NEWSLETTER FALL 2000
For some it will seem like a long time between newsletters. This has not been for the lack of topics or information to share. For those on the internet, I did a couple of updates of current events but otherwise here is the very next newsletter since 1998.
In this issue
> TED BREWER has moved!
> Rendezvous 2000
> Some owner updates
> Listings
> The technical side
> 2001 Calendar
> Courtesy of Bill & Judy Speary from Janus:
> From -BEAU JEU. WHITBY 42 Hull #194
> Pictures
Courtesy of Bill & Judy Speary from Janus:
Doug -
Enjoyed seeing you at the Whitby/Brewer Chesapeake Bay Rendezvous yesterday (October 2). It was a nice gathering.
As we mentioned, we have used the weather forecasting services of Herb Hilgenberg (Southbound II) since 1992. He was especially invaluable to us on our passage from Norfolk via Bermuda and the Azores to Lagos, Portugal and again on our trip from Lagos via Porto Santo (Madeira) and the Canaries to Antigua and then to St. Thomas. Herb is well known and respected by the cruising community. He spends about 8 hours a day
doing his analysis and another 3-4 hours a day on the radio delivering his forecasts. This is a hobby; he does not get paid, although he is delighted to receive post cards, pictures, and donations. It's best to contact him a couple of days before your planned departure date. He monitors 12,359 kHz on the SSB from 1940-2000Z for check-ins (give your boat name and location). At 2000Z he acknowledges the check-ins and
starts his analysis, beginning with the US east coast, progressing across the Atlantic to the Azores, then on to the UK and the Med, and then the Atlantic to the Canaries and the Caribbean. He has a directional antenna, so you may not hear him well until he is covering your area.
Once on his calling list, you must contact him each day, because he spends a great deal of time preparing a forecast for you. He gives you waypoints based on the weather conditions and your average boat speed.
He is somewhat conservative, generally trying to keep you out of winds over 35 knots. We've found his forecasts to be more accurate and detailed than any others (including David Jones in the Caribbean and various ham nets). It's also interesting hearing the conditions and locations of other cruisers nearby.
Regarding our radio, we currently have an Icom 710 with an SG-230 smart tuner. It supports both ham and SSB frequencies. For the antenna, we insulated the starboard backstay (it attaches near the masthead) and the triatic, with a short piece of 6 gauge wire connecting the two. Our tuner is behind the starboard aft berth (yes, it's a pain removing all those screws). The radio is by the nav desk. With this setup we were
able to reach Herb (in Canada) on the entire trip to Lagos.
If you have any questions, please contact us.
Bill (N3PWR) and Judy (KA3ZHW) Speary s/v JANUS
[1985 Whitby 42, hull #320, with Volvo MD 30 (65 hp) engine]
And, here is a true seafaring tale! For anyone who has the offshore experience, you will enjoy the wit and humor while appreciating some of the anxiety and frustrating moments that occur as these experiences come to pass. For those not yet equipped with past experience, read with care. These things do happen, but are no reason to stop you from going out there and doing it your way!
From -BEAU JEU. WHITBY 42 Hull #194
Fri Jul 31 14:09:18 1998
Dear Doug,
Your enjoyable Spring 98 newsletter caught up with us here in Rebak Marina in Malayasia, having travelled to Chagos, back to Toronto, then here. We were very sorry to read about Kurt Hansens death. He was a fine man who built a fine boat. Our hearts go out to Doris. Its sad.
On a different note. Since December 95, shortly after we arrived in Singapore, Jim has had 3 angioplasties, 1 double bypass, 2 colonoscopies, 1 endoscopy, 3 ultrasounds, 1 CT scan and a partridge in a pear tree. He's still sailing. Can you believe this? We've sailed, just the two of us, over 10,000 nm and found the time to fix the boat and to fly home every year. Thank goodness for our PPP insurance. We enrolled with them three weeks before Jims first angioplasty. By the way, all his medical affairs were treated in Singapore with excellent sympathetic and modern care. Enough about the health, on with the sailing.
We've circumnavigated Borneo, sailed to Bali and Jakarta, to the South China Sea, to The Anambas islands, Sri Lanka, to India, to the Maldives, and back and forth between The Andaman islands, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. This part of the world is too interesting to leave. And, we still havent seen Cambodia. For all those fellow Whitby owners, the boat is better than we are, have confidence in her. She has forgiven us many times; there is no reason not to see the world by Whitby, its great fun. Remember that Kurt always told us that although he hadnt built the boat for the Horn, he had built each one for offshore passage-making. There are so many other interesting, comfortable places.
