September 2016

When I made a run south from Greenport to Ft Lauderdale last week, I spent some time getting to know the crew, Captain Mark, First Mate Pete, Engineer Anthony, Chef Mark and Stewardess Heather.  A great crew and a real change of pace for me after years heading here and there on small boats.  Well, my boat Pandora is not that small but at 47′ she’s a shrimp, canoe, dink, whatever compared to a the 130′ motor yacht that they crew on.

Anyway, along the way Pete, the first mate, and I got to talking and it turns out that, along with his working aboard mega-yachts, he’s also an accomplished yacht illustrator.  I had actually seen his work in the past in Showboats International, which I subscribe to.  It’s a VERY glossy, and apparently successful magazine of super yachts, if thickness is a measure of success.

One of the features of the publication is a page each month that includes illustrations of notable yacht launches along with some details of the build such as where she was built and the number of crew.    This is a layout from a recent issue that was done by Pete.  
To be a reader of this publication and to then run into that same illustrator proves once again that it is indeed a very small world.  You know, the whole “six degrees of separation” thing?  Interestingly, Facebook has determined that there really isn’t six degrees of separation, it’s more like 4.74, not to put too fine a point on it.   Check out this link to Facebook to learn more.   Twitter did a similar analysis and they think that the number is 4.67. Close enough.

As I used to tell our boys when they were younger, “watch what you
do in public, you never know who might see you…”.  Indeed.

So, Pete’s process is to take a number of photos of a boat and to create an illustration.  Most of them are done in profile, like this piece that he did for the South Street Seaport Museum.  

He also does pieces in perspective like this sell sheet that he did for Palmer Johnson, the yard that built the boat I headed south on. Most of his work seems to be focused on large yachts.  I particularly like this one of Foggy.  Frank Gehry, the famous architect, designed and owns her. Here’s a shot of the boat herself.  She’s a real work of art in her own right, with some very unusual features.  One of the standout features of the boat are her “portlights” in the hull and deck. Pretty arresting and, it seems, pretty leaky.  Oops. A shot of Gehry himself aboard.  He’s the one on the right.  I guess it was a sunny day.  No leaks. I show Foggy in particular as yet another example of “degrees of separation”, when I was at Newport Shipyard last summer.  Foggy was there.   I did a post that had some information about his boat.  The yard owner, where she was built is Steve White, grandson of E.B. White, the poet.  In a video I included in my post, Steve talked about the challenges of making the deck lights leak proof.  Ok, perhaps he has to rethink the engineering on that one.

The boat pushed the boundaries in every way.  Not your typical bowsprit. Lighting?  Talk about complicated construction.  Can you say points of (water) egress?I guess pushing boundaries isn’t new to Gehry when you consider this as one of his designs.I wonder if the windows on this building leak.  I’ll bet that he doesn’t have to live in it on a rainy day at anchor, so perhaps that’s OK. 

Another boat that Pete illustrated is Kismet.  I spied her in Ft Lauderdale and included her in a post, last year.  She’s so big, at over 300′, that my blog won’t fit Pete’s illustration of her.   Oh yeah, if you get the itch, you can charter her for $1,200,000 per week.  Plus fuel, of course, crew tips, etc., etc…Want to learn more about her?  Check out her charter site.

So, what’s all this leading to anyway?  I really liked Pete’s work and commissioned him to illustrate Pandora.   I just received it today and am thrilled.  Nice work Pete.

He even included a special piece commemorating Pandora’s trip to Cuba.  It needs a few tweaks but it’s great. So even if you don’t have a megayacht you can have Pete illustrate your “super” yacht.  If you want to connect with Pete yourself here’s a link to his site.

So there you have it, 4.74 degrees of separation from you to, well, anyone, or at least Pete and even Frank Gehry.

Oh yeah, and don’t forget to watch what you do in public.  You never know who may be watching.

Well, I am back home now and will be taking the sails off of Pandora later today to prepare for hauling her out on Monday.    Plans include an upgrade of her water maker as I have one from a prior installation that is dual speed and makes either 7 or 14 gallons per hour.  The current one has a speed and plugs along at a very modest 5-6 gallons per hour, not enough for what Brenda and I use each day.   With the “new” Spectra unit I’ll only have to run it for less than two hours each day and we will be all set with plenty of H2O.  I’m feeling cleaner already.

I’ll also be sending out the sails to be checked as there are a few small issues that need to be addressed.  Nothing big but there are lots of miles on them since their last checkout  and I don’t want any problems.

