Random Bits and Pieces

Maybe I'll start off by relating this morning's printer paper adventures. Those of you who don't have the stomach for this level of nerdyness are advised to skip ahead. For those of you who are still here let me first explain why it is that I have been on a quest to purchase a package of printer paper that has been punched for a three hole binder along both edges. Well, it turns out that if the printer paper orientation choice is "Portrait"  the holes should be on one side, and if the choice is "Landscape" they should be on the other. I can never remember which is which and on the boat during the delivery and race I don't feel like messing with it. So.............

When I went to the local FedEx store a couple years ago and tried to buy a package of printer paper drilled down both edges for a 3-ring binder they quoted me a $55 price. Five dollars for 500 sheets of paper and 5 cents a sheet to drill the holes (twice). So, I ended up buying it in Walnut Creek.

But I decided to try the local store again. I think the FedEx computer said $55 again but after some discussion among themselves the staff (not knowing that I knew what they were discussing) decided that $15 would do it. I tried to bargain them down a bit more to $10 without success. So, I left without the paper. A couple weeks later I decided "What the hell. Go for it. Spend the big bucks. You only live once. Etc." So, I went back to FedEx and this time the boss was there and he wanted $30 and would not budge. I left again without the paper.

This morning I just happened to be driving past FedEx and (since three visits had resulted in three different prices) decided to just give it another shot. Back to $15 again. Since this was historically the best price I had seen I took it and am now the proud owner of a box of double, 3-ring drilled, computer printer paper.

You might want to skip this one also. For that matter you might want to skip the whole day. Anyway, the next item concerns the new GPS that had rather crude charts. The helpful person at West Marine claimed that there was an "options" setting that would give me any level of detail that I wanted. He was right! It is working fine now. In retrospect, I realize now that part of the reason I was having trouble was that I just could not believe that such a tiny box could contain so much stuff. Such are the wonders of the digital age we live in. Pretty soon when you buy a hand held reader like Kindle or iPad they will simply contain everything on earth that has ever been written and will update each day everything (in every language) that has been created in the last 24 hours.

While fooling around with the GPS I did notice that the performance is pretty crappy (below decks and without an antenna). If you look at the photo you will see that Cirrus is in the wrong slip and facing the wrong direction. Also note (in passing) that digital photos of a digital screen can produce interesting patterns. I tried to fix this and everything I did made it worse.

The next item is the wrap up of the new engine panel saga. As those of you who follow these pages are well aware the old engine panel containing the tachometer and emergency  alarms disintegrated awhile ago. It has been replaced and an enclosure fabricated to keep the rain off. Now the job has finally been completed with the mounting of a "Tupperware" box to protect the back of the panel that protrudes into the space just aft of the galley (and up). The switches on the box are not hooked up at the moment, but they could be used if the switch on the binnacle panel should fail.

As an aside, let me mention a little unexpected benefit from this last project. When I was heat shrinking the insulation onto the lugs connected to the switches the tiny puff of hot rubber smell that was produced set off the smoke alarm. Thus proving that the alarm is working and that I can hear it. Made me jump!

Inside the cabin and just below the back of the engine panel there are three switches mounted along the side of the port-side quarter berth. These switches are:

• The propane tank solenoid operating switch
• The Battery selection switch that allows us to isolate the refrigerator battery from the rest of the "house bank" of batteries.
• The protected on-off switch for the refrigerator

I spent the whole morning recently on the first of these. "What?" You say, "It looks just like the last time I saw it." And that would be correct. What would be missing from these remarks is the fact that I accidentally broke off the toggle switch and had to replace it. I had one in spares but it was the wrong size so I had to drive across the island to buy one, (I got two.) Then  I installed it, and, lo-and-behold it looks like it did before. Now you see why the refrigerator switch has a protective cover. The propane switch could use some protection, but I didn't want to cover it up because that makes it too easy to forget to turn it off.

