Get Lost On Purpose

Category: Boat Stuff

  • Boat Jobs and Sailing Stories

    It was hot yesterday.  No wind, no clouds.  So I hung out on the boat all day working on odd jobs trying to avoid the sun with hopes of saving my recent layer of new skin.   Some water got left in the hose leading to the head and during the four months Dosia was in storage in Raiatea and some nasty stuff grew in there.  Every time I turn on the sink or the shower in the head, it smells funky, you might say “ripe,” for the first 20 seconds.  I began the job of pulling out the hose to see what can be done and made it about 4 feet before I cranked up the computer and started surfing.  This cartoon explains it all.

    So I was looking up some sailing stories and found some interesting stuff.  In Australia the other day, they found a dog who fell off a sailboat some 4 months ago and, after a 6 mile swim, survived on an island by herself eating goats.

    Then I got onto ghost ships and read about the old time Mary Celeste, which was found abandoned at sea in the 1870’s sailing herself merrily along towards Gilbraltar.  That story led me to the Kaz II.  Stories like these are freaking crazy.  A small catamaran is found drifting off the northern coast of Australia in 2007.   The engine is running, a laptop is sitting out turned on, and the table is set.  There is even a video camera with footage of the crew right up until the time of their disappearance.  No signs of distress or foul play.  Only a sailboat missing its three-man crew floating in the ocean.

    There’s 94 boats on the puddle jump list.  And I know of at least one other coming from Ecuador that’s not on the list.  I talked with Mike from Polynesia Yacht Services the other day and he said his emails dropped from 300 last year to 50 this year so it looks like it may be a slow season.   I don’t know whether that surprises me or not.  You wouldn’t think the economy would have such an effect on cruisers who, most likely, have been planning their departure for years but maybe some had to actually cancel their plans.  Who knows…  I guess we’ll find out soon enough.  Much of the fleet has just arrived in the Marquesas and will slowly make their way towards the Societies.  It sure will be nice to have some english speakers around.

  • Cruising and the Internet

    As I sat here today checking the progress of the Puddle Jumpers on their way across the pond this year, I realized how nuts it is to high speed internet access here on the boat.  When I graduated high school, wifi was barely a blip on the radar.  Now, twelve years later, I’m sitting at anchor in one of the most beautiful places in the world sending text messages to Margie in Georgia and updating my Twitter page.  Many cruisers will argue I’m not really experiencing “the life” if I’m plugged into what’s going on at home but welcome to the future people.  As we get closer to a “viable” satellite broadband solution for smaller yachts I think cruising will shift to a younger, still career-minded crowd.  I put viable in quotes because they do have systems on the market but the data transfer amounts are still small for how much money they want.  How many jobs these days require nothing more than a desk, a computer, and the internet.  Hell, I was up at 3:30 this morning to monitor the opening of the stock market.  With the right technology, those jobs can be done from any where in the world, even the middle of the ocean.  No reason we shouldn’t have graphic designers, active traders, and other web based business people out here then.  That’s why I check blogs like Panbo’s Marine Electronics continuously waiting for the next big announcement.  It shan’t be long till I check the site one day to hear Ben Ellison raving about a $100/month all-you-can-eat satellite broadband provider.  I’d be happy to shell out several thousand on equipment if someone could come up with that.

    Speaking of communications.  I looked over today and realized I haven’t once turned on my SSB radio since I’ve been in the Pacific Ocean.  I spent all that money and time installing it and I only used it a few months in the Caribbean to pick up Chris Parker’s weather net.  I only use the Iridium for email these days.  It’s so easy.  And maybe I’m a little anti-social when it comes to radio nets.  So what.  Doesn’t make me a bad cruiser.  So I made a note and tomorrow I shall be up at 5am to monitor the nets and see how the Puddle Jumpers are doing.  Let’s see if I can get some use out of the thing this year.

    ssb

  • The Romantic Island

    So what do you think of the site? I put it together using free software called WordPress and an $80 theme called Thesis. This is my first attempt at setting up my own website so it’s pretty basic…I know. At least I don’t have to wait on anyone to fix anything. If I want to make a change I do the research and change it. Not a bad deal for $80.

