Monday, August 24, 2009

The Grand Plan version ???

Those who see sailing as an escape from reality have got their
understanding of both sailing and reality completely backwards.
Sailing is not an escape, but a return to and a confrontation of a reality
from which modern civilization is itself an escape.

For centuries, man suffered from the reality of an earth that was too dark
or too hot or too
cold for his comfort, and to escape this he invented complex
systems of
lighting, heating and air conditioning. Sailing rejects these and returns to
the old realities of dark and heat and cold.

Modern civilization has found
radio, TV, movies, nightclubs and a huge variety
of mechanized entertainment
to titillate our senses and help us escape from the
apparent boredom of the
earth and the sun and wind and stars. Sailing returns
to these ancient realities.


-Robert Prisig


This weekend I took some time to catch the swell from hurricane Bill. I haven't surfed since my trip to Costa Rica two months ago, so it was great to be back in the water and have some fun. Saturday we went to New Smyrna Beach and enjoyed some of the most perfect Florida surf I have ever seen. They were not easy to get into, particularly because I had too small of a board for such large surf, but I was able to get many great rides. In the end, after about a hour of no waves, I caught one of the top 5 waves of my entire life, and easily the second biggest wave I have ever charged down (the largest being a wave from the latest Costa trip). Sunday we went to Cocoa but the swell had dropped and was doing nothing more than closing out in the shore break.

Now that I have had a two week break from the boat, I am ready to tackle it again. I haven't completely gotten my mind off of the boat as I have been continually researching, reading and doing more woodwork on the cabin door. I finally figured out how I am going to do the wood, and have settled on varnishing. Windsong deserves the great look of varnish, so I shall give it to her. I am experimenting on the door, and the first step is removing all of the old varnish. I have resulted to using a chemical peeler and have had some success getting the door down to the raw wood and color. Once I finish the whole door, I need to re-glue it back together (the door is in pieces) and then varnish.

As for the boat, there are currently a few phases that "The Grand Plan" (as I am calling it) will have to flow through:
  1. Get the boat out of Inglis
  2. Get it hauled out of water and decomissioned for shipment
  3. Ship it to Green Cove Springs Marina for work
  4. Launch and begin to sail the damn thing.
Step one would seem simple, but is proving to be quite the headache. Before anything can be done, the engine needs to be fixed. Hopefully I can talk to the PO and get some good guidance this week, and work on the engine with my dad this weekend. If the problem is beyond our abilities, I will eventually have to get a mechanic out there...something I can't really afford. I need all of the money I can save to get the boat hauled, shipped and stored.

Aside from the engine, the most glaring need is the Depth Sounder. The current sounder is an old Datamarine:

It's current condition is...broken. I can't even turn it on, so I don't know if it is functioning beyond that. The first place I am looking to repair is the terminal block that the wiring for the sounder goes through. It is very corroded in places and the wire terminals for the sounder itself are very loose and seem trashed:


I hope by replacing the terminal block and the wire terminals the sounder will be able to turn on. If not, I have no idea what to do because the transducer is through-hull, so it isn't an easy swap out replacement. I may be forced to go down the coast out of Inglis without a depth sounder. And on the one of the biggest coasts of shoaling in Florida, I'm not stoked on that idea.

Aside from the engine and depth sounder, I feel she is ready to go. I replaced the running rigging, so sailing is going to be how I take her down. I do not want to rely on the engine for long, but I must to get in and out of the Gulf using power. Currently I have my eyes on Hernando Beach about 45 miles down the coast. It is very shallow in approach, but locals say that if you come in at a high tide (3ft +) there should be no problem. Well, the problem is that I need to get out of the Withlacoochie in Inglis at high tide as well. So I need to leave at high tide, make my way down the coast in time for the next high tide, all within daylight (!!??). Or I would need to somehow spend the night out in the Gulf and wait till the next day to try to enter the harbor. I have no idea if it is safe to anchor in the middle of the shoals of the Gulf, but there seems to be little other ways around this.

Of course, I could continue south and enter a harbor with less shoaling, such as Tarpon Springs. But I am still faced with an overnight journey. Let me interject that I have never done an overnight voyage before, let alone in strange waters, on a strange boat, with little instrumentation. You can start to see the task in front of me...yikes!

If anyone is willing to help me out with this issue, click here to see the chart of the area.

The channel to enter/exit the Withlaccochie at Inglis is at the very top of the chart. Hernando Beach is at 28°29′11″N 82°39′28″W. Tarpon Springs is at the very bottom.

