Compass Complete

For Christmas Eve, I reinstalled the compass. Christopher Columbus would have killed for a compass this nice!

Compass Refill

Refilling the compass isn't too hard: position it so that the plug is at the top, unscrew the plug, and then use a syringe to push the compass fluid in. I used fluid that I bought from Ritchie. It's mineral oil, which you could buy anywhere, but to be sure you get the right viscosity it's easiest to go to the maker. (I once tried mineral oil from the drugstore, but it was so thick it would take the compass a few hours to find North!) The hardest thing is to get all of the air out, and you can see that I still have a small bubble here. I will let the compass sit for a week, to let any additional bubbles accumulate at the top, and then I'll try to push some more fluid in.

Another Project

I rebuilt our compass about 5 years ago, replacing a cracked dome, but it still has a slow leak. Fortunately, I still have plenty of compass fluid (mineral oil) left over from my earlier repair. Here you see the compass exposed with the binacle cover removed. I've taken the compass off the boat so that I can work on it over the winter. If you look closely, you can see an earlier project, where I replaced an incandescent compass light with two LEDs.

Boom

With some help from my friends Raul and Tom, we were able to re-attach the boom to the gooseneck on Saturday, so this project is now complete. Next up, a tune-up for our cockpit table. More details later...

Electric Furler!

We now have electric roller furling! The gooseneck installation and electrical hookup went easily, and everything works great. Can't wait to use it next season!

New Motor Installation

In the top photo, there are now 4 weep holes that have been drilled through the end casing. All of the brushes are in this part of the motor, and with the springs loaded, it's a bit of a trick to hold the brushes down while attaching it to the body of the motor. The piece of cardboard allows me to hold all of the 4 brushes in position while I attach the end casing to the body. Once I have it in position, I simply slide out the cardboard while holding the casing in place until I can get the bolts engaged. The second picture shows the mounting plate exchanged with the temporary plastic end piece, and one of the attachment bolts. Note the grease around the drive shaft, and on the attachment bolt, to prevent seizing. If you look closely, you can also see the silicone sealant around the motor case bolts, an attempt to keep water out of the motor.

Furling Motor Parts

Above is the new furling motor, and a spare brush set. The end plate at the top has been removed from the old motor, and replaces the plastic cover on the new motor during assembly.

New Hardware

I received the new replacement furling motor today. I plan to mate it with the gearbox this week, after implementing the suggestions for managing the water incursion problem, below.

Furling Motor Fixes

In the picture above (top), notice that the long case bolts are eroded near the end. This is the part of the bolt that was exposed to water. These bolts are nearly at the failure point.

I have received two recommendations with regard to the moisture
problem in the furling motor: use silicone to seal the recessed area
around the head of the two case bolts (the long bolts that hold the motor
together), and drill weep holes at the bottom of the motor (in the end
plate that holds the brushes) to allow any water to drip out.

I ordered a new motor today from Eric Pearson, the source of parts for these old Hood systems.

In Mast Furling Motor Repair

Here's the problem, water has seeped into the motor, and accumulated in the bottom of the unit, where all of the important electrical bits are, of course.

Here is the gooseneck unit, with motor and gear box removed from the mast.

Autopilot Voltage Follow-up (4)

But here is the curiosity. This is the noise that exists on the voltage supply with the engine off and the autopilot off. What is the cause of the noise? Not sure, but it's going to be fun to find out. Who cares? Nobody but me...

Autopilot Voltage Follow-up (3)

Here is a closer look at the behavior with the autopilot on with the engine on.

Autopilot Voltage Follow-up (2)

Here we zoom in a bit to see the detail of engine on, autopilot on, autopilot off, then autopilot on. The voltage drops down to as little as 11.5 volts as the autopilot hydraulic pump is engaged for steering.