Heres an account of our sail to India, one of the best ever. Then, the return from the bottom of the Maldives, one of the worst, but then it became one of the fastest and best, well, right up there, sails we've ever had.
Subcontinental Sailing:
10 days 6 hours and were here (from Thailand). 1385 miles of terrific sailing, mostly on the beam and broad reach, only putting up the pole once. The mizzen staysail worked like a dream. Just when we were getting content and smug, we hit some high winds and bounced around on the short steep seas of the waters between Sri Lanka and India. Nothing broke, nothing came loose. The staysail and double-reefed main moved the boat along at 7 knots very softly, but those 7 kn threw us around the saloon for 24 hours.
Then the coast of India, (who could see ithaze everywhere) and fishing boats were everywhere too. From little ones with charcoal braziers as the only light (this is 15 miles offshore) to trawlers with green and blue (BLUE?) lights, to twenty-foot open boats with only white lights. A country with a population of however many billion needs to be fed. It certainly made our night watches speed by and we almost wore out the binocular eye pieces trying to guess what was going to ambush us in the black space ahead. Oh yes, there was one other trick the trawlers had; they pick up their nets in reverse at 6 kn. Maybe, that's what the blue light meant.
The sailing was great but Beau Jeu wanted to remind us that she hadnt been exercised for two years. The fridge/freezer, containing four legs of lamb, broke down. We looked in the bilge one morning to find it full of red transmission oila real panic there. Then, 4 miles off of Cochin, in the channel with the Navy, freighters and trawlers all zipping up and down, Jim noticed our oil pressure was really low. We had to add 2.5 L on the run. On the good side: we had enough freon to keep filling the fridge system (a leak had developed somewhere around the receiver) and didn't lose any lamb; and Jim found the leak in the hose to the prop lock which caused the loss of the transmission fluid and jury-rigged a repair with self-amalgamating tape and hose clamps. The low oil pressure is still a mystery. We added 2.5 L and the pressure went back up but somewhere, the oil is hiding and it had better not be the new oil cooler. On the better side: the fridge is now fixed (a rotolok on the receiver had not been fully backseated when serviced in Phuket!); and the hose for the prop lock can be found here and replaced easily. The engine oil is still a problem, but I have hopes.
Were anchored in front of the Bogatty Palace Hotel hows that for an address? And yesterday we spent our first day in town. India is more than I hoped it would be and a lot less than what I feared it would be. The beggars are not a problem in these three islands with a population of 600,000 in one of the richest provinces with the highest literacy rate of the country. Cochin has the oldest church in India and had the first European (Portuguese) settlement. The explorer/sailor, Vasco de Gama was here in 1502 but the Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs and Chinese were here before him. All were searching for and trading spices. A surprise for us is that theres a Jewish community whose roots go back to the Diaspora and they have a 16th century synagogue. Weve still all that to see.
The first impression is one of colour; the rich hues of the saris, the ribbons in the girls hair, the freshness of the vegetables, the piled-up fruit. The beauty of the carriage of the young women, the smiling faces of the men and their incredible kindness to us. Jim found his high-pressure hose because a man in a tiny shop selling fan belts and autoparts had his driver take him to the warehouse and bring him back. Our buddy boat, Arjamond, found a wonderful restaurant where the owner prepared a special meal for us, a feast of north Indian food of an unexpected delicacy. Of course, the down side is the garbage everywhere... its swept into two-foot high piles and I suppose eventually carted away; the begging kids who seem to hassle the Indians more than they do us; and the sidewalks, actually traps to catch you and send you to the hospital with a broken ankle or leg.
Yu'all gotta come here, it's great. xox pat and jim.
and then...
From Heaven to Hell and Back:
We spent another two months in the blissful clear waters and coral reefs, island- hopping in the Maldives, interspersed with stays at friendly resorts (Jims squirelled away '68 orange bar-beads from Tahiti are still valid at the Club Med on Funafushi atoll, 40 mins from Male, but naturally, he forgot to bring them ashore: had a pleasant dinner and day around the pool and still benefitted from the unlimited wine). The most recent resort was the Hilton on Rangali island in Ari Atoll: superb friendly reception, excellent dinners. They kindly used 800 L of their desalination plant to re-water Beau Jeu (not a terrible loss for them: the plant produces 20 tonnes a day). Of course, it helped that we arrived about one hour after the plaque was unveiled for the official opening.
