Kaimusailing

I was out of food, sort of, and convinced Steamfitter Bill to go to the gas station restaurant for some beer and grub. While there a captain came in who was headed to the Persian Gulf but lived up in New England. He had to haul out his ketch, bring a bunch of stuff up to New England, drive back down to South Florida for “orientation”, drive back up with more stuff for New England and pick up his ship at an undisclosed location. This is of course military support although he is a merchant mariner.
.
Sad to say we caused the beer tap to be depleted, then started on the IPA tap. The stories that were told were all true cross your heart, etc. A night like this is special, but didn’t we just have a night like this two nights ago. I found out a lot about the Bahamas and Thule, Greenland. Any mariners associated with any of us that weren’t present were tarred and feathered, sorry guys. One exception was Radio Bill who couldn’t make it, but he would have added some really true stories of the ocean.
.
Speaking of ocean, Webb Chiles continues his quest East making good progress across the Gulf Stream headed for Bermuda, probably to use it as the turning mark for his trip back to Hilton Head. I was worried about him, as well as the ocean. It looks like he crossed the Gulf Stream in 30 knots of North wind. Whew.
.
Other intrepid mariners are headed out to sea from St. Marys. The names are withheld for now. A beautiful old center cockpit ketch that came in with a busted transmission. Owner and next door neighbor from Northern Neck of Virginia, where I hope to be with Sunsplash later in the summer for haul out. There are things we can comprehend and things we cannot comprehend. The dividing line is how stupid we are. I cannot comprehend the dialogue between the old center cockpit ketch and one of our mechanics, who I will not name. Aside: the mechanics had a death in the family of a, to me, youngster, and they had been out of the yard for a day due to bereavement. Dialogue: “Don’t keep trying to start it without shutting off the water, turn off the water”, (after helmsman turns off the engine), “ There, it is off now.”
.
“When you keep trying to start the engine and it doesn’t run, it keeps pumping water into the exhaust riser each time, then it can get filled up and backup into the engine, then you get hydrolock.” “Do you want me to start it or not?” “Start it, then turn on the water after it’s running.” (helmsman starts the engine and crewman in the yacht is supposed to open the seacock for the cooling water) I can see no one is indicating that cooling water is being ejected from the exhaust. Everyone is yelling turn on the water, open the seacock, pull the handle up, pull the handle upright (this time with hand signals that could be interpreted another way in Italian), the helmsman turns off the engine.
.
I walk away with the yard mechanic who is also making funeral and bereavement arrangements over the phone. He spends a few minutes walking away, then slowly coming back. A lot on his mind.
.
He asks at the yacht, “What do you want me to help you with?”. They go through another round of starting the engine, misunderstanding, turning it off, questions. The chief crane operator gets involved, after all, he owns the whole boatyard, it’s like you have the alpha male, then you have the chief crane operator, tension mounts as he calmly approaches, everyone gets keyed up. They quickly find that the engine runs, the boat surges forward in gear, the boat goes into reverse but doesn’t surge, the throttle gets hung up on the way into reverse.
.
The mechanic goes below to find what I suspect will be a loose pin of some sort. He had said when they fixed the transmission they didn’t do anything to the throttle and gear linkage. After a while he returns on deck and the boat reacts properly. They release it and it motors off.
.
I do not have a close relationship with the mechanic, but I know him to be a really good sort. I even said to him “F****Y**” when he said, “Good Morning”. As the ketch motored away down river he said, “If they get to where they are going without catching fire and blowing up, I will be surprised”.
.
It turned out that while he was below decks trying to find out what was wrong with the throttle and gear linkage, he saw sparks between the exhaust pipes and some wires. “Oh, that’s just the inverter”, said the owner. I think the repair warranty was revised afterwards.
.
OK, people complainthatIdon’t proof read. Jerks.
.
We had spent some time on the North section of the yard looking at a Nauticat motorsailer and found another motorsailer for sale, and when I mentioned these boats to Ronnie the carpenter, he said there was a Tartan 27 with a new engine, new tanks, almost completed refit, for $3,000 on craigslist in Daytona. Two days later a Tartan 27 appeared on Boat Angel’s store on eBay, bid now at $295.
.
The Daytona 27 is a Mark I and the Boat Angel 27 is a Mark II. These boats have a large owners group and are regarded as great mini-cruisers for open sea, blue water. I had sailed on one many years ago and remember the interior seemed tiny to me, but it is similar to the Pearson Trident that is now a cult boat. The Daytona 27 has a brand new Moyers Marine Atomic 4 and the Boat Angel 27 has a Perkins diesel with a fuel manifold problem.
.
The Boat Angel 27 is located in Onancock, VA on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. It is 22.7 miles away from Sunsplash at Somers Cove in Crisfield, Maryland. Hmmm.
.
After looking at the interior layouts of the two boats, Mk I and Mk II, I can see I was on a Mk I years ago and it has a tiny dinette layout. The Mk II has a more traditional folding table in the center of the cabin, fore and aft, with settees to either side. The Mk II is a great improvement inside, but some complain it looks very ordinary out on deck. I will put in a low bid limit on it, hate to see it go for a few hundred dollars. Crazy fleet owner?
.
Storm warnings, tornado watch, I grab some rusty wrenches and wire brush them in the woodshop. They gleam like new. The dark clouds approach. I close the hatches on Kaimu and get ingredients for a chicken sandwich for 4pm lunch. As I settle in the galley the rain hits. It abates but the online weather radar shows something bigger coming along.
.
The chicken sandwich and cup of wine give me new life and I put in a bid for the Tartan 27. I had to choose an amount that I would feel bad about if someone else got it at that price. If they pay more, OK. The next blast of weather hits and the rain is heavy. We are in tornado warning. The thunder is loud, body crushing, it looks like we are getting a triple whammy, another mess is behind this mess. After that I expect things will quiet down, cool, time to sponge out the bilges again. I plan to gorilla tape small tarp pieces over the offending hatches that leak, before I go up North.
.
If you have evidence of rain water leaks, you have to be on board during a rain event to see for yourself what is happening. Cabin tops can leak and the water can migrate inside between the cabin top and the liner, then drip down far away from where the original leak is. A good design of cabin liner will allow water to drain into the bilge and not accumulate and drip from an overhead screw. The Catalina 30 is like that. The main threat is direct leakage from the cabin windows. Once they are secure you will have leaks that don’t affect the interior, just have a good bilge pump.
.
Looking at photos of the Tartan 27 interior there are plenty of indications of leaking opening ports. Looking at the exterior of the cabin top, it looks like a military installation with just 3 tiny ports on each side. Strange such unsightly tiny ports could cause such a problem. I like how the externally mounted portlights on the Catalina turned out, maybe the Tartan could handle some modification. I have artists who can help me.
.
Of course some old school sailor will buy the auction boat, but if he exceeds my low auction limit, good and well. Why would I opt to buy another boat, ?, it makes for more blog copy.
.
Webb Chiles’ voyage to the vicinity of Isla Bermuda has made a curious 180, but on further inspection of passageweather.com, he was sailing in a big storm. Perhaps something broke, perhaps he decided to head back to Hilton Head, perhaps he is running from the storm and will return to his previous objective.
.
The image is a brochure of the Tartan 27 from the internet.