Vicki
5 July, 2012, Ellis Island, New York City, NY, USA

The Macys New York 4th July celebrations are the costliest and most explosive in the US with 40,000 shells set off during the fireworks show. I put in a request to Capt. Maynard to be as close as possible to the action so we headed towards the Hudson River and after taking a few photos at the Statue of Liberty, anchored legally next to Ellis Island, the historic gateway to millions of immigrants arriving in New York which occured between 1892 and 1954.

We had made our way north after the vicious storm at Scotland Beach in the Chesapeake Bay and transitted the Chesapeake Delaware Canal which joins Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. The canal is around 8 miles long and about 100 metres in width and very well marked. We saw only a handful of vessels making their way along its length so we took our time viewing cornfields, beautiful homes, a large flock of vultures and wild deer and quaint towns along the way. Almost every starboard hand channel marker was decked with a sea eagle's nest, some with an egg, some with a baby chick. As we exited the canal, we passed the Salem Nuclear Power Plant in Delaware and couldn't believe how close we were allowed to pass next to the nuclear reactors. For some weird reason, it actually made my day.

We rounded the Cape May Lighthouse with a 4 knot current against us and tried to anchor in the little harbour of Cape May but as there was so little room, we ended up sitting in the middle of the channel. It wasn't long before a Coast Guard vessel with a whole host of officials came alongside and after a pleasant greeting, advised us we needed to move. Yep, we agreed. As the sun was low on the horizon, we decided to do another overnight passage and arrived in New Jersey the following morning.

My request to view the fireworks in New York seemed simple enough I thought but there are a lot of factors you don't ever read about in the books. Firstly, our Ellis Island anchorage became terribly uncomfortable with waves caused by wind against tide. Combined with that and the Statue Cruise ferries running constantly plus all the other river traffic heading upriver to gain their preferred spot for the fireworks, things were getting a little chaotic and queasy onboard.

We decided to deploy our flopper stoppers made by Ocean Torque in Australia and suddenly most of the violent rolling dissipated. We have the largest size which is a No. 5 and it is 900 mm across. The flopper stoppers are suspended from our two cranes on each side of the boat and sit between 1 and 2 metres underwater. They dampen the motion of the waves and put the vessel out of synch with the waves which greatly reduces the severe motion by at least 70%. Almost every other vessel from catamarans to monohulls to motor vessels of all sizes and shapes, left our little anchorage after a very short time due to their vessels rolling so badly. We sat there over 2 days. They are a lot less hassel and maintenance of the $100,000 gyro systems with a similar, if not better, result. You can take a look at the website at www.boatstabilizers.net to read more about this amazing device.

At 9 a.m., on 4th July we were greeted with a 21 gun salute...well maybe not entirely for us but the canon WAS just across the river aiming at us. As the sun set and seven NYPD helicopters roared overhead (I thought it was Donald Trump and his 6 secretaries at first), we decided to launch our new AB 14 foot dinghy with centre console steering, chart plotter and fishfinder and head to where the real action was occurring. We'd heard there were 6 barges loaded with fireworks and as many of you know, I am mad about pyrotechnics, so the thought was to get as close, if not closer, to the lovely smell of rocket smoke. But there's a catch. There always is. The barges are anchored in the Hudson, followed by a large gap. Next are located the megayachts, charter vessels and anyone else who wishes to actually anchor in the river for the entire night. You must keep an all night watch plus run your engines. We decided not to do this so that's why we were in our big dinghy and Vanish was safely anchored at Ellis Island 3 miles away.

Behind the megayachts is another large gap patrolled by at least 30 New York Police Department, State Park and Coast Guard vessels with blue flashing lights, loud hailers and massive searchlights. Their job was to keep the seething mass of 1000 floating vessels of every shape and type from ramming into the anchored vessels. All good in theory, but the Hudson has a heck of a current so when we'd get to the "fenceline", the sirens would blare, the spotlights would be targetted at the infrigers, and we'd all have to back up, or turn around without hitting one another or being hit, all while watching the best fireworks we'd ever seen and taking photos. I can clearly remember being 3 feet from a ferry the size of a Staten Island Ferry with passengers screaming at us and pointing with immense concern as we nearly collided in the dark. It was crazy fun and we had the best time of our lives. Everyone was in great spirits, even the American flag waving Middle Eastern crew on a nearby power boat yelling, "God Bless Amereeekaaaa." At the end of the 30 minute Multi Million Dollar show, every single vessel blasted their air horns for at least a minute. It was incredible.

