A hectic week

It has been a very hectic week. The mast is vertical and where it should be. Rick stuck to his deadline and delivered a new two ply bullet proof main sail. We tried it on yesterday and, barring minor glitches which Rick sorted out before the day was over, it is perfect. There is no other word for it. He has exceeded my expectations in every way in constructing a strong and well shaped sail. Right after the new sail was bent we changed to the old dacron and took the boat out with Chris and James to finish tuning the mast. It was a good day – winds were calm while we changed the main and developed to a 15 knot breeze just outside the port which helped with the final mast adjustments.

 

Our departure immediately after Easter has met with a glitch though. The engine RPM is still not developing beyond 1000 while clutched in. Chris was quick to point out that it was incorrect pitch setting on the propeller. We immediately got in touch with Dave Barns of Action Yachting who had removed and refitted the propeller during the last slipping. The boat needs to be slipped again and the earliest date for it is the 28th.  That will be followed by motoring trials etc. 30th seems to be a more likely date now.

 

Chris tunes the mast off Cape Town

 

 

Rick tries out the new main

More news

Good news and bad news, but there is news. Another week has passed by in Cape Town but this one surely left me exhausted- mostly because of cleaning the bilges. But we are definitely making progress. The shaft finally aligned to the engine and the boat got back a well refurbished mast and new boom. On the flip side, the engine refuses to rev up above 1000 showing a surprising disregard for the throttle. The new seal is tending to get a bit warm and we fear the water cooling is not adequate which might cause it to wear off like the previous one. Clive is planning to add a separate water injection system to cool the seal. That will happen next week.

The boat got her stick back yesterday, and a new boom with it. It was a bit windy at Elliott Basin but Chris and his team managed to get the mast in. The spartite seal is not fitting into its slot as neatly as it should and that is a concern because applying it fresh would mean that the boat needs to be immobile for a week. But if all goes well, the boat should sail out on Tuesday with a new set of sails for testing and tuning. I hope she does.

The AIS has been giving us a bit of a trouble soon after it was installed in Goa two years ago. It has been working more as a receiver than a transponder. We discovered today that the Antenna with its built in GPS is rusted to powder because of obvious reasons. With the help of Steve, we are putting up a plan (more of a matrix) together which involves the addition of a new standby VHF antenna (which will work as a standby in case the mast comes down), a new antenna to replace the present AIS antenna, and a labyrinth of wires to connect the AIS to the VHF antenna or its own antenna, and the VHF to its own antenna or the standby antenna.

Steak is a good bribe for James.

Chris manages well, despite the infamous South Easterlies

It was blowing a bit in Elliott Basin when the mast was shipped

Work, work and lots of it

Work, work and lots of it. Changing the blackjack seal of the shaft, which was supposed to be a two day operations, is taking a bit longer than expected. Due to some very stubborn bolts, the coupling and the shaft had to be cut along with a bulkhead.

Enjoy the pictures, because it is useless to write about the frustration of being on land.

Back to the mooring at RCYC after a long sail. The calm is deceptive.

Removing the mast at Eliott Basin

I am very happy to have Chris look after the mast.

Dry docked at RCYC slipway. The club has been of immense help to us. Besides hosting us for free, they have given us a free slipping too!

Mhadei has a commanding view of the Table Mountain from where she holds a silent conversation with it every now and then. The South Easterlies speak a harsh language, but the boat seams to understand every word of it.

A clean propeller and…

… a new blue bottom

First Post

Sounding the first post is not easy. One doesn’t really know how to begin writing about something that might turn out to be one very long voyage. I myself am not sure where it all began. Perhaps it is not important to write about such matters and anyone keeping an eye on this blog with sooner or later draw his own conclusions about the beginning. What I can concretely talk about is the present.

On 24 Feb, I entered Cape Town and moored at our usual berthing at the Royal Cape Yacht Club after an Atlantic crossing that lasted 28 days. With one sinking, one dismasting and various problems with many others in the fleet returning from Rio after the Cape to Rio Race it did not turn out to be a fairy tale of a crossing. We ourselves suffered two gashes in the main and a persistent leak in the propeller shaft seal. The main was changed at sea in an evolution that lasted seven hours and the engine room bilges were kept dry by pumping it out every six hours. In the 28 day crossing, we sailed upwind for about 15 days. It was tiring and frustrating but I managed to etch my initials in the South Atlantic.

By the time of her arrival at Cape Town she had completed 40000 miles of sailing which included a solo circumnavigation and various ocean crossings. A thorough inspection of the mast was now due and, on advice from Southern Spars, it was removed and sent to their facility for inspection. I suggested some minor alterations to the mast to make things simpler for my voyage. It is in the very safe hands of Richard and Chris and I have no worries as far as the mast is concerned.

To change the leaking seal in the propeller seal, Clive of Southern Marine was called in. The boat was slipped on 04 April but the two day operations has hit roadblock. The shaft wouldn’t come off easily because of which the flexible coupling, thrust block and the shaft had to be cut pushing our time on the slipway by another week. We decided to make use of this opportunity to clean and repaint the underwater hull and repair minor but long pending defects in the boat.

That is where things stand as of now. That is where I will begin to write about.

