Blewtooth

Blewtooth's Spring Sail down the Savannah River

2011-03-23T00:00:00.001-04:00

Fun Spring Sail With Barrett And Friends

We left around noon to catch the last half of the tide heading through Elba Island cut and outbound on the Savannah. Great weather and a great bunch of kids! I say kids???? Sheesh! they are all in their mid twenties. What is happening to me!!!!

We motored through the creeks; fighting the tide but once we were out bound with the current we had enough sea room to raise the sails and the fun began.

We sailed out to the end of the rock jetty and got a good look at Tybee Beach and the South Channel. The wind was running right up the river for a ways but when we got to Tybee Roads it was coming in from the southeast and we got a good tack. We kept well out of the way of a couple of freighters who past us going and coming.

Coming back was so fast and relaxing that I was surprised how quickly we made it to the cut. Here's a video of our return.

I have lots of pictures of Blewtooth sailing but none taken by people in other boats passing or sailing alongside so I will have to make do with her shadow on the water:

And with the wind cooperating all the way we were able to hang a left at the cut without dropping the sails and crossed the south channel and into Saint Augustine Creek before the motor was turned on and the jib was taken down. Then with main up we had a gusty motor sail through the winding turns of Saint Augustine and dropped the main at Turners Creek. What a great day!

In calmer water Mike took a trip up the mast to see what he could see. Those folding steps have proved to be handy and fun to climb (in calm water that is)

We were lucky to have gone on Saturday because even though the weather forecasters had indicated that Sunday would be pretty much the same it turned out to be colder, gloomier and gustier.

All for now, Good Sailing to all!

Hurricane Season Again. Hot, Humid and UnWindy!!

2010-07-12T22:56:00.008-04:00

Blewtooth motored out of her birth at Sail Harbor this Sunday but the air was so still and thick I felt like we were truly a painted ship on a painted ocean and the paint was just kind of gooey! And...HOT I might add and we were slogging through it. I could hardly catch my breath. We soon changed our mind and chugged back to the dock and I was so drenched with sweat I thought I was going to swamp us!

That was it. Off we went, fleeing any further thought of staying outside. Whimp? Maybe, but better to be a wise wimp than a hero at his own heat stroke funeral.

The weekend before however was much better. Barret, My friend Omert and his daughter Olivia were out with me for a great little sail.

Here's the video

I am having a good time again posting Blewtooth videos.

What a great little boat!

Father's Day Sail; Five Years Ago

2010-06-16T23:56:00.003-04:00

Time goes by so fast when you are having fun!

Sailing out to Marker 1

2010-06-16T00:12:00.003-04:00

Blewtooth Sails at Last!

First time this year.

Well, here I am again! I have just purchased a net book and it is hard getting used to typing on the smaller keyboard.

My friend Omert and I took Blewtooth out to marker 1 of Tybee Roads this Sunday and it was a great day with just the right amount of wind.

Nothing makes you feel so good as a good sailing day!

We had a good breeze pushing us back and all the way up the Savannah River to Elba Island Cut without putting the kicker in the water.

I hired a diver to clean the bottom on Friday and it really made a difference. Blewtooth gave us good speed even with her conservative rig.

At long last, Blewtooth gets a new bottom coat!

2008-08-11T22:08:00.012-04:00

HOORAY!!!!

I finally saved enough money to get my little Tiger hauled and painted.

I found some damage from when Blewtooth and I decided to kiss a rock in the Savannah River one day. As I recall it had happened on my first trip back out to Tybee Roads and there was almost zero wind. We had turned around with the tide at the mouth of the Savannah and made it a liesurely sail back up the river when the wind died completely. I was feeling too lazy to crank the motor up yet so, because it was such a calm day I let my guard down and started chatting with my guest on board as I let Blewtooth just drift along. I'd had a drink or two and after spending so much time outside I had become stupidly relaxed. Suddenly I heard an ever so slight THUNK! I jumped up and looked up to see the "WARNING...Rocks" sign looming above the bimini. We were next to the Elba Island Cut which crosses the Savannah and then jogs just a little to become Fields Cut going north. I was glad my guest weren't paying too much attention and didn't realize that I could have just holed the boat if we had been going any faster. Because I didn't feel much and or it wasn't too loud I felt like the damage if any would be slight (except to my pride) and I was right. However, "slight" winds up being over a hundred bucks when you are in the yard!

It hasbeen over 4 years! But at last she is clean and painted with two coats of Pettite Trinidad.

I don't like ablative paint because of the bad experience I had with Pettite Ultima on Narenba.

Nowshe'll be sooo much smoother and faster!!!

Ready to Splash!

Well, after all of that hauling and expensive yard bill, she was put back in the water and I was ready to motor her back up the creeks and through the bridges to her dock on Whitemarsh and wouldn't you know it; the Tohatsu 9.8 finally decided to take a huge crap! I shouldn't complain too much because it has been a very faithful little engine up until the last couple of months. I think it might be because of this ethanol in the gas. I had to clean the carberator in the spring after it stalled out and there was allot of jellified gunk in it.

At any rate, I have taken it to the shop and they say it will be at least two weeks, maybe three before they can order the parts needed ie..water pump kit and probably another carb kit and install them. I am just replacing the water pump because I think I should after five years of service but am concerned that there might be allot of corrosion in the water jacket because of all of the years it was left mounted on the back of the boat with very few freshwater flushings.

I am now going to have to pay for her docking at the boatyard/marina docks as well...ouch!! but at least I will be able to hang out on her and do some cleaning. Also will be nice to tie up next to cruisers and their boats again for a change.

I have done little sailing and am worried about this hurricane season as every boater on the SE coast is. We have been lucky so far and am praying our luck holds yet another season.

Not much else is new.....but ....OH by the way, I did manage to get my Coast Guard Captain's license while rotting here in port. So, with Blewtooth with her new bottom and reworked engine I hope to get back out there again soon!

All the best and happy sailing,
Rocko

Here are a few more links:

USGS Georgia Water Science Center

I recently read the new book about Wanderer by Eric Colonius
Interviews with Wanderer and Clotilde survivors

Archive boat data from Yachtsnet Ltd. online UK yacht brokers - yacht brokerage and boat sales

Small boats, long distances... sailFar.net

Dreading the Dredge?

2007-09-15T07:40:00.001-04:00

Savannah’s Port is the fastest growing port in the USA at the moment. Container ship after container ship constantly comes in and goes out of Tybee Roads. It generates over sixty five billion dollars a year in revenue……That’s right…..THIRTY FIVE BILLION!
It appears the dredge of globalization has put allot of cash in the State’s and Federal Governments pockets.

Just imagine, our comparatively small little river; the Savannah River which when General Oglethorpe and the original Georgia colonist arrived in 1733, was only nine feet deep in some places and averaged about eighteen feet, now accommodates huge container ships and LNG ships that have drafts of well over forty feet. The Savannah has of course been dredged many times; so much so, that the silt that has been pulled from it’s bottom has created allot of high ground on the South Carolina side and the State of South Carolina is now planning to use it for it’s southern most port. It is presently being used as a bird sanctuary. I guess they are just going to squeeze the birds over a little.

Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, problems with river deepening

But there seems to be a problem looming on the horizon. There is apparently, a new. even bigger container ship now plying the waters of the world that has a draft of almost fifty feet. The fear I imagine of the Port of Savannah is that these newer, faster and bigger and deeper ships will become dominant and eventually replace the ones who are using our river now and therefore the Georgia and the new South Carolina ports will loose the business to the deeper harbors of the country so they are planning to dredge the river again to at least fifty feet..

Common Ground - Conservation Partnerships - Savannah River Basin

This has generated allot of concern from environmentalist. The Savannah has the greatest number of native fish species (108) of any river draining into the Atlantic (that info taken from the above link). They say the silt that will be stirred up will do bad things to the fish in the area and I have a friend who is concerned about what it will do to the aquifer. As I understand it, the City of Savannah and surrounding area’s water needs are in large part, fulfilled by an aquifer that stretches all the way up from Florida. My parents own well pulls from it. Theirs goes down eighty feet and the land is about twelve feet above sea level. If their well goes down only eighty feet and they are only twelve or so feet above sea level and just a mile or so from the Savannah river, won’t dredging that originally nine foot river further to almost fifty feet bring us dangerously close to hitting that aquifer?

Floridan Aquifer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One could only imagine the terrible things that could happen if twenty miles of river was dredged right into an aquifer that supplied some of the drinking water needs for three states (Florida, Georgia and South Carolina)!

Also I wonder about Tybee Roads. This is the area extending several miles off shore that has to be dredged as well and kept dredged or the giant new ships will not even be able to get to the mouth of the Savannah. If you look at the above map those soundings you see are suppose to be in feet, not fathoms! How are they going to keep that area dredged and just how far out will they have to go to accommodate these new leviathans? Will they have to race through only on a certain tide?

There is also concern about the loss of beach sand from Tybee Island. Dredging may worsen this problem.

DrBeach.Org

Well, I’m sure that bigger minds than mine are considering this problem so perhaps I should just go back to sleep. Yawn….

So here are some more sailing links.

Good Sailing,
Rocko

Here's a way to look up some of the Maersk shipping going and coming from a harbor that you might be leaving or entering. Could this possibly come in handy? Especially since these ships are now booming along at twenty plus knots nowadays it might be a good idea to get an idea of what's coming your way just out of radar range.
Maersk Line shipping containers worldwide

I like their idea of a virtual ship:
The Marine Society & Sea Cadets

Yikes! another broken keel:
Hooligan V - full report.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Salvatore has created another website for his Tiger. I think he loves his Tiger as much as I do mine:
westerly.tiger - Westerly Tiger - Dudùdue

Looks like fun....wish I had the bucks:
MAXI YACHT ROLEX CUP 2007

Download the manual for your Tohatsu!
Tohatsu Outboard Technical Information

Looks like unsinkable boats have been around for a long time!
Abora 3 - Sind Sie dabei?

YouTube - Franck Desboyaux tracté par un trimaran

Now this is interesting! Imagine the possibilities for yacht designers. They will be able to put the power plants anywhere in the boat they like and possibly sink that electric motor and prop deeper than any old engine attached to a prop shaft. No more props spinning wildly when the boat comes out of the water in the rough?
Diesel-electric marine propulsion systems and accessories.Diesel-electric marine propulsion systems and accessories.

Ahh! the wonderful and interesting things we like to drop in our own bathtubs:
The Tybee Bomb---Is it a real danger or is the Tybee Island Nuclear Bomb a figment of our government's imagination?

Sailing/Rowing/Paddling/Sweeping?

2007-09-03T05:49:00.000-04:00

From NOOA:

HURRICANE FELIX FORECAST/ADVISORY NUMBER  12
AT 5 AM EDT...0900 UTC...THE GOVERNMENT OF HONDURAS HAS ISSUED A
HURRICANE WARNING FROM LIMON HONDURAS EASTWARD TO THE
HONDURAS/NICARAGUA BORDER...AND A HURRICANE WATCH FROM WEST OF
LIMON WESTWARD TO THE HONDURAS/GUATEMALA BORDER.
THE WESTERN CARIBBEAN SEA SHOULD CLOSELY
MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF THIS POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE.
HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 14.1N  75.9W AT 03/0900Z
PRESENT MOVEMENT TOWARD THE WEST OR 280 DEGREES AT  18 KT

Very little sailing or boating except once to explore the Bull River bridge area. Anchored and rowed the dinghy under the bridge to the Bull River Marina and tied up long enough to walk to a convenience store. It was on the way back that we experienced engine trouble. The current was pushing us home so I decided to use an oar to help. Just like the last time I had motor trouble several boaters in runabouts immediately motored up to offer a tow when they saw me with the oar. I declined the first offer but when we got to a back eddie in the current and were proceeding very slowly I changed my mind and the next time I was offered a tow I took it. They towed us just a half mile or so until we could get well past the eddies and then we continued with the main and oar. It was a slow but languid sail down the creek.

