Summer Cruise Day 10.5

After our hair raising adventure to arrive in Deltaville, we were exhausted and just wanted to relax the rest of the afternoon; we arrived in the right place.

In the marina office, we received a map and a description of the town from Sketch, the dockmaster.

"Here is the restaurant, here is the West Marine, here is the grocery store, and there are the bikes you can use to get around town."

It was a small town, but everyone seemed so nice and laid back. There was no hurry or crime, we didn't have to lock up the bikes when we went inside a store. Everything was surreal and peaceful compared to what we had just been through.

I did inquire about getting short hauled to check out the prop, but was informed that no one would be working until Monday, and this was Friday. I was given a phone number for a diver who might be able to take a look sooner, but he never got back to us. We decided to just relax and enjoy the afternoon and deal with the prop tomorrow.

We spent the rest of that day walking through wooded trails and biking around the town. 

That night we stayed in the boat with air conditioning and watched a movie while relaxing without a care in the world! 

It was the perfect end to offset the ludicrous morning. 

Summer Cruise Day 10

This morning I awoke to the sound of waves pounding our stern. The current had us riding over our anchor rode, laying stern to the 4 to 6 foot seas.  

The tow boat called to let me know he was on his way. Sitting stern to the seas while riding over the chain should have been a warning to how messed up our morning was about to be.

The plan was for me to tie to his tow line, raise my anchor, and then be off. This is the logical way to proceed, but I didn't realize yet that I was dealing with an idiot.

I tied off and told him I was going to raise the anchor now. He then starts pulling the boat! The chain is clearly going into the water! He begins pulling and the boat turns side to the waves and the chain slides out of the roller and tears into the headstay. I yell for him to stop, and he does for a moment; but as soon as I look away to continue raising the anchor, he does it again! The chain actually broke the frapping knot on the deadeye, which was easily fixed later.

I finally get him to stop pulling the on the boat and let me raise the anchor up. When the anchor came into the bow roller, he went full speed ahead without making sure we were ready. Maddie was down below and I was in the forepeak trying to untangle the anchor from the painter so that we would be ready to tow.

Mind you, no one is at the helm, Maddie is in bed and I am up on the bow while he starts towing us very quickly through 4 to 6 foot seas.

Wisdom deviated to port since no one was steering to keep us behind the tow boat and we began to heel over excessively and started to pull his boat by the stern.

I am holding onto the bow rail with all my might while flailing my arms and yelling for him to stop as we are now broadside to this tow. After what felt like an eternity, I yell out some harsh words at him and he cut his engines. When he comes up alongside of us, he asks if we are ok? He says that he was hailing us on the radio but didn't hear a reply. 

How would we reply? And if you see a large sailboat being pulled onto its side, wouldn't it be best to stop rather than just call asking if we are ok?!

When he was along side of us, I asked the captain:

"Do you have a bridle?"

His response still echoes in my mind:

"What's that?!"

I explained what they are and how they work. He looked at me confused and said:

"I don't see how that would help."

I told Maddie that we are going to be on a sleigh ride through hell to Deltaville, and then we can fix the fouled prop to resume our journey.

We were tied up improperly and set off on our tow, led by our moronic tow boat captain, beam to the seas! We were pitching and rolling horribly as we were taking waves straight onto the topsides. Some waves would catch us in a roll and we would board the vessel, crashing into the cockpit and rolling over the deck. I radioed him and asked if he would please quarter the seas and slow down, as we were moving along way too fast for these seas on the beam. 

Once again, I was astounded when he responded telling me that he doesn't know what "quarter seas" are and that he's being pounded out there.

We grew tired of his poor navigational choices and decided to make the most out of the situation. When we would see the king wave in the set coming, we would turn and quarter the seas with our rudder, and yank him along for the ride. When you match up a 17 ton full keel sailboat against a 17 foot whaler, size does matter, and he would be pulled along like a toy in a bathtub. 

As we arrived in Deltaville, he then brought us into the pier at a rather high speed for a boat under tow. I need 1.8 knots to maintain steerage, but I dock using prop walk at around 0.5 knots. We came into the pier doing 2.5 knots and the dockhands at the marina began yelling at him to slow it down. He did what looked like a crash stop to bring all of my mass to a stop before plowing into the vessel in front of us.

