Durban: decked; THE BOYS IN THE BOAT

        This morning I walked the short distance along the harbor front to the Maritime Museum to view the boat in which a South African claims to have made an open boat circumnavigation.  I had seen it when I was here in THE HAWKE OF TUONELA in 2008 and wanted to verify my memory.

        As the photos clearly show this boat is decked.  Decked from the bow to aft of the mast.  Decked from the bow along both sides to the stern.  Decked essentially as much as is GANNET or J-24s or every other small flush decked boat.  There are Moore 24s with cut out sterns that look very much like this boat.
        If I were to seal off GANNET's companionway and live and sail her from the cockpit, she would still not be an open boat.  She has a deck.  CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE did not.  Neither does Steve Earley's SPARTINA, a Welsford Pathfinder.  They are open boats.  Not having a deck is what makes a boat open.

        The South African sailor did complete an interesting small boat circumnavigation.  He did not do it in an open boat.

        Here is a photo of an open boat.

       When I wrote this I was not aware of the remarkable circumnavigation made in 2013-2015 by Evan Bourgnon in an open catamaran, of which I have written more here.

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        I just finished reading an entertaining, compelling, inspiring book, THE BOYS IN THE BOAT by Daniel James Brown.

        To say that it is about the University of Washington  8 man rowing crew who won the gold medal at the 1936 Olympics and were considered then the best crew of all time is true, but a gross over-simplification.  The book is about the technique, the sacrifice and the spirituality of rowing.  It is about the art and craft of building boats of wood.  It is about the pursuit of perfection.  It is about overcoming hardship and poverty, the West Coast against the Eastern Establishment, the Great Depression, Nazi propaganda, which eighty years ago offered ‘alternative facts’.

        Joe Rantz, the crew member followed most closely in the book, had a childhood from Hell with a truly evil stepmother and a father too weak to prevent her from doing what would have seemed to be irreparable harm.  Overcoming adversity can make you strong, but Joe had to overcome more than any child should and he seems to have risen above it.

        Although the outcome is known, Daniel James Brown manages to convey the tension and uncertainty the crew and coach felt through the years leading up to the Olympics and even through the final race itself

        I cannot recommend THE BOYS IN THE BOAT too highly and thank Jay for bringing it to my attention.

Durban: the floating grocery store and an open ended plan

        ‘The floating grocery store’ is how Carol accurately characterizes GANNET these days.

        On Saturday, I carried six sacks to the little sloop in two stages—they were too heavy to carry all at once—representing breakfasts for more than seventy days.

        Yesterday morning was calm as predicted and I was on deck at 5:30 a.m.  I raised and lowered the mainsail several times and got the reefing lines, both leach and tack, sorted out.  I also unfurled and furled the jib whose furling gear now seems to be functioning normally with no halyard wraps.

        That accomplished, I had breakfast and then powered through the items of my GANNET to-do list.  There are only two remaining:  seek leaks I don’t expect to find and glue two small carbon fiber right angle pieces to the cockpit edge to prevent the jib sheet from wearing a groove while using sheet to tiller steering.  I started to do this, but am concerned that they may create more problems than they solve.  I’ll position and consider them again.

        I even wired the new LED bow running lights and was pleasantly surprised last night when I flipped the switch and they came on.  They are merely a legal formality, necessary only when under power after dark, which GANNET never is.  Under sail the masthead tricolor is lit.

        This morning was lovely, sunny with a slight cooling breeze.  I breakfasted listening to Alan Hovhaness’s  AND GOD CREATED GREAT WHALES, then went shopping three times.

        That list, too, is essentially depleted, with the only remaining items being open ended optionals:  bottles of water, cans of tonic, soda water, juice, beer, ice tea, and snacks and cookies. some of which I already have on board.

        This afternoon I organized all this, though not completely.  I will still be sleeping in the v-berth tonight and probably for a few more nights to come.

        My goal was to be ready to sail by February 1 and I could be, but the weather forecast does not offer even three successive days favorable for sailing west this week, and I would like four, so I don’t expect to depart before a week from today at the earliest.

        In 2014 I left San Diego intending to reach New Zealand, which I did.

        A torn left shoulder rotator cuff kept me in New Zealand in 2015.  Hardly a hardship for I am happy there.

        Last year I did exactly what I planned to do and sailed from Opua to Durban, via Australia.

