August 2009 Archives

It's been a crazy few days - again. A LOT has been accomplished! But, the list remaining is still scary. We've started asking friends to help, and we're going to need even more help if we're going to make our schedule.

At the end of last week, we continued working frantically on getting our house ready to sell. We did dozens of tasks and thankfully got help from a few people (Andy, Michael, my daughter, and handymen). The biggest project of the week was emptying everything from the bedrooms and having the second floor carpet cleaned. The cleaners, Stanley Steemer, only took 4 hours to do it all (thanks to our having moved everything out first). And the floor looks much better. We had a weekend at the boat (mostly to do work) planned, so we let the carpet dry all weekend.

Karen, Michael and I got a ton of stuff out of our bonus room (which had been our holding place for lots of junk) down to our garage (which is our new holding place for lots of junk). This moving stuff is like a giant "shell" game. The house may be close to ready by mid-week, but a lot will still be left before it's ready to show.

We also managed a few boat related tasks during the week, such as: ordering the SSB radio, making sure hydraulic steering project was finished, continuing digital archiving of our medias (photos, movies, music - which we hope to have all done before we leave).

Late Friday Karen and I drove down. Our daughter Trisha, and her boyfriend Michael, came out to the boat as well. And our friend Gerard came to help out with planned boat work.

I spent time over the weekend reading up on maintenance tasks for major components on the boat, and started ordering maintenance kits. The manual for the Maxwell windlass was the most convoluted piece of documentation I've ever seen! It took 5 different pages and crazily numbered (out of order) paragraph item numbers to just get the basic maintenance process understood.

On Saturday morning, Gerard and I did some planning for the SSB install and took measurements for the cabling. Trisha worked on cleaning the chrome for the anchor windlass. Michael (and later the rest of us) worked on waxing the top sides of Tahina. We even got the electric buffer out and I worked a while on the ceiling of the bimini in the cockpit. Karen took care of grocery shopping, and prepared meals/snacks for everyone. She also spent time organizing/storing stuff we had brought to the boat.

Got a chain sample from West Marine and confirmed the size. So we ordered a full spool of 400' of 3/8th HT chain. The anchor is already there waiting. Ordered a number of other items from Defender as well.

About mid-afternoon, we started prepping the boat for a sail. Fortunately, Tropical Storm Danny was past us, leaving relatively nice weather behind. There were some long low swells, but otherwise it was nice. The tide was up, so we went out Carolina Beach Inlet. The hydraulic steering worked just fine (there's still one glitch in the system though when on autopilot). The macerator pump I fixed a few weeks ago is also working well. We otherwise had a delightful sail - if a bit short. We headed back in after only 1 hour or so of sailing. I'll share GPS track and a few photos later. Gerard did a thorough fresh water spray down after we docked.

Although we got many tasks completed (thanks Michael, Trisha, and Gerard!), we had some new items on the list: STB bilge pump is having an issue, a deck light is not working, speed log mysteriously cut off while we were sailing, one steering issue remains. Two steps forward, one back. Still, I was thrilled we got so much done - it was so nice having some help.

After the long day, Karen had made a big dinner. We then took everyone to a fudge/ice cream shop on the Carolina Beach Boardwalk. And walked a while on the beach.

Sunday I'll save for another blog post.

One thing being a sailor teaches you is to always keep your eye on the weather. As has been mentioned plenty in recent posts, we are working hard on our house right now. But, we planned to get to the boat this weekend. I went to check the weather and, seemingly out of nowhere, Tropical Storm Danny is passing along the east coast of the US. Fortunately, it appears it will pass well east of where Tahina is located. Still, a good reminder I can never get too busy to keep an eye on the weather.

