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Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Do You Know the Way to Antigua?

“Go East 400 miles, Turn Right, Go 1000 More and You’re There”
Carl on deck after sunset


That is more or less what we will do in November when we leave with the Salty Dawn Rally from Hampton, VA.  Why go so far out on the ocean to begin with, you ask?  Excellent question. Sailing is all about wind direction and current.  


You may remember learning in school about the old sailing ships from Europe that went south to Africa to load up with human cargo and from there, they rode the Trade Winds west to the West Indies (Caribbean) where they traded slaves for spices.  The ships would then go north, on up to, let’s say, Charleston, SC, with the assistance of the Coriolis effect* and ocean currents where they would unload their remaining live human cargo. 
Replica of French ship, Hermione in Annapolis

Then, again benefitting from the Coriolis effect, the ships headed back to Europe loaded with cotton. King Cotton would appease a world that was sick and tired of wearing wool even in the heat of summer.  So, you see…the Trade Winds and Coriolis effect will help us catch a beneficial point of sail and an optimal current to travel to the far eastern part of the Caribbean.
Depth - 371 ft.  

The voyage to Antigua can be expected to take 9 to 14 days, give or take a few days.  Here are some of the other questions we’ve been asked about ocean travel: 

Our 65# Mantus anchor
Q: Where do you anchor at night?   
A: We do not anchor out on the Ocean. We look for depths of ~10' to 25' for anchoring depending on the tides.

Q: Do you set the boat to steer in the direction you want and then go to bed?  
A:  We do have AutoPilot, which can be programmed so that the boat will follow a course we give it; that is if the wind direction remains constant and the point of sail doesn’t need to be adjusted. Using an autopilot means that someone doesn’t have to be steering all the time.  BUT, someone always needs to be awake and keeping watch 24/7.
Northern Star heading back to U.S. last year after sunset

Nights are beautiful on the ocean.
Q:  How can one of you always be awake?  
A:  For a long crossing like this, we will have two additional crew members with us.  We will use an assigned watch schedule so that someone is always awake on deck, someone is asleep, someone can cook and someone is available for back-up as needed.

Q: What do you eat out on the ocean?   
One of two toasters we use on stove-top
A:  Pretty much the same things we would eat on land.  Except that we’ll run out of fresh produce by Day 7 or so, so will need to rely upon dry or canned foods more from then on. We’ll have enough frozen meats to last four people ~10 days. We’ll have some freeze-dried foods too.
Lunch served on deck

Q: So you actually cook on the boat when you’re sailing? 
A: Yes, the stove is gimbaled.  It swings on two bars so that it can tip to remain upright regardless of the angle of the boat's heel. Therefore, pots and pans remain more or less level whether on stovetop or in the oven.  We have pot guards that attach to the stove top to hold the pots securely too.   
Gimbaled stove is level.

The cook can also wear a hip belt that clips to the safety bar to prevent the cook from falling backward while cooking. It also protects the cook from falling onto the stove.  But, if the weather and waters are particularly rough, we may opt not to cook a hot meal at that time. We’ll bring some cold emergency back-up foods that can just be opened up and eaten for those circumstances.

Q:  What if there’s no wind?  
A:  It’s possible that the wind could die down significantly.  We could opt to motor for a little while until the wind picks up again, but we can’t motor all the way to Antigua. We carry 110 gals of diesel which could take us approximately 700-800 miles.  Primarily, we will sail.  There may be slow days, and there may be days that we cover many miles under sail.

Q: What if you run out of fresh water?  
A:  We have a Spectra water maker on Northern Star; an R/O or Reverse Osmosis water maker. When the water maker is running, it can make 10 gallons of drinkable water/hour using the ocean’s salt water. It can make water while sailing, motoring or at anchor.

Storm coming, in the Bahamas last year
Q:  What if you run into a big storm while you’re out on the ocean?  
A: We will do our best to choose the best weather window that we can, although a reliable weather forecast becomes less possible the farther into the future one looks.  Forecasters can tell us pretty accurately what weather we will encounter for the first five days out.  But beyond that, it is possible we could run into weather that we would prefer to avoid. 
Northern Star navigation station

We will have Single Side Band (SSB) radio contact with our weather router (Chris Parker) every day.  If he sees that we will be running into a weather system ahead, he can advise us in advance to change course in an attempt to avoid the worst weather. 

