Author: Pam
Monday was an uneventful day, except for the tour of our soon home away from home. At 5:00 David Marshall came by to pick us up and we headed to their home, which is also Marshalls of Paddington, a very quaint B&B in the heart of Paddington. To our complete surprise they had offered for us to stay at their home while they are away this week at a Jazz Festival. Once again, we are just absolutely blown away with the generosity and kindness of the people we are meeting here in Sydney. We got the scoop on the layout of their home and the neighborhood from David as he walked back with us to the main road that heads back to the Marina. We will start our stay on land on Wednesday and we are very much looking forward to the usual; three sided bed (with a little more room), showers that don't take coins or are on the boat with the shower curtain attacking you and the extra bonus of a washing machine! On our way back to the boat we went to La Bussola for a yummy pizza.
Tuesday morning we headed out early for a full and eventful day. The day started with a trip to the Telstra store to set up the cell phone we have been given by our friend Tim. We resisted the idea of falling back into being attached to a phone, but with the need to coordinate with the mechanic and the other commitments that keep popping up, it quickly became clear we would have to give in and be part of modern society.
Once that chore was completed we met our new friend Ben and hopped on the train to head out to Penrith Lakes. We were invited by the Penrith Lakes Sailability club to visit their Tuesday sailing program for kids with disabilities and it had also been arranged we would be interviewed by two local papers, The Penrith Weekender and The Press. When we arrived several kids were out on the lake already in their dinghy sailboats with not much wind, but having a ball. The kids were all multi disabled and several were lifted in and out of the boats using a swing type lift. We were there approximately three seconds and one of the volunteers asked if we would like to go out in one of the boats, I don't think he actually finished asking before Scott was in a life jacket and hopping into a boat. Scott in particular has a warm spot in his heart for dinghy sailing, since that was his first sailing experience at the age of thirteen. I on the other hand, had never had the opportunity and I didn't get to go first. About the time he got a little speed up in the light wind the media arrived and he had to come back in for the interview. We just finished meeting with The Press and The Weekender photographer was asking if we would be willing to go out in the dinghy with The Weekender logo on its sail, they are one of Penrith Lakes Sailability's sponsors. So, we hopped in the boat with Jack, the Wonder dog (a Jack Russell) and posed for the camera. I am sure Jack made the pictures, especially since he was wearing his personalized yellow life jacket. The interviews went well and we were also able to help Sailability promote their Sail to Freedom program for kids. We will get to see the papers on June 19th when we give a presentation to Sailability members and the general community.
After our visit we took a taxi with Ben over to Darren's house, another new blind friend who just so happens to be a massage therapist. Ok, this time I got to go first. Actually we ran out of time, because we had to get back to the city for a dinner commitment, so Scott had to take a rain check. The massage was lovely and though I am supposedly leading the life of leisure there are still some knots and kinks that have found their way into my body and it looks like it will take more than one massage to coax them to leave.
We headed back to the city and met our friend David outside of his office at 4:45 to head to Greenwich for dinner. When we visited Sydney a few months ago by plane (back when we were not going to sail here), we stayed at the Greenwich B&B where we met David and Jeannette. Upon our return they hunted us down and invited us for a home cooked meal. We had a lovely evening catching up and eating delicious spaghetti Bolognese.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Journal Entry – June 2 & 3, 2007 Sailors Radio and Open Day on Starship
Author: Pam
While we were still in shock about the engine, previous commitments jolted us back to some sense of reality on Saturday morning. On Thursday we had met Andrew Powell, the host of “Sailors Radio”, a national syndicated radio show that airs on Saturday mornings from 0800 to 0930 (however the last half hour is local). We were invited to be guests on the show and though we were warned there isn’t much they take seriously and they like to tease (they actually have another term for it) we agreed to an interview. We were picked up at 0700 by Neville, a professional sailor and regular on the show and after stopping for coffee we arrived at the studio on the 26th floor of a building somewhere downtown. After some technical difficulties in the studio the show was off and running. The time flew by and it will probably be the only time in my life I will be referred to as the “blond blind barrel girl”, hey you have to have someone draw the on air contest winner to go to the rally in Indonesia. Besides rendering me speechless for a brief moment, the show was all in good fun and Andrew, Neville and John definitely have a good time every Saturday morning. You can listen to the broadcast at www.sailorsradio.com, Hear the Shows, June 2, 2007 (be patient, due to technical difficulties there is a few minutes of music at the beginning).
Next on the agenda, we had been contacted by Graeme Innis earlier in the week and had made arrangements to meet him for a tour of Starship and to learn more about his position with the Australian government as the Human Rights Commissioner for Disability. He arrived at noon and we spent an hour and a half showing him every inch of Starship. As a blind sailor who races on his J24, he was keen to know the finer details. We then had lunch at the CYCA and had an opportunity to learn about his position, the DDA and transportation accessibility issues in Australia. The DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) is very similar to the ADA (American with Disabilities Act) and was passed in 1992. Australia has implemented a 20 year Transportation Standards plan to make public transportation accessible. December 31, 2007 will complete the five year mark and Graeme said there is concern the goal of reaching the 25% accessible mark is not looking good. One of the goals in the first stage is for the various transportation systems to call the stops. We think Sydney has a fabulous transportation system, however it is our observation and criticism that they do not call the stops on the buses and ferries and are very inconsistent on the trains. Buses and trains are free for people who are blind and visually impaired and taxis are half fare. The taxi voucher system was set up before the government implemented the free fares, therefore at some point the taxi vouchers may go away. Of course the visually impaired population is hoping they don’t get around to remembering anytime soon. We have also learned that people who are blind or visually impaired in Australia receive a pension and they are the only segment of the disabled population that are not subject to means testing and continue to receive their pension even if they are making the Prime Minister’s salary. They also receive a “Pension Card” that entitles them to discounts on movies, haircuts and a variety of public services. The refreshing intent behind providing blind people with a pension is not one based on a welfare system, but rather a mechanism to provide blind people with additional income for adaptive technologies, so they can more equally compete in the workforce.
On our way back to the boat we were introduced to Pat, a member of the Cruising Yacht Club’s Cruising Division. She was looking for us to ask if we would speak at their monthly meeting on Tuesday, of course we said yes. While we were chatting with her our Watson’s Bay Guardian Angel Jeffrey stopped by to give us the name of his mechanic and offered for Scott to call him on his cell phone to make arrangements to meet. Jeffrey has been by several times to check in on how we were doing and when he found out about the engine was more than eager to try and help. We continue to be in awe of the kindness of the Aussie’s, we have never felt more welcome.
Saturday wasn’t over yet. At 5:00 Tim and Georgia Connell came by for a visit on Starship. Tim is the President of Quantum Technology and a long time friend of Scott’s. He was also very instrumental in our decision to sail to Sydney. We had a very nice evening giving them the tour, it was even extra fun because Tim is one of very few people who has seen both of our boats. We ambled over to the CYCA for dinner, which turned out to be nostalgic for Georgia, she had waitressed there many years ago and reminisced about the craziness of throwing breakfast at participants of the Sydney Hobart Race on the morning of the start.
Phew, another jam packed day in kangaroo land, but there is no rest for the weary or the wicked. On Sunday morning we were up and preparing the boat for the “Open Day” that had been promoted by Vision Australia from 10:00 to 2:00. Six blind and visually impaired guys came by for a tour of Starship and chat about our trip. They had varying degrees of sailing experience and interest, but everyone had stories and adventures to share. Nick and Charlie have climbed Kilimanjaro and Ben is a world champion rower. There was definitely some testosterone aboard and I was feeling a little out numbered. Phil from Humanware also came by to be available to demonstrate the Humanware technology we use on board, but it turned out everyone was already familiar or already owned the technology. At 1:30 Scott and four of our visitors headed over to the CYC for lunch, I joined them a bit after 2:00. Everyone fell into a lazy relaxed Sunday afternoon mode, which led into getting caught up in the mayhem of the after Sunday race crowd, long story short we were there for quite a while. New friends were made and I am sure we have not seen the last of this crazy bunch.
While we were still in shock about the engine, previous commitments jolted us back to some sense of reality on Saturday morning. On Thursday we had met Andrew Powell, the host of “Sailors Radio”, a national syndicated radio show that airs on Saturday mornings from 0800 to 0930 (however the last half hour is local). We were invited to be guests on the show and though we were warned there isn’t much they take seriously and they like to tease (they actually have another term for it) we agreed to an interview. We were picked up at 0700 by Neville, a professional sailor and regular on the show and after stopping for coffee we arrived at the studio on the 26th floor of a building somewhere downtown. After some technical difficulties in the studio the show was off and running. The time flew by and it will probably be the only time in my life I will be referred to as the “blond blind barrel girl”, hey you have to have someone draw the on air contest winner to go to the rally in Indonesia. Besides rendering me speechless for a brief moment, the show was all in good fun and Andrew, Neville and John definitely have a good time every Saturday morning. You can listen to the broadcast at www.sailorsradio.com, Hear the Shows, June 2, 2007 (be patient, due to technical difficulties there is a few minutes of music at the beginning).
