THE ART OF GERIATRIC SAILING .................

You see, here's the thing ....... By the time you know what's what about sailing, and you know all the ropes and you've done your ocean miles and you've had your scary moments when you thought you were going to die and you didn't, you suddenly get asked by others what you are going to do when you retire ......... Well, we got news for them ...... WE ARE NOT GOING TO RETIRE, WE ARE GOING TO CONTINUE SAILING .... For at least another twenty years if we can manage it ...... And we are going to do it in style, because we have a plan ..... And it all starts with the belief that the best, the very best, still lies ahead of us ..........



I mean take a look at this cactus plant growing in CULEBRA, where we are working on the our boat "SOUTHERN COMFORT", with our pre-loved yacht "ARITA" rafted-up alongside ......... This cactus has to be older than both of us combined ....... Look and see, it's had children, grand-children and even great-grand-children, and yet look at the incredible flowers on display ....... Actually "ARITA" is very much loved and a beautiful Classic ketch ...... Don't know where that ' pre-loved ' bit came from ........... We will be exceptionally lucky if our new yacht 'SOUTHERN COMFORT" can be made as beautiful as "ARITA" ........




Everybody loves their yacht no matter what style or shape ....... The Australian sailing yacht "TRUE BLUE", out of Mackay, QLD stopped by for a quick visit and we saw that graceful yacht "BLUE GUITAR" in the anchorage ...... It belongs to Eric Clapton or maybe it too is now 'pre-loved' and belongs to some other lucky guitar picker ....




CULEBRA is one of Puerto Rico's favourite holiday destinations with its blue water and sandy beaches but they all have to come on the ferries and return the same way ....... Most bring supplies with them like the backpacker with his case of Coors light beer ........On a good long weekend the islands population of 3000 swells to three times as much .......




Many though come by yacht and anchor here for the weekend ........ This includes lots of international cruisers because CULEBRA is also a clearing port with Customs and Immigration ....... Anyway getting back to this "GERIATRIC SAILING" thing, here's our plan ....... Bigger is definitely better ...... 'Bigger' is also more comfortable ....... 'Bigger' is however, no longer manageable by brute force alone, even if you are in your prime ..... But 'Bigger' is definitely doable by using clever devices to lessen the strain ...... 'Bigger' also takes advantage of electrical power to make things work ..... Laurie has been doing washing almost every day since we put in the washer/dryer ....... At least until the water ran out ....... Now we need to get busy and install the water maker .... Might even have to take a load or two ashore again before that happens ......



One of the first things we did while still in the boatyard in Virgin Gorda, BVI, was to add an inner forestay and put a furler on it for the staysail........ Not only is this a better sailing combination, but furling a sail is just so much easier than going on deck and hoisting or dropping it ........ Now check out the anchor windlass ....... Isn't it just a thing of beauty ..... Pulling up an anchor by hand is a killer any time, and on boats 25 feet or longer in strong wind it is just not doable ..... What we've done is drilled and tapped three stainless steel studs into the base-plate of the windlass ...... Look closely and you'll see at least two of them ..... This now allows us to set two anchors on chains independently, because the winch works in both directions ..... When one anchor is set and snubbed off, the chain is slackened off and placed behind these studs, while the second chain is put on the windlass ........ Each of the 10mm (3/8") chains is 300 ft long ....... And 'bigger' means the ability to carry more chain ...... "SOUTHERN COMFORT" is 62 feet long .....



Notice that the side-decks are wheelchair width....... Just in case ...... Might have to put in a ramp to the aft deck ...... Anyway we've added some nice strong grab rails on the edge of the cabin top and some 'granny bars' around the mast ..... And a bunch of extra cleats and winches on the mast ..... Good for connecting our double hammock ...... Here's a sneak peak under the deck, where the inner forestay is attached and where the anchor winch motor is mounted sideways by 45 degrees to nicely accommodate the support for the furler and the stay ..... That's a half-inch thick stainless steel chainplate extending downwards ......



But by far the biggest change to aid the 'geriatrics' is what we've done with the control lines ....... Previously the single furling line ran along the toerail, but we've changed that so that both lines now run along the edge of the cabin top and are joined with the halyard for hoisting the mainsail ........ This "trio" disappears in separate PVC tubes into a tunnel ....... All nicely water-tight and cozy .....



