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 [...]

In the Soup with the Drone

14 March 2018 | st marys, ga
Capn Andy/Warm Spring
I put the last of the fiberglass roving patches on the keels yesterday. It was a small patch about 14 inches square. The largest patch covered 6 feet of the bottom of the part bow’s keel. It was a very difficult procedure to get that glass onto the boat, upside down, and keep it in place. The technique of taping heavy plastic drop cloth to hold the patches in place worked well and resulted in a glassy smooth finish.
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Next will come a few large sheathing patches on the the sides of the hull. The glass doesn’t need to be taped to the hull, it should stay in place on its own.
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The drone flights continue and we are progressing in skill. A new battery charger that can charge two batteries at once came in and it seems to be working. The charger that burned up and a warranty replacement was requested hasn’t been shipped yet. A tracking number was reluctantly provided by the vendor, but when you search that number nothing turns up, just the fact that a shipping label has been created. I asked Amazon for a refund.
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I had a bad flight and somehow loosened the top canopy of the drone and the canopy flew off into a pile of rocks behind Kaimu. I searched several times for it, climbing gingerly like an old man, but it must have fallen down through the cracks. I ordered a replacement and two sets of replacement blades, one black, another red. The total bill was about 8 1/2 dollars.
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I found out that the LiPo batteries, that is Lithium Polymer, are chosen due to light weight and high power output. The drawback is slow charging times. Also they are the type that can combust, I guess any lithium battery can burn up, and also their working life is short, only 150 charging cycles or so.
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I kept flying with the canopy off, the electronics exposed. I had a couple more crashes. It is difficult to advance in drone flight control without experiencing crashes. The problem is exposed when the drone is turned to fly toward you. Now your left flick of the control tips the drone to the right, your backward flick tips the drone forward, all the flight controls, except for throttle and rotation are reversed.
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I only figured out one of my miscoordinations after the fact. When the drone is turned to point back toward the remote controller, forward on the tip control brings it back, so that is a forward push with the right thumb on the right joystick. You push forward to come back. Somehow my dyslectic thumbs got confused and I was pushing my left thumb forward. That is the control for throttle or altitude and the drone climbed up and away. My attempts to bring it back resulted in more flying away and higher. I then decided to bring it down as quickly as possible, it was headed for the North River Marsh, the swamp.
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It came down behind Jeff’s old building, now Mike’s building, and I had to hike around back to find it. Nothing. There was the shore of the marsh, the marsh grass growing in oozing mud, the North River out beyond. Had I lost my drone like those dumb people in the You Tube videos? I used the control to spin up the rotors and I heard it. It was in the swamp. I moved around looking to see if I could find it. Then I went all the way out on another angle. I couldn’t hear it.
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I worked my way out into the mud wearing only flip flops. If you step forward, then side step a bit, you can bend the marsh grasses over and maybe they will support your weight. I kept thinking about all those quicksand scenes. No one would ever know what happened to me.
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I finally got myself out into the marsh and only muddy up to the knees, but feeling like I could sink into the muck forever if I didn’t keep moving. Then I saw the drone parked on the bank of a rivulet, which was from the drainage ditch that ran right behind Kaimu along the boatyard property, out into the marsh, then a slight left turn and into the North River. It looked like I could retrieve the drone by kayaking into the drainage rivulet and snagging it with a long boathook or whatever I could find.
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I returned to Kaimu and hosed off the mud, I was a mess. I took my kayak paddle and a long tubular batten down to the kayak and launched. It was low tide and I was able to paddle under the travel lift well and headed for the drainage ditch.
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There was not enough water to float me and the kayak, but by pushing along through the mud I was able to get close enough to the drone to lift it up out of the mud and bring it aboard the kayak. Everything was covered with mud. I kayaked back to the floating dinghy dock and brought the drone back to Kaimu. There the mud was removed by delicately hosing it from below so that the circuit board didn’t get wet. Then I dried the circuit board with some carburettor ether. After letting it sit in the sun for a while it was tested and flew OK with no apparent damage.
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I had wanted to use the pressure cooker again to make something and one of the foods that benefit most from pressure cooking is beans. I decided to make Ina Garten’s Pasta e Fagioli recipe and adapted it to the pressure cooker:
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"16 Bean" Pasta E Fagioli

1 (1-pound) bag 16 Bean Soup Mix
2 tablespoons good olive oil, plus extra for serving
6 ounces pancetta, 1/4-inch-diced
1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, preferably San Marzano
1 cup dry red wine
4 to 6 cups good chicken stock, preferably homemade
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup miniature pasta, such as ditalini or tubettini
1/2 cup freshly grated Italian Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
1 tablespoon good red wine vinegar
Julienned fresh basil leaves, for serving
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Directions
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The day before you plan to make the soup, place the bean mix in a large bowl, add cold water to cover by 2 inches and refrigerate overnight. The next day, drain the beans, rinse under cold running water and drain again.
Heat the oil in the pressure cooker. Add the pancetta and onion and saute over medium to medium-high heat for 12 to 18 minutes, until browned. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and saute for one minute. Add the tomatoes, wine, the chicken stock, 1 tablespoon salt and 1 teaspoon black pepper. Add beans and bring up to pressure and cook for 15 minutes. Allow the steam to release and add the pasta, cover for 15 minutes or until the pasta is tender. Stir in the Parmesan and the vinegar. Ladle the soup into large shallow bowls and add a swirl of olive oil, a sprinkle of Parmesan and some basil. Serve hot with extra Parmesan on the side.
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This recipe was labeled as making 6 servings, but 3 men chowing down on two bowls of it apiece didn’t even make a dent in it. I think it is more like 12 servings. Cost was less than 10 dollars, it is a keeper recipe. I want to thank caramelpotatoes.com for the image I’m using for this dish. I didn’t photograph it but theirs looks the same.
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