Trip to Europe (and back) begins
- Thread starter dLj
- Start date
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,330
And it will be handy to ward off Pirates.
I have sail tape, even better than duct tape. I have duct tape also. The problem is getting to where the hole is. As I have a raised deck house, we have to work on top of the deck house. I've been looking at how we can do this without anyone getting ejected off the boat given the waves. It just seems safer to run like this unless we get a good calm sea state. Then we could pull the sail out, lay it out on the deck house and do the repair. That however will still not get me a full main sail as we have the problem of the clew from earlier. We could get close but I can't pull the full sail out until the clew is fixed. That is a major job requiring pulling the whole sail and disassembly of parts of the boom. I may have to manufacture new parts, not sure yet. We did the best we could on that front back in Las Palmas.Duct Tape the hole on both sides.
Jim...
I have a major rework of my whole main sail system once I'm back to home port.
dj
I've had interesting comments during this trip about my cast iron pan. Some people applauded me having it on board. Some people coming on and seeing it have been surprised but thought it was a great idea. Some have seen it and told me I'm crazy and it shouldn't be on the boat. I might start using it as a "crew filter". Any potential crew that thinks it's a crazy thing to have on the boat is clearly not a good candidate to sail with me... Hahahahhahhahahaha
dj
dj
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,330
The wife and I were cleaning out a fire pit at our previous location. The DPO of that house threw everything into the fire. Brake shoes, impact wrenches and a sofa come to mind. But while we were digging around, we hit a large metal object. After a bit of cleanup, my wife has a 16 inch cast iron skillet that she uses when cooking for larger groups. (not the two of us) Personally, I would have said "Okaaayyy?" to cast iron on the boat because I wonder about the fuel to heat it up but then again cast iron STAYS hot afterwards. So maybe a neutral usage.
(I'm not going to mention this to the wife as the boat's waterline is already deep enough.
)
(I'm not going to mention this to the wife as the boat's waterline is already deep enough.
)
The cast iron fry pan I have on board as mentioned is from the early 1900's. As such, it is much thinner and lighter than the modern cast iron fry pans. It's actually not that heavy. It is really awesome to cook in! I prefer cast iron cook ware for a lot of cooking needs. They do need to be well seasoned, a subject that can cause lengthy discussions on how to achieve....The wife and I were cleaning out a fire pit at our previous location. The DPO of that house threw everything into the fire. Brake shoes, impact wrenches and a sofa come to mind. But while we were digging around, we hit a large metal object. After a bit of cleanup, my wife has a 16 inch cast iron skillet that she uses when cooking for larger groups. (not the two of us) Personally, I would have said "Okaaayyy?" to cast iron on the boat because I wonder about the fuel to heat it up but then again cast iron STAYS hot afterwards. So maybe a neutral usage.
(I'm not going to mention this to the wife as the boat's waterline is already deep enough.
dj
Just a note - the thin walled construction of this fry pan means it heats up quite quickly, but it does stay hot longer - go figure - so I consider it very much a win-win....
At home I also have modern cast iron pans - they are heavy, take time to heat up, all you describe. I did not bring any of those along...
dj
They should be able to see land any minute. That’s only about 4 inches on my screen.
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,330
size matters... that is about 1100nm. Any minute now.
Beam me to the beach Scotty.
Beam me to the beach Scotty.
I'm sitting here and finally registering the.... magnitude?......singularity?....coolness? of what this represents. Two ocean crossings since May, on your own boat. Sure, it's not a mauve-horned chartreuse unicorn, but just...wow!
The intellectual side of sailor me says it's planning, preparedness, and crew, so I understand why it has seemed so normal for all these months, tracking it. But I guess I'm suddenly remembering the physical and emotional components of trips like this. My hat is off to you dj, and to all your crewmembers.
The intellectual side of sailor me says it's planning, preparedness, and crew, so I understand why it has seemed so normal for all these months, tracking it. But I guess I'm suddenly remembering the physical and emotional components of trips like this. My hat is off to you dj, and to all your crewmembers.
1500 UTC position update
13 54.622 N
044 06.868 W
We got the torn main sail patched. It's not beautiful but pretty good for what we had to work with. So we are back to a close to full main sail (90 to 95% full). We still need a wrap on the boom because of the torn clew. Just on the safe side. That's a whole lot better than running at about a 2nd reef position on the main. In the light winds we were sailing in we gain almost 2 knots of speed.... But having balanced sails for running wing-on-wing is really critical....
dj
13 54.622 N
044 06.868 W
We got the torn main sail patched. It's not beautiful but pretty good for what we had to work with. So we are back to a close to full main sail (90 to 95% full). We still need a wrap on the boom because of the torn clew. Just on the safe side. That's a whole lot better than running at about a 2nd reef position on the main. In the light winds we were sailing in we gain almost 2 knots of speed.... But having balanced sails for running wing-on-wing is really critical....
dj
Thank you for the kind words.
You raise a lot of points that perhaps I should talk about. But in later posts.
This post is a heartfelt thank you.
dj
So here's a post I did on Facebook the other day.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“My philosophy is what people say about me is none of my business.”
I am who i am and what i do.
Expect nothing and accept everything.
And it makes life easier. --
We live in a world where funerals are more important than dead, marriage is more important than love and looks are more important than the soul.
We live in a packaging culture that despises content. "
Jodie foster
The above just came through on my Facebook feed - it has pushed me to write about the deep connections that seem so much more prevalent in the world of sailing than in the terrestrial (land based) world.
In meeting folks living on boats often within minutes conversations drop into a much deeper connection rather than the superficial I have often found on land. This has been happening over and over again in this trip
I've been mulling this over for some time now. Is it just where my mind is at these days? Why is this feeling happening with such frequency? I'm not complaining, it's really incredibly gratifying!
It seems the ocean removes the packaging. We are all facing the enormity of the sea. We are all aware of the temporaneous nature of our presence on earth. The sea forces us to see that so much more clearly. So one does not waste time - what little time we are blessed with - better to simply connect at our more intimate selves.
The friendships made in the close quarters of a boat, especially a sailboat, reach depths not often found in our terrestrial lives.
Indeed, here in the ocean, it is clear the soul is far more important than the packaging...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Several sailing friends have commented they have observed the same. I think it's one of the things that really attracts me to sailing.
dj