Ok, show's over. Time to go back to Vanish 3 miles away. Now this is where it DID get scary. The wash from hundreds of large and small vessels in the dark on the Hudson making their way home to their respective marinas at full speed was like the worst washing machine out of balance you could imagine. It didn't bear thinking about the consequences of not riding the waves correctly or not seeing a faster vessel coming up behind us. The AB can do 34 knots at top speed but we were doing around 12 knots comparably safely and made it back without incident. It was truly a great experience.

In the morning we found a downside to our dear flopper stoppers. We failed to wiretie the shackle pins holding the flopper stoppers and as there are always changing loads and vibrations from the currents, one of the shackle pins unwound itself overnight and to our shock and horror, we found we had lost one of them to the muddy depths of the Hudson River, a $2,500 mistake. Oops. A four hour effort was made to retrieve the flopper stopper using the Fishfinders on Vanish and the AB Dinghy then using a grappling hook without luck. We are currently heading north to a marina in Maine where one is being delivered from the manufacturer in Australia. One flopper stopper works well, but two's a charm.

ps Don't forget to check out the Photo Gallery icon

Comments [3]

Vicki - Weather is Perfect 26 deg C
3 July, 2012, 40 42.172'N

The Statue of Liberty has a 500 metre exclusion zone. We were anchored 600 metres away and had a bird's eye view of the Great Lady. What an experience. We've now moved a couple of miles north and are currently anchored near Ellis Island where we will have the best view of the 4th July fireworks tomorrow night.

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Vicki
30 June, 2012, Scotland Beach, Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA

This morning I asked Julie if she and Dirk have had as much drama and excitement in their years of sailing as we have been encountering on Vanish lately and her answer was, "No, not really." We were worried that we'd be bored on a motor vessel compared to a yacht, but so far it hasn't been the case. It's a beautiful vessel and has looked after us in every aspect.

Yesterday, we left our anchorage near the Old Point Comfort Marina in Hampton, Virginia and had barely gone 20 minutes before we spotted a massive nuclear powered aircraft carrier in the distance coming towards us down the channel. Next thing, the radio is blaring, "Vanish, Vanish, Vanish, this is Warship 77. You must maintain a distance of a minimum of 500 metres and you must exit the channel immediately." By this time, we were within 1 km of the ship which was surrounded by Coast Guard vessels making sharp jabs with their steering towards us and a military chopper with gunner aiming at us buzzing us overhead and circling the ship. Good grief, we're just little guppies from Australia, we mean you no harm. We hot footed it out of there and made our way as far north on Chesapeake Bay as we could in daylight.

Meanwhile Dirk had repaired our Sea Recovery Aqua Whisper watermaker which had been sucking air from a strainer. He removed the strainer and now the watermaker purrs along beautifully putting out over 70 gallons (270 lt) an hour and has less than 40 parts per million of salt content. Our watermaker on our previous yacht made 45 litres an hour so this is a big change. Mind you, we use a lot more water as we have 4 people onboard, a large washing machine, decadent shower heads, and freshwater toilets.

