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 [...]

St Lucia to Antigua II

24 October 2017 | Antigua
Capn Andy/85 degree Tradewinds
The rough sea and strong wind got us up to 8-9 knots and the currents around the islands helped and hindered. Hard to figure. My guess is that the prevalent westward current comes through between the islands and then forms a couple of eddies on either side of the gap. So, if you are near shore you will be borne along toward the gap, from either island, but if you are further out to sea you will hit the current. It fans out to give not only a cross current as you try to pass, but will hit you as you approach the gap and help you when you leave it.
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We were making good progress. Complaints about the hard teak contoured cockpit seats and the thin water resistant cushions. The boat continued shouldering aside waves, climbing up the big ones, surfing down their backs. The sails looked small due to the reef in the main and the genoa only rolled out about 80 per cent.
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In the lee of some of the larger mountains the wind would drop down to 10 or a bit less and we would drop down in speed to low single digits. The drill was one of frustration. Work on the sails to reduce heel and try to smooth motion. That means adjusting the main sheet and vang, which did little good, and rolling the genoa up a little. Then the wind would die enough that we were going too slow. Start the engine. Now it is inevitable that the wind will come screaming back with whitecaps. Should we kill the engine? No, the wind will die again. The wind doesn’t die, it gets stronger. This is not the same as the last delivery when we were making apparent wind with the engine, this is actual fluctuation in the tradewinds.
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We were at least 5 miles away from these islands to reduce the effect of the mountains on them blocking our wind, but their effect must carry a long way. We alternately felt exhilarated and frustrated as the boat ran along like a freight train, then wallowed like a sick water buffalo. The chums were sleeping out on deck getting a good sunburn and oblivious to our frustrations.
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I decided to take the midwatch because I didn’t feel I could get any sleep until later, and coming off the midwatch at 2 AM was late enough. I could rest after I made dinner until 10 PM and go on watch then. Skipper came up on deck after a nap and I remained to take a picture of Dominica lit by the setting sun. It looked like a mural, unreal, something someone stuck up there on the horizon.
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The discussion about eggs continued. The chums still had that look in their eyes. It would take so long to boil eggs and the hot dogs had no condiments. We were hungry sailors (two of us) and didn’t feel enthusiastic about the available food, which we picked out from the store from our carefully thought out shopping list. Then I got an idea about what to make.
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I sliced up a couple of hot dogs and began frying them in a non-stick pan, but with no butter or oil on hand, I hoped the dogs would exude a little something to oil the pan. Unbelievably they simply burned in the pan. What are they made out of? I had to work quickly, beating some eggs, tossing the burnt dogs into the egg batter, pouring that into the non-stick pan, which really was non-stick. Then sprinkle a little salt and pepper on them, that’s all I got for flavoring, then fold it over like an omelet, cut it up, lay it on bread, and make sandwiches of it with a little mayo. I brought this up to the skipper who was at the helm and he began eating it. What is it? I answered, “There is one less dog on board”.
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I remained on watch with the skipper for a while, then he went to his stateroom to get some sleep before coming on watch at 2 AM. The boat continued its steady progress, shouldering aside long breaking rollers to leeward and stopping similar rollers from coming aboard to windward. The windward rollers could be seen in the dark, even though we were nearly at New Moon, and when they broke against the hull, they exploded in a burst of spray all along the hull, rising up over the rail and forming a pipeline that landed on deck and flowed aft.
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The owner’s dad, who remained on deck with me all through my watch, said wasn’t it boring, I said it was extremely entertaining, involving, all the details of the sea surface, the expanse of the sky, the birds who flew around us like kamakazi zeros and dove straight into the sea for fish, the flying fish scooting away from us in formation, off to the left and right, falling into the waves and leaving a pattern of splashes. Involvement, keeping an eye on sail trim, wind patterns on the sea traveling down to us, bracing for a gust, but we are just caretakers of an automatic boat, the autopilot is in charge. I guess all my years of hand steering conditioned me to be alert to the present, what is happening right now.
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On my watch the apparent wind, over the deck, went up to the mid twenties, hitting 30 in the gusts, but this wind is partly caused by our boat speed, nature’s true wind was more like 15-20. We flew along, touching 9 knots, through the dark, and the lights of Guadeloupe came closer. We had been constantly edging further and further to the right of our intended track, yet we would clear Guadeloupe with room to spare, could we also go straight for the approach to Jolly Harbour? We could if we bore up now a little closer to the wind. Unfortunately the chartplotter does not make route planning on the go easy, but by placing a waypoint near the approach to Jolly Harbour I could click on “Navigate to Here” and see our direct course to the approach on the chartplotter, zoom in on it and scan all along its length for any shoals or obstacles, not finding anything, heading the boat up a bit, adjusting the sails a bit.
