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 [...]

Makapuu: Excuse Me?

17 April 2013 | Bodkin Inlet/Chesapeake Bay
Capn Andy/Springlike
I flew to Hawaii on Easter Sunday and met my daughter and her boyfriend at the airport in Honolulu. They had flown in from England, so we were all jet lagged. We stayed at the “Stay Waikiki” hotel, which didn't sound too promising, but was in fact a smaller boutique hotel just a block from the beach. There was an excellent Japanese restaurant next door.
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Over the next few days we climbed Diamond Head, visited my brother in Kahala, drove to Makapuu and up to the North Shore, then my daughter and I flew to Kona on the Big Island. Boyfriend stayed behind to present a paper at the Society of American Archeology, then he flew to Hilo on the Big Island.
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Coincidentally, the 50th anniversary of the Merrie Monarch festival was underway in Hilo. This is a big deal in Hawaii with hula competitions, traditional arts and crafts, and an influx of tourists from all over the world. As a result, we could not get our reserved rental car, but agreed to take a larger car at the same price. One has to accept these privations. The festival had been sold out, so there was no opportunity to attend the hula competitions live. They were broadcast on local TV along with many interviews with traditional musicians, dancers, craftpersons, and most importantly, traditional food purveyors. Hawaii is all about food and the opportunities abound to try just about any Asian genre of food, plus all the usual American cuisine, plus local Hawaiian delicacies.
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On our car trip from Kona to Hilo we passed through the town of Waimea, which is where the famous Parker Ranch is located. It is also the original location of Merriman's, one of the first chefs of Hawaii to enlist local farmers and growers to provide products to the chef's specification. We stopped there for lunch which was reasonably priced. My burger was made with free range local grass fed beef. It was great.
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In Hilo we stayed with my mom who is ready to celebrate her 91st birthday. She still bakes her bread, does laundry, etc. In contrast, I was laid up with a sinus infection, so the order of fitness would be my daughter, most fit, my mother, then me, not fit at all. We did get to visit some of the Merrie Monarch exhibits and plan our itinerary for when boyfriend comes over from Honolulu.
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He arrived on Sunday and we visited the volcano on Monday. They opted to hike the trail down to the crater floor, then climb back out following a different route, a couple of miles of climbing. I went along popping dayquil and drinking water from a large liter and a half bottle. The end result was lots of great pictures and my sinus infection completely wiping me out. My doctor couldn't write me a prescription out of state and suggested I go to the emergency room. No way. I continued to use over the counter meds and stayed home. Daughter and BF went on a tour of Hamakua sights, Waipio Valley, Laupahoehoe, Akaka Falls, a visit to the Imiloa astronomy center, followed by a visit to the observatories on Mauna Kea, about 10,000 feet up. Of course they went up at night and seemed to have a great time. I was happy to lay low and try to recover.
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We had a great dinner at my brother's in Paradise Park, not far from Hilo. We met with other siblings, neices, and nephews. My niece who lives further up the volcano announced her acceptance at Stanford.
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Our visit to the Big Island was just about over and we took a trip on the improved Saddle Road which cuts off about a half hour from the trip over to Kona. A visit to the old Heiau, or temple, at Kawaihae was disappointing. The access to the trail around the temple was blocked, so there was no way to get close enough for pictures. I suspect native Hawaiians are pressuring the park service to limit access to one of their holy sites.
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Daughter and BF decided we should visit the City of Refuge, which was about an hour down the coast, south of Kailua-Kona. We had about 3 hours left until our flights back to Honolulu, so we could spend about an hour at the City of Refuge. This was enough time to walk around the city and take plenty of pictures of the traditional canoe houses and the holy carved statues. On our way back to the airport disaster struck.
