November 29, 2012

Bradley, Christian, Tom, and Taylor with the Turkey

Although we were anxious to leave Portsmouth to begin our journey south, we were not going to depart until the weather was reasonable. Day after day the forecast for around Cape Hatteras was 30+ knots of winds and seas of 8-10 feet. So we stayed put and planned to have a Thanksgiving dinner on board. We went to Costco and bought the smallest turkey they had – a mere 17 pounds! We figured that was enough for three people. Well, at least we like leftovers! The forecast looked promising for the Friday following Thanksgiving, so we planned an early morning departure.

Astahaya, our sailing buddy

On Wednesday, what should appear in the marina but a beautiful Oyster 56 sailboat! This was the same kind of boat we had previously owned and Bradley went to have a look. He met the owners, Tom and Christian from Norway. They had built the boat, named Astahaya (meaning sunset in Thai) in 2008 and recently sailed it across the Atlantic. Bradley invited them over for Thanksgiving dinner the next day and they were thrilled – they had just spent an hour walking through town looking for a restaurant where they could experience this American tradition. They were delighted to know we would have turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce.

Thanksgiving was great. The food was wonderful and the company perfect. We enjoyed introducing our new friends to our tradition of giving thanks and all shared some of the things we are thankful for. Tom and Christian had spent the summer in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, where we hope to cruise next year, so they gave us much advice and a wonderful set of charts. The best part of the day (for me) was getting to watch the Redskins beat Dallas (American Football). Tom and Christian were planning to head south to Charleston and we agreed it would be a good idea to “buddy sail” at least past Cape Hatteras. That means we would stick together, maintaining visual contact when we could and radio contact on a regular basis. We confirmed our departure for the morning.

Sunset Night 1

Friday morning we checked the weather. It looked OK – winds were diminishing but we knew there could be some rough seas around Hatteras. But it looked like it would get worse again in that are in a couple days, so our best bet was to go. We departed Portsmouth in company with Astahaya. It was a 40 mile trip to reach to ocean with 720 more to go once we were offshore. Although the forecast had initially called for winds from the north, we found them to be from the southwest and soon the forecast was updated. That meant we’d be sailing into the wind, slowing us down a bit and potentially resulting in a more uncomfortable ride. It also meant Astahaya would likely have to motor sail. Nevertheless, we started out in quite pleasant conditions with all systems performing well. Taylor, our new crew member, was now able to do engine room checks on his own and was quickly learning the other systems on board. We talked by radio to Astahaya and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

Bradley sleeps in watch berth in rough seas to be close at hand

As we made our way towards Cape Hatteras, the wind picked up and the waves increased in intensity. Soon we were seeing 30 knot winds and 6-8 foot seas. Nothing dangerous, just not ideal cruising conditions. We were staying less than 15 miles offshore, trying to ensure we did not get into the Gulf Stream. As we passed Cape Hatteras, we were still getting bounced around pretty good and we debated whether we should duck into Cape Lookout for a night to let the seas settle. But the boat was handling it just fine and after about 15 hours, conditions began to improve. We were over the worst of it without any mishaps – no broken dishes or flying objects. We had prepared well! And we had plenty of turkey leftovers, so no need for cooking.

Dolphin Show!

Soon the temperatures started to rise and the seas settled nicely. We were treated to our first dolphin show and it was nice to get out on the bow and enjoy these magnificent creatures, jumping with joy and playing in our bow wake. We had taken a lot of salt spray and had to clean our windows in order to be able to see! As we continued south, the conditions continued to get better. By Day 3 we were out with buckets, cleaning mitts, and chamois giving the boat a nice washdown. Dolphins came to play with increasing frequency! Astahaya had been able to sail once the conditions improved and had pulled away from us and headed on into Charleston.