As far as other projects go, well, let’s just say etc., etc…  Details to come.

If you somehow missed my posts from last week, I was lucky to be able to crew on a 130′ motor yacht from Greenport LI to Ft. Lauderdale.  Want to learn more? Check out the last 4 or 5 posts.  Anyway, this was the boat that I was on.  She’s very pretty and wonderfully appointed in every way.  Here she is as she pulled away from the dock in Greenport.Well, four days and 6,000 gallons of diesel later, we arrived in Ft Lauderdale.  As the crew was getting her settled in her berth, I asked the engineer Anthony for yet another tour of the engine room.  It was better to go down there when the engines were off because it’s REALLY, REALLY NOISY when she is underway and we’d have to wear hearing protection. In spite of all the noise in the engine room, it’s very well insulated so it’s quite quiet elsewhere on board.

Anyway, in no particular order, here you go…

There are two 1,000 HP Cat engines that push her along at a cruising speed of about 12kts.  At that speed the combined engines burn about 4o gallons per hour.  Push that up to 14kts, her top speed, and the consumption goes up to more than 6o GPH or 1,500 per day.  Yikes, that’s a lot of fuel.    But then, she’s a big thirsty girl.With consumption like that, she needs big tanks and a lot of them.   This is all the valves that the engineer uses to move fuel from one tank to another to keep her in trim.   All fuel for the engines is fed to the engines through a 1,000 gallon “day tank” that is replenished as needed from other tanks.   And, if you love well set up valves, and I do, you’ll love this array.  It’s the valves for each of the bilge areas.  Don’t these just make you go weak in the knees?  Ok, perhaps not that weak but they do look pretty neat.  Right?Fuel filters?  Yup, lots of them. Interestingly, the muffler has two exhaust ports.  When she’s at rest the exhaust goes out on the starboard side above the waterline and when she’s at speed, the valve is closed so that the exhaust goes out through the bottom of the boat into the slipstream in front of the props.   The big white drum is the muffler and the white tube is cooling water injection from the engine. And speaking of cooling, this is the heat exchanger on the front of the engine.   Seawater runs through this “radiator” along with engine coolant.    Like everything on this boat, it’s a big cooler.
And speaking of cool, how about the three AC units?  The boat has an enormous amount of cooling capacity as there is a lot of “make up air” brought into the boat so that all of the air is replaced, I think twice each hour, to keep humidity down.  Even the air in the bilges is refrigerated and refreshed.   Even when the engines are running the space around them the engine room is cool.  It takes something like 10 tons of capacity to keep the boat cool verses perhaps 10-20% of that for a similar amount of volume in a house.    And, to generate all that electricity there are two generators of 100kw each.    Yes, huge is the word that comes to mind.   See a pattern here?

And, just like Pandora (what little they have in common), they have a watermaker.  No, make that two with a capacity of 750 gallons per day.  That’s how they can have bathtubs in most ever cabin and a hot tub on the upper deck.  No need to conserve on this boat.  And all of this “stuff” is monitored on video screens just about everywhere aboard.  The galley, bridge, the Captain’s cabin, crew mess and who knows where else.    With all this complexity there’s ample opportunity for things to go wrong and plenty to keep Anthony busy.  Not sure that I look quite at home among all of this equipment.  Besides, I am wearing a white shirt.  No wait, there’s not a speck of dirt anywhere.  Anthony can even pull up the stainless flooring and climb under the engine to wipe up that last drip of oil.  I wonder if he wears a white crew shirt to do that.  Probably as he doesn’t have to do laundry.  That’s Heather, the steward’s job.   No problem.  Bring on the grime.
She’s a remarkable vessel, that’s for sure.

And, speaking of remarkable vessels, how about Global, an expedition yacht that is berthed near the 17th street bridge in Ft Lauderdale.  This sort of boat, and she was built in 2007, is designed to go, well, to go anywhere.  She sure looks like she means business.As you’d expect, she has a nifty spot to land a helicopter.   The second deck is also set up as a landing pad when the lower deck is cluttered with “toys”.   She has a submarine, of course, and you know how much room they take up take up. That crane is for heavy lifting, subs, cars, boats and all.  If you are interested, their site is pretty interesting with a good overview of her capabilities and toys.

For now the upper “pad” is covered with astro turf.  I’ll bet that it’s a great spot for Fifi to do her thing.   Somehow I have this image of Fifi being swept overboard by the downwash of a hovering copter.  “Fifi, Fiiiiiifffffiiii, somebody please find her…..”