I had just the main up with only a five knot breeze and because the tidal creeks meander this way and that it was sometimes working for me and sometimes not. Blewtooth is around six thousand pounds with all the junk I have in her so basically this idea to move or "maneuver" is certainly doable but not without reservations. Joshua Slocum describes using a sweep in his book and he was on a forty footer with no motor so of course it is a practical idea but one I have had trouble implementing due in large part to not having a long enough oar or "sweep".

I bought an eight foot oar which I have realized is about four feet too short. I paddled with it at first off of the bow, basically changing my direction by simply making enough of a splash to push/pull the bow which ever way but I found it much easier to sit in the cockpit and use sweeping motions. It appears the rudder still had some effect in spite of the fact the current was keeping almost no water flow over it. Or, perhaps it is just the way Blewtooth is balanced and the way she sits in the water that gives better control.

So, my plan now is to buy a twelve foot oar and try it again. Also considering a yulow but I think it would be too difficult to stow. It will be hard enough with an oar.

It will provide something to use for emergency steering as well as auxlillary power. Another good reason for not having too large a boat. The more I know Blewtooth will be able to move whether the motor is running or not will add to my overall confidence and embolden me to sail to more places.

Here are more links I have been collecting:

I'd like to have one made specifically for a Westerly Tiger but would probably be too expensive?
Welcome to Sawyer Paddles and Oars

http://www.brownellboat.com/stands.htm

Bateaux autour du monde - Sail The World - L'Univers de la grande croisière en voilier - STW

Welcome to AIWA

Not trying to be sarcastic in showing this one but it just seems to reveal the contrast between two worlds:
YouTube - The Love Boat

NOAA Graphical Forecast for CONUS Area

Six garçons dans le vent !

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before, by Tony Horwitz

I wonder if my back would be able to handle one of these? Just looks like so much fun:
Olimpic Sailing 470 Class Video

Funny! What a classic:
YouTube - What About Bob Clip 3

Greatest Blunders In Boating, Yachting, Shipping, Sailing. Video

God! I love artist!

2007-08-04T07:21:00.000-04:00

Atlantic, Carribean and Gulf of Mexico
Tropical Weather Outlook
There are no Tropical Cyclones at this time

picture from Wikapedia
Homeland Security has been on the job again, capturing this menacing looking craft in New York harbour.

I'm sure the headlines will be stupendous on Fox news. "Terrorist Attack once again foiled!" or something like that!

News - Mystery Submarine Causes Security Scare - AOL News

Turns out the guy is an artist and has spent a great deal of time and effort recreating Robert Fulton's submarine the "Turtle"

No. 304: Fulton's Submarine

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...........................................Anchored PGA Blvd Northend of Lake Worth

So, here are a few more links today. Not much boat/sailing surfing for me lately because I have been studying for a tour guide test! Passed it!!!
Good Old Boat: Classified ads

Been musing about Trimarans lately:
Astus 20.1 Trimaran Overview

What an idea!
harryproa/elementarry

Bio of Yacht Designer Carl Alberg
History

Off to work

Good Sailing

Rocko

Extreme Beachcombing

2007-07-30T05:36:00.000-04:00

                           Found:  One small sea serpent

ABNT20 KNHC 300205
TWOAT
TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
1030 PM EDT SUN JUL 29 2007

FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO...

A BROAD AREA OF LOW PRESSURE...CENTERED ROUGHLY 300 MILES
WEST-SOUTHWEST OF BERMUDA...CONTINUES TO PRODUCE DISORGANIZED
SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS OVER THE WESTERN ATLANTIC OCEAN. 
ALTHOUGH UPPER-LEVEL WINDS ARE NOT PARTICULARLY FAVORABLE FOR
FURTHER ORGANIZATION TONIGHT...THIS SYSTEM STILL HAS SOME
POTENTIAL FOR TROPICAL OR SUBTROPICAL DEVELOPMENT OVER THE NEXT
COUPLE OF DAYS AS IT MOVES NORTH-NORTHEASTWARD AT 10 TO 15 MPH.
HEAVY RAIN ASSOCIATED WITH THIS SYSTEM COULD OVERSPREAD BERMUDA
OVERNIGHT.  PLEASE SEE PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER
SERVICE OFFICE FOR MORE DETAILS.
ELSEWHERE...TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE
NEXT 48 HOURS.
$$
FORECASTER BLAKE

Could be moving into the Chesapeake or further north?

Well, yes I have been doing some avid beachcombing lately.  To me it  is better
than yoga for relaxation.  Gives great exercise and you can find interesting things
(interesting things to me anyway)  Yeah that's right, I am easily entertained. 
A piece of rope in the sand, shells with strange shapes and colors....that's all
I need man to amuse myself for a while.

More Links:

Search and Find a Boat, Yacht or Ship

The Hurricane Watch Net

Ultra-Lightweight Lithium Batteries

Welcome to Capitan Ashton Web Page (World Circumnavigation Voyage)

More stuff I found by waking up way too early and not trying to go back to sleep. 
When am I gonna learn!

Good Sailing,
Rocko

Am I becoming a Luddite!?

2007-07-26T05:01:00.001-04:00

Atlantic - Caribbean Sea - Gulf of Mexico
There are no tropical cyclones at this time
Eastern Pacific (out to 140°W)
Tropical Storm DALILA
National Hurricane Center

Luddite!

What an awful sounding name for someone who doesn't like engines!

Luddite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And now "Neo Luddiism"!
Luddism

But they keep saying "hatred of NEW technology" in their description. Well what then describes me? I don't hate new technology; I embrace it. I love the new solar, wind and electric motor technology. It's the old crap that I hate. Gas and deisel engines and especially those without polution controls which the boat builders along with Home Depot and Wallmart (lawn care equipment) are selling with wild abandon.

What brought all of this on this morning was my glancing at the BBC news headlines and finding the below article:

BBC NEWS | Health | Diesel pollution 'clogs arteries'

Planet Ark : Diesel fuel exhaust likely to cause cancer - US EPA

And so getting back to the subject of sailing, how many of us love the idea of sailing along our coast; wheather it be east, west, south or north; trying to get from port A to port B when the wind is contrary and we have to turn on the engine and start our motor sailing routine? Usually no deisel or gas fumes to worry about with the wind off any points on our bow but every time we tack or what have you we will be getting a little wiff here and there of that good old deisel smell. That smell usually brings a feeling of adventure in me. I guess just associating it with "going somewhere" and the general excitment of traveling. But when we drop the sails and motor our way through the inlet and are calling the marina on the radio we all start to smell it. Then we breath those fumes as they waft around us from our transoms and we don't even notice it. It's mixed with all of that fresh air from the sea. Then the rest of the times motoring up the ICW or rivers, canals and byways; waiting for the bridge to open and so on; motoring into the marinas.

Just how much of it are we picking up?

And of course for those of us with outboards and A4s:

Gasoline fumes have 1000 times the concentration recommended by NIOSH. ... It causes liver cancer, with a latency period is 15 to 40 years. ...
consumerlawpage.com/article/cancer.shtml - 21k -
The Cancer War Needs An Informed Public: Known Carcinogens To Be Avoided

None of our engines have any type of pollution control that I know of. I guess we all just think "Hey it's a sailboat for crying out loud!" but it's really not. It is an "Auxillary" sailboat that 99% of us are on. Neither does our lawn equipment, generators etc.

Lawn mowers, Weed Eaters, Leaf Blowers
"Another source claims that operating a gas mower for one hour will produce the same pollution as driving a car 1300 miles. (Note 4)"
Lawn Mower Pollution

I don't know how else to describe my views though. I am just really getting tired of people's attitudes (especially young people's) about technology. I know that it is completely impractical to hope that we will all stop wanting the most powerfull car, motorcycle or boat. But jeez! When is everyone going to realize that we could solve so much of our pollution problems just by cutting back a little bit. We could become so much more powerful in bargaining for energy from all of the oil producing countries if we weren't such energy addicts.

Most Powerful Diesel Passenger Car

The pollution from internal combustion engines is choking us to death. I hate the fact that the grass on every consumer's lawn needs to be cut constantly in the summer with one of the worlds most effiecient pollution machines; the lawn mower which has no catalitic converter, nor does the weed eater or leaf blower which also throws up as much dust as possible into our air and of course it is the dust that is full of the latest fertilizers and pesticides that have been scattered on the ground. So that along with all of the pollen finds it's way into our lungs as we dart from our air conditioned cars to our air conditioned homes that all are becoming hermitically sealed against the "outside" air with new weather stripping and heavy insullation and such.

UMU.Asthma.7.21.02.PDF (application/pdf Object)

Then we can't understand why our kids are all comming down with asthma. Just sad to know how non carring the western consumer is. Now wait a minute...I'm not trying to compare the western consumer to anyone else in the world. God knows what anyone else in Africa or some small village in the hinterlands of India thinks or cares about it. It's just that we are supposed to be the enlightened ones and instead we are acting like someone who is completely non caring....sacrificing the future of our children for our immediate creature comfort needs.

Well, ......................................I'll shut up and quit whinning......

And on a lighter note here is some more evidence of my aimless clicking on sailing stuff and a travel blog sent to me by a friend:

Boat Shows Coast To Coast : Boat Show Calendar and Directory

I always liked the looks of a San Juan
San Juan Sailboat Photo Gallery

A Sailing Cruise to Florida's Panhandle

Couple says the were not lost at sea
Latitude 38 - Northern California's Premier Sailing and Marine Magazine

Travel blog page
Emerald Bay

Good Sailing and Traveling
Rocko

Sailing Links

2007-01-25T21:42:00.000-05:00

Monday July 9th 2007

TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
530 AM EDT MON JUL 9 2007
FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO...
TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.
FORECASTER BLAKE

HATING HOLIDAYS!

OK, Hating holidays? What I mean by holidays, of course is the spots that were left accidentally un-painted in any painting project. My old Navy chiefs used to growl at us new swabs that any holidays would not be looked upon favorably (to paraphrase).

So, I have been staring at one particular holiday for quite a while as I lay on my back on the settee in Blewtooth's main cabin. For two years now it has been taunting me. It has been there to greet me when I opened my eyes on countless mornings and countless naps.

Yesterday afternoon I had finally had it. I jumped up with a start and steeled myself to go after it. So here is the blow by blow of the battle which ensued:

In my haste and desperation I have used the cheapest glossy white spray paint that Walmart has to offer. $1.20 I wonder how long it will be before it comes back to haunt me?

Looking at glacier white glossy paint to me is somehow very satisfying; especially as the day began to heat up.

Finished project above:

But my painting blood was still up! I looked around for some other holiday that had been antagonizing me for so many years and then I remembered:

THE TOP OF THE TOPLESS DANCER POLE!

And at last haaaaaaaa!!!
No more embarrassing sloppy paint jobs.

No more embarrassing the dancers by having to swing on a badly painted pole!

They have been complaining about that for a while now.
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Also, since I have been painting I have been musing over the idea of putting headliners back in the cabin. I have had such bad experiences with them over the years that I have always shied away from it.

However I just found this suggestion for a good headliner material on the Westerly forum:

Welcome! - Quality Marine Upholstery - Toomer & Hayter, Quality Marine Upholstery

And here is some examples of the material they offer:
Mystic Marine Headlining Material - Toomer & Hayter, Quality Marine Upholstery
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Here is another offer for chart readers found on one of the forums:

Free Boating Charts

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Sunday, July 8th 2007

OK, Does this sail look like it has a good shape?

Comments welcome








TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
1030 PM EDT SAT JUL 7 2007
FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO...
TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.
FORECASTER BLAKE

Getting a hankering to go fishing again. Purchased some tackle last evening from WalMart and have been fixing my two rod and reels up. New twenty pound test on my small rod and fifty on the Penn Beachmaster.

Building your own oars:
How to make your own oars

Oars, homebuilt and cheap

Viking Boats!
Viking Boats - Traditional Viking boat builders in Ullapool

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SATURDAY, JULY 7TH 2007

Atlantic Tropical Weather Outlook: NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL 530 AM EDT SAT JUL 7 2007 FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO...SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ASSOCIATED WITH A TROPICAL WAVE WILL MOVE INTO THE SOUTHERN WINDWARD ISLANDS THIS MORNING. THE WAVE IS MOVING W AT 15 TO 20 MPH. TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.