Of Garcia and a Bored Ocean

We crossed Diego Garcia on the 5th of December at night.  There were aircrafts flying about. The island was so much aglow with light, I wondered if global warming was put on a backburner ever since I left mainland India.

 

Earlier in the day we fuelled from Suvarna for the second time in this voyage. Wind has been so elusive  in this bored ocean that we have had no choice but to motor so far. There is nothing attractive about motoring barring the fact that it drowns the voice of my guitar when I play it on the deck in the evenings. Therefore, when the crew looks at me but can’t hear a single chord even when they strain, I look like a maestro and I am glad. I like holding the guitar and not play it because it reminds me of a woman’s waist I once caressed.

 

I must again thank Captain GP for supplying me with a fine selection of books- one from almost every continent and genre.  James Clavell’s “King Rat” was followed by Geza Gardonyi’s “Slave of the Huns” (“the national book of Hungary” – GP) and now I am on Homer’s Illiad (“because you are at sea and sailing” – GP).

 

After fuelling we were customarily invited by the Commanding Officer, Cdr Mundakkal, to the ship for ablutions and dining. The skipper wanted me to decide the order in which we were to leave for, he said, “you are the First Mate and adam (admin) is your concern.” I retorted with “I sure am the First Mate and I will make it a point to mate first. Therefore, it is Eve that concerns me and not adam”. We had a hearty laugh, the two of us who understood, and I let the skipper off first with Khajuria.  It took them two hours to get back and when it was my turn, the EXO invited me to his cabin for a shower. It was confusing because I did not know whether it was the cold water or the hot water that gave me more pleasure.  I dined with my coursemate, James John and spoke of old times and new, especially of a trip we made in 2000 to Rajasthan.

Crossing the Equator and All That

We crossed the Equator at 3 in the morning of the 3rd of December and opened a can of gulaab jamun.

A little while later we were ambushed by a bad squall, which was normal given my affinity for rains. The southern hemisphere officially began and hopefully the boat should do some better speed because its downslope all the way from here. Things might be upside down from now on and I might have to hold on to things to stop myself from falling off the boat.

The Equatorial sun is harsh. It has begun to leave a mess of rashes and boils on my body. The heat makes it impossible to keep awake during the day and dehydration adds to the nausea.

I look forward to the evenings which bring in beautiful sunsets and nights that bring about the phenomena of stars. A cursory look upwards at night and you are bound to be mesmerised by the billions of stars that people the night sky. There are so many constellations one can make out even if you are not a habitual stargazer, for the mind is inventive and imaginative. One of the crew discovered the constellation of the eye and another that of the umbrella.

When my turn came, I tried to look for one that signified accommodation for single officers in the navy. Needless to say, I failed. It has also become difficult to sleep on the deck because starlight impinges on my eyes even when they are closed and plays with my dreams.

Stardust and Anaconda

We have had the luck of seeing some wildlife. There were whales a day after the departure, schools of dolphins as is the wont and the two sparrows I wrote about earlier. There has been some amount of bio-luminescence too. Cdr Donde remarked they might be reflections of stars, but on a cloudy day they were the sea’s own stars. Today we were fortunate to have a couple of dolphins at night. They criss crossed the bow and left in their wake a disturbed sea that mildly erupted with light, as if an anaconda made of stardust.

Crossing Maldives and Salaaming Jamshad

Five days of sailing (mostly motoring) and we are crossing Maldives. Suvarna is in company. It has been a hot five days, with an un anticipated 2 knot northward current slowing our progress. Squalls have been frequent, but wind has not been so. We languished a while before deciding to motor for fear that we might not make it to the race in time. Will it be Cape Town for new years? Not too sure.

 

My body has settled into a routine unlike previous sailings. Bowel movements have been normal and I make it a point to take bath once a day. Sea water is not one bit sticky. Twice while we shook off a reef from the main, I was able to gather about a bucket of fresh water with the help of someone else. I used it for bathing.

 

A cute couple of sparrows found their way into the boat about a hundred miles out of Goa. We tried to feed them and humour them, but I guess they are not too fond of sailors’ food. One of them died. Cdr Dilip gave her a sea burial. He said the final stitch wasn’t through the nose because she had a beak. I don’t know what happened to the other.

Capt Prakash, Commanding Officer of INS Mandovi left a fine collection of books (19 of them in all). His only request was that he wanted all of them back to which I replied that there were two kinds of fools –“those that lend books, and those that return them”. That prompted him to make a catalogue. So far I have finished  Woody Allen’s “Side Effects” and Murakami’s “After the Quake”. Now onto “King Rat”.

Three autopilots and a pilot

Three autopilots and a pilot have come together on the Mhadei yet again!

Preparations for the Cape to Rio Race have been going on pretty well indeed. By afternoon today the boat’s refit was completed with nothing pending. We even sailed out a couple of times, once with NDTV crew for a shoot and once independently to check out the water maker etc. What remains are fuelling, provisioning and stocking up on essentials such as medicines. That done, we hope to sail out sometime next week. It will be sad to leave one crew behind. In all possibility it will be Ram Lal who has been showing a lot of dedication in his short stint with the boat. I hope to give him a slot as crew some other time.