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The drive north to the airport started perfectly on time, but then traffic came to a dead stop. As time ticked away we crawled a couple of miles to the cause of the delay, a head on accident between a pickup truck and a big delivery truck. My flight was a bit later than daughter and BF's, so I dropped them right at the Hawaiian Airlines departure point and urged them to get their bags checked. They had just minutes to do that, go through security, and hopefully get to their gate to board their flight. Meanwhile I topped up the rental car and returned it, shuttled to the airport, and went through security. I was amazed that their flight was just boarding when I got there and I was able to give them a bon voyage. They were on their way to Honolulu and then Kauai for a romantic weekend before returning to England.
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My own flight back to Maryland was of course a nightmare of sickness, sinus headaches, coughing, revulsion of other passengers (what does he have, SARS?). It was Friday, doctor unavailable till Monday. A weekend of more sickness. But there was no rest. I had purchased a Hobie Cat mid-winter, but it had no trailer, so there was a problem of transporting it to our dock. While we were in Hawaii, a Hobie Cat appeared on the Annapolis Craig's List and it included a trailer. I emailed the seller saying I was interested, but vacationing in Hawaii. I didn't expect to be able to buy the cat, most things on Craig's List sell almost immediately, if the price was right.
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I was surprised to find the cat still available when I returned to Maryland. Then I began to find out why this might be so. It was missing its rudders, tillers, tiller crossbar, and mainsheet. The trailer was not titled, therefore illegal on the highway.
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While I was gone, the persistent wintry weather suddenly lifted and now the Chesapeake was alive with boating preparations. The weather was mild. I called Kaptain Kris and explained my situation with the Hobie Cat. The seller insisted that I must remove it at once if I bought it. It could not remain on his property. It had to be moved, but it was illegal to move it. Kaptain Kris, to my chagrin, said “Well, they don't really seem to care about boat trailers. You could probably move it without getting stopped.” He also had the correct trailer hitch ball on his truck and was willing to help me tow the boat from the Eastern Shore across the Bay Bridge and up to the Bodkin Inlet to our dock.
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I was still sick and only had six dollars left in my wallet. We began our trip over to the Eastern Shore and I looked for a bank to get cash. There was a branch of the bank on our way, but when we got there it was boarded up due to a fire. Nearby was the temporary replacement bank, but it was locked, there was no access to the vestibule and the ATM, it was Sunday. We continued on our way across the Chesapeake, across Kent Island.
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We saw another bank branch on Kent Island and got cash, the money for the boat plus a stipend for Kris for gas and his trouble. He was starving, he said, and got angry when we pulled up to a Chic-fil-A which was closed on Sunday. We continued on our way with no other food stops available. We arrived at the seller's address, including his driveway which was a mile long.
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Yes, his driveway was a mile long. His property was huge and his location was right on the water and he had a couple of Hobie cats, a pile of Hobie parts, and a couple of Hobie trailers. We negotiated Kris's stipend away for an additional Hobie part. Sorry Kris. The seller had an old trailer license plate with no validating sticker on it. He agreed to let us borrow it if we would mail it back to him. The trailer was loaded up, hooked up to the truck, and we were soon on our way back across the bay, nervously looking out for the highway patrol.
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We stopped for Hawaiian pizza at Pizza Hut. There was a roadblock on the way and we saw many state troopers as well. As we got closer to our destination the apprehension mounted until we actually drove down the road to the dock. We parked the boat and trailer and called it a day. Whew!
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The next day I started antibiotics and stopped down at the dock to remove the borrowed trailer plate to mail it back. The dockmaster also returned in his state police cruiser converted to civilian duty. I quickly moved away from the boat and trailer and pretended to work on something else. He asked when I was going to clean up my “Flea Market”. Yes, the boat shed was getting out of hand. We talked for a while and as far as I could tell, he didn't notice the new addition, the Hobie cat and the trailer. I hadn't told him what I was up to, and it would be hard to explain how cleaning up around the boat shed involved bringing another boat and trailer to add to what was already there.
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My plan was to repair the 420 dinghy, sell it, license the Hobie trailer, bring the other Hobie cat that didn't have a trailer to the dock, then sell the trailer and one of the Hobie cats.
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The picture is of Makapuu on Oahu in Hawaii.
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