Our light-weight rain gear.  Pre-dawn.
Q:  But what if you do get caught out there in really bad weather?  
A:  A sailboat is exceptionally stable. Our boat weighs 29,000 pounds, and a lot of that weight is in the lead keel.  That helps to keep us right-side up.  Just think about a fishing bobber.  It is NOT going to tip over.  
Calm waters and consistent wind make for pleasant sailing

We can reef (make smaller) sails or take sails down altogether and “park” the boat on the water. It’s a technique called “being hove to.”  It’s a method of turning the boat into the wind and just letting it ride.  We also have a drogue which drags in the water behind us when we want to slow the boat down.  The boat can handle a lot.  Therefore, we can just hunker down and wait it out.
I've actually READ the first aid book.

Q: What if you get sick out there?  
A: Seasick? We have a variety of strategies to address seasickness.  There are various medicines, an electric wrist band, ginger ale, ginger candy, ginger gum.  The best thing is to stay on deck and watch the horizon.  Oddly enough, I personally, have never been seasick.  Cast-iron inner ears, I guess.
My MacBook

Q:  Will you be able to communicate with people while out on the ocean. 
A: Yes. Not by telephone,  but by VHF radio to anyone within ~40 miles, by SSB radio to other boat and land-based radios within ~1500 miles, and by our satellite-linked InReach device that allows us to send and receive text messages from anywhere.   We will notify our families when we arrive in Antigua.
 
Sailing toward sunrise
Q: How will you know where you are on the ocean?  
A:  GPS and compass. We will know where we are at all times.  In fact, you can know where we are at all times too, by use of the same InReach system.  (Check future post for how to follow us by InReach.)


We love the dolphin escorts on the ocean
Q:  Aren’t you afraid to be so far from land?  A:  Personally, nope. No more than I would be afraid to drive from here to New York City.  

More later.  

* Coriolis effect - The Coriolis Effect can be seen in action in the general circulation of the atmosphere. The winds at all latitudes to the north of 0° deflect to the right of their intended path in the Northern Hemisphere. The Coriolis Effect does not impact the wind speed, only the wind direction. The Coriolis Effect impacts objects on a large scale and does not generally have a big influence on small scale objects at the earth’s surface. Though hurricanes are small scale compared to the overall globe, hurricanes need the Coriolis Effect to help develop the circular motion of their circulations. Tornadoes are not impacted by the Coriolis Effect because they are so small in scale and short in duration. North Carolina State University


















Tuesday, September 19, 2017

The Post-Hurricane Plan


Northern Star sail with identifying number
It’s time we share with our friends and family the (bold?) decisions we have made and our general plan for the next ~two years.  As anyone who reads our blog probably knows already, we have never been good at being able to tell people what we’ll be doing, or where we’ll be more than a month out.  This has made it difficult for potential visitors to plan airline flights very far in advance. 

A chart plotter course at night
Sorry to say, that aspect of our lives will essentially remain unchanged.  We can promise to be no more reliable in predicting our exact whereabouts than we ever have.  However, and this is a big exception, we have narrowed down our planned latitude and longitude for mid to late November 2017. 




Our voyage will begin from here—-> Lat: N37*01.041’ and Long: W076*20.615’
And we fully intend to end up here-> Lat: N17*00.729’ and Long: W061*46.292’

Dennis Johnson on left.  Carl on right.
I am purposefully delaying naming these locations for the benefit of those nerdy geography buffs who enjoy looking up Latitude and Longitude on a map of the world.  You know who you are.  GO! 


Now may I distract you with a few well-placed photographs--merely a few moments of dilly dallying while the map aficionados check the Lat and Long. (There are only so many ways to build up suspense in the context of a brief blog post.  I’m doing my best.) 



 Duluth friends:  Emily & Ken Steil, Phyllis & Dennis Leschishin

So, these are photos from our visit to friends and their dogs in Wilmington, NC before Hurricane Irma.



Carl and I at Atlantic Beach with Leschishins

Here we are with friends from Duluth, having brunch in New Bern, just up the road from our boat in Oriental.

Here we are again with friends at the ocean, in Atlantic Beach, NC. 
Butterfly eating nectar from flower

Butterfly photo captured 
while hiking 
Goose Creek State Park, NC.

And here we are racing in the Oriental Cup race which was last Saturday!  We raced on a boat called Quixotic and we all benefited from the racing experience of the elderly gentleman (mid to late -80's) in the green shirt.  
Raced on Quixotic in the Oriental Cup.  Carl & I were rail-meat at this point.
Quixotic received the Award for 3rd place in the Oriental Cup.   The Awards Breakfast was Sunday morning.