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AT LAST! I have a name for my Walker Bay Dinghy:
"Baby Tooth"
What do you think?
(You see the mother ship is named "Blewtooth")

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OK; it's time to start worrying a little about Huricanes. Here is the site I will be checking everyday from now until November:

National Hurricane Center

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IN BAD NEED OF A HAUL OUT
The problem is the yards around Savannah all want well over a grand to haul out, pressure wash and paint with THEIR paint instead of Trinidad. If I want Trinidad it will cost me extra!
In the mean time, now that the water is warm again I am swimming around Blewtooth and attacking what growth I can get to with a garden hoe (works well and has allot of reach). Few barnicles but awful jelly like, marble shaped things that are filled with some mucousy substance are growing like crazy on her bottom. Easy to knock off but just damn yucky!

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FANTASTIC FINNISH!!!!
What a great America's Cup....not that I am a super racing afficianodo but this AC was highly entertaining. I understood most all of it. The great play by play/graphics was informative and kept it exciting throughout the whole race. I am now dreaming about a trip to Spain in four years to join the spectator fleet to watch the Swiss defend. I wonder if they will be racing Alinghi again?

Nice Edited Video of Final Race
YouTube - The Final Race - Alinghi Vs Emirates Team New Zealand

32nd America's Cup Official Website - Alinghi wins the 32nd Americ a's Cup...by one second!

32nd America's Cup Official Website

AmericasCupAnywhere by Alcatel-Lucent - Live Sailing (Internet)

Valencia, Spain by Jorge Pellicer - Google 3D Warehouse

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MORE LINKS:

NOAA's Free Chart Readers
Office of Coast Survey - Electronic Navigational Charts, Resources

Torqueedo Electric Outboards
TQ_katalog_2006_engl.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Weather where you sail
SailFlow.com - CA- los angeles Wind Data

SDCOOS: San Diego Coastal Ocean Observing System

FNMOC WXMAP

The Sailing Life On The Río Dulce

Rigging repair at-sea - SailNet Community

Discount Marine and Boat Supplies - Inflatable Sales - Defender

The Rescue Channel

The Rescue Channel: Atlantic Fury

Robin Storm: May 31, 2007

4sailors.com - NEWS MAIN - Missing Sailors - Flying Colours

Eugene Kashpureff family boats on Kashpureff.ORG

EarthNC Marine Charts for Google Earth | EarthNC Inc

Celestaire, Inc.: Sky Scout

Welcome to The Cyber Slip of Cape Dory 28 TANTALUS

RED DIESEL ISSUES IN EUROPE
RYA - www.rya.org.uk - Using UK purchased red diesel in other EU states

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Introducing another Westerly Tiger owner today!
Salvatore Di Rosa and his blog about:
Dudùdue his Tiger.
She looks really great Salvatore. The Mediterranean must be a fantastic sea to sail!
I know you are going to have many great days of fun on her.

Also, Salvatore is trying to get us Tiger owners to talk to each other. There are only four of us so far. Hopefully we will get more of us creating blogs or web pages about our boats.
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New site and video link shown by Latitude 38:

Scuttlebutt Video: French sailing

I wish this video was shown on American TV. Just think how much sailing you could promote if the kids got fed a diet of this every day instead of watching the same lame car commercials. Our world would start to be a cleaner place. Just imagine kids salivating over kite boards instead of rice burners. Pot bellied old baby boomers thumbing through catalogues for the latest sailing/rowing dinghies instead of Harleys ATVS and SUVs. Twenty somethings dreaming about impressing their girls with one of those new catamarans instead of a Hummer.

Oh Well, maybe one day

Rocko
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MORE SAILING LINKS:

Morning on the marsh; looking north

BoatUS.com Seaworthy magazine

YouTube - sailing the north sea, pix, vids and suitable music...

YouTube - 65 DAYS ALONE AT SEA

YouTube - this is yacht racing

YouTube - Storm waves at the Horn

YouTube - Rounding Cape Horn

Cape Horn Video is fantastic!
YouTube - The Cape Horn Road - Part 1

YouTube - The Cape Horn Road - Part 2

YouTube - This is sailing, bitch

YouTube - Ocean storm

Clipper route - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

YouTube - Singlehanded sailing kitecam compilation

PassageMaker.com - The Trawler & Ocean Motorboat Magazine

National Hurricane Center

Videos and Photos of Army Special Ops, Navy SEALs, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard in Action - Shock and Awe - Military.com

YouTube - Ferry From Hell

BlueMoment - Articles
US Navy Warship Brings Groceries and fuel to hungry, out of gas crew of a Hilys 46

USS Arleigh Burke Commander Relieved

Thunderbolt Marine Inc.

Boat, Yacht, Ship Documented Information

Salty Southeast Cruisers' Net ~ Your home for all the cruising news along the ICW

BoatUS Government Affairs: State News Alert Page

American Rigging Supply

S/V Kestrel

Radar reflectors report.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Homeport: Missions

Captains, Crew and Boat Transport, boat transport, yacht delivery -- charternet.com

AirX Marine Wind Generator by Southwest Windpower

Maestro

1000days.net - Home

http://www.tiki46.com/

The Shipping News at TownDock.net

YouTube - Reid Stowe (Captain) - Air date 08-04-03

YouTube - 1000 Days, Non-Stop at Sea, Departure

The Elements and Practice of Rigging And Seamanship

Magnetic Declination (Variation) Home

WOW! Amazing how flexible those big container ships are!
YouTube - Heavy sea

YouTube - Melges 24 Gybing

YouTube - Ship launching

Bullimore sets sail on record round-the-world bid - National - smh.com.au

YouTube - Storm in baltic sea

Coastal Parachute Sea Anchor at Para-Anchor.com

Ships built by Donald McKay

History of various clipper ships

Leaving Singer Island
Heading north to the Georgia Coast

How to Scull , Yuloh a Boat

Accelerated Webcam Miraflores Lock (Panama Canal) Video

Navy Combat Ship Being Launched. Very Cool.. Girl Christening Sh Video

Hydroptere Very Cool and FAST!

The Isreali Attack On The USS Liberty Video

Tsunami In Malaysia Video

Rough Cruise Video

Media Player | storm2006 | Beached sailboat free for the taking (4/4) Video

News Story - Verizon Online Solar Burst May Threaten GPS

Worldwide Boat Shows Calendar

Sea Geeks - Computer and Marine Electronics Specialists - Home

FCC - Ship Radio Stations

MaritimeDigital Archive Encyclopedia - Home

NOAA Photo Library

Boat Shows Coast To Coast : Boat Show Calendar and Directory

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Home Page

Maxing Out Episode 2: Pirate Alley Video

Improved WiFi Reception for your Vessel

Capsizing A 420er (sail Boat) Video

UK Sailing UK Yachting Sail Cruising Yacht Guide

Adventure Video

SAILING ALONE TO AMERICA SAILING FROM SYDNEY TO HOBART!

Boating Videos - Small Boat Hit By Large Ship Video

Flags CIA - The World Factbook

Anyone know where and how this Ferry got into this? Video

New research reveals alarming albatross decline - The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

SetSail.com - the serious cruising sailor's website

Analytical Quality Water Test Kits and Drinking Water Test Kits

Turners Rock Anchorage

Bahamas \ Turks & Caicos Region - Caribbean Projection - Climatology of Caribbean Hurricanes - 1851-2005

Traveling with CO2 cartridges for your PFD

YouTube - Jonathan Blain - Trans-Atlantic Drama

safety_volvo_race.pdf (application/pdf Object)

YouTube - Jonathan Blain Interview on BBC News 24 Ellen Macarthur

Map Collections Home Page

YouTube - Das Boot

YouTube - Ellen MacArthur - motivation, preparation & communication p3

Kolor Kut Water Finder

THOMAS POINT LIGHT CHESAPEAKE

YouTube - Bring Me To Life

Portland Pudgy multifunction dinghy--the fun boat that could save your life!

Girls found after dinghy capsises Video

USA and Canadian Importer for Bavaria Yachts of Germany

Shark bites man on beach- Video

USCG Licensing Drug Test Information

I tried to save him: Earthrace skipper - World - smh.com.au

Maritime Mobile Service Network

YouTube - Sailing off San Blas Islands Sunday J35

Navy Vessel Nears Hijacked Ship

Missing yacht washes up in Tonga | NATIONAL | NEWS | tvnz.co.nz

-- SUNSET PONTOON BRIDGE NC

Spectacular sailing in the Northsea - Google Video

Incredible Sinking Ship (warning host site displays nude model ads)
eblogx.de [.com|.net] | fun trash entertainment

-Glossary of Nautical Terms

Nautical Terms in Common Usage

Nautical Clothing - Boating Apparel - Nautical Apparel - Boating Clothes - Boat Apparel

Landfall Navigation® Marine Safety & Nautical Charts Chandlery

Stanley London Brass Sextants, Compasses, Telescopes, Cutlasses, and Nautical Instruments

YouTube - Ronstan sailing video

BERMUDA NEWS THE ROYAL GAZETTE

State Of Maryland Tide Finder

Guy Shoots Himself In The Head With Flare Gun Video

Nautical Woman - Shop nautical cargo, live the coastal boating lifestyle - live the life, live the love

Marine Diesels - detailed technical information.

Cargo Ship Collision With Bridge

The Wally A.k.a. Boat Of Awesome Video

----FORT JACKSON SAVANNAH-----

Runaway Sea Sounds and Imagination
Rocko Delray

An account of a grounding (Morgan 46) in the Keys
From the log of the yacht Flying Pig

VIDEO
Boost wifi range for laptop
Funny

Georgia Marshland wins a 25' battle

The Cruising Club of America

Trailor Sailor Forum (Very friendly and good for smaller sailboat crowd) http://bbs.trailersailor.com/forums/trailersailor/index.cgi

SSCA - Seven Seas Cruising Association - The Largest Cruising Organization In The World

VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuRvujRFsjY
Sailing in the Surf Hobie Tigers surfing.

The Cruising Club of America Seamanship Page

HEADING FOR THE GULFSTREAM FL

Abandoned Wrecks
http://www.opacity.us/gallery87_wrecks.htm

Frequencies, Nets, WX Schedules and Tables (updated July 2006)

Battery Types
http://www.vonwentzel.net/Battery/01.Type/index.html

Lake Champlain Canal Boats and Wrecks
http://ina.tamu.edu/LCcanalboats.htm

Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7LTubYoSBY&NR
Extreme 505

New One Hundred Dollar Laptop for 3rd World...Maybe for cruisers too someday?