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We were getting close to Vieux-fort, the port at the southern end of Guadeloupe, and passing close to the land. A pair of lights that looked like a ship at anchor or two fishing vessels working in the same place out to seaward of us began to show a starboard runnign light. It was a ship coming into port and it was on a collision course with us. Calm down, bear off 10 degrees by hitting the button on the auto pilot, watch the threatening vessel pass in front of us, into port, gone. Back on course.
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The island started to block the seas a bit and knock down the wind. Skipper came on deck and reviewed the course change, sent me below to get my sleep. I had been on watch, actually, from when we got underway at 7 AM till now, 2 AM, and I loved every minute of it, a great memorable day of sailing in conditions as good as you can get.
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I had some strange dreams in my short 4 hour nap. I was rocked to sleep by the motion of the boat, but my dreams continued to play on that rocky rolly motion. In my dream we were in a flat bottomed native fishing boat with a big mainsail and we had to keep bailing water out of it, why was it leaking so badly, sail it up onto the beach, surf, try to drag it up on the sand, the fish are too heavy, try to unload them, waves breaking, “Hey, Andy, you’re up” Skipper woke me with that and I was back on deck.
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We were now leaving the north end of Guadeloupe, skipper had experienced a loss of the powerful tradewind, but that meant a quiet motion of the boat and sweet dreams for us, not for him. He didn’t run the engine, at least not enough to wake any of us, and our ETA at the approach to Jolly Harbour was now later in the day, past noon, maybe 3 or 4 PM.
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I was on watch again and took a photo of the sunrise over Guadeloupe, made a small pot of coffee, ate a St. Lucian orange, navel, very tasty, and a couple of muffins. The owner’s dad came up on deck and took his familiar spot on the lee cockpit bench seat, spashed water on his face, drank a bit, then dozed off. He was still feeling queazy but better than previous.
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The forecast was for a southerly shift of the wind and maybe rain. The clouds were forming ENE of us. We might be sailing into Antigua in the rain. The wind di shift, but a little more North, so I hardened up the sails a bit and confirmed we were right on track to the approach to Jolly Harbour.
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Montserrat was on our port beam and distant. To our starboard was the Atlantic Ocean, large swells, and a steady wind averaging 15 to 25 over the deck. Our speed ran between 7 and 8 as it had on my overnight watch.
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The chartplotter and autopilot displays were dark as if they had been turned off, but it was only that they handn’t been adjusted for daylight viewing. How could you see the menu that changes the brightness? I put a towel over my head and got the displays bright enough. We had been navigating to one of two waypoints near the entrance of Jolly Harbour. It was possible to navigate right to the point where we turned East to enter the harbor. Preparations included rolling up the genoa and dropping the mainsail, taking a lashing off the anchor so it could be deployed if we had to med moor, stationing fenders and mooring lines on deck to be used if necessary, and starting the motor.
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The generator had quit for some reason giving an error signal, but there was no manual to look it up. We had a growing list of tasks to complete once we checked into port and tied up at a marina.
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The approach to the entrance at Jolly Harbour was a piece of cake, we lined up the green buoys to port and the red to starboard and motored in. Calling the harbour with VHF and no reply, we called by cell phone. We were looking for a yellow building to clear customs. We slowly trolled all through the harbor. I suggested it might have flag flown over it. We called again by cell and it turned out the yellow building was about the size of a cottage, had no flag, and we were right in front of it. Good, we tied up, skipper went ashore with the ships papers and all our passports. He was gone a long time. We could see him going into one door of the building, coming out and going into another door, then coming out and repeating the process. It took a long while, maybe 2 hours, and he returned saying we had been checked in and also checked out. Our stay was thus 24 hours or less. It actually saves time to do it this way.
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We moved the boat to the marina and hooked up to shore power to maintain the charge on the batteries, run air conditioning, it was hot, went ashore to shower, provision, and return to the boat to see about that malfunctioning generator. A technician was called to come and look at it. We had arrived late in the afternoon and not surprisingly, the tech who came to the boat just before 5 PM took a cursory look and said maybe tomorrow. But we had to be underway. We tried to tackle it ourselves. I called an experienced Beneteau sailor using the owner’s cell phone, mine had no service here, but he could only offer a couple of suggestions, our generator problem was not anything he had experienced.
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The problem was that the generator had stopped in the middle of the night while running and we only found out it was dead when we changed watch at 2 AM. It refused to start and now, the next day, still wouldn’t start, and exhibited error code 32. This code basically says “The engine won’t start”. We found that the generator was so densely packed together it was impossible to find the starter motor. Electrical leads were checked, burnished, retightened, battery switches cycled on and off, but nothing seemed to make a difference. Removing power to the generator’s starting circuit was supposed to clear the error but it didn’t.
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The photo is of Jolly Harbour looking up the channel out to sea. It is a very pretty harbor.
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