Journal Entries

January 2009

NEW PHOTOS FOR DECEMBER IN THE PHOTO SECTION

28 December - Each night before I go to bed I set the anchor alarm on the GPS. I generally set it to the lowest setting being 0.01nm so that I wake on the change of the tide and get up to check that everything is ok when the anchor has changed direction. Tonight I gave myself a little more leeway and set it to 0.02nm.

I then zoom right in on the marker so that if I get up during the night I can see clearly any movement.

I awoke at about 2.30am and went up on deck to check the anchor and surroundings. The wind was blowing about 10 knots in the anchorage, the temperature was beautifully cool, the sky was clear and there were stars everywhere. I had almost forgotten how incredibly beautiful the night sky was since I never see it in the city. I am absolutely struck by the beauty of this night and Cutty and I sit up on deck just gazing into space. I think Cutty was quite taken by the beauty of the sky since she was looking around in fascination and acting very differently to the way she normally does.

Sitting here under the canopy of the night sky made me realise just how beautiful the world is and what a waste it is being stuck in the toxic city. It frustrated me that I was becoming so unhappy and discontent with life when this was sitting here quietly coaxing me. I really don't want to waste my life doing what I'm doing now when something so simple can provide so much fulfillment and satisfaction.

I just had the most perfect day today in the perfect place and now the most perfect night. I could go back to work tomorrow thinking that the world is a great place, and to think that I still have a few more days. If the remaining days of this trip are like today then I will be a very happy sailor indeed.

29 December 2008 - After last night, what more could I expect other than the perfect morning. It was going to be a hot one today so I put the shade canvas up and took some photos of El Viajero on anchor. The photo below was taken at 7.25am.

Breakfast was served onboard "Cafe Viajero". Oven warm croissants, fresh espresso and a million dollar view.

Cutty was equally impressed with the morning view.

During the day the anchorage began to fill up with day boaters from the mainland.

It was starting to get crowded in the anchorage and it would make for an interesting afternoon.

Cutty and I got away from the busy anchorage and went for a swim. She loves being in the water and is content to just swim in circles.

and an underwater shot of the engine room of the Portuguese Water Dog in swimming mode.

There were late afternoon thunderstorms predicted for the mainland and I could see the weather systems developing in the distance. It seemed perfect here but it was obvious trouble was brewing.

The shade canvas keeps the boat very cool and with the sea breeze it's a very comfortable place to be.

Once again I didn't want this spare time to go to waste so I set about doing another job onboard. The stainless steel rods installed on the forward hatch had formed a rusty scale. I believe that it's due to the fact that "stainless steel" isn't necessarily "stainless" since much of it now comes from China and the quality is poor. I've never had this problem on the 30 year old hatch over the saloon.

You can see in the photo below how bad the rust is.

I took to the rust with some very fine wet & dry sand paper and the rust disappeared quickly enough.

There are still a couple of small places I couldn't access but I will get to them later. Overall I was happy with the result and I will put a wax polish coating on the stainless bars to slow the rust down in future. Plus I'm not going to let the boat get into the state of neglect that it has over the past year.

These hatches are a beautiful feature on the boat and the new varnish highlights them. A fine sand and a couple more coats of varnish will really make them stand out.

The night came and so did the expected thunder storm. By late in the night the winds tore through the anchorage at about 50 knots from the South and caught many boats unaware. The anchorage was not a good place to be as boats were dragging all over the place. There were many collisions and several boats washed onto the beach. Many of the boats made a run for it and headed back to the mainland, having had enough of the beating. Fortunately I was prepared and was sitting in the cockpit with the engine ready to start as the winds hit. I simply kept the bow to the wind and eased the pressure off the anchor, dodging the occasional boat which drifted past me. Below is picture of the lightning I managed to snap as the storm was heading toward us. I heard later that there was an average of 90 lightning strikes per minute.

30 December 2008 - The next morning was another perfect day. The storm had cleared the anchorage of many boats and I again wanted to use this time for something I don't usually get a chance to do. I have been wanting to learn to splice rope properly and to learn some rope work. I bought an old Marlinspike rope work book some time ago and some splicing fids and now was a good chance to learn something new. Cutty wasn't so sure.

I had a big pile of old anchor rope which I wanted to use for making some ratlines on the shrouds. This would provide a quick way to get to the spreaders and I think it will also give the old boat a more traditional feel.

so I pulled the existing splices apart and played around for a while experimenting with splicing techniques.

The weather started looking average again and this time the weather systems were building rapidly around us. The cloud formations began to approach the anchorage and I thought I should start getting prepared.