Army Boat Grounding $80,000 bill for captain
http://www.ptreyeslight.com/stories/may19_05/shipwreck.html

Very Interesting Duo Gen Water / Wind Generator Combo
http://www.duogen.co.uk/video.htm

Denys_Rayner Founder of Westerly Yachts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denys_Rayner

Ampair.com Wind, Solar, Water Power
http://www.ampair.com/ampair/

Boat Crash
http://www.seeitornot.faketrix.com/crash-pictures-78-boat-wreck-two-water-craft-crash.htm

VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcIBlkz7f10
Chris Columbus video with Rod Stewart tune I am Sailing From zgqzgq

Emarine Inc Wind Generators Solar Panels and other parts and supplies
http://www.emarineinc.com/

Chesapeake Looking South From Annapolis

WesterlyOwnersForum
http://www.westerly-owners.co.uk/woabb/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=3b4f5aaf964cc16c16616445eada23c1

Cruising Sailors Bulletin Board
http://www.cs-bb.com/forums/CSBB/index.cgi

aboutsailing.com
http://sailing.about.com/

VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKvhPxLpeQs
Nacra F18 Sailing

South West Wind Power Air X Marine Wind Generator
http://www.emarineinc.com/products/wind_generators/airxmarine.html

Great Pictorial of different sailing ships
http://www.njscuba.net/artifacts/ship_sailing_ship.html

Wrecks and shipfinds in Norway
http://www.abc.se/~pa/uwa/wreck-no.htm

Coast Guard Float Plan
http://floatplan.uscgaux.info

Whale slams into sailboat
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/3164413.stm

VIDEO
Beach Day very windy

Air X Marine Wind Generator as sold by Northern Tool
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200326891_200326891

The last stand of the Tin Can Sailors
http://www.tincansailorsbook.com/

Tides Page
http://www.tidesonline.com/station.php?stationname=SavannahRiverEnt

Yacht Crews Wanted
http://www.crewseekers.net/

Sun Rise and Sunset page
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=623

VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OYV0chVUUU
Moth Sailing Dinghy-Great Britain- Moth Foilers

The Sailing Crew
http://www.apparent-wind.com/sailing-crew.html

NOAAs Buoy Data Site
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-yQpwht1bY&NR
more yacht racing From lesterjohnson

ApparentWind.Com
http://www.apparent-wind.com/

---------------------ANCHORED RIVIERA BEACH

Sail Timer Tacking Software
http://www.theoriginalsailtimer.com/

Many Large Sailing Ships links
http://www.apparent-wind.com/sailing-page.html

Weather Site with Gulfstream Maps (Very Good)
http://www.wxadvantage.com/

San Francisco Sailing.com
http://www.sfsailing.com/

Morse Code site and good training software
http://www.cq2k.com/

Morse Code translater (Very cool!)
http://morsecode.scphillips.com/jtranslator.html

Cruiser Log Forum
http://www.cruiserlog.com/forums/

VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4BCSKTbB98
Trimarans - Lunatic Sailing From LiveSailDie

Marine Jobs offshore employment
http://www.marinejobs1.com/

Donna Lange (Intrepid Solo Sailor just round Horn)
http://www.donnalange.com/home.html

VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-PpU8MUbHE
this is yacht racing From lesterjohnson

Salinity Test
http://www.qacps.k12.md.us/cms/sci/testsal.htm#test

Bird Identification Page
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/

VIDEO
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/273363/windrave_sailboat/

Raster Charts from NOAA (Very important)
http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/Raster/resources.htm

Free Cruising Log
http://www.cruiser.co.za/host.asp

Ships of the Sea Museum in Savannah GA

Cruiser's Companion AKA Float Plan Page

Lectronic Latitude

Maritime Mobile Service Network

.......Liberty Call!......

Bosun's Supplies (rigging and hardware)

VIDEO
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/283770/seacart_30_two_handed_sailing/

Single Handed Sailing Society (racing)

VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o9golmHmo4&NR
49er Sailing

Oar Club Forum

VIDEO
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/217918/sailing_strait_dealer/

Cruising Guide for the Thorney Path from Carribean Compas

VIDEO
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/307379/wild_and_wet_model_sailing/

Compas (The Carribean's Monthly Marine Magazine)

VIDEO
Cape Disappointment USCG
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/358144/wild_boatride/

.......On the way to Jupiter FL.....

ONLINE STORE
PYACHT.NET

http://www.bethandevans.com/
http://www.bethandevans.com/links.htm (Even more links from their site!)

http://www.sailingbreezes.com/

Sailboatowners.com

Video

http://www.teesships.freeuk.com/index.htm
welcomes all ship enthusiasts

VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o9golmHmo4&NR
49R Sailing

Weather where you sail site
http://www.sailflow.com/

VIDEO
Anchored Jupiter Rocko Delray

http://www.sailsarana.com/Nav_Info/noonsite.htm
Navigation by noon site Very interesting site

http://www.marlinbree.com/

Becalmed off of Canaveral

Local Notice to Mariners CG site Important!

USCG Light List (Important!)
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pubs/LightLists/LightLists.htm

VIDEO
Becalmed off of Canaveral..Rocko Delray

http://www.nlmoc.navy.mil/cgi-bin/main.pl?ocean
Gulfstream currents can be found on this page

Caro Coops another buoy data site
http://nautilus.baruch.sc.edu/carocoops_website/index.php

VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTQ02vI4xt4&NR
470 spinnaker drop

amazon.com/ Book about Stone Age Mariners
Wake of JOMO I haven't read it yet but looks good

VIDEO
SPAG Tower just off of Grays Reef almost there: Rocko Delray

amazon.com Book: A Speck on the Sea
Looks interesting

VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDToL593cmU
Racing Collection of funny moments in sailing.

AIS Overview Coast Guard Site
What is the Automatic Identification System (AIS)?

Selected Caribbean
Shortwave Weather Reports from Caribbean Compass

VIDEO
Sailing to Jupiter Rocko Delray

NavRules for Windows© home page
Excellent Site! The Official "NavRules for Windows" Home Page

Robert E White Marine Instruments

Integrated Publishing
Vector Charts and Ploters

Integrated Publishing
Excellent Site Chock full of stuff!

Grog's Rope Care Index
Animated Knots by Grog

Navy Surplus
Department of Defense Reutilization
And Marketing

Little Blewtooth at

Riviera Bch Marina

Coastal Observation Lab at Rutgers University
Coastal Ocean Observation Lab - Rutgers University

Current Velocities of the Gulf Stream (DEOS)
DEOS: Current velocities of the Gulf Stream

Bellingham Chart Printers: Discounted Nautical Charts & Reproductions, Electronic Charts & Navigational Software

OceanGrafix

Bluewater Books and Charts

VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DSVYGHVCsk
RC Flying Boat AMAZING!

Bowditch Online
Bowditch -The American Practical Navigator

Free Compass Roses

NOAA Tides and Currents - Home

[World Tidal Site Selection]

Site Selection: U.S. Lower East Coast (North Carolina through Florida Keys)

......Savannah River.........

Lesson 9: Shipboard Compasses

Maps and Compasses - Coastal Navigation - Swinging the compass

Helen Well, University of Queensland Navigation Site
Maps and Compasses - Coastal Navigation - Swinging the compass
Maps and Compasses - About the project

Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BFux2AAMso&eurl=
Sinking of the Oceanus

Florida Boat Ramps

Bridge Nov. 2006: Safety at sea depends on vigilance
MegaYacht News Page

Wind Reports and Wind Cams Wind Surfing Page
iWindsurf.com - home

BoatUS.com: Good Old Boat Magazine

Savannah Sailing Center

Technical Articles
From John's Boat Stuff.com

WELCOME TO JOHN HOLTROP'S BOAT DESIGNS

Robin Knox-Johnston - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

.....Saint Augustine Creek....

Atlantic Rally for Cruisers official website

Bebi Electronics-Home of the Finest Marine LED Lighting Products on Sea (or Earth)!

The History of the Sextant

Dir of 7th Aux Coast Guard District Page (Lots of other links)

Knots page from the above site

Lots of info on blisters!
From Yachtsurvey.com

Trailer for the movie: "Deep Water" about Donald Crowhurst

ARRL Amature Radio News

The Bumfuzzle Cruising Page
bumfuzzle.com

Do-It-Yourself Sailing & Cruising Database

Welcome to Bulwagga Marine Anchors

Sailing Magazine : Full

Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTWIM25uycg&NR
Cargo Ship Heavy Weather

Cruising World Magazine

Anchoring info at Al's Software Sailing Page

Sailnet

Shiptalk

Aerial Photos and info of Marinas
Marinas.com

BoatOwners.com

MOB Stories (grim accounts)

Tide 28

....Dockside Savannah......

KS Open 50 : Home

List of Solo Circumnavigators

Joshua Slocum Society

yachtsurvey.com

The Savannah International Boat Show

MarinePlanner.com

Free Boating Charts

Sailing Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQx87JzPhCI&NR
Cargo Ship Heavy Weather

http://www.boat-links.com/boatlink.html
Even more boat links!

Sail Magazine

Sailing Stock Footage and Video from Fotosearch

Sailing Singles

Sailing Singles of South Florida

http://www.t2p.tv/about/index.php

http://www.sail-vision.com/

World Waterways

Trailoring your boat?

All for now but I will keep updating as I find more good stuff.

Suggestions Welcome! Just post a reply with a link and I'll make sure and put it in.

Rocko

Three Dollar Coffee Can Pelorus

2006-12-31T21:49:00.000-05:00

I have liked the idea of getting a pelorus ever since I discovered what they were and what they were used for. I remember seeing them on the bridge of Navy ships and in the movies whenever someone would shout "Torpedo! Bearing 36 degrees" I always wondered what instrument it was they were looking through to come up with that.

The Pelorus or "Dumb Compass" is a simple little device that is nothing more than a compass rose and a sighting scope. It can be used to get angles from a moving or stationary ship to do things like get the bearing of other ships or landmarks. Another important job of the pelorus is for compass correction and the making up of a compass deviation card or deviation tables. Nowadays it seems that GPS units are being used for making up deviation cards but still, I like the idea of a device I can get angles of other objects while I’m under way or sail without having to interpret it with a hand bearing compass.

I began to look around for an inexpensive pelorus……NONE TO BE HAD! A few on Ebay that were WWII era models and one or two on a charting instrument site. They even wanted seven hundred dollars for a brass and wood one! Wow! They are rare or possibly being offered with that art mystique thing that so many of these marine supply houses do such a good business in. Things like really cool, shipy looking brass bells and barometers and art work for hundreds to thousands of bucks. Well of course that rules it out for me.

So I decided to just make one. Cant be that hard. I found a web site that allows you to download and print a free compass rose so I did that first. I got this one from :
www.maptools.com

Next I needed to enlarge it and make it water proof since I had printed it off on standard printer paper with an ink jet printer. I took it down to Office Depot and had them enlarge it first and then laminate it for me. Cost about two bucks and change.

Next I purchased a clear plastic ruler from Wal Mart for 49 cents to use as a sighting tool. It already had the holes in the center and edge which lined up perfectly with the graduation marks on the compass rose. The clear plastic seems to amplify the light and make it easy to read.

The one thing I did not want to do is use any metal at all because of the corrosion problem with instruments on a boat. I have already had a pair of parallel rulers that had their aluminum pins get sticky from corrosion. I already had these little plastic bolts in my tool bin but I am sure you can purchase them from some place like Home Depot for less than a buck.

I used a plastic Folger’s coffee container for the platform because it has a nice little gripping handle and a plastic lid that fits tight but can still be spun in place. I also purchased a little suction cup hook that I got from the dollar store. There were six to a pack so prorated that would run about 18 cents.

The only other piece of material I needed was a small piece of foam board that I cut with a scissors to back the compass rose and a small piece of half inch PVC pipe that I cut cross ways and used for sighting rings. (Not really necessary; a piece of tape or push pin would have done just as well but I thought this added a nice touch. A couple of dabs of silicone sealer and that is all the material needed.

I drilled a sighting/aligning hole in the coffee container which was conveniently marked with a molded in dimple to mark it’s center. Not sure why it was there but it worked out perfectly for the pelorus.

So here it is after putting it all together:

The suction cup can be used to mount it to the top of the cabin hatch or any smooth surface that is eye level when it is needed. First line it up fore and aft of the boat center line with the sighting/aligning holes and some reference marks that you pick out on the boat. I broke the hook on the suction cup off leaving just enough of it for a little lever. It has a little cam that pulls air out of the suction cup and serves to tighten down the bottom of the Folgers container as well. This keeps it pointing straight but still a little flexible to account for the rocking motion of the boat. I really don’t think gimbals would be needed if the boat is not rocking too badly.

Because the lid can be spun you can use it to create a deviation card for your compass. All you should have to do is find a set of charted range markers and have at it with the "Swinging Ship or Swinging Compass" exercise described in Chapman’s or some of the other navigation books.

Or of course keep it pointing straight ahead and use it for getting your bearings.

Another thing I added was the option to remove the sighting scope and replace it with a shadow pin for use as a sundial. When no range markers are to be found (say at sea). Again, Chapmans has info on how to use the compass rose and shadow pin. I used the tip off of a broken fishing rod and one of my little plastic bolts cut and fitted in the hollow center of the rod end. You can screw it in the place where the center pin was for the sighting scope.

So, I know it looks a little amateurish (kind of like a Cub Scout project) but I think it should work and be accurate enough for what I want to do with it. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated since I haven’t tried it out yet.

"Pirates! Bearing 28 degrees!"

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year!