        However, in 2017 my intentions are definite, time and chance permitting, only as far as the Caribbean.

        Once there, presumably at St. Lucia, I will decide whether to sail west for Panama or north to Florida and the southeastern United States for the summer.  At this moment I have no idea which I will do.

        Some approximate distances in nautical miles:

Durban to Port Elizabeth   400

Port Elizabeth to St. Helena   2100

St. Helena to St. Lucia    3800

St. Lucia to Panama    1100

Panama to San Diego   3100

St. Lucia to Key West   1400

Durban to St. Lucia    6300

Durban to Key West   7700

Durban to San Diego    10500

Durban: lunched; untreacherous

        I was up at 5:30 this morning, wanting to work on the sails:  lower the jib and retie the halyard, raise the main and run a leech line to the new fourth reef and attach a reef tack line to the new mast cleats.  However, the wind was already  blowing twelve knots from the stern, not the strength or direction I wanted.  If the forecast is right Sunday morning will be calm.

        Instead I made two shopping forays, and GANNET, already dinnered with months of mostly New Zealand freeze dry meals, now has 84 lunches on board:  12 cans Mackerel; 19 cans chicken; 18 cans tuna; 8 cans salmon; 12 packages of Laughing Cow cheese, each of which makes two lunches; 3 mystery cans bought last June in Australia from which the labels have fallen off; and 14 packages of crackers.
        Tomorrow breakfast, which entails carrying 60+ small boxes of juice to the boat, as well as oatmeal, powdered milk, instant coffee, and dried nuts and fruit.

        That will still leave paper:  toilet, towels, tissues.  Snacks.  Chocolate.  Toothpaste.  Boxed wine.  Cans of beer.  Spirits.  And probably some other things I am forgetting at the moment.

        GANNET’s interior is getting crowded.

        Even if you keep it simple, provisioning for two months is a hassle.

        I’m still sleeping in the bow,  but I don’t know for how much longer.

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        I started running Craig’s LuckGrib app today.  I enjoy watching the coming week’s forecast play out repeatedly.

        This is a serious coast, with strong currents and few harbors.  However, it is not ‘treacherous’ as today’s NASA Earth Observatory page claims.  How many times do I have to tell people?  And these are allegedly scientists.  Seas can’t be treacherous.  They have made no agreement with us that they can betray.  They also can’t be cruel.  Or merciless.  They don't even exist.  There is just a lot of water out there that we have divided up and given names.  Water is insentient, as is the universe, and therefore not just indifferent but totally oblivious to us.

        Beyond that, the case is overstated.  The Agulhas Current weakens and dissipates as it flows west.  

        On my three previous roundings of Capes Agulhas and Good Hope, I have not experienced a great collision of the seas.

        A serious coast, meaning the sailor has to be serious, not the coast, yes, but not treacherous.

        There is also no Mother Nature, but that’s enough for today.

Durban: the past; Bach and the universe; whisky and chocolate

        Evening of a cloudy and windy day.  Night has fallen, and from Central I look out at a black sky and the lights of high rise buildings ashore.  

        I Ubered to a shopping center today to buy a sleeping bag.  I also found a liquor store there that stocks Laphroaig and bought three bottles.  The essential stores are now on board.  

        Provisioning for a long passage is among my two least favorite aspects of sailing oceans.  The other is dealing with officials upon arrival.  I have seldom had problems—being imprisoned in Saudi Arabia a noteworthy exception— but when you arrive you are tired and you are dealing with bureaucracy that you know is meaningless.

        Provisioning for me is as probably as simple as is humanly possible.  I already have on board evening meals for five or six months.  My breakfast is uncooked oatmeal with trail mix and powered milk and water.  So that only leaves lunch, though trail mix is not easy to find in Durban and I will have to  concoct my own. 

        Tonight I dined on canned mackerel with crackers, testing it as a possible lunch.  It passed.  I’ll buy more.

        I’m at the end of a long dock.  A quarter mile from shore.  The marina offered me a place closer, but I like it out here.   Still it is a long way to carry stuff and I can only provision in stages.