There were weather systems developing in the North and the South

and the cloud was billowing like a smoke stack.

small clusters of cloud and rain swept across the bay in the distance.

and overhead the cloud was looking like some giant water logged lumps of dirty cotton wool ready to drop down on us.

by late afternoon the weather systems, despite their threats, had passed by the anchorage and the sky was a beautiful pinky red. I went to bed with the comfort of the old sailor's saying, "Red Sky at Night, Sailor's Delight". (although I still had the anchor alarm on).

31 December 2008 - This morning was even better than the previous. Many of the boats had left the anchorage to run for cover presumably because they hadn't weathered the first storm well.

Here is the morning scene.

Having got off to an early start I thought I would try my hand at catching a fish. I'm the world's worst fisherman and I still feel guilty about the last fish I caught.

We headed off in the dinghy to the northern part of the island which was deserted.

On the way we trawled a lure along the wrecks in case any fish felt inclined to suicide. The old wrecks are an impressive sight.

and the fish life is abundant.

you can see from the photo below that fish are clearly visible in the crystal clear water. It's like a huge aquarium.

The wrecks are quite imposing and tower above us as we motor past in the tiny dinghy.

We are heading North on the Western side of the wrecks.

As we get close to our destination a pod of dolphins cruise close to the dinghy.

It's a beautiful sight and I instantly turn off the engine and watch them swim around in the water beside us.

I can clearly see them spinning around under water as if at play, but then when they surface they simply glide past. I'm not sure if they are looking for breakfast or simply just going somewhere but they hang around the dinghy for at least 10 minutes going back and forth and under the dinghy. It's a good start to the morning.

After the dolphins are done with us we head into shore. Here is my new dinghy on the beach. It's hypalon rubber with an aluminium hull. So far I'm extremely pleased with it but I need to figure out where to stow it when at sea.

Now here is a dog with a smile on her face. Cutty is having a ball and judging by her crazy behaviour she is delighted with her holiday. It's still early in the morning and the shade on the beach keeps us cool.

We walk North along the beach leaving the dinghy in the distance. This is paradise and I feel alive. Cutty is clearly having a great time and I hope one day soon I can do this regularly with her.

After our morning trek and having maintained my impeccable fishing record this trip of zero we headed back to the boat. During the storm the other night I must have picked up some fishing line on the propeller. You can see the line wrapped around the shaft just in front of the zinc anode.

So out with my trusty Spyder Co. knife (which is the best knife ever for cutting rope in an emergency) on with my mask and down to the job of cutting the line. (If you are considering a new knife this model is guaranteed not to rust as it uses a special metal. It is also available in a rounded tip like a traditional sailor's blade. They are quite expensive but it's an investment which might save my life one day and I always carrying a good knife in case of a rope tangle.

Having done a little work I felt like something sweet. No cafes around here so I mixed up some flour, a couple of eggs, a bit of oil, milk, a dash of almond essence and some grated almonds and made almond biscotti.

a little later I had myself some fresh almond biscuits and a nice espresso for an afternoon snack. If it was a cafe that would cost me around $10.00 and I now had a couple days supply of almond biscuits.

The anchorage was getting a bit rolly and I wanted to experiment with a type of flopper stopper system. I had a drogue onboard and thought this might work by hanging it over the side from the boom. As the boat would roll the drogue would fill with water and create resistance, preventing the roll.

Here is the setup with the boom hauled out to the starboard side.

and a photo of the drogue underwater. I didn't really get the chance to thoroughly test this since the rolling stopped but I think the drogue might require too much movement to activate it. I'll try it again next time when there is more roll. Maybe more weight will also help.

I got talking to another yacht owner today and we were discussing traditional yachts and the ways of old mariners. He mentioned that he had some old copies of "The Rudder" magazine. I was really excited and told him I also had a small collection. We did a temporary swap and I sat on deck reading these beautiful old magazines. Below is a photo of one from 1903. The front pages are separated by tissue paper and the illustrations are magnificent.

They are full of excellent articles on traditional seamanship.

This volume even had full page block prints. The quality of the magazine is stunning.

That afternoon I dropped the magazines back to my friend and thought I'd try my luck fishing again. As I trawled along the back of the wrecks I noticed the shadows that the late afternoon sun created on the barnacle encrusted wrecks.

Man and his best friend fishing.

Tonight was new years eve and I was content to spend it onboard El Viajero with Cutty. I didn't have the energy to stay up past 10pm and by midnight was well and truly asleep.