And now for the plan.  In about three weeks, we will be moving our boat from Oriental, NC where we’ve had quite a pleasant summer, up to Hampton, Virginia.  Going north as the days get colder? Yes. But only until on or around November 2nd.

Across the river from Hampton is Norfolk, home of the enormous Norfolk Naval Base.

Hampton is the site of the start of the Salty Dawg Rally, an annual event of some 50-80 sailboats (maybe a few big trawlers) that will sail from there to the Caribbean.  
Harbor of Hampton, Virginia

Prior to Hurricane Irma, the Salty Dawg Rally was scheduled to sail to the British Virgin Islands. Irma brought that plan to a screeching halt. The BVI’s, as we all know, were devastated by the largest hurricane that the Caribbean has ever experienced and that the U.S. has ever seen.  For some days after Irma, we didn’t know if the Rally would take place at all.  Was there an island along the northern perimeter of the Caribbean that could withstand the onslaught of 50-80 cruising sailboats?  
Sunrise on the Atlantic

At first we talked about sailing to the BVI’s to offer our help there.  We thought we could help by bringing supplies with us to the islands.  We could help repair buildings, or whatever was asked of us, given our limited experience with building structures, anyhow. Then we realized that we would become a burden to the islands rather than a help.  We could only carry so many supplies beyond what we need for ourselves, and if we developed boat problems in the crossing, there would be no functioning infrastructure there to help us out.  
Early morning south of New York harbor

Better for the onslaught of small sailboats to stay away from the BVI’s as they initially organize and rebuild and take our tourism dollars in the short term with us to islands that would be able to handle visitors.  From there we can move on to the more southerly islands of the Caribbean.

Nearing sunset on Atlantic Ocean
Our destination, therefore is an island on the far easternmost rim of the Caribbean islands, Antigua (ahn-TEE-gwah). It’s closest neighbor to the north, Barbuda, was hammered by Irma.  Our landfall destination will be Falmouth Harbor on the southern coast of Antigua.  After a rest up there, we will explore the Caribbean.  
Night sail on Atlantic

By going directly to Antigua, we will be bypassing all of the Bahamas, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the American Virgin Islands, the British Virgins and the northern Leewards, all of which saw more hurricane action than the more the southern Leeward Islands of the Caribbean. In addition to Barbuda (which we are bypassing) and Antigua, the remaining Leeward Islands include Guadeloupe and Dominica.  
Sailing under a brisk wind, ~25 knots

South of the Leewards begins the Windward Islands: Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and all the way south to Grenada, off the northern coast of Venezuela.  (We shall not be venturing anywhere near Venezuela.)  Heading west from Grenada there are the islands known as the A B C’s.  Why?  Because it is easier to remember than the Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao Islands. From the western shore of Aruba, it is a mere 75 nautical miles to the coast of Colombia, South America!  
Late afternoon on the Atlantic

Now, back to those words above— “~next two years.”  Once in the Caribbean, we anticipate that Northern Star will not be returning to the U.S. for a while.  To ride out the hurricane season of 2018, we will take the boat south of the hurricane zone, ie. Grenada.  We do expect to come back to the States during the next two years, but by air rather than by sailboat. By sail, it would take months to work our way back north to the U.S.
Approaching Bahamas last winter

There is so much more to tell you about—the Salty Dawg Rally, boat preparations, our crew and other important decisions we’ve made, but that will have to wait for another post.  For the next few weeks we are still in Oriental.   More to follow. 





Sunday, September 10, 2017

A Black Dog in North Carolina

First summer in Annapolis, I tied down tarps for shade,
Up until 10 days ago, North Carolina has been HOT and sticky!  Like this is a revelation to anyone.  When we decided on Oriental, North Carolina to keep the boat this summer while we do a little work on it, we knew we were signing up for heat and humidity.  
A hot day in North Carolina

Dogs, as we know, do not cool themselves by perspiring.  They pant, and Jax is really good at that. People we meet while walking Jax will sometimes comment on how hot he must be.  “All that thick black fur.”  Or they’ll ask if we’ve considered shaving him. The answer to that question is “No, his thick coat serves as insulation in heat as well as in cold.”  As my brother has pointed out, “You never saw a sheep with heat exhaustion, have you?”  Well, he’s got me there.  I haven’t seen that.  Frankly, I haven’t spent much time around sheep. But I listen to NPR, and since I’ve never heard news reports of sheep expiring in hot weather, I have to concede that there is probably something to his line of reasoning. 
  Jax greets sunrise with a snooze, snuggled into
narrow space between gate and combing.