Another line of storms were forecast later in the day so we found an anchorage just north of the entrance to the Potomac River at a place called Scotland Beach. It would give us protection from NW to SW in the event of storms coming our way. The Raytheon Sirius started showing a huge line of storms approaching by 9pm and we figured they would be at our location by around 11pm. An anchor alarm and depth alarm were set before we went to bed. At 11.30 pm, the boat motion changed suddenly and we woke to blinding lightning and Vanish yawing wildly. All of us went onto the bridge as the wind started screaming and rising from 35 knots, to 40 knots, to 48 knots, to 53 knots. We heard a large popping sound. Now the lexan on the starboard side of the flybridge tore from its secure point and disappeared in the maelstrom. Lexan is used for space and sports helmuts, clear high performance windshields and aircraft canopies and bullet-resistant windows. Its super strong but if it's not bolted down the wind will find a way to wedge it free so we've now lost both port and starboard panels in winds over 50 knots in less than 1 week. At least we're symmetrical now. This storm clocked winds at 80 mph and brought down 100 year old trees and more than 2 million people in the area were without power. It was an incredibly powerful storm and made the national news.

We'd laid out our 180 lb Genuine Scottish CQR anchor with 40 meters of high tensile G4 1/2" chain with a breaking strength of greater than 50,000 lbs in 5.8 metres of water. Dirk says dryly, "The boat will rip to pieces before that chain would break." Our anchor alarm makes a high shrill bird-like screech which sounds like, "Help Me, Help Me, Help Me" or maybe it's saying, "Fix It, Fix It, Fix It". It decided to start calling for help when we completed a full anchor circle when the winds clocked NW then SW then SE with another line of storms then back to NW again, all in a 30 minute period. Imagine yourself on a huge bay in the middle of the night with winds of 50 - 80 knots, pieces of your boat flying skywards, lightning absolutely everywhere and driving rain, your new untested boat yawing wildly and an anchor alarm calling for help. Mind you, we turned off the anchor alarm as we knew what we were doing and we hadn't dragged at all. Maynard had set a very tight anchor drag distance and the chain had stretched outside the set limit so all was ok.

13 people were killed overnight in the storm and states of emergency have been declared in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, right where we are. This morning we've heard countless Pan Pans as there are boats upturned and adrift. We are heading past Washington DC and Baltimore at the top of Chesapeake Bay before passing through the Chesapeake Delaware Canal which will take us into the quieter Delaware Bay. Again, we are on a sharp lookout for another male in the water. In all our years of sailing, we've not had to do this before either. As Dirk said in his monotone Afrikaan accent, "It must be a popular place to dump bodies." On the positive side, 9 people have been rescued from an upturned boat today, 2 more swam to shore this morning after their boat was lost and another vessel is being towed to a marina. It's a gorgeous day today with flat seas and fabulous travelling conditions for us although we're still looking for a large picnic table afloat our here. This Bay is so enormous. It's going to be 41 deg today so let's hope for a storm free, stress free quiet night.

Comments [5]

Vicki
27 June, 2012, Tropical Storm Debby Chasing Vanish

We arrived in Palmetto, Florida, just south of the city of Tampa on 25th May, 2012 eager to see our new vessel for the first time. So much has happened since the decision to purchase Vanish and time has flown by with the various modifications and delays associated with fitting her out.

After moving onboard we found there were many issues after living on her at the Marlow Shipyard for 3 weeks and various systems either needed replacing or fixing. As it turned out, even though I was more than ready to scream, cry or strangle the closest person to me due to the malaise I felt from port rot, it was a good opportunity to ensure that we used everything possible to find the failures and get them fixed. Everyone at Marlow Marine were extremely professional and helped us in every way possible to ensure we were comfortable and all issues were dealt with as quickly as possible. We feel fortunate in the fact that we met so many hard working individuals whose only goal was to produce a great product. Our thanks go to David and Barbara Marlow, Jarlath, Mike, Joe, George, Craig, Richard, Tommy, Phil, Mark, Cecil, Lee, Don and so many others plus all the contractors who came onboard to service electronics, boat covers and much more. If I have forgotten anyone or you haven't been mentioned, please know that we are extremely grateful for all your help.