2006-12-20T11:45:00.000-05:00

Topless Dancer Table and Compass

2006-10-06T15:08:00.000-04:00

Because Blewtooth is so beamy she has a great little cabin. The settee can be turned into quite a comfortable double bed and the sink/galley arraignment has turned out some pretty good meals. But the one problem has always been where to eat. There is a fold out table of sorts on the port side but I think it was originally meant for charts and only one person could sit there in a very uncomfortable way. Besides it is too close to the main hatch and just isn’t practical. So most meals have always been picnic style.
I had mulled over the idea of buying or building a table for quite a while and finally I came up with a solution.

Blewtooth has what I like to call a topless dancer pole. Here is a picture of it and you can readily see why I call it that. There it is on the right hand side of the picture:

You might notice that it is dead center in the middle of the cabin and is excellent for hanging on to in the rough and I assume that it adds a good deal of structural support to the cabin top. Because of it’s location it stymied my plans to simply purchase and modify some kind of little café table that I could take down and put up as necessary. So, what to do?

I had just gotten the video "Storm Tactics" by Lin and Larry Pardee. Great video! Lots of good information and entertaining. I am now a solid Pardee fan. In it they have what I guess is a second compass mounted on to their topless dancer pole. They had it clamped on and that is what gave me the inspiration to build the table in the same way. I also have an old Airguide compass that I wanted to mount and so I am stealing their idea for the compass as well.

So off to my Dad’s old wood shed I went and rummaged around for something to make it with. I had helped him install a new dishwasher and remember tearing out a plywood shelf that had served for years for pots and pans. It had support rails underneath it that gave me an another idea. I would make it so that I could flip it in both directions; one side to be used for a table and chart table and the flip side could be used for a rough weather dining table. (From my experience, I will probably use that side when on anchor on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon to help keep the food in place because of all of the boat wakes. When I'm cruising off shore I probably wont bother to set it up too often)

I used some pine because the oak was adding a lot to the weight. I am not the best wood worker and fitter but I think this will be sufficient. Here are the clamps. I used SS carriage bolts and screws.

And then I put the saw to my last bit of precious teak to make the mounting for the compass

The teak compass mount of course I won’t paint but I guess I’ll have to paint the table. I hate sanding or finishing wood and painting anything. Maybe I could take it to some cabinet shop to have them do it for me or maybe I’ll just sand it up a little and slap some white paint on it. I will think about that later.
Anyway, here it all is mounted on the shinny topless dancer pole.

And compass

And table flipped upside down for rocking and rolling days:

I wish I had a real topless dancer instead. But if I ever do get one I can unbolt this stuff in an instant!

And that is that.

My next project as you can see will be some sewing. (And saving up for a new bimini. I have sewed and patched this old thing a hundred times)

Good Sailing,
Rocko

Bull River

2006-09-18T16:56:00.000-04:00

On Anchor
Bull River, Georgia

September 17, 2006
0745
Caught a wonderful fish yesterday evening. Left the dock at around 1500 and motored up to Little Goatie Island, ran up on to the little beach, dropped the anchor and jumped in the water and began cleaning the bottom with the hoe from Dad’s tool shed. Was surprised to find a lot of barnacles. Bottom is still stubly but much better.
Then got underway and motored up Turner’s Creek and dropped anchor at the head of the Bull River at Saint Augustine Creek. Started fishing right away and as usual ….nothing. This time was slightly better because I was using one of these new "smelly" plastic worms. I hate using live bait and fooling with it. So this was much better for me. I cast out to the marsh grass over and over again and was about to give up when I hooked it. OK I said to myself… enough fishing. Your are all I need. In no time he was on the grill.

Had a problem with the grill flaring up but that was the only thing wrong with a near perfect meal of trout and fresh tomato slices washed down with a beer and a piece of banana cake for desert. Spent a lot of time cleaning up the boat and then tried relaxing. Talked a little on the cell phone and then turned in. There is no feeling in the world like swaying on anchor with a nice breeze coming through the hatch. But it became a fitful night because of all of the pesky cockroaches and spiders that have managed to stow away after being tied up to a dock. Kept waking up with a start after feeling things that tickled the hairs on my arm and hearing rustling sounds in the dark corners of the boat. I am now determined to put a bug bomb in the cabin when I get dockside. That is one of the things you don’t have to worry so much about when you are swinging on a hook. I like anchoring out or being on a mooring sooo much better than dockside. About 0500 the wind died completely and I woke again with the high pitched whine of a mosquito in my ear. Closed the hatches and lit a citonela candle and tried to get back to sleep but couldn’t. But it was ok. Turned on the radio and thought about getting up and making a cup of coffee which I finally did and savored it while looking out of the porthole at a beautiful sunrise.

Going to check the charts for Lazaretta Creek and planning on heading out to Tybee Roads and then back in to Lazaretta on the incoming tide. Hope to have a good sail today.

So…..writing this the following day… motored up Saint Augustine and into the Savannah River and set main. Had a very slow, motor sail down to the mouth of the river. The wind however had disappointed again. Very light. Many freighters as usual to contend with. After finally getting past the Pilot’s Dock the wind picked up slightly and I had a little more sea room so I killed the motor, raised the 150 and started tacking back and forth. Just then "of course" there was a veritable herd of freighters that decided to come in and go out. I was hailed by the Pilots and asked to take care. They were very polite and just wanted to caution me of their approach. I assured them that I would keep well out of the channel if necessary. I then heard a call to Sea Tow from a trimaran that was several miles out of Tybee Roads. She was negotiating a tow because her engine had quit and said the wind had died. I had just past marker 21 when the wind died completely for me as well. Then it picked up again slightly but shifted. I could see Lazareta Creek but was determined not to motor over there. Then I was hailed by Sea Tow who had seen my sails from Lazaretta and thought that I was the disabled Trimaran. I told them that I wasn’t, just some crazy guy trying to dodge freighters out in the mouth of the Savannah River with barely any wind. I got request from him to "take care" also and that was all I needed. I could either turn on the kicker and just motor my self out of the mouth of the river and back into Lazaretta through the south channel or turn around. I opted for just turning around. The wind, though still weak had picked up a little and was now becoming steady and along with the tide it began pushing me back up river. I sheeted the main in tight and left the 150 up and it filled out gently and with little flapping and I was satisfied with this arraignment. The parade of freighters had gone by and I suddenly had the river to myself. I had a nice straight stretch for about a half a mile and so I set the tiller pilot, ducked below and grabbed the chips and salsa, came back up and popped the top on a cold beer and sat back to watch the scenery go slowly past. The shore line seemed so inviting and shady; sometimes marshy and other times little island hammocks with driftwood strewn beaches. I had spent many hours on them in my youth. It was a little hot but other than that it was a perfect moment. I kept the stereo off and just listened to the sounds of the river and thought about what it must have been like to have been on a great sailing ship in the days before tugs. All of the anticipation of making landfall, then the stress of negotiating a river's mouth with shifting strong currents and winds and then through it and then this: peace. A gentle wind pushing you up river. Every sailor must have taken a moment to enjoy it before the anticipation of landing. I would have loved to have been there for that moment.

I am learning to not be bothered by what other people think of me for not using the motor. So I’m not booming along on a reach or close hauled and looking all striking out in the bay. I am still sailing. And I am enjoying myself and this is the payoff.

So, the moment of course past and this time there seemed to be a herd of runabouts buzzing around the next bend. Some outbound and some motoring along the sandy banks. Several had beached and were picnicking in the shade. I sailed slowly past and they waved and I waved back and it was a good sail.

I dropped the 150 just before Fields Cut and turned the kicker on, motored back through Saint Augustine and dropped the hook in the same spot in Bull River. I dropped the main and tidied up a bit and went below for a nap. When I woke up I thought about fishing again but the tide didn’t seem right so that was the end of it. I raised anchor and motored back through Turners Creek and back to the dock on Whitemarsh.

A good trip and I didn’t feel too lonely. I need to sail more now I know. It is such a release for me. Cleanses my soul. Next time I will make it out of the rivers mouth and break free onto the sea. Maybe next weekend.

Good Sailing,
Rocko

My Westerly Tiger

2006-09-09T22:02:00.000-04:00

I love this little boat. After having a Windward 21 that sailed well and introduced me to sailing but was just too small, delicate and old and then moving up to a Morgan 28 (quite a substantial and comfortable boat but not a good sailor with the center board up) I found the perfect little boat for me. She is small enough for one man to handle, almost manhandle with a weight of only five thousand pounds empty, I am able to virtually pull her off of a sandbar by wadding out and yanking on a halyard, but damn seaworthy and is the best behaved boat I have ever sailed. Here are her specs that I pulled from some web site. I cant remember where I found this but like all the other web sites or publications, has nothing but good things to say about Westerly Tigers:

Westerly Tiger

BuilderWesterly Marine, Hampshire
Length OA25' 1"
Sail Area311 sq ft
Length WL21' 10"
RigSloop
Beam8' 9"
Cabins2

The Tiger is a stretched version of the Westerly Cirrus, with fairly typical Westerly looks, except for no "bow knuckle" as seen on Centaurs etc. They are also slightly faster than Centaurs. Overall, the Tiger is a tough, capable small cruiser.
Draught4' 3"
Berths4/5
Displacement 5,260 lbs
Engine typeVolvo Penta MD1 or MD11 diesel or Vire 6 hp petrol inboard (former owners pulled the diesal and replaced with a Tohatsu 9.9 outboard which has worked like a champ)
Ballastnot knownEngine bhp6 - 12
Keel typeCast iron fin keel and spade rudder

"The Westerly Tiger is a relatively little known model from Westerly, being in many ways overshadowed by the huge success of the bilge-keeled Centaur, introduced the same year. Designed by John Butler in 1968, they were built to Westerly's normal high constructional standards - ie much more heavily built than almost all new yachts of similar size sold today. For this reason older Westerlys hold their price very well. Although a few inches shorter than the Centaur, they are slightly beamier, and as a result offer very similar interior space. With their well ballasted fin keel and 4' 3" draught, the performance is significantly better than the Centaur ( although Centaurs also sail very well ). The Tiger was phased out in 1976 with the arrival of the Westerly Pembroke - a fin-keeled version of the Centaur. "

My Tiger was sailed over to Florida from England via the Carribean on her own bottom and was modified with a pilot house but when she was sold to a young couple in the Keys she was restored to her original configuration with a slight change to her windows. Four beautiful round bronze portholes were added in place of the original ovals along with two extra stainless ones forward. Also I must add that the couple did such a great job on beefing up her standing rigging and heavier chain plates, great paint job and lots of other details. I have nothing but compliments to them about the job they did on her. I know it was a labor of love for them.

Here is a Wickapedia article about Dennis Raynier, the founder of Westerly and quite a guy.
He was a WWII Destroyer Captain, Writer, (wrote "The Enemy Below" remember the movie with Robert Mitchum!) and famous sailor and boat builder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denys_Rayner

I got the above article from the guy who published it after chatting with him on a Westerly forum.

Some of the improvements I have made lately are:

Installing a new toilet and holding tank system with macerator and deck pump out
Tiller Pilot
New instruments: Barometer, clock with tide clock, seawater temp guage
Air X wind turbine
Modified the old bimini off of Narenba (my former boat)
New Mainsail
Lazy Jacks
leading all lines aft with new blocks etc
Hatch locks

Adding:
A new table
Trying to save enough to get a bottom job and a dodger and replacing the old bimini
Also need new batteries

Mermaids, B Girls and Women Crew

2006-01-15T02:03:00.000-05:00

REVISITING MY FIRST SHIP: USS Barry DD933 (Destroyer)

My girlfriend and I took a trip to Washington DC and one of the most surprising sites was my old destroyer. I couldn’t have been prouder and happier to see her.
She brought back so many memories to me, some of them bitter sweet and caused me to reflect on many things. Also the many books I have read since of the interaction between ships and their crews. The difference between a pleasure yacht and a ship is big. It includes not only the size of the vessels but what is needed crew wise, to run a monster like this. A war ship is not just a ship but a military machine no different than a tank in many ways. Yet she was still a ship to me, also a cacophony of memories and voices in my head. I learned how to get along with others on it. I learned how to shut up if I didn’t want to get into big trouble. I went to Captain’s Mast (non judicial punishment) on it. I made great friends and got into fights. I also had so much fun that it was probably the greatest experience of my life. We never went to combat but we did suffer casualties by accident. We spent days and weeks on patrol. Somehow, through it all I was able to keep from being court marshaled and went on to other ships for another two years but the times I spent on the Barry were my most memorable.