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        From Bob comes this photo of CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE  as she and I left San Diego at the beginning of our voyage. 
        Perhaps you can forgive me for stating that when I look at the photo I am decades later impressed by my audacity.  That little boat against the oceans--and I knew them--the truest leap into the unknown. 
        Within walking distance of where I am sitting is the boat that has been claimed to have made an open boat circumnavigation.  I have seen her before.  She is decked as far aft as GANNET.  I may walk down and take a photo.

        I thank Bob for permission to post his photo.

———-

        From Chris comes this quote from Douglas Adams:  Beethoven tells you what it's like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells you what it's like to be human. Bach tells you what it's like to be the universe.

        Douglas Adams wrote, among other things, THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, and if you google his quotes, you will find many that rival Mark Twain.

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        Last week I found Laphroaig in a gift set with two small tasting glasses inscribed:  “A Storm In A Teacup?  A Volcano In A Bottle.”  Purists don’t need merchandising. 

        Prior to that, unable to obtain Laphroaig, I  bought a bottle of Glenfiddich.  I would not desecrate Laphroaig by doing this, but take a bite of dark chocolate and then a sip of Glenfiddich or perhaps any other whisky.

        You can thank me later.

Durban: the 2017 model GANNET

        The 2017 model GANNET sports new mainsail and tiller covers and a hoodie.

        She also has replacement Windex and Raymarine masthead units.  Two cleats on the mast unseen beneath the mainsail cover for a reef tack line, brackets to secure the Tides Marine luff track, a fourth reef in the mainsail, and a clearer foredeck following the demise of two more Aurinco solar panels.
        Joost from the Netherlands was the inspiration for the simple hood.  I thank him.

       

        Unintentionally she has the latest in two-tone decks.  The paint is International’s InterDeck white.  Yesterday I used the end of an old can bought in New Zealand and a new can bought here.  Not until today when I went to touch-up near the bow where I started with the old can did I realize that all whites are not created equal, or perhaps it is a matter of age.

        I bent the sails on this morning, which turned out to be more of an ordeal than expected.

        In no wind, I got the jib up, but then couldn’t furl it.  The head swivel turned with the foil causing the halyard to wrap.  I felt and then saw what was happening in time, reversed the foil by hand, lowered the sail, changed to the other jib halyard, raised it again, more difficult now with wind from astern.  Tried to furl.  Halyard wrapped.  Down again.  I had already applied the approved grease to the swivel.  I added copious WD40.  Up again in more wind and the jib reluctantly furled.

        Clothes as wet with sweat as if I just swum across the harbor, I retired to the Great Cabin and consumed a liter/quart of water.

        Recovered, but still perplexed, I got the main on without difficulty.

        Walking back from my shower this afternoon I noticed that the end of the halyard I tied to the head swivel with a bowline is pointing toward the foil and might have caught against it preventing the swivel from turning independently.  The next calm morning, I’ll lower the sail and retie the knot and see what happens.

        Most of the boat work is done.

        With the sails and sprit above deck, the cabin is delightfully uncluttered, if only briefly.

        On to provisioning.

Durban: transformed

        A sunny, hot day.

        I made an early start, drank only one cup of coffee and finished painting GANNET’s deck by 9:30.  I did not take before and after photos, but the little boat is transformed since my arrival.  

        I am moving through another transition:  from boat work, though some is still to be done, to provisioning. 

        Today, after painting, I Ubered to the chandlery and then a shopping center.   When I leave there I take a taxi because they are right outside.  

        I asked my driver how long he had been waiting for a fare.  He said since 7:00 a.m.  He picked me up at 1:45 p.m.   The fare from the shopping center to the marina is about $5.00 US and I don’t know that he received it all.  He might not have owned the taxi, and if he did he had to pay for fuel and maintenance.  

         Sitting for half a day to make maybe five dollars.
         He praised me to his God when I gave him a dollar tip.

       

Durban: dead things

        A warm, sunny day, but with a cooling breeze, occasionally touching twenty knots.

        I painted the cockpit this morning before the wind came up and made preparations to paint the deck tomorrow.

        I also chased gremlins in the solar charging system.  Yesterday I discovered that another Aurinco panel has failed.  Today I discovered that yet still another Aurinco panel has failed.  These were the long narrow ones on the foredeck.  Perfection is difficult to achieve, but Aurinco has done it.  Of the six Aurinco panels on GANNET’s deck when I left San Diego three years ago, all six have failed.  