The covering on the jib luff that gives some sun protection to the furled sail was looking ratty and some of it was starting to come loose. On a recent quiet morning Ron Dodini helped me take the jib down and replace it with another similar sail. The sailmaker was too busy to fix it (in a week) so maybe I'll get Quantum to do it when I'm in the Bay Area.

Here's Where We're Going

Ulli's wondrous routing fantasy has filled us with unrealistic expectations. But, on the other hand, "Why Not."

Photo shows some of the Farallon Islands that are normally the first land we see on the San Francisco arrival. Always a welcome sight.

I was dreaming about 12 day deliveries the other day when Donna brought me down to earth by reminding me that we had to start out out three separate times on the TP2007 delivery, and that already made us a week late.  Then we had engine fuel filter problems, etc.

Her instructions for this year are "Don't do that." She is leaving shortly after our departure and will not be here to bail us out if there is a problem.

This group photo from 2004 shows a group getting ready to set out. They look pretty happy considering they are going to be cold and wet for the next 3-4 days.

The next group has even more reason for cheer having put the entire Pacific Ocean behind them. That picture looks like 1998 and would have been Cirrus' first crossing. The picture after that was the most recent race in 2008. So many memories. And I guess we will pile up a few more this summer.

I wonder what the drama will be. We have wrapped the spinnaker, broken shrouds, broken the gooseneck, the boom and the boombrake. So it has to be something new this time.

Now You See It - Now You Don't

Still getting over the post inspection letdown. Interesting. (To me at least.) I get focused on bringing some aspect of life to the highest level of performance that I'm capable of, and then suddenly it's behind me and I have to cast about for what is next. There is a pattern here.

In this case "what's next" isn't so hard to figure out. It is clearly the June 1st departure for the mainland.

I recently made a little (long overdue) modification to the boat to make the passage easier. We have two big fuel tanks on Cirrus and some of you may recall that in the past only one has been connected to the engine at a time. To switch tanks I had to physically move the rubber hose transfer lines from one tank to the other. (In the middle of the night in 8-10 foot seas.)

So, before I tell you what I actually did, I have a contest for you. Look at the next two photos. Do you see a difference? Sometimes there are puzzles for children in the newspaper where you are asked to point out the differences between two very similar drawings. This is a similar problem.

Ok! Give up? Here is the answer. The first photo shows the bulkhead just behind the engine compartment. A 110 volt outlet (that once was used to provide power for a Microwave that sat on top of the engine) is shown in the process of being removed. There are two big holes in the bulkhead behind it that must, in the past, have been good for something. The object to the right with two hoses on it is an anti-siphon valve.

The second photo shows the outlet completely removed and a rubber fuel line is visible through the hole where it used to be. In addition one of the large round holes is now occupied by a little pointer type handle. On the back of the bulkhead, where you can't see, there is a two-way valve that connects the two fuel tanks to the electric fuel pump. Now, to switch tanks, one just turns the handle. What a concept!

The final photo shows the primary fuel filter, which is located on the same bulkhead aft of the engine that we have seen in the previous pictures.  Rather than being inside the engine compartment it is outside where it is easy to keep an eye on it. This has a couple benefits. One is that it is easy to see if the fuel gets dirty from bacteria invasion. The most important use is catching air bubbles before they get to the engine. These bubbles can be caused by a leaking hose fitting or by letting the fuel level in the tank get too low in choppy seas where the remaining fuel sloshes all around.

I went to West Marine yesterday to pick up an order and was all ready to drop some big bucks to get a chart upgrade for my new GPS. Fortunately the sales person who helped me really knew his job. He explained that the charts are as good as one could possably want, and that my problem was probably that one of the unit "Options" had been set to "Dumb".

I'll check it out.

THREE...3...III... (Weeks to go that is!)

We passed our Pacific Cup inspection with flying colors this morning. Clark Fremgen (Former KYC Commodore) did the honors.  He did a careful job and didn't skip over anything, but (as is not unusual for Cirrus) every time the race requirements called for something, we actually had three.

