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 [...]

Fishy Fuel

12 January 2019 | Southport, NC
Capn Andy/Cold and Windy
The Joyner Marina said they close at 5 so wanting to watch a playoff football game that starts at 4:30 would be a waste of time. Otherwise it is a nice place to stop, fuel prices seem high with regular gas at the gas station costing about $2.25 and gas fuel at Joyner's gas dock at $3.99. If you were filling up a big sport fishing boat it would really cost you. For me it is something like 60 bucks I didn't need to spend.
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Things change. The marina changed hands and last time I was here a lady manhandled Kaimu to the dock. She's gone and now the guys didn't help me tie up, but they were gone at 5 before I carefully tooled into the gas dock. The rest rooms, on the male side, have one commode and one shower. It is off season so it doesn't cause a problem right now. Laundry is free. Not much in the way of business around the marina, you have to go out and about to provision or for entertainment.
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I felt the need to do some walking. There was a small grocery called the Kupboard about a mile away so I went out on a trek for that. It turns out the Kupboard is just a couple of blocks from the town's dinghy dock, so it is convenient for dinghy's and kayakers. But, I did not buy anything in that store. It was under provisioned. I spoke for a while with the owner and he made his money during the season with street traffic that were looking for a snack or beer. The reviews on Google Maps didn't jibe with what I was experiencing. At least I was getting exercise. He said the Cafe next door was good if I wanted a quick lunch. I did, but now I said I was going up to the fishing pier, about a mile North, because I had been there before, it was funky, and I like it. He said maybe not the fishing pier. I set off and when I got to the fishing pier, the bar and grill had an OPEN sign that was not lit, you could walk in and say hello, but it was closed till tomorrow, the weekend, it was the off season. There were piles of pilings and big heavy planks in the lots next to the fishing pier, maybe it is a bit shorter now.
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This area was hit by hurricane Florence last autumn at the same time I was scurrying North, that's why all the construction I was seeing now was new, also the boats in the marshes, the docks that were banged up, and the fishing pier that seemed shorter. I was able to make my way back to the marina on the trail I took 3 years ago, but now the boarded walk was new boards, same walk, posted "Private Only", but I went anyway. At the end there was yellow police tape blocking the way and I had to scurry around through someone's landscaping project to get back on the streets and back to the marina.
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I had missed lunch, but I needed to relax a bit and go on the internet and try to see what was up ahead on the ICW. I had to reregister with active captain, but the results were not as good as the app used to be before Garmin took it over. Up ahead was Southport which Capn Neil said to try. It looked like the businesses were closed for the winter.
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I needed to go shopping. I was almost out of wine. Also bread. I Ubered a ride to the Food Lion about a mile away, but 6 miles by road. There is a canal... The Uber driver was an older lady who suggested I might try the Chinese restaurant next to the Food Lion for lunch. I went in and had Shrimp with Garlic Sauce. It was very good. Then I shopped in Food Lion and got some shrimp ramen soups, ham, eggs, 15 liters of wine, but I forgot to get more water, and some Gouda cheese. I figured the upcoming forecast of 30 degrees in the morning meant I didn't have to worry about refrigeration.
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The Uber ride back to the marina cost about half of the ride to the store, what gives? I gave the driver an extra 5 bucks. He could not have been making much for his effort. Bring the groceries, and wine, down to Kaimu and start loading it on deck, then get distracted, it's about 3:30 and the marina closes at 5, let's get gas flowing. I loaded the dock cart with empty gas cans after draining one of them into the main tank, then went up to the office where my gas man was on the phone with one of his friends. He finally broke that off after we walked back down to the gas pump and I nodded to him to begin pumping gas. 5 gallons in the big jugs, 2 1/2 in the small one, and I have to pour them into the main tank back on the boat and return for more. He pumped, I ran them over to Kaimu and drained them into the main tank.
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A large power boat came up the channel toward the marina. I had heard chatter on the VHF radio of someone coming in for fuel. They blared their loud, locomotive style horn, and made a big wake as they curved around to come into the dock for diesel. I said to the guy pumping gas, that is a jerk. Why do you say that? He is blasting us with his wake and blasting us with his horn. Not cool.
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I got my fuel and returned to Kaimu, passing the newcomer who was getting diesel. Getting diesel. Getting diesel. How many gallons? The marina gas jockeys were catering to the big power yacht. I could tell right off they were delivery crew. A skipper and a crew. The insurance company always requires a minimum of crew.