        This is no longer a problem.  Two 25 watt replacement Aurinco panels are working and with the two 50 watt Solbian panels, GANNET still has 150 watts of solar charging.  I even have a third Aurinco as a spare stowed below.  I checked and it is still functioning.

        The timing is actually good.  I removed the offending panels prior to painting the deck tomorrow.

        My iPhone 6 arrived in Durban DOA.  I had it in my carry-on messenger bag and it was working when I left Evanston.  It is still under AppleCare, but you don’t just schedule an appointment at the Genius Bar in South Africa.  I still have my iPhone 7 plus and three other chartplotting devices on board.

        Last evening I attempted to turn on the two Megabooms speakers to listen to music and found one of them to be dead.  No response.  No charging.  Odd because it worked the night before and was just sitting in its usual place in the Great Cabin in between.

        I may be able to buy a replacement online here.  I’ll know tomorrow.  One Megaboom or Boom 2 is fine, but two in stereo are excellent.

        I’m about to settle for music on one.

Durban: I love

I love:

Carol

Entering the monastery of the sea

A boat in the groove

Silence

Words, when they come together gracefully

Being as far from any other of our species 

Refections on water

Laphroaig 10 year

Making voyages no one else ever has or has even imagined

Having gone the distance

First light during a storm at sea

Owing no one anything except the truth

Standing in the companionway of GANNET listening to music, sipping a drink at sunset

Bach

Passion

The athletic grace of the young

That some of you understand

Durban: glad

        We slid back into GANNET’s natural element at 7:45 this morning and were in our slip a few minutes later.

        First I stowed everything, even tools I knew I would soon be using.  I wanted—no, I needed—to clear up the clutter, and I did.

        Then I removed one of the two floorboards so I could clean up the debris that had fallen into the bilge.  I can reach down there between the floorboards, but for a major cleaning need to remove a board.

       While I was wiping with a paper towel a crew member made the mistake of venturing aft into the bilge from a space below the v-berth.  He quickly realized his mistake, but not before I got him with kill on contact spray, which worked as advertised.

        Bilge acceptably, though not perfectly, clean, I went on deck and chipped loose paint from the deck and cockpit.  Borrowing a neighbor’s hose, I washed and scrubbed the deck of dirt and debris accumulated in my three month absence.
        When I stopped for lunch, for the first time since my return a week ago yesterday, GANNET was in order.

         There is more to do, but I just wanted to enjoy having the little boat being right for a while, and then light rain came.

        Now at 5:15 I’m sitting at Central, a plastic of tequila and tonic at hand, Leonard Cohen singing “Suzanne” on the Megabooms—a name that has some resonance for me, rain falling, the companionway open, the spray hood up.  I have still to connect two lines from grommets to eye pads to straighten out the trailing edges, but the broken toggles have been replaced and the installation is essentially complete.  We’ll see if it works at sea.  I live in hope.

        As I began to provision for the more than 6,000 miles from Durban to St. Lucia, GANNET will again become cluttered.  For tonight she isn’t.  I’m glad.

Durban: even cheaper

        Almost 6 p.m. and GANNET’s Great Cabin is cooling slightly.  The temperature is down to 86F/30C, from a high two hours ago of 96F/35.5C.  The highest outside temperature today was only in the mid-80s, but little breeze found its way to the below deck oven.  I have a battery operated fan pointed at me.

        The little boat is ready to go back into the water tomorrow.  I hope early.  A second coat of antifouling, the topsides touched up, the rub rail painted, stains waxed and polished out.  Her hull will pass the view-at-a-boat-length-test.  Her deck will not, but I can take care of that in the water.

        I also have a third bump on my head.  Another reason to want to be in the water.  Though I bump my head there, too, usually not so hard.

        The total cost of this haul-out comes to $305 US.  $130 for anti-fouling paint, rollers, brushes, etc.  $15 for the pressure wash.  $160 for hauling out and being in the yard two days.

        I remember thinking that my haul-out last year in Opua was inexpensive and checked the journal entry.  The cost then was $400.

        While I did not wax and polish her entire hull, GANNET has again been restored to the respectable beauty she deserves.  Aesthetics count.

        I am drinking an air temperature gin and tonic. 

        Earlier at the adjacent Point Yacht Club I had an ice tea and, at different times, two half liter glasses of beer.  That is a little more than a quart.  

        It was a thirsty day.