Yes, Jim went scuba diving. Yes, he can free dive to forty feet. No, he has no tummy left.
Then came departure time. The weather was definitely changing. El Nino was strutting its stuff so, were off to the southernmost atoll, Addu, where the Brits, for years, had a major RAF base on Gan island. Our plan is to refuel, take on water and fresh veggies, fill up with cooking gas and petrol for the outboards, and generally, get our act together to prepare for the 2 to 3 months we plan to spend in the uninhabited paradise that is Salomon Lagoon in the Chagos Archipelago, a few hundred miles further south. We had such good memories of our stay there in 92.
At least that was the plan! Arjumand leaves May 13, a day ahead of us. The next day, at 0700, we motor off in calm weather ready, we think, for the two-day hop to Addu. Within an hour or so, the weather deteriorates, and deteriorates, and then gets even worse (Pats note in the log at 1400: will this day ever end? What about the night? aghghgh. her three o'clock comment: I get to leave the cockpit for the first time since 0700 everything is wet!). Very soon we are under triple-reefed main and reefed staysail. The following day is worse: now 40 knots plus over the deck (much higher in the gusts) and rain squalls to boot. We are being set east by a vicious current. Our friends on Arjumand have popped their mainsail at the third reef. It is in tatters and they wonder whether they can make the last 30 odd miles. Below, on BJ, everything is flying around despite our lashings and whatever can get wet, is wet. Above, the staysail is flogging itself to death and leaving the cockpit to modify the sheeting angle to cure the problem is a nightmare. The shackle on the Bruce anchor and its hardware are slowly gouging their way through the bowsprit, despite eight different lashings. A riding-turn develops on the roller furling for the jenny. Going forward means, of course, a harness always attached before releasing to attach the second strap to the next point. One crawls on hands and knees holding firmly onto a piece of rigging or something as we inch forward. At the bow to perform the required tasks, with each sea the entire bow is awash and you find yourself temporarily under water. We haven't seen conditions like this since Gloria tossed her apples in the Makassar Straights in 95 (Gloria, this was much worse!) We discuss running off several hundred miles to Galle in Sri Lanka to supply and regroup. The boat is taking a beating. By this time the TV is attempting to cross the cabin; the printer did but survived; and books are levitating (all the above had been carefully lashed for the trip you understand). The staysail sheet has literally sawed through the spinnaker halyard which went overboard along with our dinghy wheels, one exploded snatch block, one other snatchblock, a snapshackle or two, not to mention Pats breakfast, lunch and dinner. (Pat's note in the log: this is not goodTHIS IS NOT GOOD!)
But one of the inexorable laws of the sea is the rule of three: disasters happen in triplets.
Pat: Jim, I think you should know the water is rising in the after bilge.
Jim: Not to worry, just turn on the electric bilge pump.
Pat: Jim, I think you should know that smoke is coming out of the electric bilgepump float switch.
Jim: Not to worry, we'll operate it manually. I'll replace the float switch later.
Pat: I think you should know that the electric bilge pump is running but no water is pumping out.
Jim: Not to worry, we'll use the cockpit manual pump.
Pat: Jim, I think you should know the manual pump doesn't seem to be sucking.
Jim: Maybe we should break out the Edson (a big emergency pump mounted on a board on which one stands pumping a long handle which removes a gallon a stroke).
Pat and Jim: Note to Edson: the bloody pump is in place but the board is so big, there is nowhere to stand on it in the aft cabin. Either the boat has to sink faster so we can put the board in the saloon, or we need a bigger boat!
Needless to say, we sort out our problems: hove-to for several hours and get one of the bilge pumps operating; stuff Jim's old socks into the hause pipe with the anchor chain usually sealed with plasticene, the storm had washed it away. This had been responsible for most of the water coming aboard. The rest was forcing it's way though chainplates? stanchion joints? hull-deck joint? hatch gaskets? Fortunately, it wasnt much, but we are firm believers that we belong on the inside of Beau Jeu and the salt water, ALL of it, every drop, belongs on the outside.
