by Judy Handley | Jun 18, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 235, Year 5 Windier Than Yesterday
Date: Friday, June 18, 2010
Weather: Mostly Sunny with a Few Light Showers; Winds SE 20-30 Knots
Location: Ampanasia Bay, NW Madagascar
Some things never change. It is still windy. In fact, it was as windy today as when we arrived. So we sit and wait. Ed did go up his mast early this morning before it got too windy, and he did get the headstay reattached. But he is not done with the job and it was just too windy to go back up today. He also did not get to go in the water and plug the drain that is leaking. He’ll go up the mast first thing in the morning and we’ll see where the day goes from there. Mark wanted to do some epoxy work on deck today, but it was too windy for that as well. It was a good day for inside work. Mark worked on the VHF radio trying to get the DSC (digital selective calling) option working, but he was not successful. We can’t use this until we get back to the Caribbean, but since there was nothing else to do he played around with this. He did a few other odd jobs and I baked bread and a cake, did laundry, and worked on those Chagos photos. Like I already said, some things never change. Wind or not, we plan to go back to the part of the bay where we saw the baobab tree (or whatever kind of tree it is) in bloom so that I can take more photos. We’ll also explore on land a bit. Then on Sunday morning we’ll explore the river as a special Father’s Day trip. If everything goes as planned, we’ll be out of here on Monday morning-wind or no wind.
by Judy Handley | Jun 17, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 234, Year 5 Still No Break in the Weather
Date: Thursday, June 17, 2010
Weather: Sunny, Winds SE 18-25 Knots
Location: Ampanasia Bay, NW Madagascar
You can’t have it all. Yesterday it was overcast and rainy but the winds were down a bit. Today the sun shone brightly all day but the winds were back up to 18 to 25 knots with no let up all day. We were getting white caps on the bay once again but as the sun fell lower in the sky the winds stayed closer to 18 than to 25 and the number of white caps were greatly reduced. Mark and I took advantage of that and headed out in the dinghy to explore the shoreline. Mangroves line the shore. There are breaks in the wall of mangroves here and there and in one of those breaks we found a pebbly beach with two dugout canoes on shore. We saw three cows but were not close enough to see if they had the fantastic horns of the Malagasy zebu (just another word for cow). And we also found a beautiful tree in bloom. I have no way to identify it as I have absolutely no resources outlining Malagasy flora. I thought this tree was a baobab based on the bottle shape of the trunk, and it might be, but on close inspection of the photos, I see the trunk and branches all have spiny thorns and I didn’t know baobabs were thorny. The tree had no leaves but the blossoms looked like little bouquets. I have to go back and beach the dinghy so I can inspect this a little closer. There are a few others scattered here and there, but none so close to the shore. In this stark environment, a tree in blossom is such a beautiful thing. So on the list for tomorrow is a return to the area where that tree is located for a little land exploration.
Now back to the progress being made on repairs. Mark completed the caulking job on the deck chain plates and I continued cleaning the stainless. It was so windy that one of my rags blew away and the container of stainless polish went flying and landed upside down on the deck making a nice little mess. So I finished the bow pulpit area and quit on that job for the day. I washed the cockpit seat cushions and made pizza for dinner. In the late afternoon Mark went up the mast to inspect the rigging one more time and found a problem we had not seen before. The lower stay on the starboard side has one wire sticking out where it connects to the mast. This same stay had this same problem when we reached New Zealand in 2006 and we had it replaced. Now we will have to replace it again and we have no idea why this same stay keeps having the same problem. Since we cannot replace this until we get to South Africa, we will use some Amsteel line made from Dyneema and fashion another lower so if the wire one goes, the rope one will be in place. Dyneema is a very strong line, actually almost twice as strong as the wire rigging, so we think we should be fine. And even if both lowers broke, it should not affect the stability of the mast. At least that’s the theory.