Now that the pressure of preparing is off I don't know what to do with myself. There is still a lot to do on the ToDo list, but somehow it does not seem as urgent. Maybe I'll go see a movie. Iron Man 2 maybe. I want to celebrate somehow, but everyone I know is working or otherwise occupied.

• I was away for a couple hours. Now I'm back. Went to see IM2. He creates a new element (and saves the world) sort of like I did before I retired. Loved every minute.

Another recent small improvement is a cover for the new engine control console. I tried to get Min Plastic to make me one but was shocked by the price. Did it myself. Panel still needs some wiring work. Bought some parts. Thinking about it.

Inspired by Ulli's wonderful routing link (to the right) I put the computer aboard and have been messing around with it a little. The Nav Sta is looking a little crowded with the computer, printer and new GPS. Which reminds me that I gave away my beautiful (selbstgemacht) plastic holder for the satellite telephone so we will probably need to make something new when Chris gets here for the delivery.

Weekend Sail

Photo serves to introduce Kate Schalk who replaced  Tina on the delivery crew when Tina had to drop out for personal reasons. Kate has ocean kayaked just about everywhere around Oahu (as well as actually around Oahu), goes hiking, camping, trail biking. She is a great addition to our Cirrus community this summer.

We tried to set out together Saturday to sail to the Ala Wai for an overnight, expecting to return on Sunday, but it didn't work out. I made the mistake of not putting a couple reefs in at the dock. So, when I tried to hoist the main out in the open ocean the halyard got tangled on the spreader, the seas were 6-8 feet, wind over 20 and gusty. It was a mess. After we turned back to sort things out it was getting too late in the day to start out.

We  gave it another shot Sunday morning with Rick's help. Actually, Kate's partner Mick also joined us for a buttermilk pancake breakfast at the dock that Kate decided to make. She just wanted to get a feel for cooking on the boat. Great way to start the day.

Then we set out for Makapu'u in about 20 knot winds and really bumpy seas. I didn't want to make too long a day of it so we  turned around over by Kailua around 1300. We came home like a rocket, surfing most of the way. So, all in all, a great weekend even if we didn't make it to the Ala Wai.

By the way don't forget to check out Ulli's routing plots for today. He is predicting a 12 day delivery time!

Day at a Time

Makani Kai Marina in the morning. What a quiet grey windless weekend.

Ric, Kate and I took advantage of the dead air to get the main back up. Then spent the remainder of the morning on spinnaker drills (at the dock). It took us about an hour to get one up. This will, presumably, improve with practice.

Then on Sunday it was just me and Kate watching the rain come down and chatting about the delivery. You know, what books to bring along, what DVDs for movies during happy hour in the evenings. Games to fill the time were also discussed, like Scrabble, Chess, Trivial Pursuit, various card games, etc. Much heated discussion. Food was also discussed at length. We were not able to come to agreement about the necessity of having the food catered in order to take the load off the crew who already have their hands full standing watches attending to personal hygiene and posing for blog pictures.We would appreciate the views of the viewing audience on these important topics.

The first picture sort of reminded me of the second one. One of my favorites and one that Nabikov claimed was hanging in every German home. Anyone know the name of the painting and the name of the painter? Speaking of "objets d'art" I recently saw a picture of a hawk that reminded me of something similar by the Swedish artist Milles. Well, maybe not really "similar". Maybe more like "suggestive".  Or, if you really want to be fussy, how about, "is reminiscent of".

Good fun.

Coming back to the boat discussion, I've been thinking about doing some cooking aboard, just to be sure everything is working ok. Maybe this week. Next weekend would be a good time for an overnight sail somewhere. Maybe to the Ali Wai and back.

We're really ready.

Cirrus is set to go. Until we notice that we forgot something, or we break something all that is between us and California is a little provisioning and a pleasant sail. In that connection, it sure is nice that Ulli is showing us how the routing might go if we were starting out today. These charts will be more and more relevant as the actual departure approaches. For now, just interesting and fun.