And speaking of landing on a boat, they have a video of a helicopter landing on their back deck, and they are doing so by remote control.  As it’s on Vimeo, I don’t know how to embed it here so you’ll have to click here. And of course, a pool with a lovely ocean motif. Well, going on and on about yachts isn’t getting any work done on Pandora, much less the bathroom remodeling.

Better sign off and get on with it.  Thanks for the tour Anthony.  Awesome.

It’s Monday afternoon, I am alone aboard and the boat is all snug in her slip, er shed.  We arrived in Ft Lauderdale at dawn today, just as the eastern horizon was brightening.  Now, here’s an amazing coincidence…  You may recall that the first thing I saw as I boarded the ferry in New London to join the boat was a sub and, as luck would have it,  that was the last thing I saw as we headed into the Port Everglades channel into Ft Lauderdale.   No AIS but I am pretty confident that she wasn’t the USS New Mexico.   Note the port running light.   How about subs as bookends to an amazing trip?  You can’t make this stuff up.   Really…  It looked like Ft Lauderdale had it’s own little rain cloud hanging over it.  Well, not so little.
As we entered the channel, we passed this pontoon boat heading out.  Back in the early 70s everyone thought it would be a great idea to make an artificial reef out of two million discarded tires tied together and sunk off of the beach.  Well, it turned out to be a really bad idea as nothing will grown on them and now the fastenings that hold all of them together are breaking down and tires are beginning to wash up on the beach.  Some have even drifted as far north as the Carolinas.   Oops.    This guy has the contract to remove them one by one and he’s only able to go out about half the time and brings in something like 30 tires at a time.  Do the math.  2,000,000 divided by 30 tires.

Coincidentally, way back when, the project was christened “The Osborne Reef”. No relation, I assure you.  Besides, they spell it with an “e”.

Like so many best laid plans, the reef “seemed like a good idea at the time”, Oops!  It’s going to take years and years to fix as they began removing tires back in 2009 and they aren’t even part way done.   This guy will probably be at this project for the rest of his life.  And you wondered where those tires off of your old AMC Hornet went, Sheryl.  Now you know

Just after clearing the 17th street bridge we turned left into the first canal.   It looked impossibly tight to me. We approached the boat house on the left.  It’s the only facility like it in Florida. It was originally built to house a boat that one of the owner’s cousins has and still keeps there.  It costs $12,500 a month to keep your boat here, and they have to pay year round, even if they aren’t there, so they don’t loose their spot.

Sometimes they find themselves paying for three slips at the same time in various places so they won’t loose their spot. Speaking of “slips” that word sounds entirely to tiny for such a big space.  Perhaps “maw” would be more descriptive word.  “Let’s keep the yacht in the MAW tonight boss”.As we approached my pulse started to rise and I was just a spectator.   “No biggie, we’ve done this thousands of times although it’s a bit trickier in the dark.”  Show-off!

The distance between the shed opening and the far side of the canal is shorter than the boat is long.  This means that they have to put the bow into the shed on an angle and slowly work the stern around without raking down the side of the 80′ sailboat that’s tied up across the canal.  As all of this is happening, the captain can’t even see the stern and has to rely on the First Mate Pete to guide him.  “2′ clearance Cap, you’re in great shape.”  Really, 2′?
The chef, stationed up on the bow, held up fingers to let the captain know how much distance there was between the starboard bow and tons of concrete.  At one point just two fingers went up.   Two feet and they didn’t even have a fender out in case things went south.   No fenders out because there wasn’t enough room to squeeze in a fender between the boat and dock.  YIIIKES!Easing into the slip?  Maw?  Cave?  Oh S#$%!   For scale, the three doors in front of the bow are full sized garage doors.  Anybody have a tub of KY?I couldn’t believe it.  No fenders and a perfect fit with less than two feet on each side…And it looked like less to port.  Like a glove.“Look Captain Mark, I can touch the bow with my hand.”She doesn’t look all that big in the shed after all.  Besides, she shares it with 5 other boats.   Big shed indeed Cool as a cucumber, Captain Mark, completing his log.   All settled without a scratch.   What do you say Brenda?  Want to try that with Pandora.  No, that would be a CLM (Career Limiting Move) for sure.  I’ll leave this sort of maneuvering to the pros.

So here I am alone aboard as everyone bolted shortly after securing the last line and washing the salt off.  I can’t say that I blame them as they haven’t had a break in 3 1/2 months.

In a few days they will be hard at work again chipping (poor choice of words) away at Captain Mark’s to-do list.  No rest for the weary.