Next on the agenda, we had been contacted by Graeme Innis earlier in the week and had made arrangements to meet him for a tour of Starship and to learn more about his position with the Australian government as the Human Rights Commissioner for Disability. He arrived at noon and we spent an hour and a half showing him every inch of Starship. As a blind sailor who races on his J24, he was keen to know the finer details. We then had lunch at the CYCA and had an opportunity to learn about his position, the DDA and transportation accessibility issues in Australia. The DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) is very similar to the ADA (American with Disabilities Act) and was passed in 1992. Australia has implemented a 20 year Transportation Standards plan to make public transportation accessible. December 31, 2007 will complete the five year mark and Graeme said there is concern the goal of reaching the 25% accessible mark is not looking good. One of the goals in the first stage is for the various transportation systems to call the stops. We think Sydney has a fabulous transportation system, however it is our observation and criticism that they do not call the stops on the buses and ferries and are very inconsistent on the trains. Buses and trains are free for people who are blind and visually impaired and taxis are half fare. The taxi voucher system was set up before the government implemented the free fares, therefore at some point the taxi vouchers may go away. Of course the visually impaired population is hoping they don’t get around to remembering anytime soon. We have also learned that people who are blind or visually impaired in Australia receive a pension and they are the only segment of the disabled population that are not subject to means testing and continue to receive their pension even if they are making the Prime Minister’s salary. They also receive a “Pension Card” that entitles them to discounts on movies, haircuts and a variety of public services. The refreshing intent behind providing blind people with a pension is not one based on a welfare system, but rather a mechanism to provide blind people with additional income for adaptive technologies, so they can more equally compete in the workforce.
On our way back to the boat we were introduced to Pat, a member of the Cruising Yacht Club’s Cruising Division. She was looking for us to ask if we would speak at their monthly meeting on Tuesday, of course we said yes. While we were chatting with her our Watson’s Bay Guardian Angel Jeffrey stopped by to give us the name of his mechanic and offered for Scott to call him on his cell phone to make arrangements to meet. Jeffrey has been by several times to check in on how we were doing and when he found out about the engine was more than eager to try and help. We continue to be in awe of the kindness of the Aussie’s, we have never felt more welcome.
Saturday wasn’t over yet. At 5:00 Tim and Georgia Connell came by for a visit on Starship. Tim is the President of Quantum Technology and a long time friend of Scott’s. He was also very instrumental in our decision to sail to Sydney. We had a very nice evening giving them the tour, it was even extra fun because Tim is one of very few people who has seen both of our boats. We ambled over to the CYCA for dinner, which turned out to be nostalgic for Georgia, she had waitressed there many years ago and reminisced about the craziness of throwing breakfast at participants of the Sydney Hobart Race on the morning of the start.
Phew, another jam packed day in kangaroo land, but there is no rest for the weary or the wicked. On Sunday morning we were up and preparing the boat for the “Open Day” that had been promoted by Vision Australia from 10:00 to 2:00. Six blind and visually impaired guys came by for a tour of Starship and chat about our trip. They had varying degrees of sailing experience and interest, but everyone had stories and adventures to share. Nick and Charlie have climbed Kilimanjaro and Ben is a world champion rower. There was definitely some testosterone aboard and I was feeling a little out numbered. Phil from Humanware also came by to be available to demonstrate the Humanware technology we use on board, but it turned out everyone was already familiar or already owned the technology. At 1:30 Scott and four of our visitors headed over to the CYC for lunch, I joined them a bit after 2:00. Everyone fell into a lazy relaxed Sunday afternoon mode, which led into getting caught up in the mayhem of the after Sunday race crowd, long story short we were there for quite a while. New friends were made and I am sure we have not seen the last of this crazy bunch.
Friday, June 01, 2007
Journal Entry – June 1, 2007 Not Quite Air in the Fuel Line… The Death of “Big Red”
Author: Scott
Okay, the good news first. Pam and I are not totally mathematically challenged engine incompetent dorkazoids. Our fuel calculations were fine on our Tasman crossing and we did not let our Fuel Tank 2 run dry. In fact there is plenty of fuel in all of Starships tanks. Furthermore, we did not incorrectly bleed our engine of air, in fact if we would have run out of gas we were assured that our efforts to bleed the engine would have produced a running engine in no time. Finally, we did not run our starter battery dead, we could have had a nuclear reactor on board and our engine would still not have started.
Now for the bad news! Ivan the mechanic showed up again today and Starship had a freshly charged starter battery for him to experiment with for starting our sickly engine. After a number of attempts with the engine sounding like it was being dragged across a cheese grater by a pack of donkeys running for the barn (sort of a cl-cl-cl-cheeeet-chiiiiiit-chzzzzt sound), Ivan got busy taking off the forward pulley to reveal the crank shaft. He then produced the Arnold Schwartaneger of wrenches (or spanner in Australian/Kiwi) and manually turned the crank shaft with the mega-wrench. With each revolution of the crank shaft there was a gut-wrenching sound like King Kong running his fingers down a chalk board. After digging deeper into the patient we found the problem and it was terminal. Apparently our number one cylinder was nearly seized, and the engine was almost bone dry from lack of oil. Now before you go jumping to any over the moon conclusions, yes Scott and Pam did check the oil just a day before the death of “Big Red” and we even had a new oil pressure alarm installed before leaving New Zealand. The fact is, there was plenty of oil when we had checked and the oil pressure alarm stayed silent as a church mouse even through the agonizing end.
What we now know, three mechanics later and after the removal of “Big Red”, is that the oil cooler had corroded internally. When this happens salt water used to cool the oil through an exchanger is released into the engine. This is due to the walls of the exchanger corroding through to mix the engines oil with salt water, and within no time the engine has salt water pumping throughout it’s innards. There is apparently no warning to a mechanical catastrophe of this type and the patient always suffers an excruciating death. So, when we heard the engine change pitch and thought we were running out of fuel, in reality “Big Red” was screaming out in fatal anguish. This ends the short story and life of “Big Red”.
Now to say that we were shocked to the core is a colossal understatement. Once Ivan had left us to our mourning, we sat in silence, stunned, hardly tasting our lunch. A new rebuilt engine would cost upwards of ten thousand Australian dollars and the labor for the job was aggravatingly vague. The only thing that got us moving was our prearranged invitation to host a gathering with our new friends David, Donna, Bernie, and Kate aboard Starship. We somehow walked through the fog of disbelief to Edgecliff Center for groceries and refreshments.
I think what actually saved us from total despair was the fact that we had such wonderful guests visit us. Though we could not possibly have been great company our guests took over and helped us focus on the bright side. Yes, I know you must be saying “What freaking bright side?”, however, there is a small sliver of a glimmer in a very bleak situation. You see, in New Zealand we refit just about every system on Starship but the one variable that was not really addressed was her twenty year old Westerbeke 40 horsepower engine, affectionately known as “Big Red”. I think deep down we both had concerns of taking an engine of this era around the world, especially after learning of some of the prior owners poor maintenance habits. Then there is our own inclination for engine drama as demonstrated from Mexico to New Zealand. The tidbit of hope in our sorry situation is that we will now have a newly rebuilt engine with a known history we can trust. It turns out that we will even be able to fit a bigger, faster, stronger engine and perhaps we will breathe a little easier as we continue our voyage. Now how’s that for looking on the confounded brighter side? Thanks to our new Aussie buddies for your words of encouragement! We finished off this memorable day with lots of laughter, delicious Italian food, and new hope to face our latest challenge.
Okay, the good news first. Pam and I are not totally mathematically challenged engine incompetent dorkazoids. Our fuel calculations were fine on our Tasman crossing and we did not let our Fuel Tank 2 run dry. In fact there is plenty of fuel in all of Starships tanks. Furthermore, we did not incorrectly bleed our engine of air, in fact if we would have run out of gas we were assured that our efforts to bleed the engine would have produced a running engine in no time. Finally, we did not run our starter battery dead, we could have had a nuclear reactor on board and our engine would still not have started.
Now for the bad news! Ivan the mechanic showed up again today and Starship had a freshly charged starter battery for him to experiment with for starting our sickly engine. After a number of attempts with the engine sounding like it was being dragged across a cheese grater by a pack of donkeys running for the barn (sort of a cl-cl-cl-cheeeet-chiiiiiit-chzzzzt sound), Ivan got busy taking off the forward pulley to reveal the crank shaft. He then produced the Arnold Schwartaneger of wrenches (or spanner in Australian/Kiwi) and manually turned the crank shaft with the mega-wrench. With each revolution of the crank shaft there was a gut-wrenching sound like King Kong running his fingers down a chalk board. After digging deeper into the patient we found the problem and it was terminal. Apparently our number one cylinder was nearly seized, and the engine was almost bone dry from lack of oil. Now before you go jumping to any over the moon conclusions, yes Scott and Pam did check the oil just a day before the death of “Big Red” and we even had a new oil pressure alarm installed before leaving New Zealand. The fact is, there was plenty of oil when we had checked and the oil pressure alarm stayed silent as a church mouse even through the agonizing end.
What we now know, three mechanics later and after the removal of “Big Red”, is that the oil cooler had corroded internally. When this happens salt water used to cool the oil through an exchanger is released into the engine. This is due to the walls of the exchanger corroding through to mix the engines oil with salt water, and within no time the engine has salt water pumping throughout it’s innards. There is apparently no warning to a mechanical catastrophe of this type and the patient always suffers an excruciating death. So, when we heard the engine change pitch and thought we were running out of fuel, in reality “Big Red” was screaming out in fatal anguish. This ends the short story and life of “Big Red”.