Taylor gets ready to wash the salt off

It was Sunday so we decided that with all three of us on watch in the Pilothouse, we could turn on some football. Since our favorite teams (Redskins for me and Bradley, Patriots for Taylor) had played on Thursday, we watched DirecTV’s NFL RedZone – a great way to watch football as it switches between games and shows whatever team is about to score! We also put the fishing lines out, hoping for a nice tuna or mahi-mahi. As I went down for a routine engine room check, I stopped to check the fishing lines. Nothing yet. I completed my engine room check and a few minutes later went down to the galley to get a drink – that’s when I noticed that the line on one reel was completely gone! Not just pulled out a ways but GONE! Nothing was left on the reel and some poor fish is now out there with hundreds of feet of line and an expensive lure in his mouth. Another lesson learned – we cannot adequately hear the line being taken when we are in the pilot house – from now on we will only fish if we are in the flybridge or have someone in the salon where they can hear the line being taken.

As we continued south the water got bluer and the dolphin visits more frequent. On days 3 and 4 we ran the engines at Wide Open Throttle for 15 minutes, a standard practice which allows us to look for potential problems and run the engines at full load as recommended by the experts. During the trip we had a few minor technical issues – details as usual below the photos. After 104 hours we arrived in North Palm Beach where we will stay for a couple weeks, doing a little land travel and making preparations for winter in the Bahamas! There are two videos from the passage – the Short Version (3 minutes) and the Long Version (10 mintues)

WordPress – thanks to everyone who posted comments last time. A lot of them were posted, but I have no way of knowing if ALL of them got through. I also was not able to REPLY to most of your comments and WordPress is working on solving this (I replied to most of them, but the replies never showed up). I would like to ask your help one more time. Please reply to this email by hitting the REPLY button on this email, type a comment, and add a cc to “info@shearmadness72.com” That way I will get a copy of your comment via email. Everyone who does this correctly will be entered into a drawing to receive a Shear Madness shirt – we’ll be giving away one Polo shirt and one T-shirt.

Loaner valve cover

Engine Valve covers – you may recall the cracked valve cover from the last post. We were able to get a “loaner” valve cover for the trip – functional but not the pretty chrome version. We have come to an agreement with the manufacturer and service provider to replace the cover that was damaged and the chrome version is on order.

Watermakers – during this trip we made water and it had been quite some time since the Watermakers had been used. When not in use, we flush them weekly with fresh water to ensure that water doesn’t sit in the system for too long. When Bradley began the process of making water, he was not getting any water pressure in the media filter, the first filter in the process. We checked to ensure the power was on and the valve from the sea chest was open to enable water to flow to the unit. We weren’t sure if the problem was that water was not getting to the pump or if the pump was not working and was not sending water to the filter. Bradley was able to disconnect the input hose from the pump to determine that water was not coming through. That allowed us to trace the problem to a stuck valve at the sea chest. A little moderate tap unstuck the valve and we were soon making plenty of nice fresh water.

Autopilot – we are continuing to diagnose problems with autopilot in NAV mode. We had changed some of the NMEA data being sent from Navnet to the AP and had no re-occurrence of the problem during the trip. We’ll be doing some fine tuning and hopefully another sea trial before departing for the Bahamas and I will report more details after that.

SSB – we were testing our SSB radio with another Nordhavn (with mixed results) but noticed that when we had the sonar displayed on our port-most monitor in the Pilot House, broadcasting on the SSB caused that display to cut out and return to the Closed Circuit TV display.

Stern light – we noticed that our stern light was not working and discovered the bulb had burned out. It was replaced while underway with no incident. However, we discovered it while in rough seas where it would have been unsafe to change, so we ran with our deck lights illuminated, keeping an eye on traffic so that we could radio to alert any boat approaching from our stern that the light was out. No boats did until we were able to change the bulb.

Hydraulic Alternators – we ran the hydraulic alternators most of the way and they did a good job of keeping the batteries charged. We do occasionally experience some anomalies with the alternators – sometimes they seem to “pulse”, causing the engine RPM’s to fluctuate and the alternator itself to shake. Usually, re-starting it solves the problem. We’re not quite sure what the cause of this is.

