A SAILOR LOOKS BACK AT 2012

It's New Years Eve hard to believe how fast this year has gone by.  I did not put as many miles (a little over two hundred) under the keel of BIANKA  this year compared to years past but, I did have a wonderful year of cruising. Though work and some unexpected maintenance issues did get in the way. I also bought 200 feet of long overdue replacement anchor chain. I also installed AIS on board  which I will write about in the new year. I also installed  a new battery instrumentation panel  at the helm. Which made monitoring the battery current and voltages much easier. All in all it was still another great year as I look back on it.

January found me in the Leeward Islands starting off in St. Thomas, St. Johns  and then sailing over to the Spanish Virgin Island of Culebra for a nice little warm water  break from the winter.


This was also the month that the Bianka Log Blog reached over one hundred thousand page views. So it was time to celebrate too.

In February I found one of the batteries in the 48 volt propulsion string was no longer taking a charge.

I spent the next several months investigating the issue and finally figured that a parasitic load from one of the battery meters was the cause of the problem. With careful charging and test the battery is once again up to snuff and worked fine all season. I was glad I did not have to purchase a new battery.

March found me in Ocean City Maryland. After seeing a nice little warm weather window my gal and I drove from DC to a beachfront hotel with an 11th floor balcony view of the Atlantic Ocean for a few days.

 We had the beach to ourselves and were able to dine without making reservations. The smell of the sea also gets one thinking about getting the boat back in the water.


April 12th was the one hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. It bought back memories of when I was living on board BIANKA at pier 59 in New York. That was the pier  that the rescue ship Carpathia bought the lifeboats from the ill fated Titanic and was only a few piers north of the peir where the Titanic was supposed to dock.

May found me and my gal in the Bahamas. The Exumas specifically via stopovers in Nassau.  A new area for me and one of some great memories and interesting sights.



I also worked on my first major repair of the electric propulsion system in five years by replacing the shaft coupling. Replacing the original steel one with stainless steel.

June was all about getting BIANKA ready for the season and launching. The battery issue had been solved the mast lights checked. The prop cleaned and polished and finally BIANKA was splashed.

In July work reared it's ugly head  eating up two weeks and my gal's beach vacation ate up another week. But, BIANKA was in the water with 200 feet of new anchor chain ready to go when time permitted. Also I worked on some finishing touches on the solar bimini.

August was another two weeks of work followed by another week on the beach. But, I was finally able to get back on board just in time to see another full moon a real treat.

September is usually the end of summer for many but, I view it as a new beginning. Some become melancholy with the end of the Labor Day weekend while I look at it as the time of less crowded anchorages  So I was looking forward to making my annual cruise to New York.

September 11th was also the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Since BIANKA and I were docked in New York then and actually felt the impact of the planes and witnessed the collapse of the buildings I felt somewhat of an obligation to try and be back in the harbor on the anniversary. But, it was not to be,  A broken pull cord and some frozen screws on the Honda 2000 generator soon put an end to those plans. Still I got to see another full moon on board so it was not all bad.

October had some of the highs and lows of the season. I saw a nice weather window and finally took BIANKA on the cruise to New York. I did something different regarding my electric propulsion system on this cruise. Which was to electro sail using about 10 amps to effectively negate the prop drag and actually propels the boat along a two knots when there is no wind. This technique worked really well and since EP is so quiet it does introduce the noise fatigue running and vibration that running a diesel would introduce.



After a night anchored by Ellis Island  it was a nice sail up the Hudson River:





where BIANKA and I anchored for a few days off of Hook Mountain enjoying the fall colors.



Two days after returning back to BIANKA's mooring Hurricane Sandy hit the area:


The storm surge lifted BIANKA and her mooring and dragged them across the channel. I found her over a thousand feet away across the harbor. Still floating and relatively undamaged. I was very lucky.  Since BIANKA had power available from her solar panels and wind generator I decided I would move back on her until power was restored back on the mainland. Which is where I spend most of the my time anyway during the season.  I had all the comforts of home even more so as I had power available.

The beginning of November still had the area recovering from super storm Sandy. Gas shortages had boat owners coming down to the docks draining there boat's fuel tanks so they could keep their home generators running. I recovered the Honda outboard that went to the bottom of the harbor when the dingy flipped during the storm. It will be a winter project to try and get it running again. There were a lot of  lessons learned from Sandy by me and many others too.

December was another month of a few weeks work that came my way. Just in time to pay some of the boatyard bills. Also it was time for holidays and looking back and also planning for the new year. I'm also way behind in some posts here on the Bianka Log Blog. So I will use the winter to catch up and publish about some of the projects I've been working on. Days are already starting to get longer and soon it will be time to starting thinking  the new year and season.

CAPT. MIKE IN THE MALDIVES: DAY 12

There was a beautiful sunrise for our last full day in the Maldives. We wasted no time getting our last few snorkels in. On our first one another turtle graced our vision. Our second stop was the house reef of the Bandos Island resort the second resort island developed in the Maldives:

We had an excellent snorkel along it's reef and spent near an hour just checking it out. 

Then it was back to the boat to head for our lunch anchorage 04 14.678N 073 32.038E:  

After lunch we went for our last snorkel in the Maldives at Banana Reef that small banana shaped spot just south of our lunch anchorage:

You can see some Dhoni's and snorkelers in the Google Earth photo above as it seems to be a popular snorkel spot. Unfortunately, our timing was a little off. As the reef sits at the entrance to one of the cuts that leads to the Indian Ocean the current was running quite strong and did not allow for a leisurely snorkel as it carried us along. Oh well, so it goes...