There are a few marinas in Hernando Beach or Tarpon springs that can haul the boat and get it ready for shipment. Getting the boat ready for shipment will be a pain, but not as big of a pain as I see the previous tasks (engine fix, cruise down the coast). And once it is out of the water I will be able to finally see how much work I have before me. I am anticipating worst case scenario where I will have thousands of blisters (pox) and some other major repair jobs on the bottom. If there is one thing I am learning...expect (and prepare for) the worst, hope for the best. I will be very happy once it is out of the water though, because I can then get a realistic idea of what needs to be done and how long it will take before I can finally use Windsong in the way it deserves.

Once on land, it's time to ship to Green Cove. I am currently sold on Green Cove Springs Marina because they are hands down the cheapest of the yards I have looked at, they are in a location close to home (parent's house), and have a lot of friendly expertise and help around the yard. I will spend as long as I need on the hard there fixing all of the things that need to be fixed and getting as much refinishing done as I can. I would like to get the boat in the water sooner than later, so I need to prioritize the projects that need to be done on land.

I have a rough list of projects I know for sure that need to be done, but will save the list for another post.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

FWIW, I have always thought of my depth sounder as an over-rated piece of eqpt. Coming from a sailing area where shoaling is extensive, i have found that my depth sounder will tell me approximately 1 second before I bump that there is not enough water under the keel; ie, not enough time to do anything about it. Better to have a good set of charts and a GPS to plot your position on the chart accurately. If you are worried about grounding and the engine, maybe the best insurance would be to buy unlimited towing from Tow Boat U.S. or Sea Tow. Just some thoughts....good luck Erick!

Anonymous said...

Looks like there is a full moon on the 9-5, with a high tide over there at 03:00am if you can get out early you would have the whole day to get down the coast, assuming the weather is ok, plus its a Saturday so lots of other boaters out there, and the moon doesn't set until 07:30am so if the clouds are light vis should be good. Just a thought : )
David

Erick said...

Thanks for the comments! Great ideas here. As for leaving on 9-5, I would love to if I can get the engine fixed in time!

Would you suggest leaving Inglis at 3:00 am and then make my way down the coast? That would be a good idea, I would need to see if getting out of the channel is possible at at night if there is little visibility.

Anonymous said...

I've never run that inlet, so I have no local knowledge, I was just thinking that the full moon would help give you enough light to hit that 03:00 am high tide, and give you a head start on your trip, looks like high tide at Hernando is around 3:15 pm that would give you about 12 hours to go 45 miles.
David

Dougm said...

I'd have to agree that the depth sounder is over-rated. I'd recommend downloading Tiki navigation software, and buying a cheap GPS that connects to a laptop via USB. That's what I'm using until I can splurge for a decent chartplotter. The Tiki software isn't too expensive, but I'd go for the pro rather than basic versions. I've got the basic, and there are a lot of functions that are disabled, One of these days I'll upgrade...

Of course, paper charts are essential if the laptop battery goes!

If the weather cooperates, night sailing is great.

Anonymous said...

Hmm... I like my depth sounder. It's not the be all end all but it definitely helps..

I don't think you could do this on a downeaster with the full keel but on my beneteau I put a standard transom mount transducer for a bass boat type boat on it.. if it is solid fiberglass you can epoxy the transducer the inside of the hull and if their are no voids etc it will shoot straight thourgh the hull. It has worked great for me for years... A cheap fish finder with a transducer like that should work. I have a garman gps sounder that I use. I really like the display that shows type of bottom and fish etc.. over the straight numbers anyday.. that being said im an information junkie. if I can get more information I will take it.

however with the full keel I don't think it will work as that is to much thickness to go through. maybe offset to one side of the keel it would work but it would be reading at an angle and not giving a very accurate picture. Best bet is getting the current one running or replacing it.
scott carle

scott at scottcarle dot com

http://www.scottcarle.com/wordpress

Anonymous said...

Eric,

I have just started reading your blog so I may not be totally up to date but I want to ask: Why you didn't get a survey and why you decided to buy a boat that is not on mahina's list. I am really interested in your journey I'm in the planning stages of my own.

David F.

Erick said...

David,

As for the survey, I can list all of the wonderful excuses I thought of, but in the long run I didn't get the survey because I'm an idiot. There...I said it :) I figured that the survey would only tell me what I already knew, this boat needed a ton of work. So why pay for one?

As for the list, there are tons of great designs not listed there as I found out in my research. It is a good starting point, but designs such as the Downeast Yachts slip through the cracks.