Now to say that we were shocked to the core is a colossal understatement. Once Ivan had left us to our mourning, we sat in silence, stunned, hardly tasting our lunch. A new rebuilt engine would cost upwards of ten thousand Australian dollars and the labor for the job was aggravatingly vague. The only thing that got us moving was our prearranged invitation to host a gathering with our new friends David, Donna, Bernie, and Kate aboard Starship. We somehow walked through the fog of disbelief to Edgecliff Center for groceries and refreshments.
I think what actually saved us from total despair was the fact that we had such wonderful guests visit us. Though we could not possibly have been great company our guests took over and helped us focus on the bright side. Yes, I know you must be saying “What freaking bright side?”, however, there is a small sliver of a glimmer in a very bleak situation. You see, in New Zealand we refit just about every system on Starship but the one variable that was not really addressed was her twenty year old Westerbeke 40 horsepower engine, affectionately known as “Big Red”. I think deep down we both had concerns of taking an engine of this era around the world, especially after learning of some of the prior owners poor maintenance habits. Then there is our own inclination for engine drama as demonstrated from Mexico to New Zealand. The tidbit of hope in our sorry situation is that we will now have a newly rebuilt engine with a known history we can trust. It turns out that we will even be able to fit a bigger, faster, stronger engine and perhaps we will breathe a little easier as we continue our voyage. Now how’s that for looking on the confounded brighter side? Thanks to our new Aussie buddies for your words of encouragement! We finished off this memorable day with lots of laughter, delicious Italian food, and new hope to face our latest challenge.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Journal Entry – May 26th – 30th, 2007 Week One in OZ
Author: Pam
This journal entry represents the epitome of hitting the ground running and that is just what we did once our feet hit the ground after sixteen days at sea. After our glorious first full night’s sleep in more than two weeks, we crawled out of bed and headed out to meet Phil from Humanware to attend the Association of Blind Citizens of New South Wale’s Technology Expo. The Expo featured adaptive technology for people who are blind produced or sold by the four vendors in the Sydney area. It was held in the building owned by the Association of Blind Citizens of NSW, a neat old house with a beeper and tactile tiles at the gate. Our participation was informal, we chatted with many of the people who came through the door, including two teachers of the visually impaired. We were still pretty tired, but hopefully we were at least somewhat coherent. We went to dinner again at the Cruising Yacht Club, Scott of course wanted half of the items on the menu. It usually takes him a few days to reacclimate to the idea that he will get his next meal and it will not be out of a can.
On Sunday Phil and his partner Jan came over to Starship laden with a lovely picnic lunch. It was a very relaxing afternoon and we probably bored them with all of our Tasman yarns. At 5:00 David and Donna Marshall arrived to take us to their house for the promised home cooked meal. We had met them on Friday evening and within moments of meeting Donna she had extended a gracious invitation to dinner at their home. Bernie and Kate Dixon were also guests and we all shared a meal of the best roasted vegetables and pork I have ever had. It was a delightful evening full of many stories and much laughter. It was decided before heading back to the boat that Scott would go sailing with the Tuesday Men’s Sailing Club and I would spend the day with Donna, their grandson and our pile of laundry.
Monday we finally walked further than the Cruising Yacht Club and walked up to the Edgecliff Shopping Center and poked around in the grocery stores, our first reconnaissance for provisioning. We bought a weekly train pass and headed out to the internet café, with a stop at the golden arches along the way. We only had an hour to check email and then we headed back to the boat to meet our new friend Nick Reward for dinner. We had met Nick a few days before leaving NZ as he and David on “Ilyana” were preparing to leave on the rally to Tonga. Nick picked us up and we headed to King’s Cross, a neighborhood in Sydney near by the boat and notoriously known as the “red light” district. Like the Tenderloin in San Francisco you could say it is colorful, but there are also some very nice restaurants that have taken up residency. After buying a bottle of wine at a Bottle Shop (many of the Sydney restaurants are BYO) he suggested Italian. We sat down and he began to read the menu and once he had read Bratwurst and Schnitzel it became clear we had ended up at a German restaurant. We were all still fine with the cuisine choice and had a very nice dinner sharing stories about the Tasman and their passage to Tonga.
So, Tuesday came and with two bags of laundry David picked me up and took me over to their house for the day. And the day it took to do all of the laundry, in between playing with Taj, the youngest Australian I have met so far. Scott’s day on the other hand was spent aboard “Free Spirit” David and Donna’s 35’ wooden (timber) boat celebrating the 300th outing of the Tuesday Club. There are around ten members and we have been told the youngest is 70. They showed Scott a wonderful day on Sydney Harbour and he was treated to a trip to the Sydney Fish Market for prawns, fish and chips and he even ate two oysters. The later being unprecedented. Donna, Taj and I met them at the Cruising Yacht Club for a libation and were regaled with the enthusiasm of the fun they had, but no details were shared, because these Tuesday sails are all about “secret men’s business.” Comfy under the heat lamp, Scott and I decided to stay at the CYCA again for dinner.
Wednesday morning we headed up to Cole’s and Audi’s the supermarkets in the Edgecliff center and finally bought some groceries, I was absolutely craving a salad. We got back in time to quickly eat some lunch before we piled into “Intrepid” one of Sailability’s racing boats and headed out on the Harbour with Bob, Bill, Steve, Don and Malcolm for my first race. The winds were very light and variable making certain legs of the course difficult. Unfortunately, the team did not do as well as their standing record of nothing less than second, it was agreed it was probably due to the Americans on board. The members of Sailability have been wonderful hosts and a really nice group of people to meet and spend time with.
Thursday morning we headed up to Edgecliff again to the Westpac bank to finally pay our last bill in New Zealand. We did a couple of other errands and then ran back to the boat to meet Ivan, the mechanic who was coming by to finally bleed the engine. He arrived at noon and spent an hour and a half attempting to get the engine started. He finally decided the starter battery needed to recharge over night and it would be best if he came back the next morning with a large wrench to manually turn the crankshaft, the engine was not turning over on its own. After he left we were feeling a bit discouraged, we were hoping the problem only needed the expertise of a mechanic and that Scott didn’t know the finer details of bleeding air out of the fuel system. After several attempts to start the engine, including Ivan’s idea of cross feeding both the house and the starter battery, the voltage on the house batteries spiked to 19.65, which is dangerously high. Ivan did not know why this was happening, said we needed an electrician and then left saying he would be back at 8:30 the next morning. Yikes! We walked down the street, ended up in a power boat sales office and inquired about an electrician. The guys working there were very nice, they referred us to Craig and let us use the phone to call him. It turned out he was actually four boats away from Starship and said he would come over when he finished the job he was working on. He was there by 4:30 and fairly quickly determined the master battery fuse had blown. We paid Craig on the spot and found out we are not in Kansas anymore (or New Zealand). Feeling a bit discouraged we finally cooked our first meal on Starship in Sydney, BBQ chicken and salad. We headed out after dinner to spend some time at the Internet Café across town and came home at 11:45 totally exhausted. What a week!
This journal entry represents the epitome of hitting the ground running and that is just what we did once our feet hit the ground after sixteen days at sea. After our glorious first full night’s sleep in more than two weeks, we crawled out of bed and headed out to meet Phil from Humanware to attend the Association of Blind Citizens of New South Wale’s Technology Expo. The Expo featured adaptive technology for people who are blind produced or sold by the four vendors in the Sydney area. It was held in the building owned by the Association of Blind Citizens of NSW, a neat old house with a beeper and tactile tiles at the gate. Our participation was informal, we chatted with many of the people who came through the door, including two teachers of the visually impaired. We were still pretty tired, but hopefully we were at least somewhat coherent. We went to dinner again at the Cruising Yacht Club, Scott of course wanted half of the items on the menu. It usually takes him a few days to reacclimate to the idea that he will get his next meal and it will not be out of a can.
On Sunday Phil and his partner Jan came over to Starship laden with a lovely picnic lunch. It was a very relaxing afternoon and we probably bored them with all of our Tasman yarns. At 5:00 David and Donna Marshall arrived to take us to their house for the promised home cooked meal. We had met them on Friday evening and within moments of meeting Donna she had extended a gracious invitation to dinner at their home. Bernie and Kate Dixon were also guests and we all shared a meal of the best roasted vegetables and pork I have ever had. It was a delightful evening full of many stories and much laughter. It was decided before heading back to the boat that Scott would go sailing with the Tuesday Men’s Sailing Club and I would spend the day with Donna, their grandson and our pile of laundry.
Monday we finally walked further than the Cruising Yacht Club and walked up to the Edgecliff Shopping Center and poked around in the grocery stores, our first reconnaissance for provisioning. We bought a weekly train pass and headed out to the internet café, with a stop at the golden arches along the way. We only had an hour to check email and then we headed back to the boat to meet our new friend Nick Reward for dinner. We had met Nick a few days before leaving NZ as he and David on “Ilyana” were preparing to leave on the rally to Tonga. Nick picked us up and we headed to King’s Cross, a neighborhood in Sydney near by the boat and notoriously known as the “red light” district. Like the Tenderloin in San Francisco you could say it is colorful, but there are also some very nice restaurants that have taken up residency. After buying a bottle of wine at a Bottle Shop (many of the Sydney restaurants are BYO) he suggested Italian. We sat down and he began to read the menu and once he had read Bratwurst and Schnitzel it became clear we had ended up at a German restaurant. We were all still fine with the cuisine choice and had a very nice dinner sharing stories about the Tasman and their passage to Tonga.