November 20, 2012

Gary, Cookie, and Ruth

We planned to make a brief stop in Portsmouth but are still here, watching every day as gale warnings are posted for the Cape Hatteras area. The wind down there has been steadily in the 30 knot range with seas of 8-12 feet, so we will stay put until it looks a little more comfortable! The Portsmouth/Norfolk area is a fun place to be stuck. We had a chance to visit some great friends who moved here several years ago, Gary and Cookie and their brand new addition, little Ruth. I rented a car and did a quick trip up to DC, where I met up with several good friends, attended a breakfast event for the Northern Virginia Tech Council, and scheduled routine doctor and dentist appointments. I also got to visit another baby, this time my friend Christeen and little Sophie. In the meantime, Bradley and Taylor stayed on the boat doing some projects and having some service done on our main engines

Bradley and Taylor on the battleship USS Wisconsin

We’ve had a chance to do some exploring in the area. We attended the Norfolk Illumination Parade – this takes place after dark on the night they light up all the office buildings with holiday lights. It was a fun event and marked our second parade in two weeks! We also went to Nauticus, the Naval Museum in Norfolk where we enjoyed the exhibits and some short movies and went aboard the battleship USS Wisconsin. We also have plans to see the new movie Lincoln at a local dinner theater – an old style theater in Portsmouth that serves dinner while you watch a movie.

We are planning to depart to head south to Florida as soon as the weather allows. We have fueled up, taking on 2700 gallons of diesel. But we’ve had a solid week of gray skies and strong winds here in the marina and can’t wait to get back out where we belong! For those interested in technical details, scroll down below photos – there is a technical problem that YOU ALL can help me with!

Technical Details

WordPress – this is the site I use to host our blog and they have recently added the ability for you to REPLY to updates you receive via email and have a comment posted to the blog and emailed to me. This was working very well for the posts during Sandy and I heard from dozens of people. However, with my last post on Nov 13, it seems this function quit working. I received only two replies and when I tested it from my own email, the replies never showed up. WordPress tech support has not been able to determine what went wrong but is standing by for this post, so if are getting this update via email, please HIT REPLY, type in something (like “this is the best blog in the world and you are such a great writer”) and hit SEND. Hopefully this will help us track down the cause of the problem. Also, I’m sorry to say that if you replied to my last blog post, I most likely did not see your response.

Engines – the primary reason for stopping in Portsmouth was to have some routine work done on our main engines by the local diesel specialists. The work went smoothly, mostly replacing gaskets and seals and checking for leaks and potential problems. In order to access the engines, the valve covers had to be removed. When the starboard cover was put back on, some cracks appeared around the bolts that hold it in place. Unfortunately, this can be a big problem as it can allow oil to leak. There were definitely not cracks there when the work started. But in a classic case of customer service finger-pointing, the service guys say it is a product defect and not due to anything they did (even though the mechanic did not use a torque wrench or follow the exact instructions for replacing the cover). For now, we have removed the cover and replaced it with a loaner. I’m sure this situation will be resolved satisfactorily, but it will take cooperation between the service group and the manufacturer.

Chrome Valve Cover

Corner cracked during re-install

iPhone – this isn’t exactly a boat problem, but the speaker on my iPhone quit working. I took it to the new Apple store in Norfolk and they replaced the speaker in the store, so I was in and out in 30 minutes. Yea!

Sat phone/weather – We are starting to plan for our trip to the Bahamas for the winter, so I have been researching weather services that are effective using a satellite phone with limited bandwidth. I have tested several services but think I like Buoyweather. It allows me to create favorite locations anywhere and to have forecasts emailed on a preset time schedule. The emailed forecasts are text based and very small and can be requested in a variety of formats. I’m using it on a trial basis for now using our regular internet service since we do not currently have a satellite SIM card – we will get one when we get to Florida before we head out of the country.

Gulf stream – one consideration in planning a trip up or down the east coast of the US is the location of the Gulf Stream which runs from Florida all the way to Newfoundland. The Gulf Stream moves more water in one day than all the rivers in the world combined, so it is a force to be respected. It creates strong currents which help you if you are heading north or hinder you if you are going south. Knowing the location of the Gulf Stream is important in planning a trip. Many of the NOAA forecasts for Florida tell you the specific location of the Stream for various points along the Florida Coast, but there is no similar information available for the Carolina coasts. We are especially interested in the Cape Hatteras area as we need to stay inside the western edge of the Gulf Stream but far enough offshore to be safe (the Stream is not fixed, its location changes as it meanders). The easiest way to determine the location is by looking at the water temperature – water in the Stream is significantly warmer than water outside. When you are in or near the Stream, you can even see the difference. We have learned that the Stream is typically 25-40 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, so we will plan to stay between the shore and the western edge of the Stream. We’ll keep a close eye on boat speed and water temperature while staying as close to the coast as we think safe given the conditions and we are looking at the SST (Sea Surface Temperatures) on our daily weather forecasts.

