Long time no talk - been hiding

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CharlesM

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Hello all

I have been hiding for the last few months since returning from the Caribbean where I spent 2 months on my newly purchased ferro-cement Hartley Fijian.

Why hiding? Well, to tell the truth the whole experiance was a load more traumatic than I ever expected. I thought we would be sailing the day after we arrived... it took 1 week before the boat was moved, under power 1km to a boatyard. It sat there for a further 10 days or so before we actualy went for our first sail. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Why not move? Well... since we did not have a depth guage I did not have the confidence to move the boat. (It is my first boat after all). There were issues with figuring out the toilet (2 days of bucket and chuckit). A week or two of water restrictions - could not find the filling point. When we did it filled the aft tank, which we then could not get the water out of... until I found the foreward filling area (labeled pumpout!!). Loads of work done on the boat as no electronics etc.

Eventually we decided we could keep working on the boat and not go anywhere until it was time to return to the UK. So we put up with what we had and played for 3 weeks. Thank God we did. I would never get my babe back down there if we had not. Perhaps I would even never have got myself back there had we not.

Those three weeks were fun. We had some lovely anchorages, learnt a great deal about the boat and our abilities.

First up was to learn to sail the boat. I have a Day Skipper ticket - but what is that really worth when all your sailing has been in 2 RYA courses and on a mates boat which effectively runs down the river a few hours and then returns to the marina for the night. Not worth that much really - although certainly better than nothing - I knew the importance of navigation. Babe on the other hand had 1/2 day on said mates boat.

So we contracted a guy living and working on his boat in the boatyard to come out with us and show us the ropes. Then the following 2 days Babe and I did short hops between Marigot Bay and Grande Case. 1 in a very strong wind, and the other in a very light wind.

Eventually, after some more sailing - to Tintemarre, and shuttling around between Grande Case and Marigot we got the confidence to leave the island. Heading anti-clockwise around St Martin we stopped off at Orania Baai for the night, ready for a morning dash to Saba.

2 days later we are off, a lovely sail but at one point I thought we had discovered an uncharted pinacle. The depth went from unreadable (>150m I think - I have a ST 60) to 2 m!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Panic stations - Crash Tack etc... and then suddenly back to unreadable - last depth displayed is 2.3 or something like that. I took a reading thinking I would report it... but noticed in following tacks that occasionally the reading went dodgy... so assumed it is an instrument error - there are no shallows charted in that area, and what type of geology would be needed for a pinacle like that.?

Made it to Saba, and after a hairy anchoring attempt outside the harbour, we checked in and then headed off to pick up one of the buoys they provide (since Saba has virtually no anchoring area being a tip of a volcano). No buoys available, but the one anchoring area is empty - Wells Bay. We spent 3 or 4 idillic days there - First day such strong winds, but the anchor buried itself and we stayed put.

Anyway - to cut a long story short, we went from Saba to Statia to St Kits and Nevis back to St Martin. An unintentional night sail from Saba to Statia due to the slow progress of the boat. Lights on the chart are non-existent. thank god for GPS. Battery overcharge alarm - Engine packed up - started raining - drifting out etc... But we made it. At one stage we were heading for what we thought to be the town with green and red navigation lights at the harbour... erm no... radio says its a tanker heading straight for us... Luckily he turned... I know /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif I know - Now I have learnt something and thank goodness no one was hurt. But how can a tanker look like a small town - it was obviously the lights on the bridge.

Anyway, a 23 hour sail from Nevis to St Martin - Starting with an intentional night sail which was lovely, but since no Autopilot hand stearing all the way and Babe does not like steering so yours truly was up most of the time.

Boat is there now - parked in a hole with the masts down. Will return in January/february for a month of work, followed by 2 months sailing. Hope to take it to South America - dont enjoy those hurricanes that keep going through the area.

Well - not so short and sweet, but I am back.