So, Tuesday came and with two bags of laundry David picked me up and took me over to their house for the day. And the day it took to do all of the laundry, in between playing with Taj, the youngest Australian I have met so far. Scott’s day on the other hand was spent aboard “Free Spirit” David and Donna’s 35’ wooden (timber) boat celebrating the 300th outing of the Tuesday Club. There are around ten members and we have been told the youngest is 70. They showed Scott a wonderful day on Sydney Harbour and he was treated to a trip to the Sydney Fish Market for prawns, fish and chips and he even ate two oysters. The later being unprecedented. Donna, Taj and I met them at the Cruising Yacht Club for a libation and were regaled with the enthusiasm of the fun they had, but no details were shared, because these Tuesday sails are all about “secret men’s business.” Comfy under the heat lamp, Scott and I decided to stay at the CYCA again for dinner.
Wednesday morning we headed up to Cole’s and Audi’s the supermarkets in the Edgecliff center and finally bought some groceries, I was absolutely craving a salad. We got back in time to quickly eat some lunch before we piled into “Intrepid” one of Sailability’s racing boats and headed out on the Harbour with Bob, Bill, Steve, Don and Malcolm for my first race. The winds were very light and variable making certain legs of the course difficult. Unfortunately, the team did not do as well as their standing record of nothing less than second, it was agreed it was probably due to the Americans on board. The members of Sailability have been wonderful hosts and a really nice group of people to meet and spend time with.
Thursday morning we headed up to Edgecliff again to the Westpac bank to finally pay our last bill in New Zealand. We did a couple of other errands and then ran back to the boat to meet Ivan, the mechanic who was coming by to finally bleed the engine. He arrived at noon and spent an hour and a half attempting to get the engine started. He finally decided the starter battery needed to recharge over night and it would be best if he came back the next morning with a large wrench to manually turn the crankshaft, the engine was not turning over on its own. After he left we were feeling a bit discouraged, we were hoping the problem only needed the expertise of a mechanic and that Scott didn’t know the finer details of bleeding air out of the fuel system. After several attempts to start the engine, including Ivan’s idea of cross feeding both the house and the starter battery, the voltage on the house batteries spiked to 19.65, which is dangerously high. Ivan did not know why this was happening, said we needed an electrician and then left saying he would be back at 8:30 the next morning. Yikes! We walked down the street, ended up in a power boat sales office and inquired about an electrician. The guys working there were very nice, they referred us to Craig and let us use the phone to call him. It turned out he was actually four boats away from Starship and said he would come over when he finished the job he was working on. He was there by 4:30 and fairly quickly determined the master battery fuse had blown. We paid Craig on the spot and found out we are not in Kansas anymore (or New Zealand). Feeling a bit discouraged we finally cooked our first meal on Starship in Sydney, BBQ chicken and salad. We headed out after dinner to spend some time at the Internet Café across town and came home at 11:45 totally exhausted. What a week!
Friday, May 25, 2007
Journal Entry – May 25, 2007 Sydney the Land of Helicopters and Hospitality
Author: Scott
We awoke this morning after our big two hours of sleep on the Customs buoy (or so we thought). We scurried around getting the boat organized and ready to be inspected by the officials. They had warned us to be ready by 07:00 but they actually knocked on our boat closer to 08:00, giving us a little extra time to get the sleep out of our eyes, some coffee injected, and the boat in order.
When they came to the boat there were two gentlemen who came aboard, one was from Customs and the other from the Quarantine and Agriculture office. They took us through the same procedure we have come to expect from other countries and though they asked almost identical questions they each needed to directly ask us their questions personally. Overall the process was much less painful than we had been warned to expect. Australia has the reputation of being one of the strictest countries to clear into and our experience certainly did not live up to this reputation. Once we had answered every question twice, they were satisfied and prepared to board their inflatable boat. We then asked if we could stay on their buoy until we were met by Sailability at 10:30 and they said sure as we were not actually tied onto their buoy. Apparently in the darkness the Harbor Police deposited on to some random buoy accidentally. Well, no one had said anything so far so we just waited on our pirated buoy for Sailability to arrive.
Around 10:15 Sailability did show up in a small sailboat with three people onboard. Stephen Churm the Commodore of Sailability Rushcutters Bay introduced us to his crewmembers Carol and Bill. The preliminary plan was to take the boat over to Rushcutters Bay to meet the media before 13:00, this would give us plenty of time to slink in under tow, however, everything was about to change. As we were getting everything organized for our departure Stephen’s phone rang for the first of many times. Apparently he was called from Georgia who was on the dock representing Vision Australia and not only was the media streaming in but Channel 9 had a helicopter en route and they wanted to shoot footage of us sailing into Sydney Harbour. There would definitely be no slinking in before the media arrived and although we had no engine, we could sail, and sail we must. So, our revised plan was to sail off the mooring ball and sail out to the Sydney Heads and then sail down the harbor to Rushcutters Bay where the boat would be berthed and the media was waiting. The crew from Sailability would sail in their 26’ boat along side us and provide an escort. Our plan was reasonably sound except there was not sufficient wind in Watson’s Bay to make way. Once we released the mooring ball we drifted slowly towards the other moored boats. Although we were never dangerously close to a collision we were starting to get a little frantic, but just then an inflatable dinghy zoomed up and the single crew onboard said he could give us a push out into the harbor. There were a number of attempts with varying degrees of success, but our new friend eventually got us out into open water and we were able to generate enough momentum with a 7 knot breeze to slowly make way towards the Sydney Heads. As quickly as he appeared, our friend in the dinghy was gone. Who was that masked man?
The media said they were sending a helicopter and they certainly did. As we reached the Heads a helicopter came hovering overhead. Pam was seated up front on the bow seat and I stayed back in the cockpit steering the boat and making sail changes. The Sailability boat was buzzing around us and they probably looked like the excited hare urging the big lumbering tortoise on, but our sails were full and Starship looked good for the television cameras. When we reached the perfect position for the helicopter and they could frame a shot of us with the Sydney skyline on our beam, they hovered extra low and then roared off towards the city.
Once the helicopter departed we discussed our options with the Sailability folks and they suggested giving us a tow so we could get back to meet the media on the dock. The idea of getting towed in didn’t exactly thrill us, but we knew that we had to get to Rushcutters Bay, so we worked out a tow rope and the little Sailability boat pulled Starship with the determination of a mouse pulling an elephant on roller skates. Fortunately, shortly after getting under way our friends on the Police Boat showed up and took over from the overworked mouse boat, and before we knew it, we were rocketing to Rushcutters Bay at 7.5 knots.
Our arrival at Rushcutters Bay is a memory that will always stand out when I reflect on our voyage. As we came alongside the dock there was a lot, and I mean a lot of media people standing there with cameras and microphones in hand. I was on the bow as the Police Boat brought us along the dock and I asked if one of the media people could catch our line, and wouldn’t you know it, there was not a single volunteer in the crowd. I just stood there with rope in hand as we almost passed the dock completely, but just as I was thinking this would be the shorted interview of the century, one of the media people realized the same thing and grabbed for the line. We got tied up in a jiffy and pandemonium broke loose at Rushcutters Bay. There were cameras and microphones everywhere catching every line we tied and every word we uttered. Good thing I didn’t let loose a few of my more salty sailing terms. When I looked up there were members of the media all over the boat, they were everywhere. Once we had the boat tied fast an impromptu press conference took place and as Pam and I stood there with genuine deer in the headlights stares and sleep deprivation hangovers, and the press let fly with all kinds of questions. The next hour was an absolute blur. We answered questions, met the group from Vision Australia and Sailability and tried to keep up with the enormous amount of information overload coming our way. Everyone was wonderful, supportive, and enthusiastic and Pam and I were completely dazed. At some point the information was all gathered and the media disappeared to file their stories. Stephen Churm of Sailability helped us to maneuver the boat into her new temporary home and Pam and I had a moment together to shake off the cobwebs and catch our breath.
Ben Felten our original contact with Sailability came down to the dock and invited us for a drink at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia or CYCA and before we knew it we were seated at the CYCA with a cold drink and a steaming bowl of the most glorious chips (fries) in front of us. John who we also met at the dock (and gave Pam a beautiful bouquet of flowers) soon joined us. We all sat there chatting as though we had known each other for years. Ben’s brother eventually also joined us and stayed for a drink. When everyone finally had to take off, Pam and I ambled over to the CYCA restaurant for a delicious meal and we tried to reconstruct the pieces that made up our absolutely whirlwind day.
Now you are probably thinking that with a warm meal under our belts and hardly any sleep that we headed straight back to the boat to become blissfully unconscious, but no no not - not for these sailors. You see while we were still on the dock we were invited by Bill another member of Sailability to stop in at the RANSA (Royal Australian Naval Sailing Association) winter race party. Not wanting to be rude we decided we would stop in for just a minute. A minute turned into hours of delightful warm introductions and we were stunned by everyone’s kind wishes, enthusiasm and overall hospitality. There were people sharing useful information about the area, offers to use the RANSA club house for showers, and probably most memorably our first interaction with our soon to be friends David and Donna. I was standing in mid conversation and this woman walked up to me and said in a matter of fact tone with a big smile: “You and Pam will be having dinner at our place on Sunday” and this was my introduction to Donna Marshall. I later learned that Donna and Pam had already worked out the details but in the moment I just accepted Donna’s declaration with the rest of the conversations swirling around in my brain. We did finally find a time to rest our weary heads though the Sydney wheels were in motion and the wonderful wild ride was just beginning…
We awoke this morning after our big two hours of sleep on the Customs buoy (or so we thought). We scurried around getting the boat organized and ready to be inspected by the officials. They had warned us to be ready by 07:00 but they actually knocked on our boat closer to 08:00, giving us a little extra time to get the sleep out of our eyes, some coffee injected, and the boat in order.