Constance is still battling the slow leak. They had to take out the contents of yet one more cabinet to dry it out. So their boat is just full of stuff that should be in the cabinets but cannot go back until the leak is completely stopped. Putting the Life Caulk on the outside yesterday slowed things down, but now Ed needs to actually plug the underwater drain that is cracked. He will push a wooden peg in the hole sealing it with the Life Caulk. I don’t know what we would have done without the tubes of this stuff. When Lynne flew back to the states to see her mother in March, we contacted my sister-in-law Sue and her husband Brad in Boynton Beach where Lynne’s mother lives. We had Brad and Sue go to West Marine and buy three tubes of this caulk along with some other stuff and take it to Lynne so she could bring it back to us. We were going to use it to redo the caulking in our teak deck, but that didn’t get done, thankfully, and now we have it to help seal off the leaks in Constance and our leaky chain plates. What a stroke of luck that we happened to have the caulk. I now call it Life Saver instead of Life Caulk. So thank you Brad and Sue for shopping for us.
The South African Maritime Mobile Net tells us that we will get a bit of a break in the winds on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. So if Constance is ready to go, we will plan to head south. Windbird is down to the last two tomatoes from India, the last two eggs from the Maldives, and the last case of beer. We haven’t seen a fresh green vegetable in a couple of months, so it is time for a stop with a store. That would be Nosy Be which is more than a hundred miles from here. But by this time next week, we should be there. Super Marche (the name of the grocery store there) here we come!
by Judy Handley | Jun 16, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 233, Year 5 More Boat Repairs and MoreYucky Weather
Date: Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Weather: Overcast with Rain Squalls, Winds SE 15-20 Knots
Location: Ampanasia Bay, NW Madagascar
Evidently our information that it rarely rains in June in northwest Madagascar is just wrong. It rained off and on all night and off and on all day. And as we go into another evening, it doesn’t look like that pattern is going to change. So we have still not been to shore and I’m getting a little stir crazy. But I’m not really interested in walking through the bush in the rain, so we will wait. We did launch the dinghy today but used it only to go back and forth to Constance. Being stuck on the boat means that we are getting lots of work done. I keep plugging away at those Chagos photos and Mark keeps ticking things off the boat repair list. The inner forestay is back up but it was too wet to put caulk under the port side chain plate covers. So that is tomorrow’s job. Ed and Lynne were up early and Ed was up his mast by 7 am. What he found was good news. Their head stay is not broken. The attachment to the mast is, but that can be replaced without taking the whole rig down. He does need calmer weather to unwind the head sail and take it down and that might have to wait until we are further south. I don’t think the wind ever stops blowing up here. Ed then went in the water and used some Life Caulk that Lynne had brought back for us when she went home from India in March. We didn’t know it until a couple of days ago when we read the tube, but it can be applied underwater. So Ed found the ten-inch hairline crack in the hull, sanded the area, and applied the Life Caulk. That has not stopped the weepage on the inside, so more exploration will take place tomorrow. But progress is being made.
We saw more signs of life in the bay today. Two men in a homemade boat went rowing past Windbird on their way to the south side of the bay. I was surprised that they didn’t stop but I have heard other cruiser say that there are fishermen in this bay that do not come to sailboats to trade. The other sign of life we saw today was a huge flock of beautiful white birds that swooped and danced past Windbird at sunset. I’m going to take that as an omen of good weather to come!
by Judy Handley | Jun 15, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 232, Year 5 Working on the Rigging
Date: Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Weather: Partly Sunny with Rain Squalls, Winds SE 15-20 Knots
Location: Ampanasia Bay, NW Madagascar
The weather is not cooperating. The winds were a little less today than yesterday, but it is still very windy. Because we have mast steps all the way to the top of the mast, it was safe enough for Mark to go up the mast and investigate the problem with our inner forestay. It was impossible to tell from below what the real problem was but as soon as Mark went up he could see that the stay was definitely broken. This is the oldest stay on the boat, replaced in 2001, and it is worrisome that it broke. We certainly don’t want the headstay to break. It was replaced in 2003, so hopefully it will be fine until we get home. Mark brought the inner forestay with roller furler and sail attached down to the deck and was lucky enough to find the right Sta-Loc fittings to correct the problem. Getting it back up in these winds will be a little trickier, but Mark has asked Ed to come over and help us with this tomorrow. If it goes back up and everything is just right, then we will once again be a cutter rig and all of the things broken on the trip from Chagos to here will be fixed. Maybe then Mark can relax. He has been working like a madman doing one repair after another. Staying with the rigging theme, we are also re-caulking the deck chain plates. Mark also unscrewed all of the nice little wooden plates that cover the massive chain plate fittings in the cabinetry of the main cabin. The chain plates hold all of your rigging in place and our chain plate deck cover plates were leaking a bit which caused some surface rust on the bolts below. So we cleaned and cleaned and got rid of every spec of rust, sprayed some magic corrosion inhibitor on the plates and then covered them once again. This is the first time I have really seen the chain plates and I was truly impressed with the size and number of bolts that hold down our rigging. This boat is really built like a tank and I like that!