    I’m still moored here at the Yacht Club. I’ve spent a lot of time on the internet wrapping up my stateside life for a while. I bought an unlimited access account from Iaoranet and I get a pretty good connection all the way out here at the second to last mooring. I figure it’s best to get all this done now before Margie gets here and we’re out filming or having fun somewhere. It’s good to have this transition time back into the cruising life as the two couldn’t be on farther extremes of lifestyle spectrum. It’s a bit depressing to be on “the romantic island,” surrounded by honeymooning couples, by myself but I get along ok. There’s always some entertainment to be had at the club. Last night they brought in a band and I had the best night I’ve had since my return. In the words of Anthony Bourdain, “there is nothing finer in this world than a good pub” and the BBYC on a Friday night is about as close as I’ve found to a good pub in this area of French Polynesia. You would think that some French sailor would settle down on one of the islands around here and open up a dive bar on the water. Cans of Hinano for 350 cfp and a 400lb polynesian guy sweating into the fryer out back would be great. Instead, a visit to a bar usually involves drinking a beer next to young Australian newlyweds dining on foie gras or a delicate duck confit. I’ve seen older photos of the inside of this yacht club covered in yacht burgees, t-shirts, and stickers but those days are no more. It’s a bonified restaurant nowadays that also happens to have a bar that’s a great time on Friday nights. Highly recommended to anyone visiting this area.

    Sandwiches are my life right now. I have no cooking gas and no expectations to have any till later this week in Tahiti. See, trying to devise the safest propane install possible, I neglected to learn that horizontally mounted propane tanks come with a new-fangled fill valve that is basically impossible to get filled overseas. So now I have my tank safely mounted on the transom where any possible leak will drift or blow overboard and I have no gas to leak. I’m in contact with some guys in Tahiti that should be able to help me out even if I have to completely replace the valve with some European style. Ham, turkey, and cheese have become my best friends followed closely by the premade Chicken ceasar salads they have in the grocery store (which oddly come with italian dressing) and the occasional cold can of beef stew or even meatballs from Ecuador.

    Tomorrow…maybe…I’ll depart for the Tahiti/Moorea area where I’ll stay for the next few weeks till Margie gets here. That’s right, I’m moving from “the romantic island” to “the island of love.” There’s supposed to be a cool sandbar on the southside of Tahiti a buddy recommends.  Maybe I’ll check that out.  Hehe…

  • Bloody Mary’s to the Bora Bora Yacht Club

    I’m over in Bora Bora now. I’ve been here for 2 nights. I spent the first night over at the moorings in front of Bloody Mary’s Restaurant. It’s considered somewhat of an institution down here. Margie and I hung out there last year when we took the cruise on the Tahitian Princess. Dosia’s motor was being overhauled in Tahiti and it was cheaper to take a cruise than to get a room and stay there. Anyways, I figured I’d visit again and have a few beers. It’s an interesting place with a sand floor, a shoe check at the door, and the bathrooms resemble some sort of water-garden orgy. The only thing I’ve actually eaten at Bloodys was last year when Margie and I put in for an order of wings at $18 and got four, yes four whole chicken wings. Our friends Matt and Alicja ordered the kabobs at the same price and got a good laugh when one little kabob arrived on the plate. They lay out a huge spread of fresh seafood near the door and the patrons are brought up from the tables to order their cuts right off the ice. A lot of guests eat there as part of the package tour, some come from a cruise ship visiting the lagoon, others just show up. Regardless of how they find it, the reviews of the food at Bloody Marys are usually less than stellar so I’ll let those with the “vacation dollars” in hand partake in the eating and I’ll partake in the relatively cheap beer.

    The next morning I moved over to the moorings in front of the Bora Bora Yacht Club and got a bunch of odd jobs done. Every project takes forever cause I’m suffering from CRAFTs disease (Can’t Remember a Flipping Thing). I don’t know what I was thinking when I last reorganized the boat but I must have been intoxicated. I put tools and parts in places I can’t fathom so I spend twenty minutes looking for things just to start a particular job. Last year, the problems that left us sailing 1500 miles without an engine eventually spawned a major overhaul including the purchase of a new bottom end. If you don’t know what that is, visualize a motor as a big cardboard box, cut off the bottom two-thirds of it, and replace it. It was no small job but Harvé and Pascal at Ocean Carenage did quick change out with a used Perkins 4-108 they happened to have laying around. So now I have a Perkins 4-108 bottom-end with a Westerbeke W40 (essentially a Perkins 4-107) top-end. It’s an interesting mix but it seems to work and that’s what matters in this part of the world. Without an engine, the reef passes are scary especially when they are in the lee of a mountainous island like the situation we ran into in Ua Pou. Just ask Margie about the bag she packed to jump overboard with as we “sailed into” that harbor last year. So anyways, I had a little work to do on the engine to calibrate the new parts with my existing gauges and it took most of the first day here.

    Last night I headed over to the Yacht Club to check it out and have a few beers. As far as real estate goes, this place blows Bloody Mary’s out of the water…literally. The thatched roof, the deck that stretches out over the reef, the attached over-water bungalows, it’s the quinessential South Pacific scene. Once again, I wasn’t there to eat but I can tell you the kitchen smells spectacular. The new owner, Teiva is a well-trained chef who worked at some famous restaurant in California. He and his wife Jessica live in one of the attached bungalows with their kid. They are working to turn the bad reputation of the BBYC into a shiny new future and it looks like it’s working. I wish them the best of luck.