Autopilot Voltage Follow-up

Some of you may recall that I ran some tests this summer to collect voltage data on Silence's autopilot. I finally got around to plotting the data this week, and there are some interesting results. This all began because I suspected that I had a power problem because the autopilot would randomly shut down and reset itself, and drop off course. It turns out that the problem was caused by a loose connector on the back of the control unit, but I didn't figure that out until after I had built a data logger and collected this data. In the diagram above you will see that we start out with the engine off and the autopilot in standby. Shortly afterward, the engine is turned on and you can see the voltage rise as the alternator charges the batteries. (The straight line represents a period for which there is no data as I stopped logging to save space on the SD card.) Next, with the engine on, I started the autopilot and you see the noise on the signal increase. Later, the same cycle is repeated, engine off, engine on, autopilot on, autopilot off, and then at the end, engine off, and power turned off.

Downrigging 2

We completed winterizing today, running antifreeze through all of the systems. We took down the mainsail as well. Time for Silence to take a long winter's nap.

Downrigging

We took down the headsail this weekend, and brought our dinghy home for the winter. Next weekend we will get the mainsail flaked away, and begin pushing anti-freeze through all of the freshwater systems.

End of the Season

We had our last sail of the season last weekend, and it was a beauty.
15+ knots of breeze and warm, with our friends Eveleen and Eric
onboard. Now we begin the process of putting the boat away for the
winter.

After the Storm

All is fine here, Silence and the house are all OK. We had power
throughout the storm, with only some flickering of the lights. We were lucky. Several of our friends had trees down on their houses and cars.
One of our friend's boat was hit by a falling tree... We saw damage in
Spa Creek to a boat on a mooring that was raked by another boat
dragging anchor during the night. It's hard to believe that someone
would just throw a single anchor and abandon their boat to the
elements.

Our preparation was good, but honestly, we were lucky. The track of
the hurricane caused us to only see north winds, which prevented any
tidal surge and flooding. We didn't have to even adjust a line during
the storm.

Silence is Fine

Silence made it through the storm unscathed. There were no boats
damaged in our marina. We are very grateful!

Winds are decreasing

Winds are down to just under 30knots, some gusts. More rain coming.
House is OK, going to check on Silence this morning.

Fifties

Winds are in the fifties now, with gusts to 62 on the Bay Bridge. All
OK at the house, hope all is well with Silence.

Over 40 knots

It's blowing over 40 knots at Thomas Point now. We just made a visit to the boat and it is riding just fine. The wind instrument at the masthead indicated 24 knots. No problems so far. We just took a ride in the Jeep around Tolly Point. Waves are breaking across the Bay, crashing ashore, spray across the road there. Kids are surfing!

Now it begins...

The winds have crept up into the mid-thirties, from the NNE. It's starting to blow!

Rainy Saturday

20 knots from the NE, raining harder, but not too heavy yet. The water level is only 6 inches above normal in Annapolis for now.

Wind Shift

The winds have shifted to the east, still blowing about 20 knots, and it has just begun to rain. This is the leading edge of Irene.

Current Conditions

We have about 20 knots from the NE at Thomas Point now. Just warming up.

Preparations Complete

All of our storm preparations are complete. The storm has been downgraded slightly, coming ashore in NC with 85 knot winds. Last night we doubled our lines, wrapped a halyard around our headsail furler, stripped off the dodger canvas, put out some fenders between our boat and our neighbor, and stowed loose items below. At home we sandbagged our basement window, which tends to flood in strong rains, and brought in our patio furniture. Now we wait.

Saturday Night's Weather

SAT NIGHT
TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS EXPECTED. N WINDS 40 TO
50 KT. WAVES 6 FT. A CHANCE OF TSTMS IN THE EVENING. SHOWERS. VSBY
1 NM OR LESS.

Hurricane Irene

Tonight we will be battening down the hatches, and hoping that Irene
goes easy on us this weekend.

Eggemoggin Reach

Sailing fast on Eggemoggin Reach yesterday, aboard Mainiak. Fifteen
knots and flat water makes for fast sailing!