In Summary - although it was a lot more stressfull and difficult than I ever imagined, I still felt more alive then than now. Am starting to look foreward to going back. Loads to do - including chiping out some rust and repatching the hull for one thing. Not sure a month will do but anyway...

So you may ask - why a medal to mark this post? Well - re-reading it it seems like a real achievement for me, So I am awarding my babe and myself a medal. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

phew

Charles
 
Good on yer mate, real boating!! Glad you got sorted in the end and enjoyedc yourselves! Glad to have you back, but hope you go away again soon, for your own good! Cheers! Mount gay and cokes all round!
 
Well done, that sounds like eactly the right mix of caution and 'go-for-it'.

One of my most alarming boating experiences was being asleep one night off the Mull of Galloway, when the on watch crew called down - 'errr....we are in 3m of water'. I have never been on deck so fast! Of course what had really happened was that the depth sounder had lost the bottom in >100m.
 
so this is the sort of thing we have to look forward to. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
Well done and I hope we do as well next spring. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Mind you, having found the boat, we still have to secure the purchase.
 
Welcome to the world of ferro.I have a 45ft Hereschoff ferro and was very close to buying a Hartley. I bought into a life on the sea this year. First trip over in Mexico this past summer and we also had a scare when we hit 1.3m!! Reversed using engine and went back to a nice depth of 4m!
You are so right about feeling more alive now than before. Since returning to land[I will go back to the boat next Spring to start continious liveaboard] I have felt that I am missing something. Even eating food has no meaning. I feel like an animal in a cage who is gorging on unnecessary things to do! Hard to explain. Nothing beats a meal on a boat, or a dawn on a boat, or waking up on a boat or falling asleep when absolutely bloody knackered on a boat.
Would love to see a picture of your ferro.
Thanks for the story. Very inspiring.
 
Hi All

Thanks for your nice replies.

H00 - You asked about babe. I have asked her to post her findings, but not sure how soon that may be. She did find it very hard. Especially the times whan we were in the boatyard or on the hard - heat & mosquitos...

She also found it very difficult when I told her what to do. Perhaps sometimes a bit to eagerly or forcefully.... she is quite independant and is used to being boss :-)

Most of the time when sailing and at anchor was good for her, except in Statia where the anchorage was too rolly for her and she felt ill most of the time on the boat. (Our time in Statia was mostly chilling on the beach - she felt it was to hot to do any real exploring, and I agree with her there. The heat is quite opressive. (We were rather concerned at how she would manage regarding sea sickness - which we found did not bother her to much. much better than expected)

Fortunately when at anchor there was generaly enough airflow to keep us cool, and mosquito's preferred to stay close to land.

Babe had a delibitating problem with muscles in her neck spasming... we think the neighbours must have thought I was abusing her the way she was crying when she tried to move. This she believes was brought on by steering the tender (gripping the outboard and tensing for the waves) and is what made here dislike stearing the boat - she tends to fixate on the windvane on the top of the mast and steers by that. (a healthy fear of gybing) With a screwy neck she cannot look up...

Anyway, fortunately Drowning who we had an appointmen with for a few brewskies, came over and pressed some spots on her back which put her on the road to recovery.

Another complaint was the limit of choice of food on the island. Vegies were already tired in the store, and did not last long. Will be interesting when we get to remote places (St Martin is by no way remote).

A final complaint was that those islands generaly do not have a culture of their own, but that they are pale imitations of American culture (she feels that SA has the same problem /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif), and she is not particularly fond of America at the moment. (environmental, war mongering etc) (But lets not get into that here) She also did not like the expat culture there (mainly South African expats) either. (fwiw - I am South African)

On the other hand, she also enjoyed the few dives we did, the chilled sailing we had and the anchorages we found.