Me?  I’m flying back home tomorrow to renew work on my own list.  I expect that the lawn will need mowing.  Real life, here I come.

Captain Mark?  Need crew?  Take me away.  I may be available but not until I finish remodeling the master bath.

Oh yeah.  I had a blast.

I’ve been teased about putting so many pictures of sunrises and sunsets on my posts over the years.  Perhaps, with the exception of mentioning Brenda’s name in posts, I have written about sunrises and sunsets and included more shots of the sun in all her glory more than anything else.

Just in case you think that it’s been too long without a sunrise fix, and you probably don’t, here you go.   Last night’s sunset was spectacular as well but I was up on the bridge and to run three levels down to my cabin and get the camera and head back up three levels was too far, or so I thought.   By the time I realized that it was going to be one that was not to be missed, it was too late.  With no photo to prove it, you will just have to trust me on this. It was a great burning sunset.

All is not lost as this morning, as the eastern sky began to brighten, I dashed to my cabin and brought up the camera.   Not missing this one.  As I headed out of the bridge, I was struck by how humid it was and I am pretty confident that the camera felt the same way as the lens steamed up immediately. In the cabin I have taken to wearing a jacket as it’s fairly cold most of the time.    “Poor downtrodden Bob, he has to wear a little sweater.”

Never mind…  We are traveling south along the western wall of the Gulf Stream to avoid the north flowing current.  At times we catch a small counter-current of about one knot so generally our speed over the bottom is between 11.5 and 13.5 knots.

I had mentioned in one of my posts that the boat burns 1,000 gallons a day at about 12kts and that raises to nearly 2,000 per day if we push it to 14kts through the water.  That’s a lot of fuel.   It seems that I was wrong.  She burns about 1,500 per day when at cruising speed.  That’s 60 gallons per hour.  The first winter Brenda and I were in the Bahamas I think that we burned less than that one hours worth in four months.

They are scheduled to have her hauled out in a few weeks for some bottom painting and their gross weight is a consideration for even the largest lift.   In order to keep her weight down, they will drop out their anchors and chain before they head to the yard which will reduce their weight by about 10 tons.   They will also have some fuel taken off as well or run extra hard as we get closer to burn more than normal.   Fully loaded, they carry nearly 125,000 lbs of fuel.   Imagine that, between the anchor gear and fuel, that’s something like 80,000 tons.   And that doesn’t even include the boat itself or all the water that she carry.   Big girl.

If they arrive at the yard with too much fuel they are required to have it pumped out by the yard and when they leave, the yard will “sell” it back to them. Otherwise, they would have to pay storage for the fuel in the tanker truck while the are on the hard.  What a racket for the yard.

Anyway, great sunrise today.  As the sun rose higher in the sky the view was spectacular with towering white clouds on the horizon. Interestingly, the sky was clear of clouds in every direction except to the east over the Gulf Stream.  Because of the massive amount of warm water pushing north, the GS creates it’s own weather with thunderheads popping up without much warning.

A short while later we were visited by a pair of dolphins that swam in the bow wave.  I had to lean way over the bow to get a shot.    Notice the fogging of the lens on the lower right hand of the frame.  Today is going to be a beautiful day and we will be blessed with another easy smooth day powering our way down the Florida coast.

We anticipate entering Lauderdale inlet sometime around dawn Monday.   After our arrival, time to clean up the boat and remove all of the salt that has accumulated over the last few days.

What a great way to begin the day.  A beautiful sunrise and dolphins frolicking off of the bow.

Onward we go…

It’s Saturday morning and I just got off watch.  We passed Cape Hatteras last night, shortly after midnight, which marks the half way point to Florida.  At the current pace, we should arrive in Ft Lauderdale on Monday, making for a four day trip.   With Pandora, the same distance would take about twice as long.

Actually, as going south is against the prevailing SW winds, it’s not likely that a run with Pandora could be accomplished in much less than two weeks, with time spent waiting for good weather.   Motoring into seas like we encountered yesterday would be very uncomfortable.

However, the fact that Pandora only burns about 2% of the fuel takes some of the edge off of the longer time needed to get there.    Running through 4,000 gallons of diesel for each run would be pretty painful to our budget and when Brenda groused “that damn boat”, she’d really mean it.

With six of us aboard, we are split up into three groups, with two on the bridge at all times.   Mark, the captain and I share watches from 04:00 to 08:00 and 16:00 to 20:00.   To be sure, Mark is the guy that does most of the work but I am there to be and extra set of eyes and to keep watch if he has to leave the bridge for any reason.  With all of the systems on board, there is always something that needs his attention or some alarm that is going off.   Also, somebody has to go below and take a look in the engine room several times during a watch to be sure that everything is running well.