In just 3 weeks, we plan to have Tahina on the ground. In preparations for the trip, we have a number of projects installing new equipment, making changes to rigging, and maintenance tasks to make sure everything is ready for the start of our trip. Here's a brief overview of some of the tasks:

• SSB Radio - we will be installing a high frequency long-range radio system called an SSB (Single Side Band). HF radios have been a primary way for sailors to communicate while at sea for decades. This still remains the case, but that's a story for a later post. We will install a ground plate through our hull near the keel. This means putting some small holes through the bottom of the boat (hence, it's important to do this in the boatyard). We'll also install the wiring, tuner, radio, and antenna. This time we'll be using a rope antenna (see RopeAntenna.com) rather than cutting one of our shrouds to make an antenna.
• Washer/dryer - to help insure we have clean clothes, we're installing a washer/dryer unit on the boat. This will require wiring and plumbing changes as well as measures to allow venting of the dryer.
• Computer network - we're going to install a new computer in the nav station, a wireless router, and connect the network to our nav system and TV system. The nav station computer will also serve as our media server for entertainment. In addition, we'll be installing a long-range WIFI receiver antenna so we can pick up WIFI in anchorages when possible.
• Rigging changes - we plan to make some alterations to our line rigging to improve the way we control our dinghy lift, put our main halyard at the main powered winch, and improve the options for using our spinnaker halyard.
• Maintenance - nearly every system is about due for basic maintenace (since we've now owned the boat for a year). We'll be making sure everything needing it is in good working order. This process has really been ongoing already. Of note: we'll be doing maintenance on winches, watermaker, heads (yuck), engines, windlass, and more.
• Fans - we intend to install some 12V fans in some or all the staterooms.
• Wind generator - we plan to install a wind generator to supplement our clean power from our solar panels.
• Fiberglass - we will repair scratches and imperfections on the fiberglass, and then polish and wax the entire boat.
• Anti-fouling - we'll be adding a fresh coat of bottom paint while we're out of the water.
• Security system - installing a security system for Tahina.

This is just a partial list, there are many other details, and more projects will most likely crop up when we get there. Wish us luck because we hope to get it all done in less than two weeks if humanly possible!

We actually got a lot done this week. Several house projects got done including: several rooms painted, odd job repairs, several rooms decluttered, carpet cleanings, many items moved to garage for dispersal (either selling at a flea market, giving away, or donating).

On Friday, we got a U-Haul trailer and filled it for the flea market this weekend. Karen wasn't feeling well this morning (Saturday), so I had to take the trailer and set up on my own. It was hot and very muggy with an approaching cold-front expected in the afternoon. Around 1 PM the weather was visibly on its way. We quickly packed up and were out with about 1 minute to spare before it rained. We sold a number of items - earning a grand total of about $250 (before costs for the space and trailer). We have the space again on Sunday, we're hoping to make some more. But, I doubt we'll invest the time and effort for the rest of our junk. The return in earnings verses the amount of time (and money) invested is just not worth it. We'll have to try other methods. We definitely want to try Craigslist for some of the bigger (more expensive) items (TVs, furniture, etc.).

With the progress this week, came some set backs. Actually, the biggest one is a part of a long drawn-out string of setbacks. We started working on replacing all our appliances in our kitchen at the beginning of June. The company we bought them from - hhgregg - has been the worst company we have ever dealt with. We expected to have the whole job done by the end of June. Instead, we are nearing the end of August and STILL don't even have the last part (a downdraft fan unit for our stove). The downdraft unit has been just one of a series of ridiculous mistakes. We have gone through three different stages on the downdraft: wrong unit purchased in the first place (no vent fan), supposedly ordering the missing fan (only to find out the unit we had required an external fan which wouldn't work in our setup), and waiting weeks for the correct downdraft unit and fan. We finally got the correct unit on Friday - only to find out upon opening the box a USED and DAMAGED one. I was flabbergasted! And this is after we experienced problems with almost every other element of the original order. Unbelievable. We'll now be waiting at least a week for them to track down another unit.

That's the best description for what's going on at the Taylor house these days. We are frantically trying to finally get our house ready to be put up on the market. In the last week we've had a dozen different workers doing painting, installing appliances, cleaning gutters, yard work, etc. I finally finished cleaning and painting our back deck. We've been pulling items out of closets, drawers, and rooms in preparation to take them to the flea market. Our garage is full of a mixture of junk for the flea market, dump, recycle bins, and give-away. I've made at least 10 trips this summer with the pickup to the dump, recycle and give-away places already.

Meanwhile, both our daughters have started the fall session at their respective colleges. One of them is still at home, but we have an application for an apartment which she will hopefully be moving to next week. We also are having to manage her two dogs here at the house while all these workers are trying to get things done, and the deck and back yard has been off limits to them. So, extra time has been spent walking dogs.