Annapolis

We arrived about 10:30 this morning at Len's house in Annapolis. Our
spouses are here to greet us, and we aren enjoying a nice long lunch
and a drink or two. This has been an excellent adventure! Thanks to
all of you who have followed our voyage. Ask us for a sea story the
next time you see us.

Chesapeake Beach

Indian Summer presently has Chesapeake Beach abeam, and is sailing at 5 knots. It is a pleasant morning on the Bay. Your author just enjoyed his first hot shower since Bermuda, making this a doubly pleasant day. We look forward to sighting Thomas Point, and making our approach to Annapolis, later this morning.

Patuxent

We are motoring through the night, just off the Patuxent River now.
There are a lot of sailboats heading south, probably the Annapolis to
Bermuda race fleet. All is quiet now that they are past.

Heading North

We have finished refueling and we have repaired our jib halyard. We
are now heading north, motorsailing our way to Annapolis.

Little Creek

We just entered the Bay through the Bridge-Tunnel. We are going to
Little Creek for fuel, and to retrieve our jib halyard from the top of
the mast. On our approach we were passed by a submarine and a
helicopter carrier. Indian Summer is pleased to be back in her home
waters.

Chesapeake

We have sighted Chesapeake Lighthouse, the marker for our entrance to
the Chesapeake. We are sailing at 7 knots, enjoying a sunny morning.

One last time

Hello all bloggers!

 

Tonight we could hear each other pretty well.  One thing I know for sure is that Emerson has converted the crew and me into SSB believers.  I was the most dubious but I am thrilled to have made contact with the crew when they are as far as 600 miles off shore!

 

So, here is the report from the crew on Indian Summer. All is well with the crew.  They had a beautiful night's sail with winds from the SW at 10-15 knots.  Early in the morning something happened and they lost a ring or pin or something (could not hear what) that held the Jib at the top of the mast.  They had to strike the jib and do not have use of it until they can get some help in Norfolk.  They are motor sailing until then.  They are about 110 miles away from Norfolk. Their Lat. is 36 N and Long.73 W.  Their plan, as it stands now, is that they will stop in Norfolk Friday sometime to see if they can fix the jib and then continue.  They do not plan to spend the night as was discussed earlier.  Emerson talked about some rough seas as they entered the jet stream but nothing Indian Summer couldn't handle.

 

Tomorrow they will be within cell phone range so this is my last contact via SSB.  Emerson described their nightly contact with me like boys around a camp fire. They gather and wait.  It is wonderful how the simplest of things entertain, when you are in the middle of the deep blue sea.

 

Thanks for reading

Suzan

success

Greetings Family and Friends,

 

Tonight I was able to make contact with Indian Summer.  I could hear Emerson and he could here me.  So here is the scoop.  They are currently 34degrees N and 71 degrees W.  They are approximately at the half way point. If all goes according to plan, they will enter the Bay on Friday afternoon.  They reported that they will arrive back at Indian Summer's slip sometime on Saturday.  All is going very well except they are motoring.  Emerson said that a very large cruise ship passed pretty close to them so the guys decided to call them on the radio to find out their destination.  It turns out they were returning from Bermuda and heading home to Baltimore.  These kind of events are very exciting when you are out in the ocean without any visual stimulation for days!  I guess that exchange gave them lots to talk about.  That is about all from Indian Summer tonight.  I will make one more attempt on Thursday night so stay tuned.

 

Suzan

 

PS Denise, could you please contact Dale if you are monitoring the blog? 703- 615-1091

June 1

Greetings everyone. This evening I attempted to contact Indian Summer as promised. However, I did not have much luck.  On the 3rd frequency I was able to hear some of what Emerson said but he could not hear me.  This is what I think I heard.  Their Lat at the time was 33 N and Longitude 68 W.  They had traveled 200 miles so far and I think they may be under motor at this point but all is well.

Len had contacted Dale by satellite phone this morning and reported that they were having a beautiful sail cruising at about 8 knots and enjoying life.  I will try again tomorrow and again on Thursday.  Hope I have better luck then!

