Emilio and the new power distribution system
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Warning: the following is a boat geek Post and should be avoided like the plague by all of you who prefer cats, dolphins, camels, beautiful sunsets and all that other boring stuff. There will be none of that in this update. This is all about boat drivel and you should move on and wait for the NEXT post that will include the exciting plans for this summer.
OK boat geeks, now that we are alone…
As most of you know Heldeleine was hauled out and stowed ashore last August in Gaeta, Italy. During the past months various repairs and upgrades have been done with more to come. Though we sailed close to 5,000 miles last summer, crossing the Atlantic and half of the Mediterranean, there were very few failures and thankfully no emergency situations. I credit this to the careful preparation of the boat prior to the crossing and to the terrific crews that I had for every one of those miles. Once again I can’t thank you all enough for making this voyage with me and taking such good care of Heldeleine along the way!
As for the items that did need attention:
-a leaky seal to the front hatch which in heavy seas (we had a few) leaked onto the control box for the bow thruster causing some exciting moments in the middle of the night wondering WTF was happening in the bow of the boat. This was an easy fix after waiting a month for the part from Lewmar.
-a broken top swivel on the Genoa.(that’s the thingy that helps roll the front sail up, for the cat and camel lovers that are stupidly still here)
As we tried to lower the sail in August it would not come down and required an agile Italian rigger to go aloft and muscle the damn thing down. Due to the fact that sending anything to and fro from Italy is impossibly expensive (tariffs sending and tariffs arriving) they suggested that I buy a new part….there were 1,200 reason for me not to do that. Instead the part was sent to my sister Laurie (intrepid crew of the Azores-Gibraltar Leg) in Milan and she will bring it to Denver in May and send it to me. I will then send it to my repair guy in Florida. He will do the repair and send it back to me and I will return with it to Italy in July. Damn, what a screwy way to do the repair but….
-The Genoa. The cause of the top swivel damage was due to the New Genoa being cut too long. It looked good at the start but with a little natural stretch and my tightening the halyard slack…well… The sail loft in Gaeta has shortened the sail by 7″, repaired a damaged tack loop and cleaned the sail
-starboard electric Winch. This is a big, honking Lewmar ST66. Now this will probably sound like a first-world problem but the high gear was not working (very slow and no real power under high load). Again the control box could not be sent to England for repairs because of the above reasons and there were again 1,500 reasons why I could not do that. Also the electrician on site, Emilio, pointed out that the breaker (emergency shut off) switch was down below and in the case of a malfunctioning switch having the breaker at the winch was a smart safety idea. I agreed and a new, safer improvement was installed.
-the next item under discussion is the secondary alternator on the engine. My daughter Helen and I were on watch around 2am when I heard a sound from the engine (yes, we are on a SAILboat but…). Well, sharing a beautiful night on watch snuggled in a blanket with your daughter is priceless so I hesitated to leap below. Then a Bang, Bang, BANG got me moving. I shut down the engine and investigated. Yup, alternator belt had been loose, then REAL loose, then ripped the mount off the engine damaging the sheave as it launched the alternator around the engine. What a dumbass. From a priceless moment to a costly moment in seconds. As it was the secondary alternator, we were still able to charge the batteries but at a reduced rate. Well Emilio has some ideas and we will discuss how to tackle the repair over the next month.
Emilio
Doing all of this from thousands of miles away sucks. My liaison there, Jayne Koehler, has been absolutely terrific but being a hands-on type of owner who enjoys getting his hands dirty, this situation is frustrating in the extreme. But stuff IS getting done and plans are being hatched and in the next post I will give an overview of this summer’s cruise. Here’s a hint: it will not involve 5,000 miles or an ocean. Sun and fun yes.
The next step in the preparation of Heldeleine for her 10 month hibernation phase was cleaning, packing and reorganizing the entire boat. Most soft things (clothes that were staying, pillows, towels etc) were cleaned and put into plastic bags (which were squeezed of air and sealed with duct tape). 
This was a tedious job and required that I skip my 3 pizzas a day habit for awhile. Though it comes as no surprise, the pizza in Italy is ridiculously good. Something about the crust and the freshest of tomatoes. Damn, I was hooked. I tried hard this past week to gain back the 20lbs I somehow lost this summer. Back to the boat…deck cleared of stuff. Dinghy removed. Bimini and dodger removed. On and on. Last Wednesday she was hauled after some excitement. 
First the jib would not come down.The top swivel was damaged because the new jib was made too long and when I took some sag out of the sail mid-Atlantic it caused the bearing to separate. Not an issue until I tried to lower the sail. We got a rigger to go up the mast and with his weight (like Earl Flynn) he dragged the sail down. Then the lift operator dramatically pulled his back (ouch!) and amid the screaming was hustled into a car and driven to the hospital by the rest of the marina crew which left me alone with the boat in the lift slings. (??) A few hours later the deed was done and Heldeleine was ashore having her slime and barnacles scrapped and blasted off.