I guess one of her major points would have been when we were making passage between St Kitts and Nevis. We had been sailing in light airs, but then fell into the shadow of the mountain on Nevis. Eventually we started the engine and motored a while. Babe was driving at this point (no wind vane to bother about), and a bunch of 10 or so dolphins joined us, playing in the bow wave, jumping out of the water (and back in as well of course) and generally checking us out. She had been wishing for something like that all along, and got it. It was quite amazing - we left the stearing to itself, and on low revs both of us went to the bow to watch them. One kept sticking his/her head out of the water about 20 m ahead of the boat, (If it was a human one would say sticking waist height out of the water) as if to look at us, and then sliding back in. They must have been with us for close on 10 min.

She was surprised at my expectations. I think she had more realistic expectations of what to find.

She is prepared to go down for more. That is fortunate. I was planning to go down a month in advance to deal with the repairs, and avoid exposing her to life on the hard again, but she seems to be making signs of joining me for this 'work' month...

Unfortunately she is not into a circumnavigation, but at least she is prepared to do a few months at a time. A compromise I can live with. Who knows, perhaps as her confidence grows, and the boat issues are sorted, maybe one day. I live in hope.
 
Great account!

A couple of assorted observations. Some people call cruising "repairs in paradise". You'll always spend a good deal of time fixing things, even on a new boat.

The ST60 depth always displays the last reading it got when it runs out of signal in deep water. Now and again you'll get a sourious reading from bubbles, fish or layers of cold water and the display will continue to show that reading (typically under 5m). You know it's false because the numbers are flashing!

Forget any navigation aids apart from the French islands, keep an eye on the gps and work at the pilotage.

Next time you go, be sure to spend a couple of days in Anse des Columbiers (St Barts), my favourite anchorage. What did you reckon to St Kitts & Nevis? We thought they didn't merit a long stay but some people think otherwise.

Re. back pains, we used to hang on to a post while helming, to one side and slightly behind the seat. It gave us both aches in the arm and shoulder that took a long time to go away.
 
terrific Charles. SWMBO is from Louisiana and so doesn't tend to get too uptight about mossies, but they luv me to bits.I understand about the expat bit as I lived in Capetown and George off & on for a few years whilst working offshore Mossel Baai. Just got a quote for the boat survey in Ft. Lauderdale......$1440. Although that does include the haulout.
 
Congratulations Charles and Babe on getting started. Keep going and you'll go far. Remember the good times: dolphins at sea, and just being in the boat at anchor. Here are two websites with lots of great info for liveaboard cruisers new and old.
www.SSCA.org
www.LandLPardey.com
 
Hi All

A clarification. Babe pointed out that it is not the fact that it is a pale imitation of American culture, but that it is a shallow culture she dislikes.

Snowleopard
We thought of going to Anse des Columbiers (St Barts) on our return trip from Nevis to St Martin, but by then time was running tight and we decided to go straight to Marigot to prepare the boat for the hurricane season before flying back to UK. We will certainly visit it next time.

I did not like St Kitts and Nevis much. I felt a hostile feeling in some parts of the town. A feeling I had not felt other places (except ambush alley in St Martin) We did have a lovely anchorage in St. Kitts - Ballast Bay. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Spent 2 nights there, and would have liked to spend longer, but time was running out.

On approaching Ballast Bay from the harbour having checked in the night before we had a really good sail, except when a storm was forming in the distance and we kept seeing tornado's forming and then dissapearing... /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif We got the sails down quick sharp and motored in to anchor in Ballast Bay. Storm did not come close, but those tornado tails were scary !! Never seen anything like that. fwiw - the tornado tails did not make it to the surface...

Hi LadyInBed
Everyone has been fairly encouraging in their posts, except for you. I was wondering why you feel it might be a disaster waiting to happen? This is a genuine query. I am realy interested in hearing why you feel that. Is it perhaps the overriding negativity, or impression that it was harder than it was fun?

Later
Charles
 
Your write up:

• the whole experience was a load more traumatic than I ever expected

• since we did not have a depth guage I did not have the confidence to move the boat

• There were issues with figuring out the toilet (2 days of bucket and chuckit).