We got back on board our catamaran and headed for the island of Male (pronounced mal lee) the capitol city of the Maldives.

Even though it was Friday and a Holy Day in the country (much like Sunday in more Christian countries) Ibrahim had arranged for us to have a little tour by one of the guides who work with his company. I had mixed feelings about getting back to "civilization" so soon after spending twelve days on the water in secluded anchorages but, since we were here might as well see the city.

As we headed toward Male (pronounced Mal Lee) we headed through a number of boats and ships anchored around the city. There were what passes for tugs bringing barges of shipping containers out to and back from the dozen or so cargo ships that are anchored off the island:

 Ships like the Motor Yacht Queen K:

Which is rumored to be owned by Oleg Deripaska Russia's youngest billionaire. It's 238 feet long has a beam of 44 feet and a draft of 12.5 feet. There were other yachts around spending the winter in this part of the world. Like this one with an "aerial dingy" perched on the back:

Impressive as these boats are I am drawn to the simplicity and practicality of the smaller Maldivian craft we've come across in our travels. Like this local fishing boat:

  I especially like the platform on the back which can be used for whatever needs to done. Including unloading the days catch easily onto the docks. Then there are the really big boats. Like this Costa cruise ship which towers over the city of Male:

 

As we approach the city the gold dome of the citys newest Mosque clearly stands out from the other buildings of Male:

Soon we are in the dingy heading to the entrance to one of the many man made harbors that ring Male:

The harbors are busy places even on this Holy Day with all kinds of ferries coming and going all day long:

Luckily, we we able to find an easy place to land on the along the concrete quay:

Our personal guide was escorting us through the streets of Male. Where things were pretty quiet on some streets:

It's almost painful to see the trees bend to try and get their leaves into the sliver of sun on this block. Also notice the prime mode of transportation in Male (besides boats) the scooters lined up outside the building. We soon come upon the Hukuru Miskiiy which is the oldest Mosque in the city built in 1656:

The outside of the mosque is covered with coral stone:

Hand hand carved in the 17th century:

Also nearby is the ancient well where the worshipers cleanse them selves before entering the mosque. Note the dipping ladles in the right of the picture:

And the tower where the call to prayer is made 

Well, there have been a few improvements made to the mosque over the years including this PA system:

Meanwhile back on the streets the the local woman look rather elegant in their head scarves. Though they wear more western wear here in Male than on some of the islands we visited earlier in our trip:

We then head to the fruit and vegetable market: 

Various fruits and vegetables can be bought here:

Just beware of the peppers!

They are very hot and being an Islamic country there is no beer nearby to cool your tongue.

Just outside the market is where all the fishing boats come to dock. The big ones:

and the smaller ones:

All delivering a variety of fresh seafood to the fish market across the street:

While some may consider the fish above to be fresh as they came right off the fishing boats. I keep thinking back a few days ago when we had some really fresh Red Snapper that came on the boat and never got off.

But, this may be the only place you can get a barrel of Yellow Fin Tuna if you are really hungry:

Soon it was time to head back to the quay as our catamaran awaits just outside to take us back on board for our last night night in the Maldives:

But, the journey continues tomorrow...

CLICK HERE FOR THE CAPT. MIKE IN THE MALDIVES POST DAY 11

CLICK HERE FOR THE CAPT. MIKE IN THE MALDIVES POST DAY 1

CAPT. MIKE IN THE MALDIVES: DAY 11

After a very beautiful sunrise we had two nice snorkels to start the day.

  The snorkels we've made have been great. From my experience some of the best I've ever seen. I would expect the diving to be exceptional too. We we are both open water certified divers. Unfortunately, my girlfriends back issues do not make strapping on a 60 pound tank very comfortable and worth the pain. Another reason we are not diving is that it requires special schedules to meet up with dive guides. This would limit our wandering around the atolls and also take more time out of each day to do just the dives. So snorkels seemed the way to go for this trip. After the snorkels we headed for our lunch anchorage at 04 24.787N, 073 35.466E:

After lunch we headed over to some islands that were Maldivian military bases and snorkeled off one that Ibrahim called a "carbon neutral" island. As the power for the islands electric needs were made from renewable resources as you can see from the two wind generator towers:

Lucky for us the light was just right making the channels very easy to see:

You can see how traveling when the light is right is important when navigating these waters.


We then headed for the night's anchorage 04 15.720N 073 30.270E:

While waiting for the sunset I spent my time watching the colorful fishing boats heading back to the ports in the evening. The next day Friday would be the holy day in this Islamic country:

Once again we had very a beautiful sunset for our next to last night night in the Maldives:

It was worth the wait...

CLICK HERE FOR THE CAPT. MIKE IN THE MALDIVES POST: DAY 10

CAPT. MIKE IN THE MALDIVES: DAY 10

Another morning with several snorkels:

Some turtles and a white tipped shark swam by us and off course lot's and lot's of reef fish. Some that have their own cunning plans to avoid detection. Can you spot them in the video below:

After the morning snorkels it was time to anchor for lunch at 04 37.189N, 073 25.016E inside a nice cozy reef:

After lunch and of course a nap it was an afternoon of sailing across the atoll and moving along quite nicely:

We anchored for the night off another one of the resort islands (04 27.790N, 073 39.541E)

We  finally got a perfect sunset after ten days of watching for one:

Unfortunately, though it looked promising there was no "green flash":

So it goes...

CLICK HERE FOR CAPT. MIKE IN THE MALDIVES POST: DAY 8

CLICK HERE FOR CAPT. MIKE IN THE MALDIVES POST: DAY 9