Kaimusailing

s/v Kaimu Wharram Catamaran

Vessel Name: Kaimu
Vessel Make/Model: Wharram Custom
Hailing Port: Norwalk, CT
Crew: Andy and the Kaimu Crew
About: Sailors in the Baltimore, Annapolis, DC area.
21 March 2024 | St. Marys, GA
01 March 2024 | St. Marys, GA
23 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA
15 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA
11 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA
06 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA
26 January 2024 | St. Marys, GA
14 January 2024 | St. Marys, GA
09 January 2024 | St Marys, GA
23 December 2023 | St Marys, GA
10 December 2023 | St Marys, GA
25 November 2023 | St. Marys, GA
17 November 2023 | St. Marys, GA
17 November 2023 | Somers Cove Marina, Crisfield, MD
03 November 2023 | Somers Cove Marina, Crisfield, MD
26 October 2023 | Somers Cove Marina, Crisfield, MD
17 October 2023 | Somers Cove Marina, Crisfield, MD
11 October 2023 | Somers Cove Marina, Crisfield, MD
04 October 2023 | Alice B. Tawes, McReady Pavilion, Crisfield, Maryland Eastern Shore
03 October 2023 | Alice B. Tawes, McReady Pavilion, Crisfield, Maryland Eastern Shore
Recent Blog Posts
21 March 2024 | St. Marys, GA

Just Add Water

The rainy weekend started off with overcast and fog but no rain. It looked like I might be able to get something done on the D4 dinghy. I wanted to change the bow seat which is really the bow deck. The sailing option uses the deck to hold the freestanding mast. I didn’t like how the deck looked, [...]

01 March 2024 | St. Marys, GA

D4 Dinghy Alternative Seats

The rain event was more wind than rain, strong winds with gusts up to 44 mph. We drove into town to see what the harbor was like. There was a small sailboat that had dragged anchor and was sitting close to shore. The tide was out. We left and played with Bleu at Notter’s Pond.

23 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA

D4 Inside Seams

Day two of the dinghy build started out with me finishing wiring the hull bottoms together on the centerline of the bottom panels. This was much easier than the wiring of the chine edges of the bottom panels and the side panels.

15 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA

D4 Dinghy Day One

A Wharram Pahi 26 had been anchored in the river nearby the boatyard and was hauled out with the travel lift. I went around to look at it and talked to the owner couple. I was surprised that it had been built in Martinique in 1988. The boat is more than 30 years old.

11 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA

D4 Redux

The inflatable (deflatable) dinghy I had bought was deteriorating. It had bottom seams separating. It is a West Marine branded dinghy made out of PVC. HH66 is the adhesive to reattach the seams. A friend had a similar problem and bought the same adhesive. I was waiting to hear from him how it worked [...]

06 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA

The Clincher

We decided to go to Amelia Island for the day, probably to the beach. Our plan to cycle around on the Raleigh 20’s seemed like a bad idea, Bleu can’t keep up with a bicycle for very long and when he quits he quits. So we would walk, where?, Fort Clinch State Park. She has a forever pass for Florida [...]

A Day Sail

18 October 2011 | at anchor in Bodkin Inlet
captn andy/first rain and wind, then dry
The construction projects of the season were completed, so I stowed away all gear on deck, tools, work tables, tarps, extension cord, and water hoses. The old mast stanchions that support the forward part of the deck table were drilled out so that a piece of prop shaft could be run through them. This made a “bitt” where halyards or towing lines could be tied off. The main halyard was clipped onto the mainsail and the sail hoisted. There was a problem rerouting the halyard due to it snagging the lazyjack. Mud wasp nests fell onto the deck from inside the sail cover. The sail looked fine. The tack had no place to secure it at the gooseneck, so the gooseneck bolt was reversed and its eyenut was used to secure the tack.

I fired up the engine because it hadn't been run for a few weeks and I noticed it was making unusual white smoke. Then the warning alarm went off, so I shut it down. The warning is for temperature or oil pressure and my guess was a cooling water problem. I went back to the cottage and reviewed the two repair manuals I had for the Yamaha T50. Then I went on the internet for more information. The problem could be a bad water pump, which would involve removing the lower unit, a difficult task if undertaken on board. It could be corrosion within the engine which could mean the cylinder block or head would need replacement, also a difficult task. It could be crud obstructing the water passageways inside the engine, a time consuming task. The easiest next step would be to remove the thermostat and its cover and see if water is being pumped internally. There was a rain delay, but afterward this simple test had water pouring out of the engine, it was pumping. Next I put the thermostat cover back on, but kept the thermostat out, and started the engine and ran it for a while. It ran fine and water was pumped out the exhaust overflow port. After about a half hour the engine felt warm but not hot. A new thermostat was ordered. Whew!

Was it time to go sailing? Cornelia Marie had parked her big ketch outboard of Kaimu, so we were sandwiched at the dock. It was a big job to unraft the boats, back Kaimu out into the inlet, anchor, come back and redock the ketch. At the same time, the 15 knot forecast was being blown to pieces as the wind was now gusting up to 20 and higher. One of the ultralight dinghies blew off the dock and partially filled with water. I was busy rowing the inflatable around to rescue the dinghy, check on Kaimu's anchor, and tug the ketch back to the dock. But I was not done yet, the winds made me nervous about the anchor.