Smooth sailing Indian Summer.....

Suzan

Leaving Bermuda

...Right now!

departure

At 8:00am Sunday morning Emerson and I took the return crew to BWI.  Everyone was in great spirits.  Len has certainly assembled a great group of sailors for this journey.  They had dinner aboard Indian Summer last night and spent the day (Monday) touring St. George and getting to know each other.  They are departing this evening in light winds.  The forecast for the return trip is for the light winds to continue.  They worry they may have to spend too much time (more than any sailor would like) motoring .  The water maker will not be working for this return leg so they will be conserving water.  I will be trying each night to contact Indian Summer by SSB and will post their progress on the blog.

Until tomorrow.....

Cheers

Suzan

Preparing for Departure

We are preparing to go to the dock for water, then we will go to the
customs dock. The dinghy is stowed and ready to go to sea. Dan will
join us at the Customs dock.

Nightfall

The sun has gone down, and the crew of Indian Summer is well fed (on
Chicken Tetrazini; kudos to Susan for that). The temperature is
pleasant and there is a gentle breeze blowing from the northeast. The
weather charts show mostly light winds for the next few days, so we
are crossing our fingers for enough breeze to propel the boat without
the engine. We are planning to depart in the late afternoon tomorrow.

In Bermuda

We just arrived!

On the Plane

Mladen, Robert and I just boarded our flight. Let the journey begin!

My Bags are Packed

The crew for the return of Indian Summer will rendezvous in the morning and ride with Suzan to the airport. We are all looking forward to a great sail. The forecast conditions for the early part of this week look good, winds 10-15 knots. By Thursday we could see a cold front coming off the US coast, so we'll keep an eye on that. Our current plan is to depart Bermuda either Monday evening, or Tuesday morning.

Week in Bermuda

Len and his family and crew will be touring Bermuda this week. We will resume updating this blog when Indian Summer departs from Bermuda, around June 1st. I will be joining the boat just before departure, and my wife, Suzan, will be doing the radio work shoreside. Thanks for following the voyage here!

Bermuda

Indian Summer arrived in St. George at 11:30 this morning. They had an
excellent sail, and the crew is well. Some of the crew began touring
the island by scooter this afternoon. They will all rendezvous for
dinner at 7:00 this evening. Congratulations to Len and his crew on a
very successful voyage!

Bermuda Weather Today

Indian Summer should arrive in Bermuda today. Below is the weather that they should find there:

Winds west-northwesterly 5 to 10 knots, veering northwesterly 8 to 12 knots this afternoon... Isolated early afternoon showers with mainly fair visibility, clearing east... Seas inside the reef 0 to 1 ft... Outside the reef 2 to 4 ft.

Getting Close

Indian Summer is about 99 miles out from Bermuda. They have had a
great sail, making 7-9 knots with a good breeze. They expect to arrive
tomorrow, mid-day.

Whale Ho!

I just spoke with Len on the satphone. They spotted a humpback whale while we talked! It surfaced several times, and blew it's spout as it made it's way across their track.

Indian Summer is currently about 300 miles out from Bermuda and expects to arrive mid-day on Sunday. Her current position is 34 55 N, 69 10 W.

The watermaker on board has stopped working, so the crew is conserving water. All of the crew is doing well.

Spinnaker

Tonight we made contact via SSB. I could hear Len fine, but it was
hard for him to hear me. Indian Summer is doing well, making 8 knots
under spinnaker. There is some weather coming from astern, so the crew
is about to strike the spinnaker.

Quiet in the Atlantic

The weather conditions at sea today are very gentle: 10 knot winds at
the sea buoys that are reporting. Len is probably wishing for more
breeze. The forecast is for 10 to 15 knots from the SW today, which is
a good direction for the course of Indian Summer. They should be
beyond the Gulfstream by their next report.