When they came to the boat there were two gentlemen who came aboard, one was from Customs and the other from the Quarantine and Agriculture office. They took us through the same procedure we have come to expect from other countries and though they asked almost identical questions they each needed to directly ask us their questions personally. Overall the process was much less painful than we had been warned to expect. Australia has the reputation of being one of the strictest countries to clear into and our experience certainly did not live up to this reputation. Once we had answered every question twice, they were satisfied and prepared to board their inflatable boat. We then asked if we could stay on their buoy until we were met by Sailability at 10:30 and they said sure as we were not actually tied onto their buoy. Apparently in the darkness the Harbor Police deposited on to some random buoy accidentally. Well, no one had said anything so far so we just waited on our pirated buoy for Sailability to arrive.
Around 10:15 Sailability did show up in a small sailboat with three people onboard. Stephen Churm the Commodore of Sailability Rushcutters Bay introduced us to his crewmembers Carol and Bill. The preliminary plan was to take the boat over to Rushcutters Bay to meet the media before 13:00, this would give us plenty of time to slink in under tow, however, everything was about to change. As we were getting everything organized for our departure Stephen’s phone rang for the first of many times. Apparently he was called from Georgia who was on the dock representing Vision Australia and not only was the media streaming in but Channel 9 had a helicopter en route and they wanted to shoot footage of us sailing into Sydney Harbour. There would definitely be no slinking in before the media arrived and although we had no engine, we could sail, and sail we must. So, our revised plan was to sail off the mooring ball and sail out to the Sydney Heads and then sail down the harbor to Rushcutters Bay where the boat would be berthed and the media was waiting. The crew from Sailability would sail in their 26’ boat along side us and provide an escort. Our plan was reasonably sound except there was not sufficient wind in Watson’s Bay to make way. Once we released the mooring ball we drifted slowly towards the other moored boats. Although we were never dangerously close to a collision we were starting to get a little frantic, but just then an inflatable dinghy zoomed up and the single crew onboard said he could give us a push out into the harbor. There were a number of attempts with varying degrees of success, but our new friend eventually got us out into open water and we were able to generate enough momentum with a 7 knot breeze to slowly make way towards the Sydney Heads. As quickly as he appeared, our friend in the dinghy was gone. Who was that masked man?
The media said they were sending a helicopter and they certainly did. As we reached the Heads a helicopter came hovering overhead. Pam was seated up front on the bow seat and I stayed back in the cockpit steering the boat and making sail changes. The Sailability boat was buzzing around us and they probably looked like the excited hare urging the big lumbering tortoise on, but our sails were full and Starship looked good for the television cameras. When we reached the perfect position for the helicopter and they could frame a shot of us with the Sydney skyline on our beam, they hovered extra low and then roared off towards the city.
Once the helicopter departed we discussed our options with the Sailability folks and they suggested giving us a tow so we could get back to meet the media on the dock. The idea of getting towed in didn’t exactly thrill us, but we knew that we had to get to Rushcutters Bay, so we worked out a tow rope and the little Sailability boat pulled Starship with the determination of a mouse pulling an elephant on roller skates. Fortunately, shortly after getting under way our friends on the Police Boat showed up and took over from the overworked mouse boat, and before we knew it, we were rocketing to Rushcutters Bay at 7.5 knots.
Our arrival at Rushcutters Bay is a memory that will always stand out when I reflect on our voyage. As we came alongside the dock there was a lot, and I mean a lot of media people standing there with cameras and microphones in hand. I was on the bow as the Police Boat brought us along the dock and I asked if one of the media people could catch our line, and wouldn’t you know it, there was not a single volunteer in the crowd. I just stood there with rope in hand as we almost passed the dock completely, but just as I was thinking this would be the shorted interview of the century, one of the media people realized the same thing and grabbed for the line. We got tied up in a jiffy and pandemonium broke loose at Rushcutters Bay. There were cameras and microphones everywhere catching every line we tied and every word we uttered. Good thing I didn’t let loose a few of my more salty sailing terms. When I looked up there were members of the media all over the boat, they were everywhere. Once we had the boat tied fast an impromptu press conference took place and as Pam and I stood there with genuine deer in the headlights stares and sleep deprivation hangovers, and the press let fly with all kinds of questions. The next hour was an absolute blur. We answered questions, met the group from Vision Australia and Sailability and tried to keep up with the enormous amount of information overload coming our way. Everyone was wonderful, supportive, and enthusiastic and Pam and I were completely dazed. At some point the information was all gathered and the media disappeared to file their stories. Stephen Churm of Sailability helped us to maneuver the boat into her new temporary home and Pam and I had a moment together to shake off the cobwebs and catch our breath.
Ben Felten our original contact with Sailability came down to the dock and invited us for a drink at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia or CYCA and before we knew it we were seated at the CYCA with a cold drink and a steaming bowl of the most glorious chips (fries) in front of us. John who we also met at the dock (and gave Pam a beautiful bouquet of flowers) soon joined us. We all sat there chatting as though we had known each other for years. Ben’s brother eventually also joined us and stayed for a drink. When everyone finally had to take off, Pam and I ambled over to the CYCA restaurant for a delicious meal and we tried to reconstruct the pieces that made up our absolutely whirlwind day.
Now you are probably thinking that with a warm meal under our belts and hardly any sleep that we headed straight back to the boat to become blissfully unconscious, but no no not - not for these sailors. You see while we were still on the dock we were invited by Bill another member of Sailability to stop in at the RANSA (Royal Australian Naval Sailing Association) winter race party. Not wanting to be rude we decided we would stop in for just a minute. A minute turned into hours of delightful warm introductions and we were stunned by everyone’s kind wishes, enthusiasm and overall hospitality. There were people sharing useful information about the area, offers to use the RANSA club house for showers, and probably most memorably our first interaction with our soon to be friends David and Donna. I was standing in mid conversation and this woman walked up to me and said in a matter of fact tone with a big smile: “You and Pam will be having dinner at our place on Sunday” and this was my introduction to Donna Marshall. I later learned that Donna and Pam had already worked out the details but in the moment I just accepted Donna’s declaration with the rest of the conversations swirling around in my brain. We did finally find a time to rest our weary heads though the Sydney wheels were in motion and the wonderful wild ride was just beginning…
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Journal Entry - May 23 - 25, 2007 Diesel Roulette (a.k.a. Spaghetti Incident) and our Sydney Landfall
Author: Scott
I am sure glad we sailed over 200 miles to the north to ensure that we would not miss Sydney with winds pushing us down South. We had fluky winds working against us most of the way north, not to be met by the northerlies, but by their ugly counterpart the south westerlies. Yep, you are reading this correctly, we were routed by our weather routing service to sail north against the prevailing wind, just to meet new wind on our nose for the remainder of the journey. No disrespect intended to the weather router, we do understand that the weather is unpredictable, but we may have gotten luckier referencing the Ouija Board, or giving a monkey some chalk and a nautical chart. Okay, maybe that is just a teensy bit sarcastic on my part, but we did just go 400 miles out of our way, with no one to blame but mother nature. In the end we did find the experience of using a weather router positive because we had more advance information on the gale we encountered than we may have researched ourselves. Our advice to other cruisers is to use all the weather tools available and sometimes that includes paying for weather routing.
There really is nothing significant about May 23 other than the frustrating sailing conditions and fighting the wind on our nose. We spent the day willing the wind to clock to the west and probably because we did not sacrifice a virgin to the wind gods we did not get our wish, again! But wait, later in the day came the "Spaghetti Engine Incident".
I was up in the cockpit cowering from the noise our newly refurbished water maker makes. First there was the thundering dinosaurs, then came the jackhammer, then came heavy metal, and next was our water maker that will probably hold the filling jarring, brain numbing deadly decibel award until the implosion of our sun. Pam was down below working on spaghetti with clam sauce when all of a sudden our engine changed pitch and I dove to shut it off.
You see one of the only projects we decided to postpone was working out a better way to monitor our fuel supply. Starship has had an engine replacement in her past and we have come to learn that whoever installed the new engine cut a corner and only put a fuel return line to tank 1 of Starship's two tanks plus bonus auxiliary tank. There is also only a sight tube (a tube used to view the level of fuel in tank, and somehow not a good choice for a visually impaired crew). All this means that the only tank you can monitor is tank 1 and you must feed the other tanks into tank 1 as you start to get low, the problem being that you never truly know when you are going to run out of fuel in the other tanks. Most boats would have a gauge (or at least a sight tube) for each tank and a method for cross feeding either tank. Therefore, our only solution for attempting to monitor fuel is through experience and mathematics:
Here is a fun mathematical word problem for the students who follow our Blog. How many engine hours do you get if your boat has two 40 gallon tanks and an auxiliary 10 gallon tank and your engine uses approximately ¾ of a gallon of fuel per hour? Next account for 35 gallons of fuel in jerry cans and you will have the goofy guess factor of Starship's fuel resources. This probably makes you long for recess.