We saw signs of life onshore today. A lone man was working on a sandbar attached to shore at low tide. I took photos and zoomed in and could see that he had arrived in a dugout outrigger canoe. We didn’t see him come or go, but there must be a village somewhere near. As more and more of the repairs are completed, and if the winds do not get stronger again, I am really hoping to make it to shore soon. Constance still has much more work to do and they might be able to take the time to go with us, but I’m going to try and convince them that they need a little break. Hopefully I’ll have something land-based to report tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Jun 14, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 231, Year 5 Winds Abating
Date: Monday, June 14, 2010
Weather: Sunny, Winds SE 15-25 Knots
Location: Ampanasia Bay, NW Madagascar
I don’t remember a time when I have been happier about lessening winds. It was still a windy day but nothing like yesterday and the day before, and as evening approached the winds started to quiet down even more. Let’s just hope this continues into tomorrow. Mark needs to go up our mast to check out our sagging inner stay and Ed needs to get in the water to check out the gouge in the side of Constance and then he needs to go up his mast to check out their broken headstay. So a quiet day would be great. We might even get to go to shore for a walk in the dry bush country. It looks desolate, but I’m sure when examined up close there all kinds of things to see. The land here looks very much like the Northern Territory in Australia. It is red soil bush country just begging to be explored. Maybe tomorrow.
Mark continued working on projects all morning while I worked on my never ending job of editing and naming photos from Chagos. I had been looking at photos of turquoise water, white sand, and green islands for about two hours and when I went outside to hang out a laundry. I looked around and wondered why everything had turned brown. It really took me a second to remember where I was. Certainly not in Chagos! After lunch, Ed came over in his dinghy and took us over to Constance. We all examined the damages to Constance and then Mark and Ed worked on replacing a reefing line in the boom. The line had broken sometime during the trip. Lynne and I sat and talked and just enjoyed seeing each other in person again. We got out charts and discussed plans for where we would anchor between here and Nosy Be and Ed got on the SAT phone and called a phone number for a marine shop on Nosy Be that we found in the notes we have about Madagascar. He was told to call another number and finally reached a gentleman on a boat anchored somewhere on Nosy Be who is going to research the possibility of having Constance pulled out of the water for repairs if necessary. We didn’t find out any definites but it was good to make contact with someone who might be able to help. After returning from Constance I was out on the back deck rinsing out the clothes that had gotten salt water splashed on the way back to Windbird. All of sudden I hear Jingle Bell Rock, and I knew instantly that Mark had turned on the CD player. Evidently we haven’t listened to any music since Christmas in Thailand. He had been removing wooden panels to check out the chain plates to see if there was evidence of leaks. In doing so, he jostled some wires from the CD player and decided he needed to check it out. I came in and took out the Christmas music and put in some of our favorites. Right now we are listening to a Nora Jones CD given to me by my friend Linda Stuart back in Concord. Linda gave me the CD as a going away present so I would think of her when playing the CD thousands of miles away. Well, it worked. Linda, I’m thinking of you and missing you so very much.