I've been towed many times, it's what happens when you have an old diesel engine and not enough sail area. It would always end up that the engine would die when there was no wind, or there was no wind so I was forced to rely on a death stricken diesel engine. Either way, ALL of my previous tows with Boat US have been delightful. They come along side, they throw you a bridle, they make sure it's attached properly and that everyone is prepared for the tow, they ask if you are ready and await your response, then they begin the tow slowly and gradually bring you up to speed while keeping everything manageable and under control.

This moron simply tossed us a line and gunned his engines. It was so bad, that Maddie has told me that we must exhaust every possible resource before we call a towboat. This was Maddies first tow, and now she is traumatized by the thought of another.

At least we were now in Deltaville, VA and were ready to have the boat hauled to fix and check the fouled prop.

Summer Cruise Day 9

Today began with raising anchor in the wee hours of the morning and settingall the sails as we made our way South. 

We were sailing in relatively light airs, so we had the drifter flying. At times, we were barely moving, then we would be charging along making wonderful progress.  

For long periods of time, we were sailing along between 6 to 7 knots, and the electric motor was able to recharge the batteries the whole time.  

Our fridge is the biggest consumer of amps on the boat. When drawing off of the engine bank of 8 group 31 batteries, it will consume about 10% of the bank over the night. A few days of this and the batteries begin to run low. This is why fast sailing days are so highly appreciated on board Wisdom. The motor acting as a hydrogenerator is our only method of recharging.  

That morning, we gained nearly 30% in the engine battery bank! The equivalent of 3 nights of running the fridge. This was all possible thanks to the drifter that was able to power us along on such a light air days. 

As the day grew on, the winds began to build. When the winds were sustained around 10 knots, we decided to drop the drifter and raise the jib to continue our journey South.  This was also the end of our progression for the next few days, we just didn't know it yet. 

I released the halyard and lowered the drifter, but didn't pay any attention to the sheets. The port sheet fouled the prop and our speed decreased from 6 knots to a mere 3 knots.  

We decided to get away from the ship traffic along the western shore and head over to the eastern shore to sort out the issue.  

The wind continued to build and we sailed across the bay with 1 reef in and the stay sail in winds of 20 to 25 knots while moving along at barely 3 to 4 knots.  

We dropped the anchor on a shoal and I got into our dinghy "Tooth" to try and free the fouled line. In my optimism, I figured that the line was merely looped around a blade and then wrapped around the propeller. I figured it would just as easily come free.  

I spent two hours fighting with the line trying to free it, but to no avail. It was a calm sunset on the bay in unprotected waters. I called Boat US to schedule a tow in the morning.  

I was to be towed to Deltaville marina to be hauled out and to free the prop from the fouled line.  

We settled in and rested up as we had no idea the drama that the morning would bring.  

How To Tension your Synthetic Standing Rigging with Deadeyes

The main advantage of a deadeye over a turnbuckle is corrosion resistance and up front cost. Turnbuckles allow quick adjustments with a few pins to keep them locked in place. I can tune a rig with turnbuckles in a matter of minutes; there is no real setup or takedown, they just work great. 

They are available in a variety of metals, galvanized steel is the cheapest and will rust the soonest. Stainless steel is much more expensive, but suffers from crevice corrosion, leading to catastrophic failure on a still shiny turnbuckle. Bronze is the most expensive and best option. Bronze suffers the least damage from corrosion, but should be replaced on a 10 year interval due to metal fatigue. When each turnbuckle can cost over $100, it becomes rather costly to replace them all every 10 years. 

Deadeyes don't suffer from any form of corrosion, they are made from synthetic fibers known as dyneema. The metal thimble in them is simply there to reduce friction and can be easily replaced if it were to corrode. They are very time consuming to make, taking me over an hour to make just one, but they will last a very long time. Their end will be met by chafe, so long as they are protected from it, they are well worth the investment.  

The downside to deadeyes is the difficulty to adjust and tune the rig. There is some setup, work in the interim, and the takedown that needs to occur to tune the rig. 

To make deadeye synthetic rigging work, you need to be able to tension the stay, and then maintain that tension while you tie off the lashings. To do this, you need to use the knot that I have developed: The Shroud Frapping Knot. I will explain how the knot is tied later, first I want to explain the whole process.  

First, a very strong line (I use 10mm VPC) is led from an anchor, forward to the stay, then back to a powerful winch. I use a smaller winch as an anchor. 

Second,  I tie a dyneema grommet to the toe rail so that it is in line with the stay being adjusted. I have a thimble in the grommet to reduce friction and protect the lines from chafe. This dyneema grommet forms a turning block providing a fair lead.  