I couldn’t believe she had not been turned into razor blades but there she was; preserved as a display in the Washington Navy Yard. I had first stepped aboard her as an eighteen year old boot camp fireman; fresh out of Machinist Mate “A” school in 1972. Now I was stepping aboard again in 2005. She had been my college, my baby sitter, school of hard knocks, prison and ship of dreams all rolled into one. I was a crewmember for a year and a half and she took me across the Atlantic and into the Med where we cruised amongst the Greek Islands and made many port calls. She is a gorgeous ship with a rakish hurricane bow that most destroyers of the day didn’t have. She was already getting up in years in 71. She had a very unique “1200 Pound” steam plant, sporting two 35K horsepower Westinghouse turbines. She was a sub hunter and was fitted with VDS and ASROC as well as two sets of torpedo tubes. She also carried a pair of 5” 54 guns, one forward and one aft.
I loved the way she charged through the waves with a rooster tale flying behind her. She was very long and lean. She could do thirty knots. Not so fast by today’s standards but she could do thirty knots through some pretty rough seas. Like all destroyers she rocked constantly from side to side and I got sea sick the first day out and stayed sick for days as we wandered into the Atlantic from Newport, Rhode Island. Finally getting my sea legs I began to explore every part of her. I was first assigned to the forward engine room but then was able to get transferred to Auxiliary division (better known as A-gang) where I was much happier. I then had the entire ship as my workstation because A-gang was responsible for things like steering, fire pumps and the fire main, the air conditioning and electrical system, the galley equipment, the compressors that charged the torpedo tubes and the anchor windlass among many other pieces of equipment and interior communications. Every morning after quarters, the rest of engineering was sent below decks to the engine and fire rooms but we were given free reign to work by ourselves in every part of the ship. I enjoyed this immensely and was able to make friends with many different crew members from the corpsmen to the boatswain mates to the guys in EW.

One of the things I loved to do most was be part of the boat crew. The Barry had two small boats, one a motor whale boat that did most of the utilitarian things like retrieve practice torpedoes, ferry the crew ashore, and just about anything else. It was slow but very seaworthy. Then there was the captain’s gig, a much faster launch with a cabin in the center and a cockpit forward with steering wheel. Every Navy boat crew has to have someone from engineering on board in case of motor trouble but most of my mates didn’t care to do it so I always volunteered to go in their stead. This meant that on duty days, when we were in port, I would still be going ashore to ferry the liberty crew there and back again. I was not able to knock off until past two A.M.the next day but it was worth it to me to be able to ride the boats. I loved it in any weather.

After I got out of the Navy I saw and then read the Sand Pebbles and was surprised at how close I felt, as most “snipes” as members of engineering were called, to the principle character of Holdman. I later read Conrad, Melville and Dana. The stress on a crew to get along with each other is truly material for novels.

We crossed the Atlantic with a supply ship full of dependants and several other destroyers in our squadron, and entered the Mediterranean, passing through the Staights of Gibralter and then on to Phaleron Bay in the port of Athens. Our dependents off-loaded there and started setting up house- keeping for the career men aboard while the Barry and her sister destroyers set about cruising up and down the Med, Aegean and Adriatic seas. We called on so many ports I can’t remember them. For at the time, I was not so much interested in geography as I was in learning about bar girls (which we called “B” girls) among other women. I lost almost my entire paycheck the first night we were in Athens to one. Later I learned about having the paymaster withhold some of my money so that would not happen again. B Girls were interesting and endearing creatures to me even though they did consider me as prey. They weren’t accustomed to taking off their clothes or compromising themselves in any way other than telling incredible lies to gullible swabs who hadn’t seen a woman for weeks. Sailors would buy them extremely expensive drinks for the mere light kiss or touch of their hands on a thigh. A whiff of perfume, a breathy whisper of how she was falling in love in his ear would mesmerize and hold him senseless and painless until the next morning when he discovered how much money he had spent on “Champagne”.

Our crew suffered much strife in those days just after desegregation. We had to come to terms with race then much like prisoners had to in the jails because there was simply no place to go. A war ship is in many ways like a prison. Especially in the days before women were allowed to be crew. However our stress was of course, relieved periodically when we made ports of call (and there were many on the Barry) I also should add here (since I mentioned the word “prison”) to stop anyone from even thinking about it, that I never observed any “gay” incidents aboard that ship the entire time I served on her. Of course now, we are all more liberally minded but back then it simply wasn’t tolerated.
But race problems almost spelled disaster for the Navy on several occasions in the early seventies. Vietnam, though winding down, was still going on. Nixon was having to face down the Russians in the Med during the Yom Kipper War. The Barry at that time, spent a lot of her days on patrol off the coast of Libya. Navy morale was at it’s lowest when a race riot broke out on one of the carriers in the fleet.

There were several bitter fights between black and white sailors and other incidents aboard the Barry then. But somehow we managed to maintain the ship and do our duty through it all. It should stand as a testament to Navy discipline and the officers and crew.

Now, the compartment where I once slept, jammed in amongst thirty other sailors, is still being used to quarter Boy Scout Troops who I was told, visit frequently to spend the night on board. My girlfriend and I went down the ladder and I showed her where my old rack (bunk) was. She laughed and slid in it and I snapped her picture. I never would have thought that I would have had a girl in my rack ( all visiting women were forbidden below decks in those days) It was a true sailor’s dream even after all of these years!
In the present Navy I guess this would be just another ho hum thing. I am sure they are having to deal with on board romances constantly. How could they not with women going up and down those ladders.
I must say that I don’t envy today’s destroyer men if they have women crew on board. Not because it is bad luck or that women wouldn’t make good sailors or any such thing but something must have been lost in the romance of it all. I can remember vividly how I longed to see a woman’s face and hear a female voice after spending weeks on end out of site of them. Many are convinced that this is how mermaids came into existence. Lonely sailors, desperately anthropomorphizing things like seals and dolphins into women. Are all the mermaids gone now? And what about the B girls? What are they going to do? Have they all disappeared too? How will they be able to stay in business without men who haven’t seen a woman for thirty days? What would “Homang” (Holdman) or Billy Budd have to say about it all?

Anyway, I was very glad to have seen the USS Barry DD933 again. I have a niece who has joined the Navy now and taken my old peacoat. I call her Sailor when I see her.
I guess the new Navy will have new romances, something like Lieutenant Ohura or Captain Janeway romances of Star Trek fame. Maybe the new romantic tales of the sea will be written by women and at this moment the next Mellville is putting on her make up and getting ready for liberty call.

Google Earth, New tool for cruisers!

2005-08-23T21:50:00.000-04:00

Google Earth is the GREATEST!

Do a Google search for “Google Earth” then download the software for it and you will have one of the most enjoyable pieces of geography software ever. A good friend of mine just turned me on to it. Imagine an interactive globe that brings any place that you touch with your finger into view. Just like you are in a space ship landing from outer space. Or, blasting off. It’s really allot of fun.

I have been looking at inlets for days now with it.

As you know from my last post I tend to get very stressed out when it comes to inlets. The first inlet I ever sailed through was the Boca Inlet. It has a reputation and I have talked to a person who lost her runabout in it once upon a time when her motor broke down. She swam for the shore and made it and then watched as her little boat got pounded by the surf. Sea Tow had to drag it off on the next tide. Cost her a bundle, I am sure.

All inlets can be dangerous but especially the small shallow ones.

Other inlets that I have heard can be terrible are Sebastian and Jupiter. I have been through Jupiter on a beautiful day and was shocked when several hours later the weather turned it into a ferocious looking mess. Here is a video of the sail before the wind picked up:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3363931104721794964
Then, here I am, anchored the next day with the wind gusting. I don’t have a video of the inlet but I observed it just two hours after I went through it from the top of the Colonial Bank Building not a half a mile away and it had REALLY changed! Big breakers almost all the way across.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8756255125756123172
As you can see from this video that another problem I tend to have is trying to find a place to land my dinghy. There are a lot of very cranky people out there when it comes to asking them if you can just tie your little row boat up for a day or two. But that’s another story. I am also using Google Earth to find anchorages. You can zoom right in on them and even spot the dinghy landing in some places!

Getting back to inlets; Jupiter Inlet has a fantastic looking lighthouse and is very famous for that alone. Also there is a great story about it written around the turn of the century by one of the original defenders of the America’s Cup. He had taken his new bride with him on a sail around the peninsula of Florida on a shoal draft center board sloop with no motor and became “Caught on a Lee Shore”! The wind had picked up to the point where breakers were completely covering the inlet. His wife was taken off by the life saving crew of the lighthouse and rowed through the surf line. She was wearing one of those long old fashioned dresses. You can imagine what might have happened to her if the boat had capsized while shooting the waves!
Then he and his mate brought the sloop through and barely missed being pounded on a shoal. It is a very exciting read. You can find the story in the book “Tales of Old Florida”

I have sailed with no motor through the Boca Inlet several times but I have been blessed with good weather each time. Only once did we have it a little rough. I used the kicker then and my ten year old daughter after seeing the look of fear on my face, panicked, climbed down in the cabin and began to pray! I have an expressive face that she picked up on and after that she was always reticent to go through that inlet again. The thing about it is that it’s so calm and inviting most of the time. But then, when the weather changes LOOKOUT. Especially when the breakers line up all the way across it. Then it’s best to just try for another inlet if you can. It’s chilling to know that Florida Inlets take on average, six lives a year.

I found a web page by a fellow named Ray McAllister that is very informative about Hillsboro Inlet as well as other inlets with great advice on how to handle getting through on a rough day. Here it is:
http://www.underseas.org/docs/ray-roughinlet.html
He has some experience with the Hillsboro Inlet which has a bigger reputation than Boca I think. Apparently there are some shoals there.
I found a good website about fishing off of jetties:
http://jettyfishing.com/jetties/jetties.php?op=hillsboro and here is an aerial photo of Hillsboro from that site:
http://jettyfishing.com/jetties/jetties.php?op=hillsboro&jetty=hillsboro&imagepath=/jetties/florida/images/hillsboro/aerial/hillsboro_inlet_arial_2.gif

Also, Hillsboro is the inlet where it is believed one of the famous “Barefoot Mailmen of Florida” perished while trying to swim it. .

Hillsboro is a natural inlet while Boca is man made. Hillsboro has a great lighthouse as well. I have never been through Hillsboro but thousands of people go through it every weekend just like all of the rest. Most are in motor boats and many don’t realize the terrible things that can happen if they lose power. Sailors have to be even more careful because we don’t have the power or speed to bend nature to our will.

But after all of that worrying about inlets, they are still the most thrilling part of beach where people fish, party, surf, and beach comb (not good to swim) and I will always try to find the inlet first, every time I go to the beach to park my lounge chair because it is truly where the ocean meets the land (the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object). I could gaze at them for hours from the shore.
Well, back to Google Earth.

RUNAWAY SEA SOUNDS

2005-08-20T16:05:00.000-04:00

Balseros? Fisherman? MOBs*? Castaways? Robbers? Birds? Ghosts?

One of the things that sets sailing apart from motoring is the ability to hear other sounds besides the roar and drone of an engine. You can hear the sea as well as feel it. There are many sounds out there. For a person with an imagination it is like a rich soup and when you are alone the sounds are ten times more intense. One’s emotions change the flavor of that soup even with the same recipe. Fear makes a wave or a gull sound one-way and sadness another. Happiness gives it a new flavor and loneliness still another. My most memorable experience with this was several years ago on one of my first solo trips. I was bringing our little Windward 21 up from Biscayne Bay to Lake Worth. My emotions at the time were high in a bad way.