Maybe it wasn't time to go sailing. I monitored the VHF hailing channel and the coast guard was busy with several boats on the bay in trouble. I had anchored with the “lunch hook” which is a smaller danforth anchor. Remarkably it held througout the blow. This was a cold front coming through with higher winds than forecast. By afternoon it had subsided a bit and I was pretty sure the anchor would hold overnight. To be on the safe side I put a large danforth down with 80 ft of line on deck. Although it wasn't set, if the small anchor dragged, the line would pay out until the large anchor would be hopefully set. I used the handheld wind meter and it said 28.

I couldn't believe how that small danforth held the boat, never dragged. The morning had a forecast of 6 knots of wind, but it was nearly calm. I pulled up the large danforth and all its chain. I pulled up the lunch hook, but it was really set hard. We ended up with the anchor “up short”, that is, it was still embedded and the rode and chain were nearly vertical. I was going to use the windlass to haul the anchor, so I started the engine. Without the thermostat it ran cold and erratic. When I tried to set up the windlass to warp mode, which is using the gypsy head to haul line, it wouldn't do it. I used a sheet winch to pull up the anchor. First I had hauled up the mainsail and scrubbed the large danforth, which was on deck and covered with Bodkin mud. There was a light breeze, very light, from west which was the head of the inlet. We ghosted down the inlet and then midway there was no wind at all. Because it was still just a trip down the inlet, the wind was squirrely and that is a problem. This is a big boat that can barely turn around between the docks on either bank and an errant wind could put us into them. The engine was unreliable now, but I had to use it to make way down to the dogleg just before turning into the bay. I killed it and rolled out the genoa. The motor was lifted and tilted out of the water and the boat silently glided down to the mouth of the inlet. This is where the channel gets tricky with shoals and wiggly markers to get out into the bay. We nearly hit some of the daymarkers and used what wind there was to continue out into the mouth of the Patapsco, which is the bay. I ran up the staysail after I found the sheets buried in a locker. After the sails were set I noticed the protrusion of lines on deck were turning into a big snarl. Objects like boat oars and boat hooks were caught up in the lines. As I unsnarled the mess it became apparent that this was a big problem that needed to be addressed. Maybe some storage bags for the loose lines.

It was a nice high pressure sort of day, temperatures around 70, wind building within the 5 to 10 knot range. With 1200 sq ft of sail up, the boat moved well, but was sluggish due to a dirty bottom. I kept trimming the sails and getting good performance in light wind. Another boat was out sailing and tried for a while to overtake us, but then tacked away, like they were not interested in going our way. I had tested all the things I needed, so bore away and gybed, reset the sails to go back. On such a nice day it was wise to take our blessings and head back for home. It was close reaching both on the way out and on the way back. Considering how little wind there was, we were making good distance. This was going on 4 hours in light winds. The wind then died almost completely and I was looking for the inlet as we approached the shore. Even with no wind we were moving and could still turn the boat. As we approached the inlet with a beam reach the wind started to come alive. It was still light and propelled the boat right into the inlet. It began to go south which was problematic, it got closer and closer to putting us into a shoal. I lowered the engine and ran it for a few minutes to put us away from danger. The boat continued to drift on the wind that was now dying again. Some crab fishermen warned me about the “Red Buoy”. Certainly I was concerned about the red day marker looming abeam, where Captain Kris had grounded us on Captain Ed's boat. It was marking a shoal and also providing a nest for osprey. The buoy was a crab trap marker and I nearly ran over it, but I was not concerned. Kaimu was bearing off to go up the inlet. Around the shoal marker and off to carry on past a marina, not 5 ft from their gas docks. We were holding toward the wind in case it shifted , which it does in the inlet, almost constantly. It died again and we drifted past the houses and private docks that line the inlet.

The sun was getting low and the last dogleg in the inlet was coming up. The wind just did not help at all and I feared if I did not act immediately, the boat could end up with no way, darkness, and maybe anchoring in a very narrow part of the inlet. I started the engine, not knowing if it would respond. It took a couple of tries and it pushed us through the last part of the inlet. We stalled out near the anchorage, threw the anchor over, and as we drifted down onto it, I began rolling up the genoa, dropping the staysail, dropping the main and wrapping the sail cover over it, organizing lines, and took a break to call home to assure that we had made it back. There is a lot of work after sailing and a lot of work preparing to sail, so a daysail can be a lot of work. After I rowed the dinghy back to the dock I realized I didn't turn on the anchor light. Back I went and also got the required lifejacket.

I felt tired and now wondered if my plans to voyage south later next month were overly optimistic in regards to my physical condition. The next day I went back on board and put out a second anchor and stowed away more things in preparation for a rain forecast. Apparently I was coming down with a cold and that was why I felt so sore and tired. I decided not to dwell on my fatigue, wait until I was well, and then take the boat out again and see how it goes. The new thermostat should arrive soon which would improve the engine reliability. I found the windlass useless for “warping”. It's supposed to hold the chain of one anchor secure and still while the gypsy is available to pull the line of a second anchor. When I tried it, it pulled both line and chain. David Leu of Leu Cat, who blogs on this same site, is using an anchoring arrangement using one rode and two anchors in series. He is using the same anchors that I have and reports that he has never dragged. They are well into 5 years of cruising and are in the South Pacific. In a few days I will feel better, the engine will be running better, maybe the wind will be better, and everything will be better. I will post those better results next time.
Comments

About & Links

SailBlogs Groups