Archive for the 'Pick Something Here' Category
September 28, 2019
Ahoy there! Tim here, posting an update from Diane. It’s been a while… Good to see Diane offshore again.
On the weekend Diane was at Universal Marina, up the Hamble river, just below the bridge. Lots of jobs to get done as always with boats. Ryan and Diane are bending on the cruising main. Yep, that’s a big sail.
A whole lotta cruising main to hoist!
And Ryan needs to get part way up the mast before hoisting the sail: Diane is grinding.
Diane grinds a halyard to get Ryan partway up the mast.
One little problem. Depth is showing an error message. Key piece of intelligence needed, and not just for going down river to get out of Southhampton. Plus we got some new things: lifering and storage bins. We are very close to going.
September 23, 2014
Look what arrived perfectly in time for my flight! #HellyHansen
It’s the AEGIR Race Jacket and Skagen Offshore Bib Pants
At the last minute I was able to set up a training run for after my trip to the Canaries via Malta and the Rolex Middle Sea Race. Pip is doing the Transat Jaques Vabres and I will get to do a training run with Pip to bring the IMOCA 60 back to England from Brazil after her race! 6000 Miles from Brazil to England double handed! #feelalive ! We leave Brazil early November as soon as Pip has finished the TJV and should arrive to England early December….But to do it right, I need to have the right gear and some awesome inspiring food!
Seems for the first time I will be super warm and dry with my @hellyhansen gear. I’ve tried many brands over the years but never seen the results like I am seeing with HH. Even in my Mini sailing days I always had to bring a spare set of fowlies and had to devise a way to dry out my gear for when it soaked through. This time as we approach the cold temperatures of England in December I will be warm and dry!!!
The other thing that keeps you warm is food. Not just a warm cup of tea or a warm pot of freeze dried, but specifically a warm well calorie and taste managed bag of scrumptiousness.
A few years ago I was wandering the boat show in Montreal. As is often the case, there was a company offering food samples. Well, as a sailor you know you never turn down food! So I stopped and tried some food in a pot. It was good…..really good. I started chatting up the owners and what I thought was some kind of catering company was actually a freeze dried food company! All I had seen was the pot cooking on the single burner and went in for the taste test. I was super impressed with the taste. But I wanted an unbiased second opinion. So I sent in my friend for a taste test to get their opinion. They came back saying “Oh wow, this is fantastic! I never would have guessed it was freeze dried food!” I was sold, but I didn’t have any upcoming adventures at the time. A year later I came across them again and since then have been building a nice little relationship with HappyYak. On a boat it is easy to get cold, wet and demoralized. The Hungarian in me knows that good food not only generates energy and warmth but it also generates peace of mind. Thirty days at sea is no easy task on a 6o footer. I’m looking forward to doing it with good calories, good taste and good karma in my food! Thanks Happy Yak!
Diane
Sept 5, 2019
Two fantastic adventures on the horizon to pack for. First up is an education opportunity. I love teaching people how to sail and how to be better sailors so they can love sailing just as much as I do. Next week I will be in Kingston teaching two groups cruising on a 30′ cruiser. A little fun dodging through the islands, playing with current and sitting on anchor at night and watching the world go by. My entire bag of gear can fit in this 50L Helly Hansen bag. The only thing not in the bag is my fowlies. The other two bags are teaching equipment. Let’s see how big a bag my students bring!
Then the action is going to really ramp up. 30′ is going to grow into 60′ and a little 2000 Mile run from England to the Mediterranean for the RORC Middle Sea Race. Challenger is a Volvo 60′. She is a great old boat and a fine example of if you take care of your ride, your ride will take care of you. This reminds me of the line in Master and Commander. She’s a fine boat….in her prime. With older boats (or boats in their prime), comes a completely different approach to sailing than something you may jump on to charter. Challenger is a simple boat that only has the things she needs….good old hard core sailing! No autopilot, vast galley, showers, cabins, microwaves……. Just good old tough proper sailing.
The adventure begins!
Diane
Aug 12, 2019
Sooooo Awesome! Sarah Douglas is from my home club Ashbridge’s Bay Yacht Club. She is going to the 2020 Olympics AND has just won gold at the Pan Am games!!!! Super amazing talented lady.
Read more on Facebook.
Diane
July 24, 2017
Yesterday I was unpacking from my recent adventures from Belfast Maine to Port Hawkesbury Nova Scotia and back…. and saw this. What a great flashback!
Our route took us across the Bay of Fundy and then into the Labrador current on our way up to Newfoundland. The Labrador current is very cold. The warm summer air over the cold current also generates a ton of fog. During the nights this makes the air damp and cold. Well, the first night into this colder temperature I didn’t have my Helly Hansen technical base layer on and was very happy when my time on deck was up and I could get below to put this on for my base layer. The next night as we slid into the colder temps and a nice little low with 30 knots in it I was super warm with all the right layers on. Thanks Helly Hansen for being so awesome at what you do!