I had just had a terrible fight with my wife. I left the dock at Coral Gables By The Sea in the morning. Unlike my mood the weather was good but there was a hurricane marching slowly towards the area and Miami would be feeling it’s effects in several days. . My anxiety about the storm added to my bad feelings. I tried hard to shake them off, convincing myself that nothing should spoil this much anticipated trip. The sun was shining bright and skies were still clear as I headed off. The wind was coming out of the southeast but it was not much. About six knots maybe. I had my boat ready to go. She was an old twentyone foot swing keeled sloop. Crossing Biscayne Bay was pleasant and I made for the Florida Light, poking along at around three knots max. I was still fairly new to sailing and for some reason I had yet to get it through my head that loading a small boat down with way too much water, extra heavy tool boxes, and other needless junk would make her sail like molasses. On any other day my slow speed wouldn’t have mattered, especially out on the Bay. It is indeed, a true sailor’s paradise. The Ragged Keys, Boca Chica and Elliots Key provide protection. You can barely see them from the mainland. It was like a little sea made just for me and my little boat. The depth barely ever gets above twelve feet; just perfect for all but the deepest keeled boats. In spite of my memories of the night before the sounds of the birds and splash of small waves were still, all happy ones. But I was going to leave the Bay that day and head north up to West Palm Beach and feelings of fear and loneliness would soon change those sounds.
It was still late morning when I was heading east through the markers of Stiltsville, the little group of houses built on stilts just to the south of Key Biscayne. Florida Light passed slowly by to port. Now things would begin to go wrong in a series of bad decisions. In hindsight my first mistake was not being bold enough to get out into the Gulf Stream. Instead, because I had so little experience I took an impatient, quick left and headed north too soon. I was close to the beach of Key Biscayne. The wind hadn’t picked up by one oclock and it must have been a cross current, along with the extra weight and my lack of tactical knowledge about sailing that kept me crawling along. I am one of those people who easily loses track of time, especially when I’m sailing. It seems the clock begins to spin faster as soon as I set the sails. Soon, it was past eight in the evening and still I hadn’t made it to Port Everglades. I had hardly noticed the darkness falling. The many thousands of lights of South Beach begin to shimmer and blink making me realize that it was late. I suddenly remembered to switch on my running lights and began to pay attention to the compass. The little hand held GPS I was carrying gave me a Latitude and Longitude and after checking the chart I found myself just north of Haulover Inlet. The wind shifted to an easterly and began to pick up a bit. I altered my course to east in hopes of getting a push from the Gulf Stream but it also caused me to have to point and so I lost power from the sails. My mood and sense of well-being began to suffer in the darkness. Sailing like this, just lolling along by myself brought on random thoughts and emotions; a sense of foreboding and then just as quickly a sense of hope and then musing about something trivial. As time would go by the sense of foreboding would begin to dominate.

My wife and I were on our way to a second separation and the bitter words we had shared made me angry enough to stay gone for a long time. But now in the darkness the comforts I had known with her and our family brought on a longing to make things right again. I missed those sweet memories of when life was good. An ache in my heart was becoming stronger by the hour and I wanted to hear the sounds of my kids voices. The light pollution from the City of Miami drowned out the faintest stars but they still managed to put on a show in the sky above me and I wished upon them that I could be with her and our kids right then. I made a decision to call and try to patch things up when the trip was over. The sea began a gentle rolling as I tried to just will my little sailboat to go faster.

I switched on the VHF and turned to a weather channel. The mechanical voice was giving information about the storm, still way to the southwest but was now moving rapidly towards southeast Florida, perhaps arriving in this area in several days. Then came the predictions of heavy rains the following afternoon with increased winds and seas. My sense of foreboding began to turn to anxiety about getting to Port Everglades that evening. What if I went into Haulover? I thought. It was still just a couple of miles off to port. I checked my map and the clearance on the bridge was low but still enough for this little boat to make it under. I could tie up or anchor there in safety, get some rest and try moving on in the morning. I didn’t want to get too sleepy out on the ocean and drift off so close to the beach. I tried to make the anxiety go away so that I could think more clearly. After a few moments I reasoned that I should just stick it out and keep heading for Port Everglades. I remembered another time some twenty years ago when I was a young sailor on a Navy ammunition ship. We had just come from three weeks in Guantanamo and spent several days cruising up and down Miami Beach close to this very same spot, perhaps even where I was now. It was a disappointing cruise, not getting to call on Miami but instead just stalking up and down the beach while a sonar technician was ferried from shore in the mornings to work on our equipment and then ferried back in the evening. We spent our nights sitting on deck and looking with longing at those merry lights. Now, here I was again, the captain of my own ship, however little and silly but even lonelier still.

I sailed on for a while longer and the speed of the boat increased a little. Then I heard a noise in the darkness behind me. It sounded like a human voice. I listened hard but it went away and all I heard was the sloshing of the waves. I turned back to my compass light dismissing it as just some sound distortion, maybe a bird. I sailed on and began to agonize again over what to do. I looked at the dazzling array of lights on the beach and looked for something flashing but knew that I was too far out now to discern the marker for Haulover Inlet, especially in the confusion of all of those other lights.

Then, I heard the voice again, more clearer and louder now. It was male. It was also Spanish. My head snapped around and I peered hard into blackness. I stood up in the cockpit and went to the cabin for my spotlight. I had no autopilot and was too inexperienced to think about trying to trim the boat for a steadier ride and so she immediately began to wander off course, heading up into the wind. I fumbled with the cigar lighter plug of the spot light but had to sit down and man the tiller again before putting the boat in irons. After some effort I was able flash the light around. I saw nothing but the reflection from the occasional white foam. The beam from the light would bounce off the water in the distance but I could see nothing close by. I didn’t speak Spanish and don’t even think I could have made out what he was saying if he were speaking English but it had a conversational tone. Just some fisherman I speculated. Voices carry amazingly far on the water.

Now came my imagination and I remembered the stories of modern day pirates. Because of the tone of the voice I immediately dismissed the idea of a “MOB” (Man Overboard). They would have been shouting in any language. Then I considered the tales of drug runners who had been known to commandeer small boats in these waters for their deliveries, sometimes making the owners and crew “disappear” beneath this vast sea. What if they were rafters from Cuba or Haiti? Only several days before I watched a documentary on the Cuban Balseros taking to the Gulf Stream; many in just large inner tubes. Not noticing me in time they may have suddenly been shushing each other to let me sail by, laying flat in their little boats, rafts or tubes in the darkness, hoping I hadn’t heard or seen them. I thought of the law of having to make it to dry land before being allowed to stay,. This was disturbing, I thought. Perhaps if I saw them they would want to kill me because I would tell on them; call the Coast Guard. Would I call the Coast Guard? I considered this. Could I bring myself to be the one who ends this person’s attempt to make it to America? I had always admired their courage. How could I do that? If I did see someone or something perhaps I should just pass by as if I hadn’t noticed? But if I didn’t they might drown out here or right at this moment, be on the verge of dying from exposure and dehydration. Such a brutal trip! As I grappled with these ideas I heard the voice again and, again I groped for the spot and flashed it all about. This time I saw something directly behind me. It was almost at the end of the range of the spot but sure enough there it was, the faint outline of a small, aluminum skiff; barely fourteen feet if that much. I thought I saw the upright figures of two men. I turned away to steer and then turned back and caught the boat again in the light. I could see them better this time, even their faces. They didn’t wave but just sat there. I heard no engine but the sound of a small outboard would be hard to hear at that distance. What were they doing, at least three miles out in the Atlantic and so late at night in such a small open boat? Are they crazy, desperate? My heart had leapt at first but my inner voice of reason won out. “They are just fishing” it told me. I turned off the spot because I knew it would have had to be very annoying to them by now. I calmed myself down and began to concentrate on making my decision on what to do. I would be lying if I said that this experience had no influence on me suddenly deciding to make for Haulover Inlet. I pushed the tiller over and headed southwest. The main boom jibed with a pop and the rocking motion of the boat changed a bit with the new direction of the swells. The worst part about this sudden and silly panic was that I hadn’t considered what the tides were doing at Haulover Inlet! The jib filled out nicely on a wing and wing and I speculated on a compass course, not wanting to stop to check the chart just yet. I just wanted to put some distance between that mysterious little aluminum skiff and myself. I hazarded a quick glance back to the port side to see if I could catch a glimpse of it but didn’t have time to stare. Running wing and wing required all of my concentration now. But the voices came again; louder and gave me a start. They must be getting closer? Then my voice of reason caught up with me again. “You are to their lee”, it said. “Ah, makes sense!” I said to myself out loud. They had to be louder when I was downwind of them. I steadied myself and sailed on. I didn’t hear them again.