In the Gulfstream

Our radio contact didn't work out, but I received the following email from Dale:

"Hi Emerson!! Len was unable to reach you with the radio and so called me on the satellite phone. They are all doing just fine and are motoring in the gulf stream at 9 knots. The water temperature is 81, but the air is cold. A small squall is coming and they are all preparing right now. They enjoyed Susan’s Turkey Tetrazzini and just LOVED it. At their currant speed their ETA is 6am on Sunday."

Gulfstream

All is well as Indian Summer is motoring in the Gulfstream tonight.
More details soon...

Offshore Weather

The winds piped up to near 20 knots last night, according to a NOAA weather bouy. The conditions were perfect for Indian Summer, so she is probably making good time. The winds are expected to get lighter over the next 24 hours, and then pick back up on Saturday. We will get to hear tonight at our next check-in how Len and crew are progressing.

Light Winds

The winds tonight, just offshore where Indian Summer is sailing, are becoming very light (less than 5 knots at Chesapeake Light).

Out to Sea

At 6:15 Indian Summer is passing through the Chesapeake Bridge Tunnel and heading out to sea. The winds are light, from the east so she is motoring. She will see the edge of the Gulfstream in about 130 miles, probably late tomorrow. I wished Len and his crew bon voyage, and we will talk again tomorrow evening.

Norfolk and Hail

At 5:00 Indian Summer was at the fuel dock. As they tied up, there was a strong thunderstorm looming. They had to delay fueling until the storm passed. During the storm, they were boarded by some large hail that they later scooped out of the cockpit with a dust pan. They plan to head out to sea shortly. I have a planned radio contact with the crew at 6:00 PM, just a few minutes from now. This is really just a test, as their cell phones will still work until they are 10-15 miles out to sea.

Nearing Norfolk

I just spoke to Len via cell phone. Indian Summer is about 25 miles
out from Little Creek, their refueling stop near the mouth of the
Chesapeake Bay. They have been motoring a lot today, so topping off is
a smart move. They expect to be finished refueling around 5 PM.
Conditions in the ocean are 10 knots from the S to SE, seas 4 feet,
very benign conditions for Indian Summer. Len also explained that
their problem last night was a blown fuse, which they replaced and
have had no problems since.

Indian Summer - Day 1

I just received the following text report from Len:

"Set sail about on time. Got as far as Annapolis and had to have a
repair done. Long story for later. Left Annapolis 11:00 pm. Sailed and
motored all night (not bad) we are averaging about 8kts. We just
crossed the mouth of Potomac."

We plan to test our SSB radio contact this evening at 6:00 PM.

Nothing to Report

There were forecasts of strong winds last night, and Len was
reconsidering whether to leave then, or wait until this morning. I
haven't heard from Indian Summer yet on their actual departure time.
Stay tuned for more information later today. The winds forecast for
today are light, 10 knots from the SE on the Chesapeake.

Departure Tomorrow

Indian Summer plans to leave the dock on Tuesday evening, and head south, down the Chesapeake Bay. Because the weather is unsettled through Wednesday, Len and crew plan to put into the ocean on Thursday, when a favorable weather window will open. We onshore sailors wish you fair winds and following seas.

Indian Summer

Indian Summer is a Hallberg-Rassy 53; here is a photo of a sistership. She will begin her voyage this week!

The Voyage of Indian Summer

Starting next Wednesday, I will be filing position reports for "Indian
Summer" on their outbound trip to Bermuda. I will be aboard for the
return trip, back to Annapolis, the first week of June, so watch for
updates here for that trip as well. We will be staying in touch via
SSB, once a day at 6:00 PM EDT, so updates will come shortly after
that time each day.

Maiden Voyage

We sailed on Silence last night in a north breeze, 10-15 knots. Very
pleasant sailing.

Sails are Bent

We bent on the sails today, so Silence is ready to sail. Unfortunately, there is no wind today. I'm off to scratch the backstay.

Home Sweet Home

Silence is back in the water, and has returned to her slip, at last.