I set an alarm for about 30 minutes before I have to begin my watch and it is customary for the incoming watch to arrive 15 minutes before so they can observe traffic in the area and to become accustomed to the dark before the standing watch is relieved.

Yesterday was quite rough and we were pounding along with the boat seeming to fall off of a wave periodically.  In a normal seaway, every now and then, perhaps every ten waves or so, one will come along that is much larger, perhaps twice as big so it isn’t uncommon to have the boat lurch unexpectedly when you least expect it.  As we were powering into the waves and against the wind, yesterday was a noisy and bumpy day.   The steward, Heather, wasn’t feeling too well which I can understand as the crew quarters is set way up in the bow where the motion is the worst.   In the nanny cabin,  I have it great as it’s near the center of the boat, where the motion is less.

Overnight things calmed down considerably and we should have a smooth ride for the second half of our trip.   It’s a beautiful day. Nice view from the bridge. I haven’t poked my head outside since we left Greenport NY and was stunned to see how much warmer it is after just two days.   It’s pretty chilly aboard as the AC is running all the time.  And it has to be on as the carpets are silk and the wallpaper is delicate bamboo.   Very light and airy.

This is one of the owner cabins.   The spread and pillows are beautifully monogrammed but I had to block it out as the owner is sensitive about privacy. You’ll just have to imagine lovely gold letters of the boat name.  Quite elegant and you can see a women’s touch in the decor.  Of course the owner, and it’s a woman, isn’t aboard for the delivery.   Just love the rope lighting under the bed. There is a very nice and secure walk area down the side of the boat.  It’s a beautiful spot to stand and watch the world go by.   Beautiful teak decks and a perfectly varnished rail.  It’s a lot of work to keep up all of this and hours a day are spent making sure that all parts of the boat are clean and polished. I spend 8 hours a day sitting in the right helm seat.   Very comfortable.
My four hours spent in each watch passes quickly as there is a lot to keep track of .  And, when Captain Mark isn’t filling in the log each hour with all sorts of vital stats, we have plenty to talk about.  I’d love to share some of his stories he’s told me about his years afloat but I might be tossed overboard if don’t keep my mouth shut.

I can only imagine what this instrument panel cost to assemble.  No coffee on the dash.  Spill something here and you are….  Well, it wouldn’t be pretty. As my watch was ending this morning Chef came to the bridge and asked what we’d like for breakfast.  How about an omlet and toast?  Ok, if you insist.  I resisted the impulse to photograph what turned out to be a perfectly cooked cheese omelet.  Yum!  Ten minutes later I took my plate down to the galley to put it in the dishwasher and you’d never know that anyone ever cooked there.   If Pandora had a galley like this my biscuits would be even better.   Of course, the weight of the granite counters alone would sink her.  This is the crew mess, where we take our meals.  The TV is always going and there is an endless selection of chips and cookies.  “Bob, pace yourself!”  “Ok, I’ll have an orange.” Safety aboard is key so there is a laminated disaster plan and boat schematic posted for everyone to see. Perhaps I’ll spend some time today hanging out at the stern watching the wake behind us.  What a sight.  So what next?  I asked Anthony, the engineer, to spend some more time with me checking out the engine room and systems.   The machinery that keeps us moving, comfortable and safe is very complex and he has to be capable of fixing just about anything that can go wrong along the way.

We’ve settled in nicely to life at sea and it’s turned out to be a terrific voyage. When we get to Ft Lauderdale I’ll be giving a presentation about Brenda’s and my two months in Cuba to the crew along with the captains of some of the other boats.   That should be a lot of fun.  Besides, I have to earn my keep.

I understand that they keep the boat, all 130′ of her, in a shed, along with a half dozen other boats in Ft Lauderdale to keep her out of the weather and safe in the event of a hurricane.  It’s hard for me to imagine a boat shed big enough to house this boat along with several others.    That will be something to see.

Oh yeah, I guess Mark is happy with me so far as I found a few crew t-shirts neatly folded on the foot of my bunk this morning when I returned from watch.   Well, it is either that or I am beginning to smell a bit off.  Whatever the reason, happy me.

As Steve Martin exclaimed in the movie “The Jerk”, when he saw his name in the phone book, “Now I am somebody!”.   “Yeah, yeah Bob, nice shirt…don’t get ahead of yourself”Say what you will, this is fun.  Totally!