• A week or two of water restrictions - could not find the filling point. When we did it filled the aft tank, which we then could not get the water out of... until I found the foreward filling area (labeled pumpout!!).

• Loads of work done on the boat as no electronics etc

• First up was to learn to sail the boat. I have a Day Skipper ticket - but what is that really worth when all your sailing has been in 2 RYA courses - I knew the importance of navigation. Babe on the other hand had 1/2 day on said mates boat

• at one point I thought we had discovered an uncharted pinnacle. The depth went from unreadable (>150m I think - I have a ST 60) to 2 m!!!! Panic stations - Crash Tack etc... and then suddenly back to unreadable

• An unintentional night sail from Saba to Statia

• Lights on the chart are non-existent. thank god for GPS.

• Battery overcharge alarm –

• Engine packed up - started raining - drifting out etc...

• At one stage we were heading for what we thought to be the town with green and red navigation lights at the harbour... erm no... radio says its a tanker heading straight for us... Luckily he turned... I know I know - Now I have learnt something and thank goodness no one was hurt. But how can a tanker look like a small town –

• a 23 hour sail - Starting with an intentional night sail

• since no Autopilot hand steering all the way and Babe does not like steering so yours truly was up most of the time

I think you were lucky, all in all nothing you report was too drastic, but given your admitted inexperience, lack of knowledge of the boat and its state of preparedness, it would have not taken much of a minor incident to turn it into a major incident.

• it seems like a real achievement for me, So I am awarding my babe and myself a medal.

Yes it was an achievement, but so was the guy that set out from the UK armed with a school atlas!
I am not really knocking you for doing it, that is what adventure is about.
It was more all the <span style="color:red"> “well done” </span> comments that I question.
I think they should have been more in the vain of <span style="color:blue"> “Bloody Lucky” </span>
 
I dont agree with you atall and I will not go through the reasons I dont agree with you, because it would be a pointless exercise with somebody so qualified.
 
LadyInBed

I don't know if there is anything I can say to you (about this), or if there is any point. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Thanks anyway for explaining your viewpoint.

Only thing I do wish to say is even staying in bed all your life is not that safe. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif - Although I am sure your name is rather tongue in cheek? /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Later
Charles
 
Charles
A really interesting report. I have read much about ferro boats and suspect my next boat will be ferro. I congratulate you on your achievements, and on having the courage to "take the bull by the horns".
Too many folk are content with mundane sailing, and sniping at folk who have the guts to do something different.
Paul
 
Hi LadyInBed

I do not want you to think I attack your comments. in fact babe feels you do have a point. That things could well have gone pear shaped
(why pear shaped? - where does that phrase come from? - Once I heard the explanation that you marry a babe (male or femal so not sexist) of lovely proportions, but as time goes on this babe becomes pear shaped... )
Anyway - back to the point. I guess a compromise might be Bloody Lucky and Well Done.

Hi pvr

Yes, I think ferro has much to offer. I got a 43' boat for under 20k. Sure it needs work, but then it also left enough for a sizable deposite on a flat in SA. Reading about hull repairs - it seems that even a novice like me can fix a dodgy patch fairly easily, wheras I am sure I cannot fix a fiberglass hull without training. I also feel ferro is one of the least heavy maintenance materials.

Later
Charles
 
I really enjoyed reading your post and congratulations on taking the plunge. When compared with crewing, even with the benefit of qualifications and instruction, paddling your own canoe is an unavoidable big leg up. I expect that people forget just how big a step it is. It’s not reckless or foolhardy but a necessary stage if you are to get to know your boat and learn to trust your own decisions and ultimately to turn your dream into reality.

A friend of mine has a theory about sailing your own boat he claims that in your first year you can get anyway with almost anything but after that, if you have not learnt your lessons, then Neptune is likely to kill you!

Life without an echo sounder is definitely turning the clock back too far.

I look forward to further news of the adventure.

Best wishes.
 
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