Read: Bahamas Shakedown or Refit or Caribbean or en Francais
Dockwise
12/27/2006

Two independent events, the Denver blizzard of 2006 and Dockwise logistical failures, made for a nightmarish week as we tried to get to Norska in time for loading, get the kids to Austin for xMas, and find some way to join them. American Airlines and Dockwise are on our shit list. Continental and United Airlines were most helpful. In the final analysis, Dockwise slipped our original Dec. 3rd date, bit-by-bit until the last slip, just days before the departure, landed us on 7 AM Dec. 25th. That's right, before sunrise on Christmas morning. I can't tell you how many flights we booked, canceled, and rebooked trying to meet the transport: all very difficult because of the blizzard and the time of year.

We missed Christmas with the kids as we awoke at 5 AM to get on our way to the ship during a blustery frontal passage. We made allowance for missing a bridge opening or two, but all went well (except for bumping the bottom trying to figure out, with the spotlight, whether that unlit marker was red/triangle or green/square) and we arrived at 6:30 only to wait circling in the ditch until 11:00, four hours late, because the ship was having trouble submerging. At this point, I felt like a torpedo with do nicely to help the submerging. The crew was excellent at the loading operation. We left Norska in their hands (as you see here, tied up in the port bay of Super Servant 3) and scrambled to get out quick so that we wouldn't meet yet another flight - this time to Austin to spend what was left of Christmas with the kids and family.

We're now chilling out and look forward to getting back to Colorado for final preparations before taking a jet to windward and beginning the adventure! (As if it hadn't been adventure enough at this point...)

Caribbean
Rather Pathetic Christmas Dinner
12/24/2006

Exhausted from blizzards and sleeping in airports, this is all I could muster for dinner. (Notice the new ultra-leather settees though :) The main feature of this dinner is the wine, which we had no trouble finishing: unusual for us. To bed and wake up earlier to get out of here at 5 AM to make our loading time. (If we had known that the loading was going to run 4 hours late, we could have slept in. Grrr.) Guess we'll have to open presents later...

Caribbean
Blizzard of 2006
12/21/2006, Boulder, Colorado

In theory, we would be in Ft. Lauderdale about now preparing Norska for loading onto Super Servant 3 for her trip South. (We'll be doing the 747 to windward thing.) No go, grace a the Blizzard of 2006. Somehow the logic now is we dig out, while DIA digs out, we finish when the buses to the airport start running again and the airplanes start flying again, Cath goes somewhere, I go to LA, and somehow we meet up in Ft. Lauderdale and load the boat the next morning - Oh boy! Cath, being French, has difficulty in summoning up a respectable American Gothic pose...

Caribbean
New Fishing Gear! Thanks Howard!
Spencer
12/18/2006

Fishing gear, check! Thanks to our fishing expert, Howard, we are complete with a spinning outfit for those afternoons when you're at anchor and those yummy lookin' snapper are just wandering wherever they please under your boat. In addition to Howard's generous donation, we are equipped with a Hawaiian sling, spear, and a Penn Senator trolling rod. Oh yeah, that was another Howard donation - duh! Keep checking the blog and you'll see fish popping up. I can't wait 'till I get another Dorado!

In case you guys don't know Howard, he also helped ferry the boat back from the Bahamas and saw to our fishing success.

Caribbean
Bienvenue au blog en fran�ais
12/06/2006

si vous lisez cette page, vous avez trouv� l'endroit o� vous pourrez lire notre carnet de bord!

Vous pouvez entrer des commentaires (lien 'Comments' ci-dessous) pour corriger mes fautes de fran�ais ou simplement nous dire que vous lisez le journal de bord!

Pour voir notre position, cliquez sur la carte (Current Position).

Vous pouvez aussi envoyer un email (lien 'Send Email' � droite), mais surtout pas d'attachement aux emails.

PS - cliquez sur "Photo Gallery" � droite pour voir les photos des Bahamas en juin 2006

� bient�t! Cathy

Francais
The Plan
12/06/2006

The Plan is to ship Norska to Martinique and sail her back to the US by June or so with an emphasis on the French Caribbean, Dominican Republic, and the far out islands of the Bahamas. We'll be taking Shelby (Sophomore) and Spencer (7th grade) out of school and, of course, doing without paychecks for the duration. Given Shelby's academic direction, we are seizing this semester as the last chance we have to have an adventure as a family. Its not around the world, but its a big deal for us!

Caribbean
Valves Everywhere!
12/06/2006, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

The original gate valves for the tank selector manifold were leaking air, causing the water pump to lose its prime. In addition to nixing the accumulator and installing redundant, variable speed pumps, we replaced the intake manifold valves with ball valves. We also added a valved manifold downstream of the pump as well. During the Bahamas Shakedown, we sprung a leak in the cockpit shower valve assembly. It shouldn't have been a big deal, but 1) we were nowhere near anyplace to get new parts, and 2) we couldn't turn the water on without dumping water into the bilge so we ended up pumping as much fresh water overboard as we used onboard: hardly ideal water management. By install the downstream valves, we can isolate a damaged water circuit from the rest of the system: lessoned learned.

Refit
Solar Panels
12/06/2006, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Our new solar panel mount on the aft bimini. After trying other locations, we settled on what you see here as a reasonable compromise. The two panels (240W total) are not nearly enough to power the boat; they cover about half our energy usage on a good day and a quarter on a not so good day. Its all about fridge efficiency, which isn't too good on a stock J/40. If we continue with the boat after our Caribbean tour, the fridge box will be replaced. For now, since we'll be in the trades, the wind generator makes up the difference and if worse comes to worse, we have a high output Balmar on the engine. On our Bahamas shakedown, we learned a lot about energy usage and the need for good energy instrumentation if you're going to play the alternative energy game.

This combined bimini, solar panel mount rids us of the straps and vertical tubes of the original aft bimini: much easier access to fishing rods, BBQ, etc. However, because we can't just roll it up, it needs to be beefy enough to withstand a serious storm. The structure is designed for a 40lb./sq. foot wind load (about a CII hurricane) using 1" tubing with seriously thick walls. The fittings are heavy duty and thru-pinned with 1/4" bolts. We can remove just the solar panels in ten minutes if we have too. You can hang from it no problem!

Refit

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