November 12, 2012

Bradley and Jeff – couldn’t they be brothers?

Sandy is gone and so is the Nor’easter that followed her. So things on Shear Madness are back to normal – that is, as normal as they ever seem to get! Just before Sandy, we had a visit from one of Bradley’s old friends, Jeff, and his daughter Anna. Jeff was one of Bradley’s first bosses – when they used to lifeguard and manage pools in high school in Reston, VA. They had not seen each other in years and it was a wonderful visit. They could even pass for brothers!

We bid farewell to our friends Aaron and Liz, a young newlywed couple we met who are living aboard their sailboat Bateau. They are headed south to Miami but were delayed by Sandy. We hope to catch up with them in Florida. We also had a visit from Chris, a member of the Nordhavn Dreamers group who lives nearby and drove over to meet us. Hopefully in a few years Chris will have a Nordhavn of his own.

Welcome aboard Taylor!

We have welcomed aboard a new crew member, Taylor Hall, who joins us from Camden, Maine where he has worked as an assistant harbormaster and bartender. Taylor is 21 years old, a graduate of the Chapman School of Seamanship, and soon to be the holder of a US Coast Guard 50-ton Master (Captain) license. Taylor is already learning the various systems on board and helping with the care and maintenance of the boat. Taylor is with us for the month of November and assuming he is still enjoying himself will be joining us as a full-time member of the Shear Madness Team.

It is an OYSTER festival! (from the parade)

We had a great time attending the Urbanna (VA) Oyster Festival, a local event in a small town that attracts over 75,000 people! There are dozens of food vendors including all kinds of seafood (we had crabcakes, seafood chowder and oyster stew), other foods (we had turkey legs and Taylor just had to get a Deep Fried Twinkie to share – it was amazingly good!), arts and crafts, and a wonderful parade. We met our friends Patti and Gary there and had a really fun day. Before departing we also caught up with Mike and Maxine from Mathews for a nice dinner out and tour of Mathews. We have met them on our previous visit to Deltaville. We also met Bill and Mary who joined us for drinks onboard and Geoff and Kathy from Shenandoah, a Hatteras motor yacht. We also had drinks with Nick and Karen, who are aboard a classic 1936 sailboat – a real beauty!

Jim F working on the anchor roller

We have completed all the projects we were working on at the Deltaville Boatyard, including work on the anchors, anchor chain, and anchor lockers, replacing engine exhaust fans, replacing various hoses and fittings for our air conditioning system, re-wiring some components of our autopilot system, fixing a leak in a guest cabin, fixing the refrigerator in the flybridge (which had to be removed from the boat to service), servicing both generators, changing the engine oil, and some others. More details are included in the technical section below the photos.

We departed Deltaville and headed out to anchor in the Poquoson River. Gary and Patti came down the Piankatank River in their Grady White to see us off. We anchored just outside the house of our friends Bob and Becky who came out in their Boston Whaler for a boat tour and drinks. After a peaceful night we raised the anchor and headed on to Portsmouth, VA where we will have some routine service done on our main engines before heading south to North Carolina and Florida. We saw three aircraft carriers at dock, including the Enterprise as well as our old friend Warship 55 (we had encountered them on the water back in 2011).

You can watch a 14-minute video of our preparations for Sandy and our time at anchor during the storm. Check out updated book reviews and recommendations and new Shenandoah photos. Click on any photo to enlarge and don’t forget to leave a comment (which you can now do by replying to the email update you get).

We’ve been working on various projects at Deltaville (VA) Boatyard.