We have also discussed this issue of a black dog with thick fur in hot weather with a veterinarian or two. They caution us to think about how tender his poor skin is under all that fur, never having been exposed to the sun’s rays.  We subscribe to the philosophy that dogs will know what they can best do to beat the heat.  
Taking a dip in the Neuse River

Jax looks for shady spots to lie in, plenty of water to drink and an occasional belly dip in the water when he can.  When we have the AC running, he astutely chooses the coolest room of the boat to make his comfy spot.

Prime location to keep both of his humans in sight
When Carl and I are both outside the boat, however, Jax, the herding dog, naturally feels compelled to keep us both in his sights.  When Carl is working in the cockpit, and I am sewing on the covered patio in front of the boat, he positions himself midway between us. That puts him on the bow of the boat, in the sun.  

Original canopy, only 80" wide and 72" long
I felt the need to help him out by adding some additional shade up on deck.  And so, several weeks ago, I designed a canopy that is suspended over the bow by hooking onto one of the *halyards. 

Note dashed line indicating fabric cut away and
reattached to make canopy wider near mast.
My first attempt at a canopy turned out to be a little on the skimpy side. I tried to make it inexpensively and started out with just 2 yards (in other words, a piece of fabric 60” wide and 72” long) of SurLast which is a very durable, water repellant fabric that I ordered from Sailrite. 

Lengths cut from additional 2 yards added to sides
and another 30" toward bow. Additional width
begins 12" down to allow for standing rigging**
 
SurLast is often used for making boat covers. I was thinking that it would be enough to provide Jax with a little spot of shade on the bow and it did, but I decided I could do better and should.  So, I bought another 2 yards of SurLast to enlarge the existing canopy just a little on both the port and starboard sides as well as adding additional length toward the bow. 
Applied white poly webbing to stress points to distribute load on fabric.


My diagrams show how I cut the fabric the first time and how I cut it to make the addition. You’ll notice that the sides are not cut at 90 degree angles. A canopy will hang better if there is a bit of a curve between the corners.  I marked the curves by first laying a piece of gently curved hose out on the fabric.  Actually, a little deeper curves would have been good. I made the hems by simply turning the edges under and sewing. 
Canopy suspended by halyard shackle 

I fastened a stainless steel ring to the top of the canopy by stitching 1” wide UV resistant webbing across the center of the lifting point in a big “X.”  I bought lengths of 1/2” PVC and cut them to provide support for four cross pieces. I made four, but three would have been enough for this size canopy. 

Underside of canopy. 1/2" PVC tubing bends with tight fit.
To hold the ends of the PVC firmly in place against the underside, I cut out pieces of heavy-duty ShelterRite and sewed them on to make a little pocket to hold the end of each tube on the underside of the canopy.  The PVC needs to be cut so it is almost too long to fit between the two pockets.  That will make the PVC bend and give the canopy its concave shape.  
Above: Bungee is hooked through webbing loop and taped

After exploring a few different ways of attaching the canopy to the lifelines, I settled on using 3/8” bungee cord and 3/8” hooks to make my own attachments.  One end of the hook is taped with electrical tape so that it can’t come unhooked. This method allows me to put the canopy up and take it down quickly.  Plus, if I want to walk out onto the bow for some reason, I can unhook a line, walk through and hook it up again behind me easily. 

Used EasyKlips at some attachment points, rather than hooks

I found a product which I really like called EasyKlip. These can be attached anywhere on the canopy that you like. They have a hinge on them and the more tension placed on the Klip, the tighter it grips the fabric.  Really slick.  I have left the canopy up during some pretty serious blows, and it handles the wind really well.  All the bungees stretch and give in concert with one other. 

Bungee hooked onto standing rigging**
As you can see, Jax has found the new shade canopy to be just the ticket to keep track of me when I’m sewing 20 yards away.  
Jax watching me sew from the boat

The canopy has generated a little flurry of excitement with humans too. I have agreed to make one of these for another cruising boat in the marina.
The enlarged canopy


*A halyard is a line that raises and lowers a sail.  We have a few that are not in use when we are not under sail. 

**Standing rigging includes the stainless steel cables alongside the mast. They are secured to the hull with chain plates and extend up to stabilize and support the mast.