We finally said our goodbyes and left the dock on Wednesday 20th June with Dirk and Julie Schoombee our crew when we felt the boat was seaworthy and in good working order. Luckily it coincided with Maynard finding a perfect weather window to take us from Tampa down to Key Biscayne at the bottom of Florida. We had to go overnight on our first day taking 4 hour watches with 2 up on each watch as we ended up arriving late at our intended anchorage of Port Charlotte and didn't want to risk going into an unknown harbour in the dark. We had many 30 kn rain squalls and lumpy seas and I can tell you that if we'd been on Cruz Control, it would have been an awful night busily reefing sails, getting wet, flopping around in the dark after the squalls had past and dodging lightning. In this vessel, it was very comfortable and the weather we encountered didn't bother us at all. Both Julie and I felt a bit "off" as neither of us had been to sea for many months yet Iron Guts Maynard and Dirk felt no queasiness at all. It was quite dark and gloomy and rained most of the way and the air temp was at least the same temperature as the water, if not higher, with high humidity. Hurricanes form in water 28 degrees and above. Worryingly, the sea temp in Tampa Baywas 32 deg and we found that even the ocean temp was 29.8 deg!!! Surely, this cannot be right. We had to get out of "The Box", an area known to have hurricanes with the north limit being 35' N, which runs between Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout, North Carolina, and the eastern limit is 55' E, the southern limit around 12' N and the western limit is around 100'W, in fact most of the Gulf of Mexico.

On Thursday morning, we anchored near a town called Marathon in Key Biscayne in an ocean roadstead although it was quite comfortable as the swell was minimal. Cuba was just to our south about 90 miles away. A 25 kn southerly was forecast to come in on Sunday but as it turned out, when we got up on Friday morning and checked the weather forecast, a tropical storm had formed overnight off Belize and later named called Tropical Storm Debby. It was forecast to go to Tampa, right where we'd been sitting for the last month!! The decision was made to outrun this storm and get as far north as possible by all means before it crossed over Tampa and then onto the east side of Florida. We had intended going to the Bahamas for a couple of days but decided that it was just too risky to spend any time in these waters with record high sea temps and the possibility of more hurricanes. We kept thinking we'd call into Georgia or the Carolinas, but the track of the storm showed it going through these areas so we decided to just keep going.

Luckily, we had very good sea conditions so we were making around 300 miles per day. The most economical speed for us is around 9 knots but when you add the north flowing hot current of the Gulf Stream, we were doing somewhere between 11 and 12 knots SOG (Speed Over Ground) so there was no problem doing our 300 mile days. At times we were around 150 miles offshore going through rain squalls with lightning and 30+ knot winds which we all agreed were very welcome as they cleaned the salt off the rails and decks nicely and we didn't even have to don our wet weather gear but the sea was only up to 1 meter. We kept an eye on the Raymarine Radar which showed TS Debby steadily heading for the west coast of Florida. It definitely looked too close for comfort for my liking.

There have now been 3 tropical storms since we arrived in Florida in the last 3 weeks. We've been really desperate to get out of Florida before getting caught. The Tampa area received inches of rain and was under a tornado watch and the wind on top of the Skyway Bridge, right near the Marlow Marina, was encountering 70 mph winds and was closed so we just got out of there with only one day to spare. We were so lucky not to get caught in all the rough seas and feet of rain they experienced. It was one of the loneliest trips we've ever made as we only saw one other pleasure vessel the entire trip which was a yacht way out to sea off South Carolina. We had a couple of uninvited guests onboard in the form of flying fish and one poor little guy must have been flying at lightning speed as he hit Vanish's hull so hard, the impact literally popped his little eyes out of their sockets. Now that's gonna hurt.

We rounded Cape Hatteras, once dubbed the "Graveyard of the Atlantic" due to its treacherous currents, shoals and storms at 4am on Monday 25th June and were looking forward to just moseying into a nice quiet anchorage in the Chesapeake Bay area. As we kept looking at our Sirius System which displays live real time national weather direct from the satellite, we noticed and heard warnings on the radio and saw a line of storms heading right across the Bay just as we were due to enter. The sky darkened and a roll cloud with low white clouds in front of it kept approaching. There were patches of light green in the cloud as well indicating hail. We were hit with 60 knot winds and with our speed of 10 knots SOG, we had 70 knots across the bow with driving rain and some hail. Being a weather fanatic, I quickly switched on the tv and saw we were under a red warning area for tornadoes too. Time to switch OFF the tv. Well that's just great isn't it!!! As if we aren't tired enough, we get a kick in the pants on our arrival. Oh yes, and there were Pan Pans every 10 minutes to keep watch for a bald black man wearing no shirt and brown shorts apparently in the water right in the channel where we were heading so we also had to keep a sharp lookout for him although we did not see him nor a reported catamaran adrift in the Bay. Suddenly we heard a terrible sound and Maynard yelled that something broke off the flybridge bow. It turned out to be a 5 ft length of lexan 1/2" thick which completely shattered in the strong wind and went sailing overboard. It was just luck that it didn't destroy our radar towers, satphone and other instruments on top of the flybridge.

