Saturday, January 28, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
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From: Roy Rogers <roy.skipperroy.rogers@gmail.com>
To: Roy Rogers <roy.skipperroy.rogers@gmail.com>
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Simon, -and Kim.
You are correct. It is the same ankle I injured so long ago. Your memory serves you well. I'd forgotten about that whole episode until the podiatrist observed that one ankle was not the same as the other and asked about old injuries. (I didn't remember the incident with Mike until you mentioned it!) I couldn't tell the doctor much about it except to say I recall it was x-rayed, I think, and was not broken. But it was a long time in healing. Over the years since I've run 3 marathons, at least a dozen half marathons, and I can't count shorter events, like 10 K and 15 Ks. Never mind the countless miles of usual exercise. So it's surprising to me that it should become an issue now.
I'm staying home today. I've arranged for another captain/instructor to take over for me today and perhaps tomorrow. I've got to get rid of this congestion and cough. These students are scheduled to be on our new Leopard 44 catamaran on Wednesday and Thursday. I've got to be healthy for that. There are only 2 of us at Sailing FL qualified to run that boat and the other guy, Patrick, can't really take off from regular duties to go on a training cruise.
You asked about catamarans. To be honest I hadn't sailed them much until last year. In the VI I once did a 4 or 5 day charter on one and recall that I thought then that the space was nice, but it didn't want to point very well, and the motion was very different from a mono-hull. Here in Florida, there was a Lagoon 36 in the fleet that I sailed back from Isla Mujeres, Mexico last April. The next month I sailed it again, this time back from Key West. Both trips were occasioned by regattas that took the boat first to Mexico, then to Key West, and after each I was detailed to skipper the return trip.
The trip from Mexico turned out to be a mostly light air and then becalmed affair. The crew for that were 3 graduates from our sailing school who wanted an advanced off-shore experience. I didn't say this to them, but we didn't really get that. It was a calk walk. We motor-sailed until the fuel was nearly gone, then sat waiting about a 100 miles from the FL west coast until wind came up enough to get us to Venice and a fuel dock. That trip was not a fair assessment of the catamaran's sailing characteristics. But again the space was nice. And I like close maneuvering with twin-screw powerboats, which is what a catamaran is when not sailing.
The trip from Key West was much better sailing. That trip begins with an 80 mile open water passage to Marco Island. After that, the rest of the trip is either near-shore, or inside the Intra-Coastal Waterway. Crew on that trip was Cathy, and our friends from Berlin Germany, Carsten and Viola. This trip was supposed to be pleasure as much as business. We had a whole week to do the trip. I've done it in 32 hours, on a Catalina 445, in 20 to 35 kt winds, which stands as the charter company record for a mono-hull.
After getting down to the boat we hung out in Key West for a couple days being tourists. (It's an interesting and fun place – for a couple days.) We set out before dawn with a forecast of 10 to 15 out of the E. And that's what we had once we cleared the NW Channel. The seas were just a couple feet at first, while we were still relatively close to the chain of keys. But as the Keys fell away to the east the seas built up and became 4 to 6 feet. That's when the ride became uncomfortable.
Here's my take on catamarans. Compared to a mono-hull of similar length, they offer amazing amounts of space. On a long 30 something and into the 40s, you usually get 2 staterooms in each hull, often each with its own head, a huge galley and salon area - great for dining and entertaining. Outside - a huge cockpit plus another huge space forward with a trampoline connecting the two hulls. I can see why catamarans have become so popular, and numerous, in the charter fleets. They are great for that. You can pack them with friends and not feel as crowded. Also, catamarans are appealing to people who are intimidated by the heeling motion of a mono-hull. In an anchorage and in an easy seaway, they are a very smooth, stable ride.
But, in larger seas I find their motion uncomfortable. Think about this – with a mono-hull there will be rolling as well as pitching, but the sails and keel help dampen the motion and provide what I find to be a predictable roll and pitch. On a catamaran, there are two connected hulls that encounter seas in an unsynchronized way. Often the hulls are trying to respond to different demands. The result is, in bigger seas, a motion that is short and jarring. It may not roll a lot, but the pitching and jarring wears you out. Like riding a hobby-horse, or a dirt bike in the Baja 1000.
My current students, a physician and his wife, come to us with next to no experience, but with the idea of buying a catamaran to live on and then in a few years go cruising on. I admire their spirit, but have said this. Before you buy, go down to the Caribbean and charter a catamaran like the one you might buy. Get it out in open seas in 15 to 20 kt winds, 6 foot seas, which are typical down there, and see what you think.
I understand why people are attracted to catamarans: the space, notions of the stability. But after that Key West trip, Cathy agrees with me; we'd never buy one. They're awfully expensive to buy and maintain, and not really all that comfortable in big seas. .