Not only all that, but we have been making last minute doctor trips to make sure we are as fit as we're going to be before departure. Researching places to buy our medicines once we leave our US medical care plans behind (good riddance IMHO).

And if all those things weren't stressful enough, we're in the process of buying the last big items for the boat (some of the most expensive ones) which will be needed for the trip. Things like: the new anchor/chain, SSB radio, satellite communications, washer/dryer unit, more photographic equipment, books, scuba gear, safety gear, etc. Between the house and the boat, the bank account is dwindling at the most rapid pace ever. We hope that this blog will start getting really popular once we depart. We're kinda hoping we can repeat the success of Google Earth Blog and have some decent advertisement-derived revenue.

If all goes well, our plan is still to leave near the end of October (when the hurricane season "officially" ends - according to insurance. Of course, we'll wait for the real end of it). Wish us luck!

On Sunday, we left the boat by mid-morning and drove back to Raleigh. We had a scuba refresher course scheduled through a local dive shop called Down Under Surf & Scuba. We've been using these guys for years for equipment and training.

Karen and I have not been diving since we sold our previous catamaran PatiCat. We did a number of dives during our last sailing trip on PatiCat in 2002/2003 (see details about our dive in Saba for example). Before that trip, we purchased a complete set of new diving equipment (except for tanks) for my wife and I, plus our two kids. Unfortunately, some of the equipment (the wet suits) apparently did some shrinking since we last used them. :-) Also, one of the two regulators (breathing apparatus) we took to our refresher dive would not operate properly. We planned on having all the equipment serviced and inspected before we leave anyway. And, we will be buying new wet suits, masks, some tanks, and I would like a spear gun for fishing. The dive shop will be happy with us.

Anyway, after our 1.5 hour classroom, we had 3 hours in the pool reviewing basic skills. By the end of the class, we were quite tired. After returning the items we rented, we got our new certification stickers for our cards. It was a good refresher and definitely reminded me of some important steps. I plan to do more thorough re-reading of the material before we start diving. We're also once again enthusiastic about diving. I'm particularly looking forward to underwater photography.

On Saturday night, boaters at our marina in Carolina Beach - Joyner Marina - organized and held a "Pig Pickin'" BBQ dinner and party. It was a really well-organized and enjoyable evening with good food, brews from a local micro-brewery called Front Street Brewery, a small live band, and with one of my favorite kind of people: boaters. They also held a raffle contest, and my wife was one of the three winners!

I pulled out the new camera and took some photos while enjoying the good times. Here is a selection, including my attempts at more night-time photography later in the evening:

We had an awesome sunset during the party. But, my favorite shot is actually of the spear-toting flounder fisherman at the very end - who happened to come right by the edge of the marina while I was shooting photos. What is your favorite?

A friend of mine, Juan Pons - who is a professional nature photographer, tweeted about an amazing HD underwater video taken with a Canon 5D Mark II digital SLR camera (it's an expensive camera that he also owns). This is one of the first SLR cameras to have HD video capability. When you watch the video, you can appreciate the photographic quality of the footage which includes many closeups, wide-aperature focusing, great lighting qualities, and more.

Hopefully, during our five year trip, I'll be able to shoot some underwater photography and videography and make a movie like this. This is certainly an inspiration to me. Unfortunately, I don't have the camera equipment this guy was using. But, maybe I'll get lucky with my more modest cameras. At a minimum, I'm going to look for an opportunity to dive in Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand.

By the way, the first Canon 5D Mark II HD videography I saw was by my friend Juan Pons. Check out his Yellowstone Winter HD video.

Yesterday I got up at the crack of dawn and drove down to Tahina. I was expecting a mechanic to arrive at about 9 AM to help perform my first maintenance on the hydraulic steering. Unfortunately, I was told he couldn't get there until after noon. But, I also had two other projects planned. So, after checking E-mail and blogging a bit, I got started.

I had two other projects planned: 1) Install a new voltage regulator for the chartplotter (our Raymarine E-120).; 2) Do maintenance on the port-side holding tank macerator pump (yuck).

