  Well look at us, we like to set a new standard for screwing things up while sailing.  So basically as soon as we have come to terms that we are down an engine and sail, we notice white smoke being emitted from our starboard engine.  (Insert more expletives here.)  Huh, interesting, what does that mean?  Referring to our trusty diesel mechanics bible, we eliminated the two problems it suggested.  So with me throwing up over the side of the boat, I managed to still keep us sailing using only our jib (the sail on the front for you non-sailors), while Darryl is being bashed around in the starboard engine room (“room” is generous, it is really a space that is only large enough for the engine), trying to source the problem.

An example of Darryl's work space in the engine rooms from a different passage.  See how spacious they are, especially with the rudder post hitting him while underway?!?

So here we are off the coast of Croatia, down two engines and a sail.  The smart decision is made to head to the closest port where we can check into the country and hopefully find a marina where we can pull the boat out of the water and sort out the port prop and figure out what the problem is with the starboard engine.  Mali Losinj was the closest harbour.  We manage to sail there and only turned on the starboard engine to get us docked at the customs dock.

We have already been in Croatia so we still have a valid 90 day cruising permit, so we figured checking in would be a breeze.  Well the shitty day is not quite done.  Turns out our newly installed AIS, a device that allows us to see other boats on our chart and for us to be seen, was to be turned against us.  Some hardworking Croatian port police supervisor was diligently doing their job and saw us on AIS a while ago in Croatian waters.  So when we showed up hours later in Mali Losinj, he felt we took too long to get there so it must mean we stopped somewhere else before checking into the country.  This is obviously a big no-no, which we fully understand and comply with.  Fortunately this supervisor was only on the phone and we dealt with a lovely port police officer in person who after 3 separate phone calls with her supervisor, made the independent decision to not charge us the penalty the supervisor wanted her to charge us.  A penalty?!!?!  For taking too long to arrive???  That really would have been the icing on the cake if we had been levied a fine upon our arrival in Croatia. 

The girls were so amazing for the entire day!  They kept to themselves (thank goodness for movies) even though they basically only had dry cereal to eat for the entire day and I will have to chalk this day up as a Pro D Day as no schoolwork was completed.  Ella even steered the boat while I watched Darryl in the water.  We all kept our heads on and there was no drama outside of what was happening with the boat itself.  So I call that a win in teamwork.

While Darryl was dealing with the port police, I was lying down feeling completely physically and emotionally drained and feeling quite sorry for our circumstances.  It was at this time I had this image come to mind of people in this world, and at that quite close to where we currently are, taking grave risks to seek safety for themselves and their families.  And despite how disastrous of a day this was in relation to our personal life experiences, our safety was never at risk.  Although Darryl might feel differently when he was diving under the boat trying to avoid the boat from slamming onto his head in the swells.  Sure this is a huge inconvenience and we still don’t know how much this is going to cost us, but if this is the worst day we experience, we are still far better off than others in this world. 

We are certainly experiencing that life is about the journey and not the destination; I just would like it if the journey could come with two functional engines.