Last Sunday Ric, Caroline, Graeme (a visitor from New Zealand) and I went out into the ocean a couple miles and did some (bumpy) spinnaker pole drills. It's dampish on the foredeck when she puts her bow under. Then we used one of the poles with the jib on the run back in. Nice day. Since it is "Testing Systems" time I'm thinking of making dinner on the boat sometime soon just to see if all the galley gear is functioning. Anyone want to join me? An overnight at the Sandbar (or Molokai'i) would be even cooler.

Big moon tomorrow night and then one in late May. Looks like both the delivery and race are going to be no moon events. I like the moon for driving at night, but the stars sure are beautiful without it. Also we will miss out on the traditional event where some newbe standing a watch at night gets panicked by Venus rising behind the boat in the morning because it looks like an approaching freighter. Only an evening object this year. (And going down not coming up.)

Routing for Delivery

I have added a little gadget in the right column labelled "Routing for Delivery". Clicking the link brings you to a webpage, which shows a collection of delivery routing recommendations by Cirrugator. This is NOT a forecast of what it will be when Cirrus departs, but rather the situation for a departure today. See the note on that webpage.
Ulli
P.S. as you can already see from the few examples, the weather is still quite unstable

Benchmarks

We had some offline discussions about Cirrus' previous performances, and I thought that I might give Bill some relieve in posting and put this on our blog.

Cirrugator gave me a helping hand, and if you wish you can look up those numbers yourself at www.cirrugator.com. This covers all of Cirrus' races, and all deliveries (but not the returns from the earlier races). Keep in mind that the distance to travel on the Transpac is about 10% greater than in the Pacific Cup.

First the deliveries: You see a lot of variation between the three routes. Even the 2007 delivery to Los Angeles initially went further north than the 2006 delivery to San Francisco. The thin yellow line is the Great Circle between Hawaii and SF, which is the shortest distance between those two points on the globe. The thin white line is the Rhumb line, a straight line on a nautical map, but NOT the shortest distance between the points it connects!

Now the races: You find the tracks much closer together than for the deliveries, but still quite different. And none is on the Great Circle. The reason is that while this would be the shortest distance to travel, it would not necessarily be the fastest; the wind determines how far south you have to go.

The Great Circle between Los Angeles and Hawaii is not shown, but it would be north of a straight line between those points, the Rhumbline, and you see that Cirrus' route was way south even of the rhumbline, yet Cirrus made first place in her division during that race! It all depends on the wind.

Finally I am adding a table summarizing Cirrus' performances on the various passages. The fastest passage ever was the 1998 Pacific Cup (3rd place) with an hour less than 12 days, the longest was the 2007 Transpac delivery with over 19 days. The slowest was the 2000 Pacific Cup.









So, the benchmark is still unchanged: the 1998 Pacific Cup defines the performance to beat!

Aloha,
Ulli

(21.41898, -157.79014) (2010-April-19-0800)

Another cool overcast morning on Kaneohe Bay. As usual I am optomistic that "Today is the Day!" when the last of the important projects will be completed and we can finally schedule our inspection and then kick back with a beer and wait for June 1st to roll around.

Right.

In the previous post I finished up with a male in full plumage. Here is another example. In fact here are two more examples. Both serving to illustrate the fact that the weather in Hawaii is not always as balmy as one is led to believe. Or, perhaps these guys, like the Kolea are getting ready for a trip to Alaska.

Some recent projects have involved the electrical systems. The first one had to do with the control panel for the (monster 2.5 kW) inverter , battery charger. This panel has some circuits that communicate with the power unit using a data cable like a phone line. First the inverter function failed and refused to turn off then the battery charger refused to come on. So, no chance to ignore it any longer and I spent some time digging around in my piles of spare stuff at home. Lo and behold, there were not one but two replacement units available. (It's a long story.)

Of course, the problem might have been in the cable (unlikely) or at the other end where the signals are decoded. Fortunately a new panel did the job and it even fit exactly into the old panel location (even though the company name stenciled on the front had changed). Another thing I want to mention here is the Power Pac we have to cover the situation where the whole electrical system fails and we don't have any way to start the engine. I bought an emergency starter unit in an auto parts store and we are going to test it sometime soon.