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I asked if they were delivery crew or did they own the boat. They said they were going to meet a friend. They must be delivery crew.
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It was getting dark and cold. I had the task of putting the dinghy on the foredeck, but without a halyard or a mast for the halyard, I would use the gantry I had hoisted the outboard motors. I boathooked the Coast Guard mandatory life preserver out of the water in the dinghy and put it on the dock before it could sink, it was heavy. Then the two water jugs from Coleman that I had taken ashore in Beaufort only to find Beaufort had shut its water off at the dinghy dock. My dinghy was now empty except for the water in it. I strung it along out back of the stern, up the port side of Kaimu to the bow. There I had the gantry set up to hoist the dingy on deck.
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It didn't work out very well. At times the gantry which is like a large 6 foot high sawhorse would "step" off the deck and try to fall into the water. I would lunge and hold on and somehow get things stabilized. It was now dark and I struggled. Finally the dingy was on the fore deck and I was putting the gantry down next to the dinghy.
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The crew on the large power boat were arguing about something that I understood as a squabble about smoking dope. What? I didn't want to hear what I was hearing. Then they left the boat and went out of the marina. They returned asking about the key sequence for the gate. What gate? I told them how to walk out of the parking lot as I had done earlier in the day, they grumbled and went along. I knew they didn't have much to look forward to out there. Their boat was from New York, NY.
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I filled my two Coleman water jugs and stowed them on deck. We were ready to leave in the morning.
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The next day I got ready at about 7:30 to depart. The flood tide that surges here toward Snow's Cut was running. I was tied off at the dock heading into it, as well as a stiff breeze. Behind me was the large Oceanis power yacht, not much room. I took in the stern lines and singled up the bow lines, looping the line around the cleat so I could whip it off the cleat from up on deck. The motor was warming up and the wind was blowing us off the dock at an angle. I jumped aboard and gave a little spurt forward and ran to the bow and removed the line, then ran back to the helm station and kept us on station in the current, turning left until we were perpendicular to the dock. Then we departed full power into the channel and down Snow's Cut. Running with the wind and current we were at 8 knots and better. We quickly went down the Cut to the Cape Fear River, which should have the flood going against us.
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We stayed in the channel that leads to the shipping channel of the river. Sea going vessels can go up the river to Wilmington, NC. I tried to use the autopilot in the river, since there was room there to wander along, the way the autopilot wanders. Then the engine made a sickly sound and stopped. I could not restart it. The wind pushed us across the channel and I tried to steer us in a general course down the river. The flood tide was not yet strong and we were making about 1 knot progress as I pored through the Suzuki owner's manual about what might be wrong with the engine.
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A red hulled boat that might be a tow boat was up river from us and started to come closer. It was not a tow boat, it was military police boat. They had a machine gun on the bow and a soldier with an impressive weapon was standing by in the cockpit. Do I have any weapons on board they asked, no. I was in a military restricted area and I would be given time to get out, drop your anchor now, so I did.
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There was a thing in the book to reset the motor's brain, if that's what was keeping it from starting, but that wasn't it. I called my towing service and got an ETA of 45 minutes. I radioed the military boat and told them so. The replied they would stand by in the mean time.
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The tow boat arrived and I told him what happened and he hooked up to tow and I hauled in the anchor. He towed me about 10 miles to Southport, which Capn Neil had recommended as a stopping point. The towboat captain said anchor in the boat basin and I could use his dock, which was there, as a place to debark to. There was one restaurant open, Fishy Fishy, and the rest of the Southport waterfront was closed for the season.
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The towboat captain was familiar with the 3 Suzuki dealers in Southport and he gave me a direct line to one of them, who he recommended, and I called, it was Saturday, the dealer had no one on duty and he himself was not even in town. He said he had an identical customer with a problem of bad gasoline from Joyner's Marina just a week previous. I had 38 gallons of their $3.99/gallon gasoline and all my tanks and jugs were full of it. Grrr.
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I spent the rest of the afternoon going on line and reading about water in fuel and Suzuki outboards. Then I went ashore to the restaurant and had a nice time drinking beer and watching a football playoff game. I noticed a woman looking at me, and when I went into the rest room looked in the mirror, nothing to report there. When I came back there was a discussion about that weird boat right outside the restaurant. I said it was mine, but the flood of questions could only be answered by, "Read the blog".
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