The sounds I would later hear would actually justify my next panic attack. Now I had all of the dazzle of the lights of South Beach in my eyes and all of the blackness of the sea behind me. Though it felt like I was barely moving, the speed display on the GPS showed I was doing a steady four knots. After close to half an hour of sailing almost straight at the beach I decided to swing around into the wind and let the sails luff while I got a proper heading from the chart. I felt good when I found that I had set almost a perfect course. The flashing white light of Haulover Inlet should be dead ahead. But I could see no flashing yet for all of the other lights. Why didn’t they put a flashing red or green instead of an inconspicuous white? I steadied myself and kept going. I was hoping and praying that I would see some other boats heading in and out of the inlet. Agonizing minutes went by before indeed I did suddenly see the green starboard running lights of a large fishing boat heading north. It took several more minutes of staring hard into the cluster of lights before discerning one that was flashing and I was sure that it wasn’t just the momentary headlamp of a car. I felt better now; hopeful that I would soon be safe in the Intercoastal Waterway. My little sailboat was managing to keep a steady course and I hadn’t had an accidental jibe yet. I was suddenly proud of that. I decided to keep it just the way it was and put down the little four horse power kicker outboard just before I got to the inlet. I sailed on and the flashing light became more distinct. I began to hear music; a festive, salsa tune coming from close to the inlet. Then, I heard the sound of breakers. My heart skipped a beat and sank. I had no depth sounder. I suddenly started wishing I had looked harder at the chart for warnings of shoaling. Now all of the dazzling lights became a source of terror. I began to doubt my sense of depth perception. But all I could do was just keep heading towards that one blinking light and try to keep from being blinded by the rest. I couldn’t be too far north, I reasoned. I steadied myself again and sailed on. The sounds of the breakers crashing got louder along with the dizzy music. My palms were sweating and my chest was tight. Then gradually the lights began to illuminate the water ahead of me. I saw the foamy crest of breakers to starboard but none dead ahead. Then the rocks that lined the inlet became visible. Then, the inlet itself was there in front of me. The rocks were lined with people fishing. My chest began to loosen up a little in spite of the fact that the swells of the ocean began to increase dramatically as I got closer. Then I realized my big mistake in not taking the tide into account. It was rushing out. I managed to put the kicker down and got it started with a few swift tugs of the starting rope. The sails hardly flapped and the boat began the final lunge towards the gap between the rocks and breakers. As I got closer the music grew louder and more frenetic but the sounds of the breakers fell back to either side of me and then were behind me. The faces of the people came into focus. Kids playing on the rocks looked up and stared. They seemed to be surprised to see me. Later I would realize that Haulover Inlet doesn’t see that many sailboats because the bridge is so low. The small fixed bridge came into view. This brought on yet another anxiety attack. I prayed that I hadn’t misread the chart on the height. It looked so low even for this short mast. I new I could manage to keep her on course even with the sails flying out wing and wing. The little kicker was strong I thought. But the worst was yet to come. After barely a minute or two I had passed the first jetties and was now sailing proudly into the channel. All of the dazzling lights of the beach lit my white sails up like triumphant wings and I wasted a moment in the exultation that I was out of that big black ocean. The inlet now became very narrow and either side was lined with jagged rocks where people were casually perched with their fishing rods, talking, drinking beer and listening to their boom boxes blaring out the Latin music which sounded festive again instead of frenzied.
Then the boat speed began to slow. It was the rushing current. I gave the kicker more gas and brought my speed back but then lost it again; more gas, all that the kicker had but the boat continued to slow. I looked at the water now rushing swifter all around me back out to that black ocean from wince I had come. The bridge was still thirty yards in front of me. I could see the swirling eddies surrounding the girders and realized that I might not make it. My speed continued to slow until it was a pathetic crawl, hardly one mile an hour. The engine whined on and a little extra puff of wind pushed her closer. Then it happened; The engine suddenly coughed, sputtered and quit. I only had a second to realize it before the current seized the keel and spun the boat around; sails at wing and wing and all. I lunged forward, scrambled out of the cockpit and onto the foredeck. The anchor was suspended off of the bow pulpit and it took me eons of seconds to get it loose. By the time I did it was too late. I was careening towards the south side jetty; the wind shoving the boat south while the current was sucking her violently back out to sea. The anchor splashed into the water only an instant before the port side of the bow struck with a sickening thud and scrape on a large granite boulder. She swung out into the current again as the mainsail banged wildly and the jib flapped and tangled itself around the forestay. Then she twirled crazily back into the jetties and lodged her stern between two rocks. The rudder jammed itself into the bottom and began to make a violent screeching noise with every swell. I cleated off the anchor line and stumbled aft to pull in the main sheet and then jumped down into the cabin for a boat hook to use in fending off the jetties. Luckily, I was far enough inside the inlet to be protected from the waves but not the swells. I pushed with the boat hook and she came free and the current though not as strong so close to the side of the inlet, was still able to grab her. The anchor set with a tug and the crazy backwards ride to the ocean suddenly ceased. My heart was racing wildly as I thought about what might have happened if the engine had quit any sooner or later. I pulled down the jib and stuffed it away but kept the main up in hopes that the easterly wind would help keep her off of the rocks and then took a moment to think.
“Man, we don’t see many sailboats in this inlet!”, came a voice up on the rocks. “Especially at night”, came another. It was only then that I noticed a small crowd of people standing there, peering down at me. “Need any help?”, someone asked. I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head. Then came the roaring sound of an outboard engine and I looked up to see a battered old runabout speeding around the corner and under the bridge. I didn’t even take a second to consider it but began to wave both arms. There were several Hispanic men in the boat. When they saw me they slowed down and came over. I grabbed the un-cleated end of the anchor line and they knew immediately that I was asking for a tow. “Can you pull me through the bridge? My motor quit.”, I shouted. The man nodded his head quickly and the other one jumped up on the bow. I fed them the line and without further discussion he grabbed it while the boat backed away and turned towards the bridge. It took me only a few seconds to pull up the anchor and motion that I was ready. The fellow holding the line made the mistake of not cleating it off but just holding it and when we got into the current he immediately realized he didn’t have the strength. The runabout had a big engine but the current was too swift. The man holding the rope lost his grip as we were closing on the bridge and let the rope go. Again I was headed out to sea. Gamely, they turned around, chased me down and took the line from me again just moments before I was on the jetties. This time he cleated it off with lots more scope and we started a final run for the bridge. I think everyone was surprised, including the people on the rocks when it took almost everything his motor had to drag my little sailboat through. The current was just incredibly strong. I only hazarded a look at the top of the mast when it was already too late to turn back but I cleared with a couple of feet to spare.
A few minutes later I was at the fuel dock of a closed marina. I thanked them profusely and offered them money but they just waved and shook their heads before speeding off. They have been mentioned in my prayers many times since. After surveying the damage to the hull which miraculously, wasn’t as bad as it should have been; nothing more than a bad scratch, I sat down in the cockpit alone in the neon glow from the fuel dock sign. I listened to the faint crashing of the breakers and the music and the people talking out on the rocks. Other than those far off sounds, it was peaceful now. The marina docks were deserted. The events of the evening played back in my mind and the initial feeling of relief gave way to disappointment and frustration at having made such dumb decisions and then, shame at being too scared to stick it out. Getting spooked by two guys in a boat was silly I thought. But perhaps it was that tone in the voice that was spooky. Or was it just the way the sea seems to change the sounds.
I saw a payphone on a light pole in the marina parking lot. The urge to call home now was not quite as strong but still there. Later that night I did call.
I would spend the rest of the trip slowly motoring up the Intercoastal Waterway, dealing with the endless succession of bridges and certain rude people in overpowered runabouts.
It took another night and two full days to get there. By late morning of the last day the initial rains from the oncoming hurricane began to arrive and by the time I was tying up dockside the winds were gusting to thirty five miles per hour. We got nothing more than the storm’s feeder bands in Lake Worth but it was enough to do some damage and much more, further to the north. I still wonder to this day what that little skiff was doing so far out and will never forget that voice in the night, nor the sounds of the breakers, the music and the casual voices of the people on the jetties.

More on my Savannah voyage...

2005-07-24T02:03:00.000-04:00

My solo trip was great. I was very lucky to have had such good weather and should be thankful that my worst problems were getting becalmed almost daily. When I was off of Canaveral was the worst of it but also the most interesting. I got buzzed twice by a Navy jet. . . looked like an old A6 but man it was impressive! He was moving so fast that he was already turning low around me before I heard the thunder of the engines. Also got looked at close by an Orion I think. Got to listen to the radio chatter from all of the war ships announcing there presence to each other all around me though I only saw the destroyers and escorts off on the horizon. Also saw a pyrotechnic launch off of Canaveral: two bright lights, like flairs off to the west for only a few seconds and then they were gone. Dolphins came to play around the hull and it was like they were playing peek-a-boo with me from one side of the boat to the other. The water was so clear that I could see their entire form just lolling about under the rudder. The third day I saw a huge whale breaching about a half mile away. His fin was as long as the boat. Then, there was this little gull. There were actually two of them. The first one looked like a common ring bill or herring gull and ate crackers that I tossed. He was on the second day. The other one on came later and was brown and white, a different species and would eat nothing I offered. He just seemed to enjoy my company. When the wind would pick up he would paddle after me but never flap his wings until the boat began to outpace him. Then he would fly away and I would not see him until I was becalmed again.
I have finally figured a way to post videos! So I will one here since this is the first to go live on Google's site.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5669746148904000171&q=rocko+delray I also saw more than several sea turtles. The second day and the last day were probably the most stressful. On the second I ran into a line of squalls in the late afternoon and they seemed to last all evening and to make maters worse I seemed to be in one of the shipping lanes because several freighter passed very close by. I wound up getting slightly nauseous probably from the stress more than anything. I don't think the seas ever got over 6' at anytime during the voyage. It was interesting, learning how to heave to. At first I was too excited/nervous to sleep but I was getting used to it by the third night and managed to get at least five hours one time. I made it to the last Navy Tower: Spag 1 and my state of mind emproved greatly. Here is a video of it: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9001593740210657266&q=Rocko+Delray
Pay no attention to my unkempt appearance. The last night was definitely the worst because I had to spend it anchored off of the first buoy to Tybee Roads. I got hit by several squalls as I was approaching and I became just too tired to attempt going in that night. I was so anxious to get in that I was getting ready to pay Sea Tow to come out and get me after I had trouble starting the motor. I even called them. Luckily I came to my senses and canceled. The next morning was dead calm and I just motored through the markers and into the Savannah River. I was glad to be able to get through to Bull River Marina on the last day and they were nice enough to call my family for me and let them know that I was all right. When I was delayed for the last night at Tybee Roads late in the evening I called the Coast Guard and asked them to call my family again to let them know that it would be the next day before I would be there and they too were nice enough to do it for me. Great people and a great trip.

Bar & Buoy Data

2005-07-24T01:53:00.000-04:00

Well, I just got back from my first night on the town in a long time. As usual lately, it was solo, just like everything else in my life but because I got so bored early on I didn't drink too much and left early enough to write in this blog.
Now, dear readers, you will be treated to the distillation of my musings while sitting on a bar stool at the standard Irish Pub. Not much going on there. A wedding party came in and they were all way too young for me even to try to converse with so I spent the next hour gazing at the girls faces. They were all beautiful. Ok, that's it for the bar. All too young, etc.. . And besides that, there were only a few girls in a bar full of guys. I think women actually become physically more beautiful when they know they have ten guys just ogling them for doing nothing more than walking into the room.
Ahem.... well, I was thinking about buoys there tonight as well. Not BOYS but buoys. Yes. .
NOAA has a great web site, It gives wave height and frequency and wind speed from many buoys scattered about the oceans of the world. I know this doesn't sound too interesting but it can be when you imagine what's really going on out there while we go about our everyday business. During hurricane Dennis I noticed that the Sombrero Key buoy recorded winds of over 70 knots. No weatherman said anything about Sombrero Key. All of the other buoys and towers around Florida Bay recorded no wind even close to that and yet Sombrero is on the far east side of the lower keys. Dennis past well to the west of Key West. Here is the URL: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=SMKF1
Then, there is the buoys and towers in the North Atlantic and North Sea. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that one of them recorded a 49 foot wave. Station 64045 - K5 Buoy http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=64045 Imagine it! If you look at the picture of one of the platforms there in the North Sea it shows a huge sea: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=63104 I shudder to think of being in that one.
But sometimes it seems like the entire world is at peace out there. Some nights I can find no buoy showing more than 6' seas and winds almost calm all over the world.

Station SKMG1 - U.S. Navy Tower M2R6
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=SKMG1
Has huge wind generators and a solar panel and helo pad but there is nobody living on it; all automated. I sailed by it on my way to Savannah and have a video of it but have not completed the upload to the Google download site. It should be live soon. Please pay no attention to my unkempt appearance when you do see it.

Why do I talk about these two subjects in the same post? Splended desolation, I guess.

Nice Sail

2005-07-06T20:48:00.000-04:00

Rocko Delray logs 320 nautical miles. Getting close to Blue Water Sailor status.

5 days at sea. Going solo. Left Lake Worth inlet and headed for N 27.34.305, W 079.40.300. Stayed out there meandering northward, and wandering westward again after passing Canaveral. Passing by the NOAA buoys and then making for Tybee Roads. Finally there after 4 days. Had to spend the night at the first marker before getting in to dockside at Whitmarsh Island on Saturday, July 2. It was beautiful. Next blue water will be for Baltimore.

Poems, Rhymes and Riddles

2005-06-07T15:38:00.000-04:00

All alone, at sea, in the night
There in the darkness, I see a light
My mind’s eye flies out like a phantom over the waves
And goes aboard without a noise

There, in the cabin bright and cheery
I see what I want, hope and pray
The happiness and love of another day
A game of cards or a story told

The love of my life or a love of old
Anticipation and conversation
New ideas and irritation
Laughter and camaraderie

All alone on this big dark sea
My mind’s eye sees what it wants to see

CHARGE! CHARGE! no more dead batteries!

2005-03-10T04:31:00.000-05:00

Hooray! Power to the people! Especially me! Blewtooth now has a wind generator!

CHARGE!!!!

I have just finished setting up my new Air X wind turbine. It took me a very long time to acquire all of the poles and things needed to mount it on Blewtooth’s small stern. Blewtooth is the 25’ Westerly Tiger that I now live on. I am presently anchored off of the same sea wall that Narenba crashed into during hurricane Jeanne.

Blewtooth is a very seaworthy little boat and lots of fun to sail. She responds well, tracks well, points high. I can’t say enough good things about her now. I am sure that she won’t be too comfortable when hot old summertime comes to South Florida but I’m sure I will manage. The thing I like best about her is she is able to MOVE when a storm comes unlike poor Narenba.

Anyway this wind generator is the BOMB! Oops… hope homeland security is not monitoring this….I might wind up in Gitmo again. (I was there thirty something years ago as a Navy crewman aboard an amo ship for three weeks.) That is to say that this Air X wind turbine can put out up to 400 Watts of free juice! Combined with my 75 watt photo voltaic solar panel I now have ample charging power. I also can charge from the small outboard mounted on Blewtooth’s stern but that is smelly and noisy and inefficient.
So, look out Honda.. Blewtooth has a hybrid system of her own.

Ha! Take that! You stupid monopolistic power companies. You cannot charge me anymore. No! I will now CHARGE YOU to try and bill me your exorbitant and preposterous CHARGES. Just think of it folks no more electric bills for Rocko Delray. Hooray!

It’s been raining all day and I stayed on the boat and bounced around as the a north westerly caused an unpleasant chop on the intracoastal so I moved in close to some condos and next to this sea wall of sad memories. It’s now past 3 AM and I am writing in this blog because the air x woke me up with it’s moaning. The wind got up past 30 MPH yesterday and the amp gauge needle charged past 26! It felt good to know that my batteries were getting the good charge they needed.

So I will try to get back to sleep. Goodnight all. CHARGE!…..ZZZZZZ zzz zz z