Then there is water. We have two 30 gal tanks but we need another 30 gal to satisfy the race requirements. The six gallons in sealed containers that we have for emergency use count and the 4 six gallon jerry cans in the photo finish the job. Above and beyond the minimum requirements we will carry at least one liter per person per day in bottles that people can write their names on and carry around with them.

Time flies and this image greeted me when leaving the boat the other day.

Three Pages of done ToDo List, One more to go

For those of you with an interest in such things, it looks like the cost of this year's Pacific Cup campaign is going to come in around $20,000. (We have spent roughly $12,000 so far according to the running total at the bottom of the ToDo List.)

An unexpected item was the new Garmin GPS and plotter unit that I decided to add because the (really old) Trimble GPS was getting hard to read. The new one is kinda cute and, much to my amazement, it seems to work below decks even without an antenna.

Another useful item is the wireless remote for the autopilot. Currently there are three separate controls. One is the base station at the Nav Station. The second is the wired remote at the wheel (that can be brought in under the dodger). The third is the wireless unit shown in the photo that lets me steer from my bunk. (And navigate as well, since the unit also relays GPS info just like the other units do.)

We turned the boat around in the slip to make it more convenient to work on the stern. Then we removed the wind-vane  rudder and replaced it with the (much larger) emergency rudder unit. The photos show the emergency rudder in the water and stowed up out of the way. To actually wait until the emergency rudder is needed and then try to install it in a seaway is probably more exciting than absolutely necessary.

Another item that has taken up a couple days of my time is the First Aid Kit. We have three main Kits. One is in the Grab Bag that goes with us if we need to abandon ship. It was getting a little "long in the tooth" after all these years, so I made up a fresh one. Of course, in the unlikely event that something is needed we can use it to supplement the other kits.  Another Kit is located in the head  compartment. It is pretty complete and is supplemented by extras, like cold packs, sunscreen, seasickness items, etc. The third kit is a big bag of all kinds of serious stuff. I spent a couple days on this and I have an Excel table listing everything if anyone is interested. One of the problems was the fact that many of the prescription drugs that this kit contained were hopelessly out of date. I got my Kaiser doctor to prescribe some new stuff, so I'm pretty happy with the current state of things.There are things like sutures for sewing up gaping wounds. Might be fun to try that should the occasion arise.

There is a sea bird here in Hawaii called a Kolea (Golden Plover)  that has a wonderful story. Most of the year they are very shy and their dull brownish uniform coloring lets them blend in. They are unusual in that they seem to benefit from civilization. They like to pick bugs from lawns, parks, golf courses, etc. Normally they are very solitary, and each one stakes out his own territory and chases other Kolea away. At this time of year a drastic transformation takes place in their coloring. Look at the photo. Isn't this guy a beauty!

There is also a change in personality. Instead of shy they become agressive. One of them that I disturbed recently thought about trying to chase me away. (But changed his mind.) Some time (very soon) they will start to gather in flocks and at some magic moment that only they can sense (There might be weather factors.) they spiral up into the sky and set out for Alaska (and maybe Siberia). When they get there (after recovering from the flight) they hustle up a mate and get down to the business of raising some chicks. 

When the chicks are getting big enough to fend for themselves (and the days are getting shorter) the adults head back to Hawaii.  Amazingly enough the chicks follow later after they bulk up on bugs and get some more flying practice. Then the cycle repeats. Quite a story.

While I clearly enjoy composing these blogs, it would be nice to get some feedback. If you are a reader please make an occasional comment (at the bottom of the page). When we are sailing the comments will come automatically to us by email and that way the blog can become more interactive.

This Time for Real

The ToDo List (to the right)has been updated.
 
How can it be almost two weeks since my last post? Seems like yesterday. Hard not to start getting a little tense. The way time flies.

Que Sera Sera. We will be ready when the time comes (or not).

We are finally finished with the work up the mast (No April Fool this time.)  and there are some pictures here from the last trip up. That's it for awhile I hope. I needed to lubricate some blocks and add some safety wiring.