As if that wasn't enough, we had a Canadian warship coming up astern and then the radio came to life again when the Virginia Pilot saw us on their AIS system and called Vanish, Vanish, Vanish, to warn us he was on a deep draft vessel taking up most of the channel coming our way. In near zero visibility and torrential rain we decided it was time to quit the channel as with the squalls and thick bolts of lightning hitting all around us. What next! Stay calm Vicki!

I always take comfort in our dear friend's, Nick Stump's, words about storms at sea. "Ah, Vicki, they're nothing to worry about; they pass in no time," and sure enough, the storm passed in no more than 25 minutes. We made our way into the Bay where we found a nice quiet anchorage just outside the Old Point Comfort Marina with one other yacht near Fort Monroe, Norfolk, Virginia which was built just after the War of 1812 in a place called Hampton Roads at the southern end of Chesapeake Bay (one of the largest natural harbours in the world). We've done around 1,146 miles since we left last Wednesday and have been travelling for 6 days. It is very satisfying to have completed our first big leg of our journey successfully and in extreme comfort even though we are currently heading away from Australia. We've had to make some adjustments to our schedule but will try to make the most of our cruising season in the northern part of the USA before heading south again in the next few months and re-aligning ourselves with the cruising seasons. Conversations have gone something like, "Um, let's go to the Bahamas. Hmm. It's in The Box. Ok, lets go to Greenland. Oh, yeah, we're too late in the season to go that far now. All right, how 'bout Belize? No, too much risk of a hurricane there too. No worries, let's try Maine and take it from there."

Our Vanish is heavy right now with a year's worth of spare parts and sufficient oil and filters to not require outside assistance until we get to Australia. We thought this was a good idea as we intended going to South America. Now that we're in the US, these spares are just non paying passengers right now until we head to more remote areas. I wonder what conversation awaits me tomorrow?

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Maynard & Vicki
17 May, 2012, Cruz at Anchor in North Queensland, Australia

In 1998 we took possession of Cruz Control in Santa Cruz, California and then sailed her across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Brisbane, Australia. In the previous 7 years we'd bought 3 yachts trying to find one suitable for cruising and racing and at the time, we thought if we owned Cruz Control for 10 years, we would be extremely happy and satisfied with our decision making process. It also allowed us to learn what features we liked and disliked. To achieve a 10 year ownership, it meant that proper research was required and because this was achieved, we in fact owned Cruz for a total of 14 years. The process involved in commissioning Cruz Control was similar to Vanish except that we were involved in every decision on Cruz since its inception from the mould.
Every prospective buyer has their own long list of requirements and something which is important to us may not be a consideration for another owner. Choosing any vessel takes an enormous amount of time and effort. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours of research have gone into choosing this new vessel. Some of the considerations for Maynard are listed below and for those with a penchant for the technical side, we will try to elaborate on how we chose or why we liked each particular system on Vanish. Overall, we needed a vessel to transport us safely to exotic places with a high margin of safety but we also wanted a vessel which was fun to operate and pleasing to the eye. Below is a list of some of the major requirements.
. Safety - stability, buoyancy, downflooding, ground tackle, speed, draft, construction type, strength, weight, range, meet as a minimum Lloyds Ocean Class A CE Certification and ABS requirements
. Comfort - sea kindly motion with redundant stability systems, heating, cooling, tankage, watermaker ability, electrical capacity with regard to gensets, storage, refrigeration, easy to deploy flopper stoppers at anchor
. Operation Requirements - to be able to operate with 2 people, fuel efficiency, engine type, hull type, reliability, solar panels to minimise usage of gensets, range, the ability to use 110v or 240v systems, we needed as many redundant systems as possible ensuring self sufficiency
. Vessel already built or close to completion with maximum LOA 25m
. Instrumentation - a comprehensive electronic package including infrared camera for high latitude voyaging, multiple radar systems, world-wide communication systems
I guess I should have seen all of this coming while I sat sipping my cup of tea. In my mind, we were preparing to finally build our dream home after coping with the vagaries of living in our 1978 built farmhouse, originally decorated by the previous occupant in various shades of brown, orange and yellow. Although we'd done a partial renovation 10 years ago, I was anxious to finally separate myself from the odd brown snake, rat, cane toad, lizard and rainforest creature which seemed to find comfort in our humble abode. After 30 years of marriage I could have stopped for just a moment to articulate a better response. I should have, but I didn't. I was sitting in tropical paradise on a warm sunny day and Cape Horn was at least 8,000 miles away as the crow flies. So when faced with a response to Maynard's proposal to take a vessel to Patagonia and Cape Horn, I said the first thing that came to mind. "Hmmm. That sounds like an exciting idea. We should do that!" And the deed was done. Just like that.