Rule of three did we say? It is obvious that given the current, waves and headwinds we are going to need a hefty assist from our trusty Ford tractor engine. So we turn it on, put it in gear, switch to a full tank and promptly stall! Never mind, we'll bleed the engine and switch to one of the other tanks. The engine wont bleed. No tank is operative. We discover that the ugly black diesel (crude) which we had obtained in Cochin, India and painstakingly (Baha) filtered before putting in our tanks had not only managed to clog our two micron filters with sludge, but to thoroughly block our copper fuel lines from the tanks (stirred up by the heavy seas and furious bouncing around). We hoveto again, this time twice over a two-day period, while Consummate Engineer Ralph (Arjumond) talks us through procedures to solve the problem over HF radio. Jims contribution, now that he is in diving mode, is to use air under pressure from his scuba tanks to blow backwards though the fuel lines into the tanks while Ralph, on the radio, is saying Jim! thats very risky those tanks wont take more than 5 or so psi and you could burst them! I'd rather you didn't try that, but Go VERY carefully. Jim was CAREFUL, and was rewarded by a mouthful of diesel when he sucked on the line to reestablish suction. Never did a mouthful of fuel taste so good! A free flow of fuel was reestablished, all the connections are made and sealed no easy task as fuel was gushing from one of them. Ralphs calm advice sees us though and an hour later we hear the satisfying thrum of the engine (which, of course, also powers our batteries, which in turn, power our nav systems, and most importantly our autopilot, supply our refrigeration and is, in general, responsible for our creature comforts (a week or more of 24-hour-a-day hand-steering is far beyond our capacities.)
In addition, the three heavings-to (heaving-tos?) had cost us about 150 nm of westing (we had been as close as 36 miles from Addu before the rule of three was invoked). Jim was only able to accomplish his daily Mr. Fixit miracles because of Pats consummate seamanship and surefootedness on deck while Jim laboured below-quite a team!
We remind ourselves that we do this for fun and anyway, by now, it is virtually impossible to lay Addu Atoll. Ralph and Connie had arrived in Gan having fought bravely, hand-steering and tacking every twenty minutes for twelve hours to make the last twenty-two miles - Chapeau! (When they anchored on arrival, they discovered the force of the sea had been strong enough to make its way through the windlass oil seals and replace all their windlass oil with saltwater!) We radio our friends and ask them to pick us up some cooking gas and bring it with them to Chagos and we set course for the next 300 plus miles to Salomon Lagoon, Chagos Archipelago, British Indian Ocean Territory. (Incidentally, for those interested, the Brits are no longer providing mail service as in the past and guess where all our mail is!) On the HF radio, friends already in Chagos are urging us on.
The next day finds us only twenty miles closer to Chagos (though we had sailed 140 nm over water during the past 24 hrs). The current is still between 3 and 5 knots, setting us east, and the wind has backed to the southwest. (Naturally, Chagos is southwest of us!). Though we expect conditions will change in a day or two (they didnt), we remind each other, yet again, that we are doing this for fun. Over a late afternoon discussion in the cockpit, Pat listing all the pros and cons, we decide to ease sheets, give in to the Great Ocean, appease Poseidon and Neptune, toss a nod to El Nino and head east. And anyway, Ralph informs us there is no cooking gas on Gan (nor veggies, nor eggs, nor much else) as the supply ship could not arrive due toguess whatweather! After those five days of nonsense since leaving Ari Atoll, as we make the turn downwind, a great peace reigns, the motion smooths, water stops coming aboard in the wrong places and we enjoy an excellent nine and a half day passage to Phuket, Thailand one of our fastest passages ever, all under sail.
So there you have it. Our e-mail address is <beaujeu@tm.net.my> but please copy <sybeaujeu@hotmail.com> as this server is Malayasian and sometimes it doesn't work. I promise not to fill your mailbox like this again! Have a good summer. We hope to hear from you again. Pat Michel and Jim Domville
PS if you're interested we can tell you about the mods and on going- refit we have done in South East Asia incl retrofitting lines back to the cockpit, Battslides, teakwork, Rollerfurling on the staysail/storm jib, etc etc etc.
Looking forward to the next issue
We have some great material already for the next newsletter which I hope to share around the year end.
I have received a firsthand account from Peter & Maggie Mais while aboard the Whitby 42 Scotia Pearl with their young family. They relate a frightening experience of a boarding, theft and a shooting in Venuzuela. If anyone is heading there and would like to read this article earlier than when I publish my New Years Newsletter, I will gladly share it. The authors first hand information could save someone from experiencing unwanted grief.
If there are other stories out there that would appeal to all cruisers, either joyous or preventative in nature, please share them with me. Ill include them as part of future newsletters if they provide fresh and new information.
May fair winds and clean diesel fuel be yours, Douglas
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