Karma

Vessel Name: Karma1
Vessel Make/Model: Columbia 45
Hailing Port: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Crew: James and Dody
About: James has been sailing for most of his life, starting with dinghy sailing around 8 years old. Dody is a loving 1st mate who hopes that James knows what he is doing.
Extra: "Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made" - Robert N.Rose
21 October 2014 | Alberta, Canada
10 October 2014 | Alberta, Canada
10 March 2014 | lago Isabel on Karma 1
18 February 2014 | RAM Marina
15 February 2014 | RAM Marina
11 February 2014 | Rio dulce, Guatemala
07 February 2014 | RAM Marina
31 January 2014 | Guatemala
30 January 2014 | RAM marina
29 January 2014
29 January 2014 | RAM marina
22 December 2013 | Merida, mexico
04 December 2013 | Rio Dulce, Fronteras, Guatemals
02 December 2013 | Lago Izabal, Guatemala
27 November 2013 | Guatemala City
13 October 2013
09 October 2013 | RAM Boatyard, Rio Dulce...
07 October 2013 | Rio Dulce, Guatemala
06 October 2013 | Rio Dulce, Guatemala
05 October 2013 | Dartmouth
Recent Blog Posts
21 October 2014 | Alberta, Canada

Salty dreams...

I've got a case of salty dreams and wanderlust. I can hardly wait til we cut the dock lines and chase adventure on the sea! @ back to Karma soon !:)

10 October 2014 | Alberta, Canada

Autumn Update

It is Indian Summer, and we are in the process of closing up our home in the beautiful mountainous and plan for our annual migratory trek to be on S/V Karma. It's been an adventurous Summer vagabonding around, tending to the Orchard, visiting family and friends out East and enjoying the east coast. You can catch a ray of our journey as we prepare to travel down the Cali Seaboard to be back in Guatemala! let the journey begin! ~~

10 March 2014 | lago Isabel on Karma 1

journey forward

beautiful life...

18 February 2014 | RAM Marina

Splash!

Whew!

15 February 2014 | RAM Marina

OMG! Naranja!!!!

They painted the boot stripe!

11 February 2014 | Rio dulce, Guatemala

Strange tropical fruit make me happy!

There is no end to exotic fruit in tropical Guatemala. From one day to the next the selection changes.  The nice thing about Guatemala is that Each time I go to town I'm surprised by something new! The other nice thing is that it's so cheap! Although they have fruit you'll recognize such as mango, pineapple, [...]

Haul out day...

07 October 2013 | Rio Dulce, Guatemala
James/Hot
Today was haul out day.

An early morning, excited to get going and get started on this phase of the job. Haul out was scheduled for 9:00 am, and I was up just before 6:00 am.

Got the remaining loose stuff off the deck of Karma, packed my bags for the time I would be ashore (hopefully not long), and cast off.

It was the first time I had Karma out on the water since last year, and motoring her around instead of little Minoosh was like driving a supertanker. I began to get a little nervous about docking this aircraft carrier...

Thankfully, slow and steady, and soon Karma was tied up at RAM Marina ready to be hauled out. Nobody was expectantly waiting there like the guys at DYC used to be, so I wandered around until I found someone I could do pantomine with. The crew came over and they wanted me to now back in. Great, my confidence at docking forwards would now be double challenged with a reverse twirl and twist docking.

But, I nailed it. Found out that in reverse, a Columbia 45 has a "slight" tendency to pull to starboard and with little headway, it makes the docking more of a challenge. Adjusting for this, and going slow, we were soon allowing the dock crew to lead Karma into the slings of the boat lift.

I was impressed that they had a guy go into the water to check where the slings would be best placed. Nobody would ever do that in the chilly waters of the Bedford Basin.

Haul out went smoothly, with me keeping a nervous eye on obvious issues. Things didn't look too bad to me, some ancient barnacles, small mussels in the throughhulls, and a lot of river slime covering the hull.

As soon as we had her up on the gravel part of the dockyard, and started to clean the hull with a pressure washer, we noted the blisters. About 20-30. Mostly around the size of the bottom of a coffee mug, and pretty much all of them on the starboard side.

Karen, the dock manager, was keen to pop them and show me how bad it was. I can't fault her; it's worldwide dockyard policy to extract as much money from the customer as possible.

I politely asked her to stop hacking away at my boat. I was being reminded of the times that I've taken cars in for safety inspections; the dodgy shops will always try to crush the exhaust system with vise-grips to show you how bad your muffler is. Of course, it's easy enough to crush a new muffler pipe with vise-grips, so all it shows is that you now definitely need a new tailpipe.

There were other issues as well; such as some evidence of cracking or something around the rudder skeg, and some mysterious lines around where the keel seats with the hull.

Anyway, the crew finished washing off the hull, and we agree that we would proceed with sandblasting and see what happens from there.

I ended the day, not so hopeful that this would be an quick job as I started.
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