And then the trio emerges from inside the cockpit backrest (photo on right) and pass through a rope clutch before rounding the mother of all winches and heading for our single electric winch .........This electric winch is the ultimate lifesaver ...... Two different speeds and we have both furling lines going there, the mainsail hoist going there, the mizzen hoist going there, and for lifting the dinghy motor to the rail bracket, we have the mizzen sheet going there ........ The electric winch needs a glorifying name ....... Let's try "perfecto" .... Oh, and we added some more wooden deckpads with winches and cleats for handling the genniker and the staysail sheets ...... The genniker is a huge billowing sail like a spinnaker but more controlled ....... And it has a sock ..... Getting way too technical here ....... O.K. ... I'll put a sock in it ......



We'll just take a flower break..... Every time we go to town in CULEBRA we see these magnificent frangipanis ..... Never get tired of them ...... And surprisingly, we go to town a lot........ Particularly now that we are into doing the plumbing repairs ...... And that includes going to the mainland on the ferry ......



Our 'big truck' dinghy has a leak in it and so we have to use the 'beemer' ....... Fun and games as we hit the open water in the bay, and just like a beemer, we have to fill her up at the local 'servo' ..... The only 'servo' I know where if you look down in the water you see blue coral growing ...... Have to take a picture of that to show you ..... Beautiful blue and so delicate ...... We really are in paradise .... And man, what a place to work in ........



Loading things up at the ferry terminal becomes a real challenge ........ "Let get one toilet hose inside the other and that should reduce the bulk "...... Fellow cruisers lend a hand ...... All the loose items go into plastic crates and the whole lot is strapped together on a dolly-cart including the new bathroom vanity counter, paper towels and sheets of starboard ....... Even discovered this 'little room' on the ferry behind a steel sliding door ..... Bet you could sleep in there peacefully for the trip across and stagger out all refreshed ...... Scare the living daylights out of somebody when you opened the door at the other end and walked out ....



I know this looks a mess, just like the bush fire bearing down on our anchorage, but eventually it will all work perfectly ...... The first winch (barely visible) is the genoa sheet winch and the second one from the bottom is the electric winch with buttons on the other side, that so the "Queen of Florida" can operate it with her foot ........ We moved the mainsheet track further aft and moved the bail on the boom also aft, so that we will be able to fully enclose the cockpit with a rain-free canvas cover while still being able to do all the line handling ....... The blue tape is where the mainsheet track used to be ....... All in the name of 'Geriatric Sailing Ecstasy' ........ The next winch along is for the mainsheet and then the genoa winch on starboard ..... It's just like driving a car really .......




O.K. ....... Another flower break .................



Now 12v light bulbs come in various forms ........ But on 'SOUTHERN COMFORT' the lights at night are dismally dim ...... We've opted to make our own out of soft-white LEDs ....... Check this out ...........



Those little two-prong yellow circles contain 24 LEDs each........ Glue four of them onto a DVD with a little epoxy, solder the positives and the negatives and connect them to the 12v supply ...... Put the whole lot back in the original light fitting and 'Bob's your Uncle' ....... All of five dollars worth ..... The equivalent in a marine store will set you back close to $ 100 ............ And look at that light, even in broad daylight ...... Awesome ...... As you know LED uses up almost no electrical energy ...... They even make LED streetlights and CULEBRA had them installed a week or so ago .... The town is lit up like never before ................. You'll definitely be able to see CULEBRA on 'google-earth' the next time they do that night-time fly-over thing .....



Even this man working on getting the perfect finish on his slick racing sailboat in CULEBRA can probably do it at night ...... He has been at it for a while with lots of filler and lots of sanding ........... A real professional job ...... And just up the street are yellow flowers like this ...... Sheer natural perfection ...... Anyway, I've got to get back to work ...... There's a vanity to be ripped out and replaced and electric toilets to be installed, mirrors to be taken out and deck-wash pumps to be installed and ......... Lots more things to be done ..... More later ...... And if you are interested in making a life-style change and going cruising then "ARITA" is ready to go ...... Check it out at www.stthomasyachts.com and look under Classic John Alden ketch .... You too, could plan on never really retiring .......