A hundred other details and a day later I was off to Rome airport (2 hours) and my flight home. I’ll try to conclude with some thoughts about this summer in the next post. There was so much and I might need some time to process all we have done. It does seems a bit surreal being home and I feel a little numb. One thing I can say is that I have been very fortunate in life to be able to do this trip and I do thank you all for your help along the way. Talk soon.
Life has been busy the last week with getting Heldeleine to her winter berth and preparing
her for the 10 months on the hard. Fortunately two of my favorite crew showed up to help me sail Heldeleine to her winter accommodations. Keith Bonner and Jeffrey Guimond. Keith and Jeffrey are Heldeleine veterans of a couple ‘manly men’ trips including the “Nova Scotia Campaign” and they are a pleasure to have aboard. We hit the ground running as soon as they arrived on the 18th with an overnight from Porto di Roma to the island of Ponza which is one of the Pontine Island group. It was then on to a couple stops on the island of Ischia. I think that San Angelo (south coast) become our favorite town and the Castel Argonese (east coast) our favorite historic site. Ischia is an amazing island. Twice the size of Capri and a vacation destination for many Italians. Not much English is heard and that was fine by me. It was then on to the town of Porto Veccio on the Pontine island of Ventotene whose harbor was carved out of stone by Roman slaves 2,000 years ago….then finally to Gaeta on the mainland and Heldeleine’s home until next June. The Boys helped with the cleaning of the heads (!) and general clean up prior to their departure on the 25th. A big thanks to Keith and Jeffrey for making the trip and being the perfect crew and ideal companions.
Keith and Jeffrey
San Angelo!
From our table a la Peppina on San Angelo
From Castel Argonese
Next up: The Haul Out…..
On the 17th Maryly and the Girls flew back home from Rome to New York and so ended their 2 month adventure to Europe. It is impossible to sum up all the experiences we have shared together. From Gibraltar to Morocco to Spain and finally to Italy. It is too soon to grasp what we have done. 1,000 miles by boat and much land travel as well. It has been wonderful. There will be some added bits that the girls have written but that I have not edited and not yet posted. In the meanwhile, some more pics:
Building a bridge at DaVinci Museum
View from the top of our hotel (lousy hotel, one mini elevator [150lbs of suitcases up 7 stories], tiny rooms….but, hey, GREAT view from the roof!). We moved to be within walking distance from the forum, coliseum etc… We DO miss the convent and the nuns though. We were not able to leave the girls at the convent, so they have made the move across town with us.
Before our move from the convent we fittingly visited the Vatican for a whole day (starting at 0730). It was a full day of ostentatious wealth. Any doubts about Popes being Warlords and Kings were put to rest. We have, I think, finally done enough priceless art. Siena was on a wonderfully human scale, Florence’s wealth as represented by the Medici Family was truly mind boggling. Italy suffers from an embarrassment of riches. A new metro stop has been abandoned due to finding ancient ruins just below the surface. Maintaining and documenting all this history is proving to be extremely difficult for Italy. The lack of investment in the maintenance of Italy’s historic sites has been very evident. There is a focus on the big sites (Coliseum, Forum, Pantheon, Palatine Hill) and little to nothing to the less touristy sites (Ostia, Boboli Gardens and a hundred others). The Vatican is a separate country and obviously has the wealth to maintain the property beautifully. After visiting Morocco and Spain, it is striking the amount of dirt and graffiti we have seen here in Rome. Florence and Siena were different. Outside the Vatican area there is hardly a vertical surface here that is not covered by a spray paint “artist”. Think the Bronx in the 1970’s. A guide mentioned the economic downturn but I think it is more of a cultural mindset. Spainards are poorer and Moroccans are vastly poorer but they seem to care more about their neighborhoods then here in Rome. 
That said, it is the most uniquely historic city I have ever seen. Eating a Gelato last night we turned around and looked through a fence to what remained of a Gladiator training school near the coliseum. You could see a part of the oval practice ring and the small dormitory buildings that surrounded it. Way cool. There are moments like that all over Rome. Touching stones that were laid 2,000 years old and imagining the lives of the artisans who created such beauty was worth the price of the ticket. 
We have left Heldeleine in Ostia, Italy and have gone up the river about 25 miles (on land and by Taxi) to this small, unassuming city called ROME. We are staying at the Santo Birgitta Convent (I promised my daughters NO jokes at this point) which is wonderfully located and is the same order of nuns that Maddy did a video about in her series called “Voices of Culture”. Watch it on YouTube! Today we saw the Pantheon, walked around for a few hours, rested at the convent and then had dinner along the Tiber. A few pics:
For the past week we have been travelling inland through Tuscany. Our first stop was the Castello Quattro Torres (4 Towers Castle) a few miles outside Siena. What views, beautiful rooms and wonderful breakfasts. We used this as a base for exploring Siena. Museums and dinners at the Piazza Del Compo. (site of the Palio bareback horse race) Long walks through the city’s various neighborhoods (contrades) with names like the dragons, caterpillars, towers, giraffes, porcupines, turtles etc. These neighborhood each run a horse in the Palio and earn huge bragging rights if they win the twice annual, 400 year old race. We loved Siena. Next up was a stay in the country at a farm with beautiful views and a grand room. It did not suck. Next up was the Hotel San Michele outside Florence (again views!) for a nice stay and a cooking class for the girls with the executive Chef Antillo. We ate the results at lunch (gnocchi and tiramisu!!) prior to driving into Florence for the past next 4 days. Our friends, the Wenberg family (yes, the same Eric Wenberg from our 1st leg across the Atlantic), are also here and we are having a great time together seeing this amazingly ornate city. Checking out museums, climbing to the top of the Duomo and consuming vast quantities of food. It has been wonderful.