Diane
July 16, 2019
Well hello everyone! By now you will have seen that our trip to Scotland on Eleanor is being rerouted back to Maine. It has been quite the adventure indeed!
Leading up to this trip I spoke a lot about planning and preparation for an adventure. The food to eat, the sails on the boat, the gear to wear, the route we would take and the weather we would encounter along the way. All of this trying to take into account the variables that we may encounter and how to plan best for those variables. For example, what if we saw light winds all the way across. How much food would we need to compensate for that and how much diesel would we need to be able to generate power all the way across. So many things to take into account, but eventually you just need to go. And off we went. Well prepared and well armed with a new lithium battery system, a generator fully functioning and food packed to the gills. We were unfortunately down by one in our crew complement. The delay of start that we had experienced with a failing generator was ultimately the cause of this.
The weather heading out the first day was great. Light winds in the right direction. A perfect setup for everyone to get to know the boat, start to get comfortable with watch routines and settle in. For some this is easy and for others it’s always a struggle. But everyone pressed through. One of our crew though was struggling with a bit of sea sickness and this was causing him a reduction in food and water intake. After all, who wants to eat and drink when they feel sick! We were also struggling with our fuel consumption. Something wasn’t right with the tanks. We were going through the diesel twice as fast as calculated. Hmmmm. Next up was our weather update. The weather files were coming into the boat just fine; lots of information and a great ability to keep on top of the information. We had some weather coming in. As much as 35 knots close hauled with tons of rain was forecast to last a full 24 hours. What an excellent opportunity to set ourselves up for the conditions we would surely experience between Newfoundland and Scotland!
During our first couple of days we had also noticed that the chart plotter screen on deck was causing havoc with the B&G GPS signal. When this happened, the B&G would completely shut down. It was like two kids in a playground fighting over the same stick. Hmmm, more things to add to the new equation. And then came the wind and the rain.
Earlier in the day we readied the boat for the new weather. The storm sail was bent on, a deck check was completed, food was cooked up ahead of time and people got their fowl weather gear out ready for action. Boy was I looking forward to wearing my Helly Hansen gear for this! By now we were about 80 Miles from Sable Island. Running to sea was not an option. Too many miles to get there before the storm and it would put us off our rhumbline by too much. And the wind built up to 20-25 knots. At 20 knots we could fly the genoa at the second reef mark with 2 reefs in the main. A conservative sail plan for sure. We were underpowered, but could hold a decent course. And as the Skip onboard I felt comfortable going to sleep knowing the wind could build while I wasn’t watching. And it did. Once we were up to 25knots, it was time to furl the jib and run with the Storm Staysail. Now for most they would say that that too was conservative, which it was. Remember the forecast was potential for 35 knots and I would not always be able to be on deck. So conservative was the chosen path. And then we saw 30 knots. The sea was lively but not unmanageable. It felt “sloppy”. Eleanor weighs 23,000lbs and is a 40 foot boat. The power to weight ratio becomes a struggle when you load her up with all the things you think you may need. We struggled somewhat to make any headway forward. The Storm staysail will only ever allow you a 60° angle to the wind. The sea state is always wanting to push you backwards so you need lots of power to climb up over the hills and Eleanor was really struggling to do so, but we endured. The seasickness was becoming a challenge as well. Now, at the time when one needs lots of energy and to have their wits about them, some of our team was being challenged. Numbers were down on the watch system. 12 hours later the winds started to ease and we were able to regroup and learn from the experience. There were two significant takeaways from experiencing our first rough weather. The first was being a “man down” during a weather battle. The complement of 3 did not work in pressing times. The second takeaway was the ability for Eleanor to pick herself up and move forward in heavy weather. The preparation of setting to sea on this boat is impeccable. The problem is the power to weight ration. How could we optimize Eleanor for such conditions. In the ocean it would be less of an issue. We would simply go slower. But managing a lee shore or passing between islands is a different battle and must be achievable.
With all of that experience in hand and a new list of things to sort out on the boat like the GPS arguments in the playground, the power to weight ratio and the seasickness, Eleanor is returning to Maine with a clearer picture of what our world will be like in an open ocean and how to achieve this ultimate goal of sailing to Scotland.
Life is an adventure. Regardless of the setbacks there is always something amazing to take away from the experience. Use this as fuel for the next adventure!
Diane
July 8, 2019
June 26, 2019
Well the decision has been made. The generator will get fixed. The crew are being put in a holding pattern to return in a week or so for the crossing. So many variables to take into consideration. Weighing the risks with the costs and availability of crew and a good weather window. All make for a complicated equation. If you read my earlier discussion on the generator…. the analogy would be that not only have we decided to charge the phone battery, but we are bringing two extras with us!
Stand by for a weather update and mechanics update for a leaving date!
Diane
June 26, 2019
This morning I’m reminded of a song from the 80s Should I Stay Or Should I go. The Clash held a lot of meaning for some of us back then and ironically the song still rings true today for our morning breakfast and crew brief.