My champion belt sanderer, "La Reina del Mar", in a sun-tanning bikini is hard at work on the "Lido" deck, although she fled when fellow cruisers arrived in the morning to cut up the two huge mirrors we had removed from down below .......... There were three of these big ones in the hallway separating the galley from the aft cabins ....... Another reason for putting in good lighting ...... I have a flattened nose as a result of walking into them in the semi-darkness....... Made use of the good pieces to replace other tarnished smaller mirrors ............ As you can tell, Mike is a professional glass cutter from Washington State here on holidays with his wife visiting 'Aussie' Paul and Lyn on the yacht "KIANA" out of Alaska ...... This renovation has endless jobs on the list .......... So we grab a professional every chance we get ......



Sometimes the sky just turns black and the rain comes thundering down but it never lasts long ........ It will be great when we get the sewing project behind us and the new bimini is up ........ Lots of stuff has been ordered and gets picked up from the Post Office that looks for all the world like some saloon out of the Wild West ..... Wait a minute .... It probably is ......




Of course back in CURACAO, work has continued too on Timo's enterprize ...... The former "BLUE MARLIN" has become the new "RED MARLIN" .......Filling and sanding the hull, and even the keel with its new bolts is ready for launching ....... Timo's plan is to drop the keel in the water, turn the hull over and float it over the top of the sunken keel and sort of 'attach it' ..... Stay connected for the next exciting chapter ...... The man's a first class champion ......




There is no stopping Timo and Annemieke in this radical yacht building venture, and if you should be lucky enough to be visiting CURACAO, go see them and take your hat off to them ....... But if you leave it too long, they may sail right by you ... And it won't be in the 1/10th scale model that Timo is pointing to either .........



And we might as well finish with another floral tribute ....... 'Bouquets on trees' ready for the picking ...... Huge flowering trees ............



For an added bit of excitement and a 'spike in the blood pressure' we took all the freshly-cut mirror left-overs to town in the dinghy over a bouncy sea............. And tomorrow at 6AM daylight, we get on the ferry to the big island, rent a car, and race to meet up with a former college classmate of mine who is visiting San Juan ...... Haven't seen him or spoken to him in 45 years, so you might well ask ....... "So what's the rush?" ..........

OH, HOW TIME FLIES ....................

March madness and another ST. PATRICK'S DAY weekend is to be celebrated ....... We have about as much in common with a four-leaf clover as my son's Range Rover ....... Still there's no need not to participate on board the Irish Flagship "KUHELA" in Culebra, where Harry and Linda do it in style ....... Delightful couple .....Great hosts too ..... Always have been, always will be ......



Days are spent somewhere near the bilge on "SOUTHERN COMFORT" replacing bits and pieces, like the pump room floor ...... And getting ready for the arrival of our washer/dryer, which will radically change our lives ....... Finding a laundry on shore and getting the washing done has always been a 'challenge' because the Caribbean islands have normally a very limited water supply ..... We have suddenly realized that exactly a year ago we were in ANTIGUA and Barbuda, and life was very different .............



The "Queen of Florida" is now a grandmother, and I'm officially a senior citizen ......... We need to pass over these facts real quick ........



ANTIGUA was beautiful and the anchorages all round the island were perfect ..... We will never forget that 11 miles of pink sandy beach on BARBUDA with barely a footprint on it, nor the majestic remains of the colonial era in English Harbour ....



Memories abound in that realm of " The beauty of it all " .........



We stayed on to see the Classic Yacht Regatta and were joined by many of our friends like Mark and Willie from the Yacht "LIAHONA" ..... That Regatta was a World-class event with spectacular entries ....... Elegance of a past era 'On Parade' ......



We met Bev and John on the schooner "AMOEBA" who had lost an engine and spent worrying days importing a new one from the States ....... And therein lies the challenge that we all face .... We may be in Paradise, but when it goes wrong, it normally goes drastically wrong ...... Anything that we can fix ourselves would not be called 'wrong' ...... That would be called 'normal' .... And like champions, John and Bev overcame those difficulties and sailed away eventually to Nova Scotia, CANADA ........ That night shot of English Harbour is sort of "borrowed" .......