Failed Sheave

Here is the better of the two failed sheaves that caused all of the problems for the centerboard. The other sheave was just dust. It's amazing that we didn't notice more difficulty earlier. These sheaves were made by Edson as steering gear, and were never intended to be used below the waterline. Twenty-eight years of salt water exposure has taken its toll.

Silence will Float Today!

I just received word that Silence is ready to go back in the water.
Let the season begin!

Centerboard Unhinged

Bermuda

I've signed up for a return trip from Bermuda to Annapolis at the end
of May aboard "Indian Summer". Looking forward to being at sea again!

Centerboard Work in Progress

Here is the area around the centerboard trunk. Still, there is lots of work to do to reconnect everything that had to be cleared away for this work.

Sheave Box

Here the sheave box has been rebuilt.

Data Logger Testing

The data logger is finished. This is the logger running for a quick test. The 9V battery is the power supply, the AA battery pack is the test voltage supply. Two AA batteries put out about 3.1v, according to the logger. Now we just need to get out for a sail to hook this up to the autopilot...

Centerboard Sheave

Here is one of two of the replace-ment sheaves, in position, but with no bearing installed yet. After installation, the whole area will be fiberglassed over again. Here you can just barely see the centerboard cable going over the top of the sheave, and down towards the centerboard.

Voltage Data Logger

Here is a picture of the data logger, almost complete. This is based on an Arduino board and SD card shield. The software onboard is able to read the voltage input and write out a CSV file to the SD card, for analysis in Excel. There is some work still necessary to scale the voltage range to 12V, and then I plan to package this up into a box to protect it from the elements.

Auto Pilot

Another project that I have in the works is to figure out why my new autopilot resets itself occasionally. The old pilot that we replaced did this also. This can be a big problem, because when the reset happens, the boat steers off course. Right now, we have a hard time trusting the autopilot, which defeats the purpose of having it.

My suspicion is that there is a voltage fluctuation in the power that feeds the pilot. Now, how to see this happen...? A voltmeter doesn't really help, because you might not be looking at it when the failure occurs. So, I am building a voltage datalogger that I can hook to the power supply leads to the autopilot. This will log the voltage to an SD card 5 times per second, and hopefully this will provide enough data to prove or disprove that voltage dropout is the cause of the problem. Stay tuned for updates on this ongoing project.

Mainsail Furling Motor

My other project is to get the mainsail furler working again. The electric motor failed last season, so we used the manual crank to furl last summer. The first step in the process is to remove the boom from the gooseneck, easily accomplished with some help from my friends. The next step is to remove the 12 screws that attach the gooseneck to the mast. Once those are free, it's just a matter of lifting the gooseneck with the furler motor and gearbox out of the mast slot. Sounds simple, no?

This would have been easy, except for the fact that when the mast was overhauled a couple years back, the riggers used some sort of adhesive on all of the screws to lock them in, and prevent corrosion. With a screwdriver I couldn't get any of the screws to budge without fear of stripping them. With an impact driver I was able to get 7 screws free. Still 5 to go. Trying a heat gun and the impact driver again, still no luck. So, I have asked the crew at the yard to help me with this... hopefully by next weekend I will have the motor on my workbench.

I even think I know what's wrong with the motor: the brushes tend to turn to dust if any water gets in from the top, and this tends to happen every 3-5 years or so. More to come...

Centerboard Repairs

The problem with the centerboard was caused by a sheave which has failed. It turns out that Bristol used two Edson sheaves below the waterline. These sheaves were not really designed for being immersed in saltwater, so they tend to eventually fail. At this point, Silence is 28 years old, so hopefully, the next set of sheaves will last as long! The repair involves cutting open the fiberglass housing around the centerboard trunk, installing new sheaves, and then re-fiberglassing the make the whole mechanism watertight again. This should all happen in the next week or so...

Charging

I am charging the batteries this weekend. This means running an extension cord to an outlet in the yard, and setting up a charger to hook to the batteries in turn. At the dock, I could power up the onboard charger, which charges all of the batteries at one time. With the boat on the hard, I have to make do with only charging one set at a time. This means several trips to the boatyard.