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 [...]

More Anchor Woes

07 July 2019 | St Marys, GA
Capn Andy | Hot and Humid
I was having problems with the Harbor Freight drill bits, these are the titanium coated drills that are sold for about 20 bucks for a full drill bit kit. Of course they will drill about 1 hole in stainless steel and then be dull and useless ever after. I was drilling aluminum, yet the bits went dull and I snapped a couple of the dull bits. I had bought a package of 3/16“ titanium bits, maybe 8 in the package. Now I have no more left. I originally bought them to make holes in stainless.
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It was relief to finally drill the last hole and put the last of the legs and feet on the second solar panel. This is the panel destined to replace the damaged panel (damaged when the mast went over) at the galley’s hatch on the starboard hull. The existing damaged panel was apparently still working. I was running the panels in series and using an MPPT charge controller to feed the batteries.
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It was hot as the morning mid 70‘s temperatures burned off and the thermometer started its daily climb. I moved the old damaged panel off its mounts and put it off to the side with its wiring still connected. The new panel was muscled into position and its wiring fed into the wiring gooseneck that leads down into the galley. I ended up with a long + wire that reached right down into the galley and a shorter - wire that did not even make it to the gooseneck. I would have to cut the wiring to the old panel then butt connect the new panel wires to the old panels wiring.
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The old panel’s + wire went right to the + terminal on the charge controller. This is the + terminal for the solar panels. The old panel’s - wire was butt connected to the other panel’s + wire and the other panel’s - wire goes right to the - terminal on the charge controller. Thus, the charge controller sees a voltage of two panels in series and meters out battery voltage that maximizes the wattage, volts X amps, coming from the solar panels.
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I cut the old + wire and butt connected the new + wire coming into the galley from the new panel. Then I went up on the cabin top and butt connected the new - wire to the old - wire which was cut off the old panel, stripped for the connector, then crimped, new and old wire connected together. It didn’t go together that easily, I went through 3 crimp connectors before I had a good connection. Or so I thought. Down below I eagerly studied the readout on the charge controller’s screen. First comes up the load information. Voltage, Amps, type of load, etc. Since there is nothing connected to the load terminals, it was all zeros. Unfortunately when the next screens came up and were showing PV, photovoltaic, values, it was also all zeros. I found the + wire butt connector had come loose. I recrimped it and I got a value of 40 volts at 2 amps. This is only 80 watts and coming from nominally 337 watts of panel. I was very hot and discouraged at the low output. I left to go ashore. It was already too hot to do anything.
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A couple of sewing items came in, one was a walking foot, the other was basting tape. Both items help keep fabric aligned while stitching a seam. The walking foot pushes the top fabric to keep up with the bottom feed that pushes the lower fabric. The basting tape is double sided and it sticks the two layers of fabric together. I did a test stitch and the result looked OK, but Doc, the cut up, said my tension was too low, bring it up one click. I did so and the result was perfect. Ready to sew but no projects to sew yet.
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I worked on making an attachment for the main sheet blocks. My scheme now has the mainsheet leading to the same winches that tension the running back stays. I will have to install rope clutches or clam cleats for the two types of lines to secure the unused line.
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We had a pizza night out and as a result I was late getting aboard Kaimu and went right to sleep. In the morning, to my surprise, Kaimu had relocated about 1/4 mile downstream. It was early in the morning and about 1 hour to go till low tide. We had apparently dragged all through the shrimp trawler docks area, past the boatyard, and past several docks, then around a bend in the river.
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When I hoisted the anchor it was tightly bound with a crab trap, totally fouled. I had noticed a change in Kaimu’s position and planned to reanchor Bahamian style, but procrastinated and now had to do it all on a Sunday morning.
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I always have the engine running when I use the windlass. It was now set up with the double anchors on chain on the gypsy. The windlass clutch was loose, so the gypsy and chain had to be secured with a stopper line. The drum portion of the windlass was used to hoist the spare anchor, a Danforth, about 22 kilograms. Then we motored slowly back to where we had been anchored the night before.
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Now the double anchors were deployed and set by backing down, plus the flood tide current was helping to set them. I jumped in the wooden dinghy and rowed around to Kaimu’s bows and began untangling the anchor and crab trap. The trap was empty, no crabs or bait, plus it was dented, no float on its line.
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After getting the anchor separated from the trap, it was drawn back toward the foredeck. The dinghy was tied off under the suspended anchor and then it was lowered into the dinghy. All the chain and anchor line was heaped into the dinghy on top of the anchor. Now I drifted aft to the rear crosstube and tied the bitter end of the anchor line onto it with a round turn and two half hitches.
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The breeze and tide current took me aft, North, upstream, and the anchor line payed out until there was just the chain and anchor left. The anchor was deployed and I returned and tied up the dinghy at Kaimu’s starboard stern. The dinghy was a mess of black mud. My clothes were muddy and wet. After running the engine forward to set the stern anchor I shut things down and went ashore to shower off the mud.
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The image is a screen shot of a portion of the chart of the North River marsh. Marks have been added to the chart to show the path that Kaimu took when she dragged anchor.
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