We are back to Heldeleine on the 5th for a short cruise to a couple islands and then to Rome. Here are a some photos from the past few days. Regards to all!
Ok, so if anyone asked me, “Tell me about the fish in the Mediterranean” a week ago, my answer would have been, “What fish?”.
When we first came to the Med there was a profound lack of fish. When we laid anchor the fish were not present, when we walked on the beach the fish did no care to join, and when we went swimming the fish turned a cold shoulder! It seemed the exact opposite of the British Virgin Islands, with its huge population of colorful aquatic life, along with its coral reefs which also don’t exist in the Med. All and all, it seemed to have smillar types of ocean dwellers as in the Long Island sound: Darkly colored fish in Marinas, tan/grey small fish in swimming areas, and guppies, though no horseshoe crabs or spider crabs.
So at first, as you can see, we weren’t too pleased with the lack of fishes! But I like to believe that even the normalist of things can be fun, so one day I went out to the cockpit with some cereal and a brilliant plan! Feed the fish! Maybe not original but still fun!! So I dolled out the cereal and they flocked toward me! Tons and tons of giant black carp-like fish. So then I desided to have a little more fun! In our first Italian port I took a great big net and Cheerios and stood out onto the dock to catch some little odd minnows I saw before. I tried different techniques and was later given some more by my daddy. It paid off! In the end I caught 2 fish in one go! I let them go though, because it must be a terrible fright to be stuck in a giant net with no escape at the hands of a HUGE person monster! Then I caught another one later on and released that little fellow after showing my father. In the end I suppose it worked out for both the fish and me, I got to see them, and they got their cholesterol helped. Win, Win!!!
We also went swimming in a GORGEOUS cove with beautiful rock formations encircling us. There we found some more fish, and really deep, cool caves! We pulled the dinghy up inside one to investigate and found the inside rim, where the water met rock, red and pink with some florescent purple! It looked as if we were in a giant mouth! Anyways, we swam all around before taking out some (VEY SALTY, and a bit past its prime) bacon bits to feed the fish. We sat in the dingy beside true boat as my mom served the fish the bacon. THE SWARMED TO US! IT WAS A FEEDING FRENZY!!! I leaped in and out of the water, both thrilled and kind of scared to be near so many fish that would swarm toward you at any moment. I also served them some watermelon (also past it’s prime).
I later sat with my daddy one night in a calm, secluded bay and we tried out the new fish light that my father fixed up. We dangled the light down deep into the sea and watched a few curious black fish swim around it, as I sprinkled rice crispy cereal for them.
Later, in the nature preserve in the Magdalena islands we had a GREAT swimming experience. While Maddy was in the cabin feeling sick and not wanting to move, we decided to leave her in peace to rest while we took a swim around the boat and on the beach. We had TONS OF FUN. We started out in a swim around the boat and hence to the sea grass and rocks we saw earlier. There were TONS OF FISH!!! Swimming in schools, on their own, following us, and especially in the cracks of rocks, and we saw some fluorescent green and pink fish there. There is also what looks like neon blue lichen on the rocks! It was wonderful! We also went swimming again in the morning, though it is best when there are no people there during dusk, because WOW there are a MILLION BAJILLION people there during the day!!!! We walked down on the beach and rocks during he evening, meeting a nice couple and having a good time. We saw weird GIANT alga blooms there! We also saw a flounder.
The next fishy experience was today, when, in our marina, I tossed the rinds of my watermelon overboard and MASSIVE BLACK CARP-LIKE FISH FEEDING FRENZY!!!!!
So it turns out that there are many fish in the Mediterranean if you just look and keep a positive attitude. However there might not be as many as there were before. Boats are belching fuel and other toxins into the water as well as laying anchors in the sea grass that is the life blood for fish in the Med. This grass is extremely important and makes up much of Thr fishes habitat and its being ripped by ships who anchor in unapproved zones. We must take care of the fish in our ocean because there is only ONE sea on this planet, and the fish need our help more than ever now.
A few tips for swimming in he Med are: If you want to see fish on a dock, feed them. If you wish to find fish in a cove or anchorage, look in grassy and rocky places as well as a rocky cost. DON’T LAY ANCHORS IN UNAPPROVED PLACES EVER.
Good luck in your fish hunting! Send them my bet wishes!
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothin is going to get better. it’s not” – Dr. Suess