We no longer have that Lagoon 36, thankfully. It was worn out. But a couple months ago we got a brand new Leopard 44. That make and size have become very popular, especially in the charter fleets. It's huge - 23 foot beam – a challenge to get into its slip. It looks very sleek and modern. It's a half million $ boat, but honestly, I remain unimpressed. I find many aspects of it's finish to be chintzy. We've discovered voids in the decks. Stringers are separating from the hulls. It's just months old, and except for the trip around from Ft Lauderdale where it was commissioned, it never sees rough water. But the manufacturer seems to be standing behind its product. It will soon be taken out of service for a week, minimum, of warranty repairs. My students and I will probably be the last to sail it prior to that.
I should lay down for a while.
RR
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Skipperroy.blogspot.com
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From: Roy Rogers <roy.skipperroy.rogers@gmail.com>
To: Roy Rogers <roy.skipperroy.rogers@gmail.com>
CC:
The catamaran was about 36 long. Where the dinghy was tied the freeboard was at least four feet. I used one of the empty port lights as a foothold to boost myself up onto the deck. The cockpit was large, as all catamaran cockpits are. There was a pile of trash to one side. Plastic bags, random paper, couple empty bottles, rusting hand tools, unopened cans… The binnacle was on the port side with the steering wheel still attached. There must have been a cockpit table in this big open space, but it was now gone. I looked forward over the cabin top and saw that except for the mast step and a few cleats, it was stripped of hardware. Someone went to a lot of effort here. Why did they leave the wheel?
I stepped down to the companionway threshold and looked into the cabin. The shade of the cabin was lit with sunlight through forward facing Plexiglas windows. I was surprised by the contrast. While the deck and cockpit were stripped, the salon was filled. My first thought, was someone still onboard? I said, Hello? No response. I looked down into the hulls on either side of the salon. In the port side I saw the galley. Counters, stove top, shelves and cabinets covered with galley items, but lower down, knee-deep seawater surged and sloshed around. The hull was flooded. Looking down to the stbd side that hull was also flooded. I saw a passageway and forward was a door open. To a stateroom, I thought, and probably another aft under the cockpit.
I looked more carefully at the items in the salon. There was a large table in the middle with settee seating around three sides. There were shelves behind the settees and the table and shelves were crowded with random items, too many to make sense of. Like a table at a garage sale but much more of a mess, with no attempt to arrange order. These were the details of someone's life on this boat. Box of cereal. A pad of post-it notes. A balled up tee-shirt. Scattered papers. Can of corn. A black Caselogic CD holder with about a dozen CDs in it. Names of French artists on the CDs, Bottle of J&B scotch. There was a string of Christmas lights hanging behind the forward settee. Among the chaos on the table was a pineapple, only partially spoiled. This had not been here long at all. Christmas was just two weeks earlier. I was more puzzled now than ever.
Down in the galley it was much the same. Bottles of spices on a shelf. Pots on the stove. Olive oil. Syrup. Bag of rice. Cooking utensils. Vinegar. Another bottle of liquor.
On a shelf behind the settee and above the galley, more items of ordinary life. A box of waterproof matches. Coins. A small padlock. Some loose stainless fasteners. Small pair of pliers. What happened here? Why would someone go to all the trouble of stripping the boat of rigging and hardware, yet leave all this? It made no sense.
Looking back at the table a closed note book caught my attention. I opened the cover. The front page was filled with tight, neat print in blue pen It was in French. I turned the page. It was blank. The entire notebook was blank except for that first page. What did it say? On another shelf I saw a stack of glossy paper, mostly blue, with print and photos. Picking it up I saw it was advertisement. Like a brochure. One picture was of this catamaran, still whole and sailing past a beach in the background. Another photo was a thin man in a blue ball cap and black short sleeved shirt behind the wheel of the boat. The owner/captain? The print was in French but there were words I could understand. Destinations like St Martin, St Barts, Guadeloupe, Les Saints. Prices too, in Euros. And an address for a website: http://www.catamaran-croisiere.com/. So this was a charterboat. Were there guests onboard at the time of the grounding? Or was he alone?
I looked around and found a reasonably clean plastic bag. I took several copies of the brochure and put them in the bag. I picked up the case of CDs and put them in too. Then the bottle of scotch. I had to go one step down in the galley, almost into the seawater, and stretch to reach the other bottle. Napoleon brandy. I put that in the bag.
The bottles were for our friends on my charterboat who drank. Pirate's booty, we later joked. The CD and the brochures were to help tell the story, and speculate over the mystery.