If you have been following the blog closely, you may have read about the E-120 issue I'm trying to fix. Instead of buying the expensive voltage regulator Raymarine suggested, I purchased a device recommended by another sailor (Chris of s/v Billabong), which he used on his vessel.

To install the box, I needed to find a good spot. I traced the power wire for the E-120 and found the Raymarine supplied wire had been connected to wiring from the circuit breaker at a junction panel beneath the instrument panel. It was a bit tricky, but I had just enough wire to place the box on the wall there and, after disconnecting the old connectors, connect the new regulator box. Believe it or not, it actually worked on the first try! I will need to do a night-time passage to see if the problem with the backlight is really fixed.

Meanwhile, the mechanic - Mike - showed up. We spent a few minutes looking over the system. We found a couple of places where a small amount of fluid had escaped. He tightened the fittings. Also, we found a couple of washers were showing sign of corrosion. The system has dissimilar metals in the shut-off valves (which can increase corrosion). The corrosion seemed to be confined to washers at this point. We'll change those out later. We then proceeded to try filling and bleeding the system. We started at the top, which went pretty smoothly once we made a custom funnel to get around the wiring. But, we had problems on the lower end. He decided to come back the next day after doing some research (rather than bill me for time puzzling it out - which I thought was kind).

The next project was the dreaded hold pump. I had suspected that the rubber impeller was the likely culprit, so I bought a maintenance kit that provided a new one. Sure enough, that was indeed the problem. But, first I had to stick my head in the bilge (under the floor in the kitchen) and take apart the pump. This is probably the least fun job on any boat.

The trickiest part was removing a hex nut from the cutting blades. I had to hold a screwdriver on the top of the pump to keep the shaft from moving, and then use a small wrench on the hex nut. But, this is all under the floor through a "hatch" to the bilge area. I was half-twisted, upside down, with my head holding me from falling in against a pipe. Bilge pump gymnastics! Ugh. Did I say it was also a nasty job? Anyway, after getting the blade off, the rest of the disassembly was smooth. And I found pieces of the old impeller all over. I soon began reassembly. Unfortunately, it was much harder to put back together. But, I eventually got it back together. I won't be able to test it until we're offshore though. So, I just spent a good 30 minutes using a disinfectant to clean off all the tools, the bilge, the floor, and anything else I touched. Then I went to take a shower and shed the dirty clothes. By this time, it was nearly 8PM.

It was a long day, but, with the exception of the steering maintenance, it went pretty smoothly I think. It's all part of the life of boat ownership - there is a trade-off for the pleasures of sailing around the world. The trick is having more days relaxing on the boat than doing maintenance.

National Geographic Channel is tracking the journey of documentary filmmaker and outdoors enthusiast Ed Wardle in near real time, as he treks across the Yukon Territory for three months. You can follow along on the web site ALONE IN THE WILD. Ed is totally alone - no cameraman - so he is sharing his trip by taking his own photos and video and also through his Twitter account. You can also follow him on a Google Maps mashup (unfortunately, no KML network link for following him in Google Earth yet - although I sent a suggestion). See a list of the camera equipment he is using.

Here is an example of a recent video blog where he finally got his hands on a fish:

I find this site interesting, because it is another example of following along on someone's adventure using online technologies. I certainly admire Ed's fortitude of living off the land and REALLY roughing it. I don't think I would enjoy eating bark either. I'll definitely be following Ed's adventure.

Soon you'll be able to follow us on Tahina when we depart later this year. The difference will be that our trip will be lasting for five years, and you'll see many more locations and variety of cultures, animal life, sea life, and more. And, we'll be making heavy use of Google Earth. But, you won't see us roughing it! :-)

A very critical piece of hardware on a cruising sailboat is what keeps you safe during most of your trips: the anchor. The anchor is what holds your boat in place to keep your boat from drifting into shore or out to sea. If you aren't confident your anchor is going to hold, it often means you will have a sleepless night worrying about whether your boat would drag into rocks, other boats, reefs, or out to sea (although, these days you can sleep with a GPS with an alarm set to make sure you know when you're drifting). Anchor holding is even more critical if you're experiencing high winds from a storm.