Now the big dilemma in our equation is the experience part. Starship is a new boat for us and we have not had enough exposure to the variance in her fuel usage to correctly establish a true hourly usage estimate. The end result is with all the motoring that was required due to calms we were seriously stressed about running out of fuel due to the STUPID monitoring system onboard starship.
Back to the spaghetti situation. It turns out that despite our overly developed numerical prowess we missed some fraction somewhere, or maybe we forgot to carry the 2? Who knows what happened but we didn't quite get it right and that little engine noise I heard was our wonderfully dependable diesel "Big Red" as she was gasping for fuel and then she turned over and died a magnificent death. To pay us back for poor feeding "Big Red" would not allow us to sufficiently bleed the air out of her system until we reach Sydney. For our dedicated readers, do you see an engine pattern here? It is no wonder we like to sail because engines obviously don't like us.
We were both a little glum on Thursday knowing that we had the fuel, had the engine, but could not actually use the engine due to our paranoia of running out of fuel. For once our trusty engine was doing fine and we were responsible for making it all go pear shaped. We did give it a valiant effort to resuscitate the iron beast. We even dug down to the bottom of the lazarette and pulled out our tiny spare generator to recharge the engine battery. However, on our generator's debut use, it would only fire up and run for 5 to 10 minutes at a time. To think we dragged the littler bugger all the way from Maine. Good thing we aren't trying to motor ourselves around the world, or we would be in big trouble. Never fear though, we are a sailboat and sail is what we did. The winds were in our favor (for a change) 10 - 15 knots from the west. We finally found ourselves at the Sydney heads around 02:30 in the morning. Our friends at Sailability had prearranged for the Water Police to give us an escort in to the Customs buoy and they were promptly on the radio working out the details with us. Not only did they give us an escort, but they also provided us with a final tow to the buoy. After at least four attempts at grabbing the buoy in the dark, we were safe and secure in Watson's Bay at 04:00 with three hours to sleep before the Customs agents would be knocking on our boat to officially check us into Australia.
On final reflection of our voyage across the "Terrible Tasman" we definitely concede that this is no tame stretch of benign water. To sail the Tasman you must use weather systems to make way, meaning that you are as dependent on good weather as you are on rainy squally lows to find the wind. This was certainly not trade wind sailing. The currents are illusive and constantly shifting beneath you, with sea mounts lurking beneath the surface. The wind was fickle, ranging from calms to gale force with little warning. We are proud of ourselves for taking on this challenge while humbled by this desolate and unpredictable frontier. We know that we will be facing "the Weather Kitchen" again, but for today - Hooray we are in Sydney mate!
I am sure glad we sailed over 200 miles to the north to ensure that we would not miss Sydney with winds pushing us down South. We had fluky winds working against us most of the way north, not to be met by the northerlies, but by their ugly counterpart the south westerlies. Yep, you are reading this correctly, we were routed by our weather routing service to sail north against the prevailing wind, just to meet new wind on our nose for the remainder of the journey. No disrespect intended to the weather router, we do understand that the weather is unpredictable, but we may have gotten luckier referencing the Ouija Board, or giving a monkey some chalk and a nautical chart. Okay, maybe that is just a teensy bit sarcastic on my part, but we did just go 400 miles out of our way, with no one to blame but mother nature. In the end we did find the experience of using a weather router positive because we had more advance information on the gale we encountered than we may have researched ourselves. Our advice to other cruisers is to use all the weather tools available and sometimes that includes paying for weather routing.
There really is nothing significant about May 23 other than the frustrating sailing conditions and fighting the wind on our nose. We spent the day willing the wind to clock to the west and probably because we did not sacrifice a virgin to the wind gods we did not get our wish, again! But wait, later in the day came the "Spaghetti Engine Incident".
I was up in the cockpit cowering from the noise our newly refurbished water maker makes. First there was the thundering dinosaurs, then came the jackhammer, then came heavy metal, and next was our water maker that will probably hold the filling jarring, brain numbing deadly decibel award until the implosion of our sun. Pam was down below working on spaghetti with clam sauce when all of a sudden our engine changed pitch and I dove to shut it off.
You see one of the only projects we decided to postpone was working out a better way to monitor our fuel supply. Starship has had an engine replacement in her past and we have come to learn that whoever installed the new engine cut a corner and only put a fuel return line to tank 1 of Starship's two tanks plus bonus auxiliary tank. There is also only a sight tube (a tube used to view the level of fuel in tank, and somehow not a good choice for a visually impaired crew). All this means that the only tank you can monitor is tank 1 and you must feed the other tanks into tank 1 as you start to get low, the problem being that you never truly know when you are going to run out of fuel in the other tanks. Most boats would have a gauge (or at least a sight tube) for each tank and a method for cross feeding either tank. Therefore, our only solution for attempting to monitor fuel is through experience and mathematics:
Here is a fun mathematical word problem for the students who follow our Blog. How many engine hours do you get if your boat has two 40 gallon tanks and an auxiliary 10 gallon tank and your engine uses approximately ¾ of a gallon of fuel per hour? Next account for 35 gallons of fuel in jerry cans and you will have the goofy guess factor of Starship's fuel resources. This probably makes you long for recess.
Now the big dilemma in our equation is the experience part. Starship is a new boat for us and we have not had enough exposure to the variance in her fuel usage to correctly establish a true hourly usage estimate. The end result is with all the motoring that was required due to calms we were seriously stressed about running out of fuel due to the STUPID monitoring system onboard starship.
Back to the spaghetti situation. It turns out that despite our overly developed numerical prowess we missed some fraction somewhere, or maybe we forgot to carry the 2? Who knows what happened but we didn't quite get it right and that little engine noise I heard was our wonderfully dependable diesel "Big Red" as she was gasping for fuel and then she turned over and died a magnificent death. To pay us back for poor feeding "Big Red" would not allow us to sufficiently bleed the air out of her system until we reach Sydney. For our dedicated readers, do you see an engine pattern here? It is no wonder we like to sail because engines obviously don't like us.
We were both a little glum on Thursday knowing that we had the fuel, had the engine, but could not actually use the engine due to our paranoia of running out of fuel. For once our trusty engine was doing fine and we were responsible for making it all go pear shaped. We did give it a valiant effort to resuscitate the iron beast. We even dug down to the bottom of the lazarette and pulled out our tiny spare generator to recharge the engine battery. However, on our generator's debut use, it would only fire up and run for 5 to 10 minutes at a time. To think we dragged the littler bugger all the way from Maine. Good thing we aren't trying to motor ourselves around the world, or we would be in big trouble. Never fear though, we are a sailboat and sail is what we did. The winds were in our favor (for a change) 10 - 15 knots from the west. We finally found ourselves at the Sydney heads around 02:30 in the morning. Our friends at Sailability had prearranged for the Water Police to give us an escort in to the Customs buoy and they were promptly on the radio working out the details with us. Not only did they give us an escort, but they also provided us with a final tow to the buoy. After at least four attempts at grabbing the buoy in the dark, we were safe and secure in Watson's Bay at 04:00 with three hours to sleep before the Customs agents would be knocking on our boat to officially check us into Australia.
On final reflection of our voyage across the "Terrible Tasman" we definitely concede that this is no tame stretch of benign water. To sail the Tasman you must use weather systems to make way, meaning that you are as dependent on good weather as you are on rainy squally lows to find the wind. This was certainly not trade wind sailing. The currents are illusive and constantly shifting beneath you, with sea mounts lurking beneath the surface. The wind was fickle, ranging from calms to gale force with little warning. We are proud of ourselves for taking on this challenge while humbled by this desolate and unpredictable frontier. We know that we will be facing "the Weather Kitchen" again, but for today - Hooray we are in Sydney mate!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Journal Entry - May 22, 2007 Mother Nature, Up To No Good
Author: Pam
What a difference a few hours can make, that is beginning to feel like a theme. I went to bed at midnight and didn't come on deck again until 0730. Just after midnight Mother Nature turned up the wind dial to over 20 knots, and unfortunately it has been on our nose all day. With that much wind comes waves, which Starship spent until mid afternoon taking over her bow, jumping over or running smack into it, sounding like a brick wall. Scott didn't go off watch all night because he kept working on making some progress toward Sydney, though most of the elements were against us. I lay in bed listening to him grind winches, tack sails, and turn on and off the engine with determination. I did not sleep well as every few minutes I was either nearly falling out of bed or pressed up against the wall. No matter what he did, with wind on the nose the boat will be heeled. The wind and waves were not as strong or as big as the other night, but it was uncomfortable to say the least. I realized today and of course not for the first time, time passes quickly when you are busy. Today we were busy navigating, keeping the sails in trim and looking out diligently for traffic, but the time passed very slowly. I spent the day looking for low spots on the boat to sit and read. Scott napped and kept us making some progress. We concluded today that this has been one of the most difficult landfalls for us so far. We are hoping to sail through the Sydney harbour heads on Thursday afternoon. Come on Starship rattle your dags.
