Waiting Days in Hampton

Roger here. The photos are of the new shiny window frames with some of our jerry cans of diesel fuel and of the newly repaired block, both described below.

Our friends, Bob and Brenda Osborn sail a Saga 43, Pandora, a boat just like ours, except that because Bob is a mechanical wizard and master woodworker, their boat has a lot of new toys such as a heater for those cold Maine days, slanting sides to the companionway ladder (between the cockpit and the cabin) so that the step presents a horizontal surface when the boat is heeling, a larger freezer, AIS radio (so you know the name course and speed of boats near you) and cell phone booster. Bob is an excellent writer and those readers who enjoy my posts will love Bob's, at sailpandora.blogspot.com. His blog has been the inspiration for mine. The Osborns plan to sail south, but next year, after their house is sold and are following our blog. Brenda is a master weaver and their final problem may be to get one of her looms to fit on Pandora. Bob has asked me to describe some of the improvements we have made to ILENE.

Our planned seven month trip is divisible into two parts. The first part is the ten day (or less) dash from Virginia to Tortola, and the second part is the rest of the seven months. Ironically, most of the improvements have been made for the dash, because a boat is subject to many more contingencies out in deep water than in Long Island Sound or along the coast where help is nearer. Bob has asked me to describe some of the improvements we have made and future blogs on rainy days down south will feature ILENE's (1) Single Side Band Radio (for long distances); (2) Six person ocean life raft; (3) Man Overboard Module (MOM8-A), (4) Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB)(when deployed it tells the Coast Guard who we are, where we are and that we need help!), (5) two 80 watt British Petroleum solar panels to increase our electrical supply, which are mounted in what I believe is an unusual way by Erwin Eibert, one of our crew, and (6) a Spectra Ventura water maker.

As you can see, most of this stuff and many of the smaller items are designed for emergencies, to improve safety and survival and to permit communications and power. To the same ends, we have also acquired numerous smaller things: such as a ship’s bell (for fog), a throw bag (to throw a line to another boat or a person in the water), backup navigation lights (so we can be seen by other boats), LED bulbs for the existing primary navigation lights (they use a tiny fraction of the electricity of incandescent bulbs and last longer), a more efficient fresh water pump, a whole lot of spare parts for the engine, blue covers for the front edges of our two head sails, to replace the thin white material to be sacrificed so that the hot Caribbean sun eats these covers and does not degrade the sails, buckets (for bailing), new stainless steel lifelines (think of a fence around the deck) because the old stainless set was coated with white vinyl which could have concealed potential erosion, electronic and paper charts for the whole route plus potential side journeys that could be caused by weather, two new tethers each with two large safety clips at the end of canvas straps, so we can connect one strap before disconnecting another thereby never being unconnected to the boat at night in rough weather, lights and whistles for our life vests, etc.

Two nights ago, Dave prepared our dinner and we talked over it and a bottle of wine. He used the rosemary that had been given to Lene as a floral gift to flavor the potatoes, berry jam to flavor the chicken breasts, and roasted a red pepper on the burner of the stove. So gourmet chef is another of Dave's many talents.

The last few days were rather cold and wet so I did not do much work on the boat but yesterday, though cool, was sunny. Dave did his real day job from the ship’s computer and his cell phone while I put up two of the stainless steel window frames with rubber caulking to seal out the water. The other two will remain screwed in place but without caulk until I can get another tube of such caulk. We bought laundry detergent because we had thought to be almost in Tortola by now and clean things are getting scarce. I also managed to get two races each consisting of 28 3/16 inch tough plastic ball bearings into a fixed block through which the jib sheet can now run properly again after three years of a jury rig (snatch block tied to the post of the broken block). This turned out to be a fun job, using hair gel to hold the ball bearings in place until they were secured by the faces of the reassembled block, after which the hair gel got flushed out with a hose. I also replaced a rusty gas lift that holds up a seat in the forward head with a shiny new replacement and Dave tightened blocks at the bases of the stanchions through which the furling lines run.

We have lost one of our crew to hurricane Tomas; no, Erwin was not lost at sea, thank God, but his business appointments, which he twice postponed, could not be postponed again. But we will meet up with him when he charters a boat in Tortola in early December. Our eagerly awaited departure, now planned for Monday morning, November 8, only one week late, will see ILENE sailed by four men instead of five; I have to prepare a revised watch schedule.