We also lubricated the turnbuckles on the shrouds so they will not be so hard to adjust. (I'll probably be tuning the rig this afternoon or tomorrow morning.) A major set back on the schedule (and budget) was the need to remove the sail and take it to the sail maker to fix 10 holes that got punched into the mainsail when I dropped a sharp object from the top of the mast. (Actually, this was not my proudest moment.)

One of these photos is Cirrus from above. Isn't she pretty?

Another recent project was the addition of a new Garmin 440 GPS-Plotter to supplement the Trimble system (whose screen is starting to cloud up). Much to our amazement it seems to be working fine below decks at the nav station without an external antenna. We will check it out when we get sailing again. SOON!

I'll try backing the boat into the slip the next time we go out so it will be easier to install and test the emergency rudder system. It is the same system as in previous years so we don't expect any problems.

The last of today's photos shows the replacement U-bolt for the starboard, spinnaker halyard block. The U-bolts went in without a hitch. Moo did a good job. The old ones lasted 37 years so these ought to do the job for awhile. (Of course a lot of the actual usage was more recent.)

That's it for today's blog. We should be sailing again in a couple days and that will be more fun than all these projects. I'll keep you posted.

Keeping, keeping at It.

In spite of the optimistic email that I sent to all of the crew yesterday (April 1st,2010) declaring that all of the work had been done, there is actually a long way to go.

The U bolt photo at left is a good example. I've two new ones but do not want to go to the top of the mast until the shrouds are back on. The mounting brackets for the spreaders are back on the mast and the tangs for the running backs and lower diagonals as well. (Four or five hours up the mast yesterday in 30 knot winds. (No April fool.) But I could not pull the cables up to get the pins in. Working on it.

I ended up removing the turnbuckles completely to put more slack in the wires. (I hope you are as fascinated as I am by these minutiae.) And I think I'll take them to Moo to see if the somewhat corroded threads can be cleaned up so they will be easier to use. (Not a given since left-handed metric threads are involved.) Actually, I think I'll do it myself. All it takes is time.

Up the mast again this morning with Ron Dodini, a friend from KYC, handling the safety line and hauling tools up and down on the spare jib halyard (an hour or two in 25 knots and rain) and I got the lower diagonals in finally. (Weather sucks.) There was a solid black wall of wind and rain coming across the bay so I bailed out. The running backs can wait until tomorrow.

Another thing I'm going to do tomorrow is replace the VHF antenna on the top of the mast. Hope that helps the performance. I hooked the antenna up directly to the radio for a test, and learned something interesting. It did not seem to be working even though the tester was giving it high marks. Then by accident I discovered that the performance depends very sensitively on the antenna orientation. Very, very sensitive to the direction it is aimed. (If you want to know if a "high gain' antenna is better (or not) contact me.)

It is sort of hard to see but Ric recently replaced 2nd anchor (lunch hook) with a new anchor, new 30 ft chain and 200 ft of brand new nylon rode.
this arrangement is a little better than the race requirements call for. The primary anchor at 48 lb and with 200 ft of chain is way better than required.

The next item is the Spray Curtain just inside the hatch that protects the electronics from the  spray generated by the "rooster tail"  thrown up by the boat as the downwind speed exceeds normal limits. The bolt rope on the top edge was getting ratty so it has been replaced. It needs to be cleaned.

Each crew member gets a shelf for their personal gear. That is mainly stuff like clothes, books, video games, exercise DVDs, handheld GPS (In case Navigator get's lost.), etc. There is some space for toilet gear in the head and foul weather gear goes into the hanging locker behind the head. Some people try to sneak in their own private supply of chocolate or other goodies but this is officially frowned upon.

Some more PFD testing took place. There are 5 on the boat that are up to date and would pass inspection. One is mine and Ric is using one (that Tina could use if she wants to), the other three are spares. Other crew could use them if they do not have their own. I kind of like to have my own. There are spare parts for all of them.