by Judy Handley | Jun 13, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 230, Year 5 Windy, Windy, Windy
Date: Sunday, June 13, 2010
Weather: Sunny, Winds SSE 30-35 Knots
Location: Ampanasia Bay, NW Madagascar
The weather forecast is for four to five more days of this over-the-top windy weather. Graham on the South Africa Maritime Mobil Net tells us that a 1030 high is sitting at 36S and 63E (as far south as South Africa and almost directly south of Mauritius) and that it plans to sit there for a few more days before moving on. This high normally sits much further south and it creates the SE trade winds, which in normal conditions provide the wind we need to sail the Southern Indian Ocean. In this case, it has moved much further north than normal, pushed there by lows in the deep southern ocean. So it is this high that is far, far away from us, but much closer than normal, that is causing our problems. In the meantime we are stuck here in Ampanasia Bay. (Note: Ampanasia Bay is also known as Jenkinson Bay and Ampanasinah Bay. It is the second little bay from the top of Madagascar.) We can’t even get the dinghy off the deck and even if we could it would be too dangerous to runabout in the bay. The strong gusts and waves could flip you over. Ed launched his dinghy last night out of desperate need. We had some epoxy that cures under water and he needed it to try to stop the leak in Constance. But even though he needs some tools from us to continue his repair work, he doesn’t dare try to come over again until the weather settles. At least the sun is shining. I did laundry today but couldn’t hang it outside because of the wind. I do have some wonderful clips that fit over our stainless handrails just outside the cockpit, so I was able to hang a few things that way. The other pieces are dripping and hopefully drying in the shower stall. I also worked on editing and naming photos. This is a perfect job for right now as we have unlimited power from the wind generator. We haven’t had to run the engine to charge the batteries since our second day of passage, so I can keep the computer on non-stop. This is a luxury that we have never had before. I guess our wind generator likes Indian Ocean wind. Mark spent his day ticking off chores on his list–replace the blocks on the traveler, replaced blocks on the Jyb-Easy, worked on oven pilot light, investigate why our instrument panel is no longer displaying engine hours (maybe we have traveled too many miles), seal the auto pilot cockpit controller with silicon, and on and on. He was a busy man today.
The news from Constance is that the leak is now down to a dribble but not completely stopped yet. The impact from whatever they hit was hard enough to move the cabinetry on the port side of Constance three inches toward the center of the boat. In order to continue to investigate the damages, Ed has to remove a wall that runs behind their settee. To do this, he needs a saw from us but we can’t get it to him. We just have to wait for a lull in the wind and hope that comes sooner than predicted. Ed and Lynne seem to be in amazingly good spirits considering the damage and clean-up from the water that got into the main cabin. Ed also has a number of other little things that broke along the way, so like Mark, he has plenty to keep him busy. When I talked with Lynne this morning she told me that her beautiful basil and arugula plants were killed by the saltwater that constantly blew into their cockpit during the passage. She was so proud of the basil that she had re-rooted from original plants that had turned woody. Her new plants were looking really good. I lost the plants in the pots hanging from our arch on the back of the boat, but since that was an experiment, I wasn’t upset about that and the ones in the cockpit made it through just fine. So I’ll divide and share with Lynne.
Even here at anchor the wind is still so strong that we are heeling over during the gusts. That means that even walking around the boat is still a hazardous sport. This morning I made biscuits for breakfast. I put the required butter and blueberry jam on the table and walked away. When I returned the blueberry jam had slid off the table and on to the embroidered silk settee cover I brought for myself for my birthday while in India. I love this cover and was devastated to think that my stupidity of setting something down and expecting it to stay there might have ruined it. Luckily the blue stain came right out but hopefully I have learned my lesson. Another not so bright human error also caused another bigger mess in our forward bathroom. We have four milk crates of food stacked in there along with countless other plastic boxes of crackers and granola, cardboard storage boxes containing our old freezer condenser and bottles of water, many individually wrapped rolls of toilet paper, packages of paper towels, and so on. Well, one of the containers of crackers bounced during one of our rogue wave experiences yesterday and turned on the water in the sink. It was just turned on a little, but over the course of the day, the sink filled and sloshed water all over everything in the bathroom including all of the food in the plastic milk crates. Most everything was vacuum packed but things that weren’t were wet inside the packaging. All of the packages of spaghetti noodles had parts of them that were water logged as well as the hard taco shells and a few packages of crackers. I opened each package of spaghetti (10 in all), removed the dry noodles and threw out the soggy ones. I did the same with the hard taco shells and crackers. A little foresight could have kept this from happening, but that’s what we learn in hindsight. We should have just shut off the pressure water while on passage. I use the foot pump in the galley and we only need pressure water for showers. So we could have turned it on just for showers and avoided any possibility of a leaky faucet in rough conditions. We will do this in the future. This was a lesson learned the hard way. For the second time in five years I also had to re-shelve all the books on the v-berth starboard book shelf. The first time they tumbled down was on our maiden voyage to St. Martin in the Caribbean. In that case, books on both sides of the v-berth were jumbled on the v-berth mattress along with water that came in through the forward Dorade vent. What a mess that was. We now seal that vent when in passage and we installed very sturdy straps that hold the books in place. Well, at least they held the books in place for almost five years. Yesterday’s little jaunt fixed that.