1 January 2009 - Happy New Year. We were heading home today and it was time to weigh anchor. You can see below the way I set up the anchor line to avoid it from rubbing on the bob stay. This system works really well however I think I will introduce some sort of block at the end of the snubbing line to avoid chafe.

Once the anchor was up I sailed silently out of the anchorage passing some of the other boats who's occupants were fast asleep and would probably be recovering from the night before. Here is the view looking back toward the island as we head off back to the mainland.

It was going to be a scorcher of a day today but the weather was good for the trip back.

As soon as we cleared the sand banks I set the Fleming Wind Vane to steer us home.

Cutty was harnessed in since we were reaching and the wind was quite fresh.

The wind vane makes it very easy and I joined Cutty to watch the island disappear in the distance.

I had the new main up and we were clipping along nicely at 6.1 knots.

The Fleming wind vane steered a perfect course to the wind and we maintained a speed of around 5.5 - 6 knots.

I am so impressed with this wind vane. It was so simple to set up and once set just works like magic. Even with the full main it copes perfectly well with any weather helm. The Westsail is a 10 tonne boat and El Viajero is loaded with a lot of gear so she is probably closer to 11 - 12 tonne. The Fleming vane handled it all with ease.

The wind dropped about half way through the trip home and I was interested to see how the Fleming vane handled low speed and low wind. It did so flawlessly. At one point we were only doing 2.5 knots as the wind really died. The Fleming vane kept steering to the light breeze.

Meanwhile since we had slowed right down and were now running downwind I let Cutty off her harness. She found a nice little spot near me as I sat at the bow of the boat while the Fleming vane did all the boring work.

She really is a sea dog. In case you are thinking it might be unsafe to let her out of her harness I assure you that her safety is my top priority and if I didn't feel absolutely comfortable with her being on deck I wouldn't allow her. When we are running downwind there is virtually no heel to the boat and it's smooth sailing. She has never jumped off the boat into the water and this is something I have intentionally not allowed her to do as I know she could not get back onboard by herself. This was a good training exercise for her and to see how she reacted to sailing. She scored 100%.

The breeze picked up again and I dialed the Fleming vane to steer from the starboard stern quarter. It just steered away without any need for attention. I have in the past experimented with sheet to tiller steering but it wasn't very reliable and needed constant attention. It was also very sensitive to sail balance. Sheet to tiller would work for a couple of hours and might get me out of trouble but the Fleming vane just steers no matter what and is better than having another crew member sitting at the tiller.

Can you spot the dog in the photo below? (clue: think shade)

I love this Fleming wind vane and it's probably the most practical item on the boat apart from the sails. I will not rely on electronic auto pilots as they are unreliable and in my opinion unsafe. I've had nothing but trouble with my Raymarine ST 4000 and it will be going into the rubbish as it's never worked properly. Even when it went back to Raymarine under warranty it came back with a different problem. The Fleming vane is just sheer genius and fascinating to watch working.

and the sea dog takes sailing in her stride. Cutty is obviously very relaxed and has her chin resting on the caprail looking out to sea.

back to my Fleming vane... the wind dropped again as we were nearing the channel but the vane kept steering a perfect course. You can see from the lack of turbulence that we are going really, really slow.

the little dial in the top of the photo below adjusts the direction of the paddle wind vane to the wind. I have to hook a rope up to it at some point to allow remote control from the cockpit but I simply lean out to adjust it at the moment. What amazes me is that it adjusts course almost instantly. I simply dial in the angle to the wind I want to sail to and instantly the vane steers the boat to that course. Amazing!!

It was really hot out here and Cutty found the only shady spot on the boat. She was relaxed though and I ensured she had plenty of water.

As we got to the channel I dropped the mainsail since it's a bit of a job to get it down and packed away. The vane allows me to do all of these things which I couldn't previously do without running back and forth to the cockpit to adjust the tiller.

It makes no difference to the vane when I drop a sail and change sail plan. It simply keeps steering. Here we are sailing under headsail alone and only doing about 2.5 - 3 knots.

We were back in the river now and getting closer to home. I noticed this beautiful old traditional double ender on the way.

further up the river, Cirque de Sole was in town.

Cutty was noticing the change in atmosphere and started checking out the familiar environment.

We passed this beautiful old ketch which looks like an Alden design. Obviously there is lots of varnish work onboard as there were covers over everything.

The heat of Brisbane was too much for Cutty and she sought shelter again. The difference in temperature between the city of Brisbane and out on the water is huge. I was now noticing how stifling the humidity was.

and finally we made it back to the pile mooring where I was once again jolted back to my reality. My heart sank as my neighbour had his bloody generator running again. It continued on for the next 3 hours. I've named this boat "The Feral Schooner" and that's not because it's built from ferro cement.