Comments [1]

Vicki
9 May, 2012, Byron Bay, NSW, Australia

A set of seemingly random events can sometimes send your life along a path you could never have expected or guessed at the time. One day late in 2010, we received a phone call out of the blue from our good friends Nick and Alison asking us if we were interested in selling our beloved Santa Cruz 52 yacht Cruz Control. We laughed and said, "No way, Jose." We'd sailed her for almost 13 years covering at least 50,000 miles both cruising and racing and had not even considered moving on to anything else. Why would we? In fact, there WAS nothing else better than our Cruz Control. And that was that, except, the seed had been planted.
Maynard usually has a stack of boating magazines piled up on the bedside table. Ocean Navigator, Yachting World, Australian Sailing, and Cruising Helmsman were the norm but a few larger glossier magazines had crept in. He has a voracious appetite for anything nautical, technical, innovative, challenging and exciting. In January 2011 our friend Sharon Torrens, the wife of Grant from Grant Torrens Yacht Brokers on the Gold Coast suddenly passed away. At Sharon's wake, before I had a chance to dig Maynard in the ribs, he asked our friend Scott to keep an eye out for any new interesting vessels he might come across. "What? What sort of vessels?" I say. Well as the weeks ticked by, the phone calls and emails started trickling in. First, he considered a Nordhavn, then he considered a Dashew. Next he researched a Fleming and then Scott mentioned a Marlow 65 for sale which could be inspected nearby. Most of this occurred quietly during the day without my involvement. It didn't have the range he wanted but he read about a new Marlow 76LR Voyager in Miami, Florida which could possibly fit the bill. Then in April and May we lost two more dear friends we had known for many years and reminded us yet again of how delicate and short life can be and that we needed to make the most of each and every day.
About a week later we were enjoying a cup of tea on a picture perfect day on our patio which overlooks the rolling green hills and white sandy beaches at Byron Bay, Australia discussing our plan for this year's sailing season. For the past 8 years between the months of June and November, we' would close down the house, take our cattle dog Bindi, provision Cruz Control and sail north to the tropical waters of the Whitsunday Islands or Cairns. Neither of us really wanted to do the same again this year as we'd "been there, done that." I hate to admit it but we were both feeling slightly bored with it all and as Maynard was still working full-time, we couldn't formulate a workable schedule where we could sail Cruz Control to higher latitudes and/or more exotic places. Maynard took a breath and said, "I've been working on a plan this week. "Oh really?" I said, cup poised in mid air. "How 'bout we try to buy that Marlow in Florida, leave in October for the Caribbean, then go to Patagonia, have a photo taken off Cape Horn then go across the Pacific and bring it back home to Australia?"
"Huh???...................................."

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