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 [...]

Crisfield after the Flood

10 August 2020 | Crisfield, MD
Cap'n Andy | Tropical Storm
The tropical storm had come through and hit us with rain, the wind was abated by the bluff above the docks. I did a little work on the Atomic Four engine and had to wait for the JB Weld epoxy to set up hard before I could do more. The valves were cleaned in discarded gasoline, organized, ready to lap into their valve guides.
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Cornelia Marie had taken Nori, the Wonder Dog, for a walk and knocked on the hull saying maybe we could get pizza later. Now it was later and I knocked on her hull and we went out to get wine, again, and pizza at Anthony's, at the corner of Hog's Neck and Ft. Smallwood. It was her choice of pizza, Grandmother's, and I had to be a little critical of it. I don't think pizza crust should be like naan bread, or pita bread, it should be crispy, have strength to it. Anthony's crust was not crusty, but it was a good pie and paired well with a litre of Cab wine.
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We started CM's boat up the next morning and threw off the mooring lines. We got underway for Fell's Point in Baltimore. It was a beautiful day, very little wind, clear sky with a few puffy clouds, perfect day to move a boat. We tied up at her new slip and Ubered back, she to get her car and go to work, me to continue on the Atomic Four engine.
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I used a fiber brush in the drill to clean off any flat surfaces of the engine such as the mating surfaces of the head and block, and the gasket surface of the manifold. Then I switched to a small stainless steel wire brush from Harbor Freight that can fit in a dremel tool or in this case, in a drill. I used that to clean up the combustion chambers in the head, the ports in the manifold, and the intake and exhaust ports in the block. This was from a kit of stainless wire brushes which included a tiny brush that would fit inside the valve guides. After brushing I tried the valves in the guides and all moved smoothly.
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I now had to lap or grind the valves and could not find the valve grinding compound. I was sure I had brought it up from St. Marys. I contacted Mike Boat Mike who was now using the Breezeway for small engine repair and asked him to look for the valve grinding compound tube. If it was still there I would have to go out and buy more, but he said no, it was not there. I looked all over the Catalina, all the tool boxes, all the cardboard boxes of parts and tools, but no valve grinding compound.
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We were headed down to Crisfield again. I'll get my valve grinding compound on the way and work on the engine when I get back. We were underway early and it was a beautiful day. Too early for our normal pit stop at the mexican restaurant in Cambridge. I got my valve grinding compound at the Autozone. At Walmart I attempted to buy a small fridge but they were out, they had been recalled. I searched online and found the Walmart store in Pocamoke and the two stores in Salisbury had what I was looking for, so we went to Salisbury and bought the fridge there.
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After arriving in Crisfield we had a late brunch, well into the afternoon, at Linton's seafood place. We discussed the debris around the house, shingles that had come off the roof. Although we were tired from the trip we lugged a huge extension ladder out of the basement and I went up to look at the damage. It was not extensive, a strip of maybe two shingles deep at one corner of the upper roof, a bad spot at the peak at the end of the ridge, and another spot in the middle of the roof. It was hot up there and any further work was put off manana. We were feeling like the weekend wasn't getting off to a good start.
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Cornelia Marie seemed ready to just call it a day, but I got her to go out to give Nori the Wonder Dog a run at the beach. We ended up getting the Carolina 16 skiff with its 25 HP Suzuki from her friend's yard, took it down to a launching ramp and launched it there. While CM was parking the vehicle and trailer I was getting the engine ready to start. Neutral, choke on, pull the cord till you feel resistance of compression and ZING, pull that cord, but nothing, not a pop of ignition, try again, make sure the twist grip it aligned with the little starting mark on the throttle and PULL. Nothing. No pop. Try again and again. What's taking her so long. I gave up. Guess we need the starter spray and take the intake thing apart again.
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CM shows up and says, Uhuh, let me try, and she gives it one feminine pull, put, put, put, purr. The engine starts and runs smoothly. We don't have a boathook or a paddle, but we were off, up out of the small boat harbor to the canal and up along Janes Island all the way up to the tip, the beach where the dog likes to run. But we don't trust beaching the skiff and stopping the motor. If it doesn't start out here we are in big trouble. Nori whines. She wants to run on the beach. We turn back and zip along, smooth water, beautiful weather, all the way down past the small boat harbor and into Somer's Cove, where I intend to dock the Catalina. We return and get the skiff on the trailer and back to the house. CM seems depressed. A trip to the Eastern Shore is meant to replenish the spirit, not contemplate more house repair bills.
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The next morning we get working and move a ladder up to the lower roof and tie it off so it doesn't collapse and kill the worker (me) on the way up to the upper roof with shingles, hammer, nails, and lack of fear of heights. My view is of flooding. Most of Crisfield has water in the streets, yards, and an old building downtown has started to fall in, from the stern, its facade is intact but the street it is on is closed. We find out later that a cyclist was run down and killed on that street by a motor vehicle. The small town is peaceful and is surrounded by natural beauty, but it can be a place of poverty and dismay.
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I nail down shingles to reconstruct the roof as well as I can, but there are always leaks left when a roof is repaired, unless the old shingles and tar paper are removed and the layers that seal and preserve each other are assembled and installed like new. There is great relief after getting the job done, the temperature has already started to climb, and the shingles are getting hot up on the roof.
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I was rewarded with a burger and beer, but it was an expensive burger at Cap'n Tylers. They have good expensive seafood and prime rib. Their burgers could be so much better. It's a small town with not much competition or clientele. CM was surprised her mother had expressed interest in buying a house in Crisfield. We went to look at it and it was a nice townhome on the water with its own boat slip and a great view. In less than 2 days she had made an offer on the house and it was accepted. Her own house had sold less than 24 hours after her agent showed it at its first open house.
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I would have thought the real estate market would not boom at this time. Who wants to go out and visit houses wearing a mask, if that can really help ward off the disease that may be right there in that house. Plus the agent, who is probably unable to social distance as well as some of us others. Yet houses are selling like hotcakes. Crisfield, flooded, worn down, depressed, crumbling, is in a corona virus cold zone, only 3 deaths, no one comes here, no hoopla, quiet. Houses are getting snapped up. CM's mom's townhouse was the last one available.
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It was a great weekend. CM made shrimp scampi. The weather had been great except for the flooding and wind that tore off the shingles. Great boat ride. House repaired without the help of expensive contractors. People notice you when you are up on the roof hammering down shingles. But it was time to return to the Bodkin and CM to Fell's Point for her work week and my labor trying to revive the old Atomic Four.
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The photo is from Crisfield and it will be used for an art print. Oops, I will have to use a photo of the flooding. This is Cove Street.
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