Third, the lashings are passed through the end of the stay and deadeye without overlap and then led through the grommet and finally to the tensioning line. Each pass through the stay and deadeye acts as 1 part in the purchase system.

For example, 4 passes would have 8 lashings providing an 8:1 pulley system on the deadeye, this leading to the tensioning line which is a 2:1 makes the whole sequence in this example a 16:1. Being led to a which then adds to the system, in my case it is led to a 32 winch, effectively making the system a 512:1 system.

By adding additional lashings on the deadeye, you can increase the pulley system.

You can also add more 2:1 multipliers, which will again greatly increase the whole system.

When I tensioned my forestay, I had 7 passes (14:1) and two 2:1 multipliers, the lashings leading to an anchor and being pulled in the middle by the tensioning line (28:1, then 56:1), then led to the 32 winch (1792:1). If I needed more leverage, one more 2:1 multiplier would transform it to 3584:1. As you can see, huge pulley systems are easy to create on the deck of a sailboat to tension the stays. There will be loss due to friction as the lashings pass through all the turns, but you will still be able to achieve the tension needed. 

Fourth, the lashings are tied using a sheet bend with a slip to the tensioning line or to another anchor.  

Fifth, the winch is used to achieve the desired tension, always working from top down and doing both sides simultaneously to ensure the mast stays in column and centered over the boat. 

Sixth, once the stay has reached the desired tension, the Shroud Frapping Knot is tied over the lashings to secure them in place while still under tension from the tensioning line on the winch. 

Seventh, the tensioning line is released.  

Eighth, the long tails of the lashings are tied over the Shroud Frapping Knot to protect it from chafe.  

Ninth, the tensioning line is coiled and stowed for the next time tensioning is needed.  

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To tie the Shroud Frapping Knot, you must start by laying about 1.5 inches of line parallel to the lashings, then give it 4 frapping turns wrapping over the initial vertical piece. Then tighten the frapping turns by hand making sure the starting piece stays in place.

With a marlin spike hitch, tighten frapping turns fully.

Now provide at least 6 more frapping turns to the knot, tightening every other turn with a marlin spike hitch.

You need a minimum of 10 frapping turns. 

As this single knot is holding up the rig, I highly recommend more than just 10, within reason.

Once you are satisfied with the frapping turns, you want to seize the knot.

Begin by passing the line through the lashings and out the other side.

Do at least 2 full loops and tighten the loops with a marlin spike hitch.

Now pass the bitter end between the frapping turns and the seizing turns from left to right when looking at this side of the knot.

Pull tight with a marlin spike hitch.

Now pass the bitter end back through the bottom of the knot between the lashings and to the other side.

Form a loop and pass this loop through the space between the frapping turns and the seizing turns but from right to left when viewing this side of the knot.

This will seize the end but still provide a slip to easily release the knot when you need to adjust it again.

Wrap the excess around the lashings and then cover with the excess lashings.

This concludes tying the Shroud Frapping Knot. 

Views of the different sides of the knot. 

I know it sounds very confusing, but watch the video where I take you step by step through the whole process.  

If you have any questions, post them in the comments section down below and I'll be sure to answer them as soon as I can.  

Also, subscribe for updates to the blog.  

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If you are interested in hiring my services, please feel free to contact me. To give an idea what the cost per foot is for New England Ropes STS-HSR which I used for my stays, please look over the table below

Life Aboard vs Life Ashore

I am currently living in a marina in Baltimore with my fiance on our sailboat. I've been living aboard for 3 years, she for 1 year. We see all different types on boats, some people are friendly, others not so much; but we all get along and help each other out!

One live aboard who moved in recently has overstepped many boundaries though. He gets very drunk everyday and by the late night, comes stumbling down the pier and climbs into the same wrong boat, opens the companionway and finds himself looking at the guy who lives on the sailboat. This is when he is told to leave and he stumbles and falls into his own sailboat. 

The guy who has the unwelcome guest every night is concerned about what would happen if he wasn't there and his girlfriend was home alone when the drunk guy comes in. I know what I would do if this were happening to me and I was concerned about Maddie. My neighbor with this problem is a lot more diplomatic about this issue that I would have been. 

The marina is kicking him out in a few days, and he is going to set sail for Florida from Maryland via the ICW. 

This made me think about the beauty of living on the water. If you don't like your neighbors, it's easy to move away from them.