Yesterday was a pivotal day for our boat Eleanor being ready to go across the ocean. The technicians were fully engaged in testing this exciting new Victron lithium battery system.
The new lithium system truly is state of the art. It will afford us an incredible level of conveniences and safety in depleting the batteries without catastrophic battery failure while maintaining an incredible long life for the batteries.
There are colour digital panels that tell us exactly what is happening at any given moment and we could even download the computer’s historical data to do analysis remotely with a technician! In my usual world I think I’m lucky when I have a little digital battery meter gauge showing me the amps draining the system or replenishing the system. Not only is this lithium system clever with depletion and monitoring, but when the boat gets to the UK, the Skylla chargers which accompany the multiplex charger will manage the step down from 60hz to 50hz to charge the system. The boat won’t even skip a beat when we plug in to shore power in the UK.
Really a great system to meet the needs of the cruising that the boat will do, but let’s look at what this battery power can really do. On Eleanor we have 600 amp hours of house service for the system. My math shows that if we turn on the fridge/freezer, use the shower once a day, plug in our gadgets and yes watch a movie or two, that we will deplete the battery power somewhere between 200-300 amp hours a day. We then would charge the batteries off of the generator for 2 -3 hours a day to keep the system topped up. If it is breezy, the wind generator will supply a few amps of power and if it’s sunny, the solar panel will also provide a couple amps but really these two items act as a battery tender for when the boat is on a mooring ball or on the hard. This whole idea of managing our power expenditures and intake is not unusual to us human beings. Anyone who carries a cell phone knows how long they can go before their battery will die. They know how to go into conservation mode and when they can charge again. But what if you couldn’t recharge? How would you reorganize your world to still meet your operating needs? Would you be ok with just shutting the phone off? Could you shut down the battery consumers and all the crazy apps and stretch your power out over a longer period of time? Or would you just reorganize your world so that you didn’t ever need a phone again? Imagine how you would restructure your world to functionally live without a phone.
Yesterday while the technicians on Eleanor were testing the new system they discovered that our generator was not delivering any output of power to charge the batteries.
Capacitors were replaced and “Gene” was still dead. Bench testing the alternator….pretty much requires pulling the engine out to get at it as she is installed aft of the main engine in a tight little locker surrounded by the steering quadrant cables. “Gene” is our primary method of supplying power to charge the batteries. Without Gene, ie without our main power source, can Eleanor complete her mission and what reduced parameters are we happy to live within for the crossing? Some of you may be thinking wait a minute….you have a perfectly good generator with the main engine….why not just use that?
This generates (hahahahahah) the argument of why boats have both a generator and a main engine. The basic theory a generator runs at a high enough RPM at idle that it doesn’t cause long term damage to its rings and cylinders. A main engine idles at a lower RPM and is designed for low end torque working the pistons harder when the prop turns and load is created. Running the main engine at idle without any load on it uses low compression. This low compression doesn’t always completely burn the fuel in the cylinder. The leftover fuel creates a buildup of carbon and starts to burn on its own. There are others that say “define low compression”. The low compression theory used to be a valid argument in “one or double lung” diesel engines. These were the old single or two cylinder engines. In Toronto sometimes if it is really cold in the spring, the compression is so low in these old cold engines that to start them I have to run a blow torch in the air intake to warm up the cylinder…..no glow plug is warm enough! Running these engines at low idle really causes them to “belch and fart” as I say.
Our engine on Eleanor however idles at 1000 RPm. In my humble opinion this is sufficient RPM to keep the engine running efficiently. It generates about 130 amps of power out of the 160 amp alternator. Plenty of power to charge the batteries! Now the great debate continues. How much fuel would it take to use the main engine as our power source? Generators typically use about half the diesel as a main engine. However, this is a hard equation to answer mathematically and accurately. Between my experience and my research my math gives us about .3 gallons per hour of consumption at idle on the main engine. If we were to function in conservation mode aka no movies, bucket showers, careful management of the fridge/freezer and foot pump only, we could easily manage all the way across with our 140 gallons of diesel. But here’s the other part of the “mathematical” equation. This trip is not just about getting the boat there. I have to remember that after I get off the boat there are future adventures in her travels and our fantastic boat owner needs to be able to function without a generator. The great question remains…..do we go without a generator. Do we take the boat to Scotland where we don’t have the resources of the technicians that have spent countless hours with this new hi tech system and where the boat and her owner needs to function without the luxury of charging gene? Here comes the song again
Should I stay or should I go now…..indecision’s buggin me!
Stay tuned for the final decision!
Diane
June 23, 2019
The yellow brick tracker for Eleanor seems to be working! Follow the journey across the Atlantic with us here
https://my.yb.tl/sailingyachteleanor
Looks like we might have a departure date of Wednesday. However, we need confirmation from the yard tomorrow. Stand by as the weather is also looking a little drippy and blustery for Wednesday…however, we only need to get 30 Miles out to get to open water and then awayyyyy weeee gooooo!
Diane
You are currently browsing the archives for the Pick Something Here category.