Fwd:
Skipperroy.blogspot.com
-------- Original message --------
Subject:
From: Roy Rogers <roy.skipperroy.rogers@gmail.com>
To: Roy Rogers <roy.skipperroy.rogers@gmail.com>
CC:
The sailing catamaran appeared to be the victim of a sailor's nightmare - an anchor that dragged or a mooring that broke in the middle of the night when no one was awake and no one knew the boat was moving until the wind blew it into the rocks. I can imagine the scene. The owner/captain is awakened by a loud thump and sudden jarring impact from the leeward hull. His first thought is What the...No, this can't be happening. But the boat's motion is no longer right and he can hear the sound of fiberglass grinding. He rolls out of his bunk and races through the dark cabin to the cockpit. Looking around in the night, he can see the silhouette of the hillside is wrong. The boat is not where it had been.. He's on the rocks. Maybe the damage is only light and superficial. There are only moments to save the boat from more serious damage. He bends to the engine controls and starts the engines. They both start normally and this gives hope, but waves are slapping the windward hull. The boat lurches unnaturally, is pushed harder onto the rocks. He knows he's got to maneuver the leeward hull, the starboard hull, off with a rotating force while keeping the windward hull, port side, clear and in deeper water. He's got to rotate off and back away. Don't think about the damage now. Get off. He engages the stbd engine transmission. Reverse. No change. Waves continue slapping the port side. More throttle. The dark shapes of the shore are not moving. The boat isn't responding. He gives it full throttle and thinks, I've got to make the boat move, even if more damage is done doing so. I've got to get off before the waves push us farther on. But the boat doesn't move. Or maybe it moves a little but then settles into a deeper gap in the rocks. One more thing to try. Desperation. Put the port engine in forward. Maybe that will help the stbd hull rotate off. But if it does, be ready to go to reverse before you drive the port hull onto the rocks. The waves are relentless. The hull is pounding and scraping.
As I approached the wreck I looked down into the clear water checking for depth. The bottom was all rock. I saw the long white blade of a rudder laying on the bottom. When I got close I cut the engine, pulled the outboard forward and it's shaft out of the water, then waited for momentum and the wind carry me to the catamaran's port hull. I had seen from a distance that the boat had been stripped. The mast and rigging was gone. Now, drifting close, I saw that even the portlights were gone. The bow and stern pulpits were gone. Someone has spent a lot of time and effort to do that. It seemed like this wreck had been here for some time, but I would soon learn differently. The side of the inflatable dinghy kissed the hull and I stood to grab hold.. I found a cleat and tied off the painter.
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Subject:
From: Roy Rogers <roy.skipperroy.rogers@gmail.com>
To: Roy Rogers <roy.skipperroy.rogers@gmail.com>
CC:
About the trip. It was fine. I've posted some of our photos on my FB page. I'm expecting more, hopefully better photos from the friends we traveled with. I'll post some of those when I receive them. We flew into St Martin, which as I expected, was even more commercially developed and crowded than when I last was there about six years ago. I can remember the place very different than what it has become. The harbor where we picked up our Beneteau 43, Oyster Pond, is now filled to capacity with a large marina where both The Moorings and Sunsail operate large fleets of charter boats. I remember first going in there in the late '80's and there was no marina, just an anchorage and a few dinghy docks. We arrived there late in the day on Thursday. Friday noon we sailed off toward St Barts and did not return until the morning of our return flights more than a week later. So much for St Martin.
On the way to St Barts, only about 8 nm from Oyster Pond, there's an island called Ile Forchue. It's semicircular in shape with tall hillsides and dark volcanic columns all around. . It's actually the caldera of an old volcano but makes for an ideal anchorage. The island is I think privately owned but completely undeveloped and open for cruisers to hike on. It's like a sanctuary. There are moorings for transient boats in the anchorage. We picked one up in about 15 feet of water, a hundred yards from the small beach. Most of the rest of the coastline is volcanic rock.. There were only a couple other boats in the anchorage. We had our first swim in the warm clear salt water. Spent our first night away from a marina and any development. Folded the bimini top back so we could see the constellations and planets while lounging in the cockpit. In the morning, following a great breakfast served in the cockpit, we went ashore and hiked. Ed, of Ed and Ginger form Seattle, is a retired scientist and knowledgeable botanist. He and Cathy conducted an informal botanical tour. We hike across where the ridge was lowest for a view of the Atlantic side, which is very rough but spectacular with ocean swells crashing into brimstone and water shooting up high above the surface. St Barts is just a few miles away from there and we could see into a couple of its white bays and houses on green hillsides. After the hike folks wanted to snorkel. I was curious about a sailing catamaran wreck on the far shore just inside the anchorage, so I took the dinghy to check it out.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Off to St Martin
We're at the airport, about to board our plane. This afternoon we'll be on our Beneteau at Oyster Pond. This is a harbor I've been in several times, but that was back when I was knocking around in the Caribbean through the 80s & 90s. I'm very curious to see what remains. I know there will be lots of new.
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