Now this is at the other end of what might be called ...."challenges" ........ The yacht hit a well marked reef in Virgin Gorda where we worked on "SOUTHERN COMFORT", and sank instantly ...... Rescue salvage arrived within hours and had her re-floated and lifted out of the water .....



The forty-something ketch was dried out right alongside our new yacht in the boatyard, and we watched in sheer amazement when sometime later a couple of guys slapped on fibreglass and filler despite the lead keel hanging out of the bottom, and in four days flat she was re-launched, sold and towed away ...... The new owners bought her for $US 20.00, being equal to the stamp duty on the contract ..... The 'meter is running' when you have a boat on-the-hard in a boat yard, and letting it go for 'ziltch' is a much better option than to procrastinate over an action plan....... Challenges alright ......



Which brings us full circle to our buddy TIMO, back in Curacao for whom the 'challenge' is all in a day's work ...... The hull is now completed and coated in epoxy resin ...... She is now towed back to his floating workshop by hand ...... After all, the water there is only about four feet deep ...... Now that's what's called "cost-effective" transport ....... Check out TIMO's tow-line ......



He really is incredible if you look back to the days of that simple flotation platform, or even further back when he told us of his plan to replace the lost yacht "Blue Marlin" ..... For most of us this would be an extreme 'challenge' and for TIMO it's just 'a piece of cake' .........



So sticking with this "CHALLENGE" thing, here's a wooden sloop on the left that needs absolutely nothing ....... While on the right, we saw the schooner "ASTOR" in Antigua which had split its mizzen mast ........ That's the same as splitting a sizable bank roll ....... Hurts real bad ....... "ASTOR" was built in 1923 in Scotland, and is 86 feet long ......



So you see, our own 'challenges' back in CULEBRA, are really nothing to speak of ..... We have arranged for SEARS to deliver the newly purchased washer/dryer to the ferry terminal in FAJARDO on the mainland of PUERTO RICO between 10.30 and 12.00 ....... Well anyway it arrives at 1.30 .. No big deal ...... We wheel it onto the ferry and off at the other end in CULEBRA and then to the dinghy dock .........



Hoist it up with the mizzen boom and the mizzen sheet on "SOUTHERN COMFORT"....... A couple of friends stop by to give a helping hand, and in no time at all we are all several sheets to the wind ...... You see what we mean by the "challenges" .......




The plan is simple ...... Cut a hole in the cockpit floor ..... Cut the side of the bunk beneath it, and hinge it ........ Cut the wall of the middle cabin's head out, together with its door ....... Those spots in the photo are pieces of flying sawdust ..... Then go on deck and separate the washer from the dryer ....... Drop each unit down separately, put them back together again, and "Bob's your Uncle" ...........



"O.K. ...... So far so good!" ........




Now having re-assembled both pieces in no space at all, I need to get out from behind it and that becomes the 'challenge' ....... Even after taking the top off the washer there is just not enough space ...... Like a dying rat behind a wall, I will eventually get thin, I guess ..... As you can see I did get out ..... My heart was racing so fast it clear burst out of my T-shirt .......



And " VOILA " ...... We have a washer/dryer in place and the wall with the door will go back into place .... When the door is open the dryer door will open easily ...... Now here is something that our beautiful "ARITA" never had ..... A LAUNDRY CENTRE ..... Though she does have a very warm lounge ...... That means 'saloon' for you nautical types .......



Hard to part with, our awesome Classic ketch, but hopefully a new owner will love her as much as we do ...... That's ARITA's galley and head ......



That's the passage on ARITA from the front cabin, past the head, the hanging closet, the middle cabin and the galley, to the lounge ...... And so we've come full circle back to KUHELA, where young Harry prepares 'Mimosas and eggs Benedict' in honour of young Linda's birthday ........ In all of that Harry was not 'challenged' at all ....He's a natural in the galley .......



O.K. ....... That's enough about "challenges" ...... Here are some mango flowers trying to become baby mangoes ........ These are about the size of golf balls .....



Not hard to tell who the birthday girl is, is it now? ........ On an entirely different note,..... Does it not seem strange to you the length some people go to in order to cut the slightest bit of mold off a piece of cheese, only to then go out and buy a pound of 'blue' cheese ...... Or this handle I picked up going round and round on the luggage carousel at the airport ...... Just the handle by itself ....... Really does make you laugh at life on the planet .......