During the past several years, I've been keeping my eye out for a good anchor. There has actually been some interesting innovations in anchor technology to improve the speed in which anchors set, and in the shape of the anchor to increase the strength of the set as well as the ground types the anchor might work with (mud, sand, grass, rock, etc.).

The anchor I've chosen is made in New Zealand and is called the Rocna. It turns out that this is the anchor used by one of Tahina's sister boats 'Swingin' on a Star' (SoaS) - another St. Francis 50 catamaran which is currently located in Palau. The skipper of SoaS, Randy, has nothing but good things to say about this anchor. He says it has never failed him, and gives him great confidence in his holding. The Rocna also sets very quickly (the round bar helps to make sure the fluke (pointy part) is facing down. In fact, setting distance is one of Rocna's most lauded features in comparison reviews.

The Rocna is so popular, that it is now even available in the US through West Marine. We're in the process of ordering one (they come in many sizes) to have it delivered to the store nearest to Tahina. This will save us some shipping costs. We also will be increasing our chain rode (anchor chain) length, because our boat only came with about 50 meters of chain. You need longer chain for deeper waters, and in many places in the Pacific you rarely find really shallow water. Thankfully, Tahina has an excellent anchor rode well (storage area), with plenty of depth and room for a sizeable amount of rode. We also have a beefy windlass (electric winch for pulling chain) with a remote control that lets us control deploying and retrieving the anchor/rode and even includes a readout telling us how much chain is out.

Hopefully, within a few weeks, you'll be reading a post and seeing some pictures of our new hook!

When we leave on our trip, we have to make sure any ongoing bills get paid. In today's online world, you would expect this would be an easy process. And, it mostly will be - after some work is completed. Unfortunately, for years now many of my payments have been tied to my E-mail address at home. But, that's based on our TV/Internet cable service. Since we'll be closing that down, I have to make sure all accounts know about my now more permanent E-mail accounts (with Google Mail of course!).

For weeks now, I've been slowly changing accounts over. But, I still have dozens of accounts tied to the old E-mail (I've had it for 10 years now). Fortunately, most of the accounts don't have to do with financial matters - they're just memberships in various social networks, chatrooms, forums, etc.

As most of you know, we all still get regular mail. So, we will be using a mail handling service that specializes in helping sailing cruisers handle their mail. All mail will be set to go to that address. They will have instructions to open certain mail and communicate with us electronically when they need further instructions. Other mail (which can wait a while for us to see) will be forwarded to us at an appropriate destination on our itinerary (like a marina at the next island or country we plan to visit).

Yesterday, I invited some friends and their kids to come out for a sail in the afternoon. The winds were forecasted to build from near nothing to about 10+ knots sometime after 4 PM. The tide was low at 4 PM, so we wouldn't be able to go out the Carolina Beach Inlet. Instead, we set out about 2:30 and motored up to Masonboro Inlet about 11 miles north.

After our pleasant motor up the ICW to Masonboro Inlet, we headed out to sea with just about 10 knots of wind on the nose about 4 PM. We weren't making fast speeds, but we had a delightful sail in small swells and otherwise flat seas. We averaged between 6 and 7 knots SOG (speed over ground), and the motion was a lot better than two weeks ago (when several guests got seasick).

You can see the GPS track of yesterday's sail in Google Earth, or right here with Google Maps:

View Larger Map

We covered a bit over 25 nautical miles in about 4.5 hours. Maybe later I'll add some video I shot during the trip (not HD this time), and other photos.

Once we depart for our circumnabigation, our normal, expensive, US health insurance coverage suddenly abandons us. That's right, if you travel abroad extensively, don't count on your insurance to cover you in foreign places. Instead, we will be getting health insurance designed for world travelers. This usually consists of major medical coverage, but does little for medicines and basic doctor visits. For those in the US, this might seem a scary proposition. But, actually health care costs in other countries is substantially lower than in the US. With regards to medicines, we'll need to seek long-term prescriptions (six month supplies), and buy them in bulk from online pharmacies, to reduce costs.

We also will get special health coverage designed for scuba divers (called DAN - or Diver's Alert Network), which handles special treatments for diving emergencies. The DAN policy also provides coverage for an emergency requiring extraction at sea including use of helicopter or similar scenarios.