What a difference a few hours can make, that is beginning to feel like a theme. I went to bed at midnight and didn't come on deck again until 0730. Just after midnight Mother Nature turned up the wind dial to over 20 knots, and unfortunately it has been on our nose all day. With that much wind comes waves, which Starship spent until mid afternoon taking over her bow, jumping over or running smack into it, sounding like a brick wall. Scott didn't go off watch all night because he kept working on making some progress toward Sydney, though most of the elements were against us. I lay in bed listening to him grind winches, tack sails, and turn on and off the engine with determination. I did not sleep well as every few minutes I was either nearly falling out of bed or pressed up against the wall. No matter what he did, with wind on the nose the boat will be heeled. The wind and waves were not as strong or as big as the other night, but it was uncomfortable to say the least. I realized today and of course not for the first time, time passes quickly when you are busy. Today we were busy navigating, keeping the sails in trim and looking out diligently for traffic, but the time passed very slowly. I spent the day looking for low spots on the boat to sit and read. Scott napped and kept us making some progress. We concluded today that this has been one of the most difficult landfalls for us so far. We are hoping to sail through the Sydney harbour heads on Thursday afternoon. Come on Starship rattle your dags.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Journal Entry - May 21, 2007 Rattle Your Dags
Author: Pam
Today is the 12th day of the passage and the original estimated date of arrival, that was before the lack of wind and of course those ever present pesky currents. It is 2200 and I am once again on watch. We are approaching the Australian coastline on the current waypoint and will be 15 miles off the coast when we make the turn to head south toward Sydney and hopefully ride the EAC like the big turtles in "Finding Nemo". There isn't much to report today. The forecasted low pressure system did not appear and we had light winds once again, we are still motor sailing. We are in a big fat high (BFH) system and the wind is being sucked away by a low pressure system over New Zealand. It has been a very interesting and definitely different passage. We are happy the weather Gods have been gentle out here in the Tasman, but we were looking forward to sailing.
The day went by quickly for some reason, but I am not really sure why. We have definitely been on passage long enough to get into some semblance of a routine (when we are not walking on the walls), which has included projects from our never ending To Do list. We spent some time organizing and filing the rest of our manuals for all of the gear on board this boat. The fishing pole was out again today, but even "the log" lure (affectionately named by Scott) didn't do the trick. He said it was for catching Tuna which I of course support, but it looked big enough to catch a small whale. So, back to those familiar fishing scores, Fish 3 Starship 0.
We received an email from one of our Kiwi friends the other day with another colloquialism to add to the list posted on May 10th, definitely worth sharing. Thanks Fiona! "Dags - you are correct about the poop - dags are the ends of wool around the
nether regions that collect poop and form into clusters like grapes - sheep are dagged between shearings to avoid fly strike (say no more on that issue) and the dags are sent off to the mills and this wool is scoured and woven
into socks (the heavy working men's type). But in the summer when the dags
are dry and the sheep run they clatter = hence the colloquialism
Rattle your dags! Which means hurry up!"
I will sign off for tonight, I am off to play scrabble with my computer opponent Maven, who cheats, but I am still winning.
Today is the 12th day of the passage and the original estimated date of arrival, that was before the lack of wind and of course those ever present pesky currents. It is 2200 and I am once again on watch. We are approaching the Australian coastline on the current waypoint and will be 15 miles off the coast when we make the turn to head south toward Sydney and hopefully ride the EAC like the big turtles in "Finding Nemo". There isn't much to report today. The forecasted low pressure system did not appear and we had light winds once again, we are still motor sailing. We are in a big fat high (BFH) system and the wind is being sucked away by a low pressure system over New Zealand. It has been a very interesting and definitely different passage. We are happy the weather Gods have been gentle out here in the Tasman, but we were looking forward to sailing.
The day went by quickly for some reason, but I am not really sure why. We have definitely been on passage long enough to get into some semblance of a routine (when we are not walking on the walls), which has included projects from our never ending To Do list. We spent some time organizing and filing the rest of our manuals for all of the gear on board this boat. The fishing pole was out again today, but even "the log" lure (affectionately named by Scott) didn't do the trick. He said it was for catching Tuna which I of course support, but it looked big enough to catch a small whale. So, back to those familiar fishing scores, Fish 3 Starship 0.
We received an email from one of our Kiwi friends the other day with another colloquialism to add to the list posted on May 10th, definitely worth sharing. Thanks Fiona! "Dags - you are correct about the poop - dags are the ends of wool around the
nether regions that collect poop and form into clusters like grapes - sheep are dagged between shearings to avoid fly strike (say no more on that issue) and the dags are sent off to the mills and this wool is scoured and woven
into socks (the heavy working men's type). But in the summer when the dags
are dry and the sheep run they clatter = hence the colloquialism
Rattle your dags! Which means hurry up!"
I will sign off for tonight, I am off to play scrabble with my computer opponent Maven, who cheats, but I am still winning.
Journal Entry - May 20, 2007 - The Calm Before the ?
Author: Pam
I just started my first watch at 2100 and am sitting in the cockpit completely in awe of the moon and the night sky. I am sure there has been at least one other night out here as beautiful, but at the moment I cannot seem to recall it. The moon is fairly new and was out as the sun went down. Though it is new it has been incredibly bright all evening and furthermore is accompanied by another smaller bright star or planet just to the left. It feels like a significant combination and I am sure the astronomers out there could give an explanation. The tandem galactic spectacle has been shining brightly over a sea made of glass. Their reflections look like ribbons that are being held by one end and snapped so they ripple across the water. As I write this entry the moon and its' friend are quickly setting.
We have had absolutely no wind since 1800 last night and have now been motoring for 27 hours, a new all time record. We have finally had a current in our favor this afternoon, running 2.6 knots at the moment. If you are not going to have any wind, it is at least nice to have a current to ride. Today the sky was blue; it was in the 70's (my kind of winter) and calm enough to boil water for pasta without gimbling the stove. There is a low-pressure system forecasted for sometime tomorrow and by the calmness of the water, it has that feeling something could be lurking. It is supposed to be weaker than the one the day before yesterday, so maybe we won't have quite the E-ticket ride, if you don't mind Mr. Toad.
Last night we both slept like the dead for our respective five hours. Scott was so refreshed and a bit hyper after his night's sleep he had the fishing pole out at dawn and actually kept it out until dusk. I suppose you guessed already though, the score is now fish 2, Starship 0. It seems the fish in the Tasman Sea are as elusive as in the Pacific.We were busy all day with boat chores. There was the backed up head, I won't go into details on that one. We went out for an on deck check and found several small issues to attend to. We raised the Australian courtesy flag and the Q flag since the conditions were calm. We are actually a bit early on both, technically you don't fly the courtesy flag until you are in the waters of the country and the Q flag, which is a plain bright yellow flag is flown until you are cleared by the quarantine officials when you arrive in a port. One of the support poles for the wind generator had lost a bolt, which Scott was able to replace. The line used to hold the wind vane paddle out of the water was trailing in the water, yikes not another line in the water. We retrieved it with the boat hook, phew. The dinghy cover had come off in the front and it needed draining from all of the rain and waves. We didn't find any stray sea life or flying fish, though there was a fairly good sized one the other day on the catwalk. It just occurred to me as I sit here with the light of my computer by the opening in the cockpit, I am a flying fish magnet (they and squid are attracted to light). So, with that said it is a good time to end this journal entry and the moon is almost gone. Goodnight Mr. Moon.
I just started my first watch at 2100 and am sitting in the cockpit completely in awe of the moon and the night sky. I am sure there has been at least one other night out here as beautiful, but at the moment I cannot seem to recall it. The moon is fairly new and was out as the sun went down. Though it is new it has been incredibly bright all evening and furthermore is accompanied by another smaller bright star or planet just to the left. It feels like a significant combination and I am sure the astronomers out there could give an explanation. The tandem galactic spectacle has been shining brightly over a sea made of glass. Their reflections look like ribbons that are being held by one end and snapped so they ripple across the water. As I write this entry the moon and its' friend are quickly setting.
We have had absolutely no wind since 1800 last night and have now been motoring for 27 hours, a new all time record. We have finally had a current in our favor this afternoon, running 2.6 knots at the moment. If you are not going to have any wind, it is at least nice to have a current to ride. Today the sky was blue; it was in the 70's (my kind of winter) and calm enough to boil water for pasta without gimbling the stove. There is a low-pressure system forecasted for sometime tomorrow and by the calmness of the water, it has that feeling something could be lurking. It is supposed to be weaker than the one the day before yesterday, so maybe we won't have quite the E-ticket ride, if you don't mind Mr. Toad.
Last night we both slept like the dead for our respective five hours. Scott was so refreshed and a bit hyper after his night's sleep he had the fishing pole out at dawn and actually kept it out until dusk. I suppose you guessed already though, the score is now fish 2, Starship 0. It seems the fish in the Tasman Sea are as elusive as in the Pacific.We were busy all day with boat chores. There was the backed up head, I won't go into details on that one. We went out for an on deck check and found several small issues to attend to. We raised the Australian courtesy flag and the Q flag since the conditions were calm. We are actually a bit early on both, technically you don't fly the courtesy flag until you are in the waters of the country and the Q flag, which is a plain bright yellow flag is flown until you are cleared by the quarantine officials when you arrive in a port. One of the support poles for the wind generator had lost a bolt, which Scott was able to replace. The line used to hold the wind vane paddle out of the water was trailing in the water, yikes not another line in the water. We retrieved it with the boat hook, phew. The dinghy cover had come off in the front and it needed draining from all of the rain and waves. We didn't find any stray sea life or flying fish, though there was a fairly good sized one the other day on the catwalk. It just occurred to me as I sit here with the light of my computer by the opening in the cockpit, I am a flying fish magnet (they and squid are attracted to light). So, with that said it is a good time to end this journal entry and the moon is almost gone. Goodnight Mr. Moon.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Journal Entry - May 19, 2007 - The Tasman Takes a Bite
Author: Scott
In our last journal entry I think I was bragging about having delicious barbecued chicken at sea because there wasn't much wind. Who was that Scott, Pam and Starship and what happened to them? This Tasman Sea is a sneaky little beast, she reels you in and then wham she pounces and unleashes herself upon you.