Autopilot – in the October 11^th post, I reported some problems with the Autopilot Follow Up steering units (FU25’s). We had diagnosed the problem to be a failure of the FU25 located in the Flybridge and had disconnected it from the system, resulting in no further problems. However, it had turned up a flaw in that all the wiring to connect the FU’s was located in a cabinet beneath the pilot house bridge and was accessible only after removing the wheel. So we have now re-wired the five FU’s to two switches located on the dashboard. This allows three FU’s to be disconnected with the push of one button, or two to be disconnected with the other. We’ve ordered two new FU25’s, one to replace the bad unit in the Flybridge and one to keep as a spare.

However, we are still battling the issue with the AP having intermittent problems when steering to a route in NAV mode. We’ve done several sea trials to test various theories, but have no resolution yet. On our trip to Portsmouth, we worked with Brian, our electronics specialist, to reconfigure some of the data being sent to the AP by Navnet. The following sea trial did not result in any more failures but was too short to be conclusive as much of our trip was in a high traffic area where we could not be in NAV mode. More testing to be done on our next trip.

Leak in Guest Cabin – we’ve had an annoying leak in the port guest cabin since we bought the boat and the heavy rains of Sandy made us glad nobody was sleeping in that bunk! Bradley worked with Jim F from Deltaville Boatyard and they were able to find the source of the leak – an errant screw which had been poorly placed during the build process in the port side dorade. The offending screw was finally removed and the hole sealed, hopefully stopping this leak once and for all! This was the second repair to the port dorade, as the first one involved re-drilling the drain hole that had not been correctly drilled during the build and simply went into the deck and not the dorade. We thought we had found the reason for the leak that time too!

Anchors and anchor lockers – we installed a new Ultra Quickline Swivel on our starboard anchor to replace our old worn swivel. Yes, I know there are those who favor no swivels and won’t embark on that discussion here! We installed one and also end-for-ended our starboard chain. We then installed 200 feet of ¾ braided line to the end of the chain, giving us plenty of extra cushion for deep water anchorages. We also did some work in both anchor lockers, which had some small drainage issues, resulting in water getting into the forward bow machinery space. The drains were improved and the port anchor locker hatch had to be re-seated. During the build, the hole cut out had been so large that they had attempted to fill over 1″ with caulk. This resulted in a very leaky anchor locker with water getting into the bow space below. This was a flaw since the boat was built and in both cases nobody previously had the tenacity or resources required to find and fix the leaks.

Generators – both generators were serviced. This was the 2500 hour standard maintenance but did turn up some parts that needed to be replaced; most notably an exhaust elbow and the heat exchanger on our 20kw generator. In addition we discovered some lightning damage to one of the electrical boards that controls the generator.

Air Conditioning – another Nordhavn owner, as result of finding saltwater in his lazarette had been kind enough to post a warning on the owners site that all A/C hoses and fittings be inspected. In his raw water intake for the A/C he found non-marine grade plumbing connectors below the water line, which in less than 5 years had failed. Had he not been on the boat, this could have been a serious issue. Upon inspecting our system, we found the same below standard fittings had been used in the build. In addition we found the raw water hoses were of such poor quality, they were beginning to fail. We replaced all the raw water hoses (almost 50 feet) for the A/C system – not an easy job as they run through some very tight spaces.

Exhaust Fans were damaged by the lightning and we had to have them rebuilt instead of replaced. Why rebuilt? Because the model we have has been replaced by one where the frame was increased by less than an inch and would not into the space. So we had to buy all the parts and assemble them into our existing housing that fits the space. This was the most cost effective approach.

Refrigerator in Flybridge – we have a small U-line refrigerator/ice maker in the Flybridge which quit cooling. Fortunately Jim R at Deltaville Boatyard is well versed in refrigeration, but needed to have the unit taken to his workshop for diagnostics. This of course involves dis-assembling the cabinet it resides in, attaching it to a harness, and removing it using the crane and several people! Turns out it was a $27 part – a thermal control switch, that was most likely damaged by the lightning. Soon repaired, back on board, and back in operation.

We also has some screens designed for our two pilot house doors and the starboard side mid-ships door. Often we have been at anchorages where we want to open the doors for ventilation, but flies or mosquitoes make that undesirable. We worked with the Ship’s Tailor in Deltaville to design screens which fasten with Velcro and will enjoy our first chance to use them!