Someone forgot to mention that it was new years day and that most people probably want to sit in the peace and quiet and enjoy the holiday. I'm not sure what annoys me more, the actual noise from the generator or the fact that he leaves the boat whenever it's running and thinks it's acceptable to make his neighbours put up with it. That really gives me the sh!#@.

I have put some larger and additional photos from the trip in the photo section of the site. Hope you enjoy.

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4 January - Soon after I got back I needed to get things sorted to get back into the old routine for work. My outboard motor on the dinghy has been playing up ever since the bloke who borrowed it got the painter caught in the propeller (twice). The bushing in the prop had broken and kept causing the propeller to lose grip on the spline whenever I revved the engine past idle. The result was I had to idle everywhere, which as you can imagine was very frustrating. Below is a photo of the broken bush in the prop. You can see where the rubber bushing is broken.

and a close up.

So the remedy was a new propeller (which was cheaper than having the existing propeller re-bushed) and the cost of loaning my dinghy to someone, $70.00 plus the time and effort of going to get the prop and fit it. Fortunately it was a pretty simple solution. Below is the replacement propeller (or at least the box containing it).

The old propeller was a 7" pitch. I decided to get a lower pitched prop this time (6") since it is more important for me to get up on the plane with weight than speed and I'm told that the lower pitch will give more thrust. I thought this might also be useful if I needed to push a boat around or tow someone.

Having fitted the new propeller and tested it, I can say that there is a noticeable difference in thrust. The engine actually revs a bit higher but it gets me up on the plane a bit quicker.

7 January - I was back to work this week and the past few days of white sand, sun and relaxation was a distant memory. I sat on deck tonight reflecting on how different the two ways of living are. There were only a few stars in the sky (yes I know there are still the same number up there but only the bright ones can be seen in the city) noise all around and the humid, stale air of a toxic city. I took a photo of the city lights around the boat. I suppose it's kind of pleasant, but I know where I'd rather be.

14 January - A reader in the US sent me an email and I've since read in the news that the US President Obama has narrowed his choice of dogs down to two breeds. 1. a Labradoodle and 2. a Portuguese Water Dog. I'm guessing he will go with the Portuguese Water Dog since he seems pretty switched on. I'm not sure if that will be a good thing for the breed though as most people haven't ever heard of them before and if Obama gets one they will become fashionable, which is never good for a breed.

15 January - I finally reached my limit tonight. Last weekend I had to work on Saturday and by Sunday I was well and truly over everything. All I wanted to do was relax on the boat with a coffee and a book. Of course this was not going to happen since the bloke on the feral schooner ran his generator for 5 HOURS! 5 HOURS ON A SUNDAY and he wasn't even onboard! Anyway I calmed myself and put up with it all day.

Tonight, being a Thursday night I came home from work, having been there from 6.30am until 7pm. I was tired and stressed and Cutty was bored since she had been in the office with me most of the day. That freakin generator was running again. 7PM AT NIGHT!!! I got changed to go for a run and gave Cutty something to eat. We got in the dinghy ready for her run and motored over to the feral boat. There wasn't anyone onboard so I went to the dock to take Cutty for a run. Sitting on the boardwalk chatting to a few other boat owners was the owner of the feral schooner. I approached him and said, "do you know your generator is still running?" His response was, "yeah I'm getting the freezer down". My response was, "Hang on, you run it on public holidays, weekends including 5 hours last Sunday and now you are going to run it at night? That is plain rude and not on....expletives omitted". He looked at me silently as if I was some type of alien and at that point I leapt forward and grabbed him. I began to beat his head into the steel pole next to him, repeatedly shouting "NO MORE GENERATOR, NO MORE GENERATOR!" with each shout his head bounced of the steel pole like a bouncing rubber ball and blood began to spurt out of the side of his face. I then picked his semi conscious body up and threw him off the edge of the boardwalk and into the water while all of the other boat owners cheered.

Ok, so I was just imagining all of that, but instead I walked off (I'm a pacifist after all). Someone mentioned that he would be leaving today, thank God. I saw him the next morning and figured I should give him a wave to try to keep things civil, but he looked straight at me and stormed off in a huff. Go figure, he is the one being an inconsiderate ass and somehow he thinks I'm in the wrong for expressing my feelings. By the way, 4 other boats have also complained about the generator running, but I've been the only one to confront him about it.