Based on our past experience, the cost of this type of health insurance coverage is actually cheaper than our current US-based health insurance. Not surprising when you consider the drastically higher prices for health care in the US verses the rest of the world. We will have to worry about the quality of health-care we can find. But, if the situation is serious enough, we can travel by air back to the US if needed for better care.

I'm going to attempt to kick off more regular daily blogging on Tahina Expedition. Some of the posts will just be a summary of some of the many hundreds of tasks we're performing in preparation for the trip. The blogging may also be an expanded version of micro-blog posts I'm making at the @GoTahina twitter account.

Here's a quick overview of some of the many recent big tasks we've been working on:

• Insurance - We're been working on getting the boat insurance lined up for our first year at sea. If you think insurance for your house is high, you would freak out about paying for a boat at sea. Let's just say it is the single biggest annual budget line item for the ongoing boat expenses (more than food).
• Purchases - The next three months are a final stages of equipment purchases. A great deal of time has gone into researching what we need over the course of the past several years. Now it all comes to finding good prices and making sure everything fits and works well together. In September we'll be taking Tahina to a boatyard and having it hauled out so we can install some of the equipment and perform final maintenance to have Tahina in tip-top shape before we depart.
• Health care - Once we leave our home country, we have to rely on a different form of health insurance. This pretty much means we have to buy medicines on our own. We've been using the Internet to find the best prices, but buying from foreign pharmacies has a lot of pitfalls.
• Maintenance - Owning a boat means constant maintenance. Even when you're not living on it yet. Recent projects include cleaning, shining stainless steel, waxing, and maintenance on head pumps (the least favorite of all tasks). Completed head maintenance on our main unit a week ago.
• Home - Our biggest tasks at the moment are getting our house projects done so we can get it on the market for selling. We are now in the final stages, and hope to be ready by the end of this month. Of course, we've been saying that for three months now.

My wife and I are leaving in October to begin a five year sailing circumnavigation we are calling the Tahina Expedition. Our trip is not just about visiting remote pacific island atolls, sipping Coronas on the beach, and snorkeling around beautiful marine life. The Tahina Expedition also hopes to raise awareness about issues facing the oceans and the lives of those creatures and people who live in and around them.

One big issue is that mankind has for countless ages assumed the ocean is so big, that it can "wash away" our waste products and sewage. As human population has exploded, this approach could not continue. In recent decades, efforts have been made, by responsible governments and other organizations, to greatly reduce putting trash and untreated sewage into our oceans. In some areas of the world, beaches and marine life have actually recovered to some extent.

However, one very large related problem has only been introduced in the past century: plastic in the oceans. Plastic does not bio-degrade like some products. It does "photo-degrade" (due to the effects of the sun) to some extent over a long period of time (many years). Since the oceans are so vast, you would think it would take a LOT of plastic for people to notice the problem. Well, it has begun to be noticed.

There are vast currents in the Pacific ocean that keep the waters circulating. These areas are known as Oceanic Gyres. In the north Pacific Gyre there is an area that has become known as the Plastic Vortex - or the Garbage Patch. Here millions of tons of garbage (mostly plastic) have been accumulating for decades.

The Kaisei Project is sending two ships to the Plastic Vortex to research and take measurements on the scale of the problem. On their site, you can view a Google Earth plugin visualization showing the current positions of the two vessels and placemarks showing progress reports as they make their way to the vortex. Most of the placemarks contain video blog entries.

The issue of garbage in the ocean is already having a huge impact on marine life. Birds, fish, jellyfish, sharks, and other creature all end up consuming plastic particles. Many of them die because they can't digest or are poisoned by the plastics. Some of these creatures in turn end up getting consumed by humans. So, not only are we ruining the oceans and marine life, but in a probably just twist of fate, we could be killing ourselves.

The Tahina Expedition plans to take note of trash, especially plastic, as we travel around the world on our sailing catamaran. My wife and I will begin the trip in late October and will continue for 5 years. You'll be able to follow along in Google Earth, and we'll be sharing a large array of photography including regular snapshots, underwater photography, HD video, and even aerial photography of places we visit which you'll be able to view in Google Earth (thanks to our partnership with Google). We hope you'll follow along on the Tahina Expedition Blog.