On Friday the day after our nautical barbecue feast the winds remained light. We continued to plod our way northwest, knowing it was the right thing and dutifully following the route laid out for us by our weather routing service. It is a hard thing to watch your progress at only 50% of what it could be if you just pointed the boat at Sydney and went straight for it. The problem however, is all the illusive currents shifting and swirling hidden beneath the surface of the sea. Not to mention that if we were to head straight for Sydney and a north wind begins to blow, we might be making our landfall in Tasmania, and after my ribbing about the existence (or possibly inexistence) of the Tasmanian Devil, I would probably be locked up in a room full of the buggers directly after stepping onto the dock in Tasmania.
We filled the day with the normal boat chores and emails correspondence. We polished off the Tequila Chicken leftovers for dinner and noticed the wind was beginning to pickup. Now, its not that we weren't aware that a "nasty little low" was brewing south of us, because we were well informed with weather reports and even a special weather update from Ken and Beth on "Eagle's Wings", but we have been in heavy weather and were not all that overly concerned. Before dark we reefed down our mainsail to the second reef and reefed in our jib to a smaller working jib dimension, then we settled into the nightly watch routine.
I closed my eyes at 21:00 and awoke at 22:00 to a completely different environment. The seas were boiling and rushing by with the boat at an 18-degree heel on a starboard tack. I could hear things flying in the forward cabin as Starship randomly rearranged herself and our possessions. Just then Pam called down and said we should do something to reduce our speed, and I was on my feet headed to the cockpit.
The boat was raging along and jumping over swells at nearly 9 knots, almost as if she was taunting the Tasman and saying, "come on give me some more, I can take it". Well, we didn't give her the chance. We reefed in her jib to a small storm jib size and Starship was bridled back to a saner 6 knots. Wow, the waves intensified quickly and had grown to at least 4 meters while I was sleeping. The wind had also escalated from a solid 12 - 15 knots to 25 - 30. Pam and I were serenaded by an orchestra of boat noises that were still foreign to us. There is a distinct difference between sailing at 5 knots in pleasant conditions to bashing along in a gale, and while Tournesol had her heavy weather noises, Starship certainly has her own tune. I am determined to get a good audio recording for the website of the sounds produced by sailing in a gale. When the wind reached 37 knots the wind took on an actual scream.
We rearranged a few things on the boat that had redecorated themselves and I settled back down to try and sleep out the rest of Pam's watch. Just as I seeped back into a feverish sleep, a big, and I do mean big wave picked up the boat, tilted her over and threw the printer across the cabin with plastic parts scattering over me. Wow! That was a wave. I would soon learn that Pam had just mustered up the courage to check the radar in the cockpit when the wave struck and she had to wrap herself around the wind dodger poles like a koala bear to hold on.
At this point we reduced sail down to only a double-reefed main and hung on. We were able to maintain a 4 -5 knot boat speed while the sea raged around us. Later in the night came the rain and this was not your ordinary shower. The skies literally dumped buckets of rain down on the boat. It was like riding through the car wash when you were a kid.
The onset of the rain was the beginning of the slow end to the front. Over the next four long hours the wind very gradually began to ease. At the very end the wind clocked around 180 degrees in five minutes and settled at a calm 8 knots. The seas however, would take most of the next day to lay down, leaving us with an ocean that resembled a motocross track for sailboats, with us jumping over, slamming into, and getting covered by waves and spray.
This bad weather was certainly not pleasant and it was a bit scary after eighteen months off the water, but it was not the worst we have seen, and it gave us an opportunity to get to know what Starship was capable off in rough conditions. In the end Starship performed well. The modifications we made to her rigging made it very easy to make sail changes. She kept us much drier with her higher freeboard and center cockpit. Overall, she did a great job and we also did a pretty good job in conditions that many sailors will never see. There is always room for improvement but we made a good team with our new vessel last night.
On Saturday the weather cleared as predicted in our weather reports. The winds eased back to a weak finicky 5 knots. The sea state retuned to slight and we had to return to motoring. It was like the gale had never happened, but it was certainly a good reminder to always keep your guard up because the ocean has a chaotic mind of her own.
There is not much more to report on for Saturday. We motored, used the time to make some water with our newly refurbished water maker. We dried the boat out and cleaned up from the evening's excitement. We both also tried to nap because we were exhausted, but sleep never does come easy after a good does of excitement, adrenaline, and just a dab of fear. Tonight though, I think there will be some sleepy snoring dogs when they get there time off watch in the doghouse!
In our last journal entry I think I was bragging about having delicious barbecued chicken at sea because there wasn't much wind. Who was that Scott, Pam and Starship and what happened to them? This Tasman Sea is a sneaky little beast, she reels you in and then wham she pounces and unleashes herself upon you.
On Friday the day after our nautical barbecue feast the winds remained light. We continued to plod our way northwest, knowing it was the right thing and dutifully following the route laid out for us by our weather routing service. It is a hard thing to watch your progress at only 50% of what it could be if you just pointed the boat at Sydney and went straight for it. The problem however, is all the illusive currents shifting and swirling hidden beneath the surface of the sea. Not to mention that if we were to head straight for Sydney and a north wind begins to blow, we might be making our landfall in Tasmania, and after my ribbing about the existence (or possibly inexistence) of the Tasmanian Devil, I would probably be locked up in a room full of the buggers directly after stepping onto the dock in Tasmania.
We filled the day with the normal boat chores and emails correspondence. We polished off the Tequila Chicken leftovers for dinner and noticed the wind was beginning to pickup. Now, its not that we weren't aware that a "nasty little low" was brewing south of us, because we were well informed with weather reports and even a special weather update from Ken and Beth on "Eagle's Wings", but we have been in heavy weather and were not all that overly concerned. Before dark we reefed down our mainsail to the second reef and reefed in our jib to a smaller working jib dimension, then we settled into the nightly watch routine.
I closed my eyes at 21:00 and awoke at 22:00 to a completely different environment. The seas were boiling and rushing by with the boat at an 18-degree heel on a starboard tack. I could hear things flying in the forward cabin as Starship randomly rearranged herself and our possessions. Just then Pam called down and said we should do something to reduce our speed, and I was on my feet headed to the cockpit.
The boat was raging along and jumping over swells at nearly 9 knots, almost as if she was taunting the Tasman and saying, "come on give me some more, I can take it". Well, we didn't give her the chance. We reefed in her jib to a small storm jib size and Starship was bridled back to a saner 6 knots. Wow, the waves intensified quickly and had grown to at least 4 meters while I was sleeping. The wind had also escalated from a solid 12 - 15 knots to 25 - 30. Pam and I were serenaded by an orchestra of boat noises that were still foreign to us. There is a distinct difference between sailing at 5 knots in pleasant conditions to bashing along in a gale, and while Tournesol had her heavy weather noises, Starship certainly has her own tune. I am determined to get a good audio recording for the website of the sounds produced by sailing in a gale. When the wind reached 37 knots the wind took on an actual scream.
We rearranged a few things on the boat that had redecorated themselves and I settled back down to try and sleep out the rest of Pam's watch. Just as I seeped back into a feverish sleep, a big, and I do mean big wave picked up the boat, tilted her over and threw the printer across the cabin with plastic parts scattering over me. Wow! That was a wave. I would soon learn that Pam had just mustered up the courage to check the radar in the cockpit when the wave struck and she had to wrap herself around the wind dodger poles like a koala bear to hold on.
At this point we reduced sail down to only a double-reefed main and hung on. We were able to maintain a 4 -5 knot boat speed while the sea raged around us. Later in the night came the rain and this was not your ordinary shower. The skies literally dumped buckets of rain down on the boat. It was like riding through the car wash when you were a kid.
The onset of the rain was the beginning of the slow end to the front. Over the next four long hours the wind very gradually began to ease. At the very end the wind clocked around 180 degrees in five minutes and settled at a calm 8 knots. The seas however, would take most of the next day to lay down, leaving us with an ocean that resembled a motocross track for sailboats, with us jumping over, slamming into, and getting covered by waves and spray.
This bad weather was certainly not pleasant and it was a bit scary after eighteen months off the water, but it was not the worst we have seen, and it gave us an opportunity to get to know what Starship was capable off in rough conditions. In the end Starship performed well. The modifications we made to her rigging made it very easy to make sail changes. She kept us much drier with her higher freeboard and center cockpit. Overall, she did a great job and we also did a pretty good job in conditions that many sailors will never see. There is always room for improvement but we made a good team with our new vessel last night.
On Saturday the weather cleared as predicted in our weather reports. The winds eased back to a weak finicky 5 knots. The sea state retuned to slight and we had to return to motoring. It was like the gale had never happened, but it was certainly a good reminder to always keep your guard up because the ocean has a chaotic mind of her own.
There is not much more to report on for Saturday. We motored, used the time to make some water with our newly refurbished water maker. We dried the boat out and cleaned up from the evening's excitement. We both also tried to nap because we were exhausted, but sleep never does come easy after a good does of excitement, adrenaline, and just a dab of fear. Tonight though, I think there will be some sleepy snoring dogs when they get there time off watch in the doghouse!
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