[PUP] Fwd: [kensblog] Update # 21 - Fishing at the Fubar

[John Ford]

Begin forwarded message:

> Greetings all!
>
> Sans Souci is now anchored at Bahia Santa Maria, arriving yesterday,
> just after dusk.
>
> First an answer to a question from yesterday: I was asked why the
> pictures from the pilot house were so blurry. I should have spoken
> more about what it is like in the pilot house when running at night.
> In order to be able to see outside, at night, it is important that
> your eyes adjust to the dark. We darken every instrument in the
> pilot house to virtual darkness. The pilot house picture in
> yesterdays email was taken by setting my high-end Canon digital
> camera to 1600 film speed. This allows me to shoot a picture in
> almost total darkness, however it still wasnt enough to get the
> shot without it blurring. I really needed a tripod in order to take
> the picture. That said, I liked how it turned out. Dont ask me why,
> but I thought it captured the character of life in the pilot house
> at night. Even though we keep it almost totally dark in the pilot
> house we still walk around the pilot house regularly at night to
> look for lights on other boats.
>
> One other technical detail from yesterday: We have been using our
> Flopper Stoppers while at anchor.
>
>
>
> The flopper stoppers look like giant fishing poles that poke out the
> side of the boat. They are for at anchor stabilization. From these
> giant poles hang steel plates, called fish that float beneath the
> water. While anchored the side to side motion of the boat causes
> these plates to be dragged up and down in the water. The friction
> caused by the plates moving through the water softens the rolling
> motion of the boat. I cant imagine anchoring without flopper
> stoppers.
>
> We ran the 220 miles from Turtle Bay alone. Winds were ok;
> approximately 20 knots the entire run. I think I was physically
> exhausted, and not really in the mood for running all night, because
> I had more trouble with this run than usual. I had the 10pm to 2am,
> plus the 6am to 10am shifts, along with Jeremy. Throughout our time
> in the pilothouse both of us kept looking at our watches. I was
> changing the music about every 20 minutes, tinkering with the
> electronics, telling stories, anything to help pass the time. At
> midnight, when we caught up with Dreamweaver, another Fubar boat, I
> greeted him, and continued on our way. Then 15 minutes later, I was
> bored and called him on the radio. I confessed that I had nothing to
> talk about, but was bored, and that I would appreciate it if would
> tell me about his boat and where he was going. I knew this would
> help eat up time.
>
> Dreamweaver turned out to be an interesting boat. The owner, whose
> name Ive forgotten, has a home in Mexico in Los Barrilles, just
> south of La Paz. Dreamweaver is a brand new 46 sportfisher that he
> was bringing down to its new home in Mexico. We chatted for a while
> about life in Mexico. Roberta and I have owned a home near Cabo San
> Lucas for ten years, and he has owned a home near La Paz for nearly
> fifteen years. Back when we first arrived in Cabo, life was pretty
> primitive. I remember when most conversations focused on shopping
> and groceries. When someone would find lettuce that looked somewhat
> edible, that was big news in the neighborhood. Now we have Costco,
> Home Depot, Walmart, many supermarkets, fast food places, 10-screen
> movie theaters and more. I made the comment that I would have been
> happy if Cabo had stopped growing when Costco opened (about three
> years ago). He said he would have been happier even without Costco.
> I know what he means.
>
> Toward the end of my first shift, around 2am, I noticed that we were
> sliding around pretty good. Things were starting to fall off tables,
> and I had to make a run through the pilot house to move things off
> the tables, and close all the drawers. This made me curious about
> how Dreamweaver was faring. If a 68 100 ton boat was getting slid
> around, what could it be like on a 46 sportfisher? Dreamweaver.
> This is Sans Souci. I just got curious. Do you have stabilizers?
> This was a dumb question, but at 2am Im not always at my best. No
> he responded.  How are you handling this? I asked. As I should
> have guessed he said Not very well. We stayed in touch on and off
> for the balance of the run. Because we stopped to fish, he actually
> beat me into the anchorage.
>
> As Ive mentioned before, Im not a fisherman. Most of my boater
> friends are serious fisherman, and more than one has tried to get me
> fishing. It will never happen. On the other hand, I did hope that my
> son Chris, and my dad, would get into fishing on this trip. Jeff
> used to fish commercially, and Jeremy, the young guy who is with us
> from Nordhavn, our boat builder, is a seriously addicted fisherman.
> Even though Jeremy  was worn out from running all night, as soon as
> we started getting close to Mag Bay Jeremy was on the back deck
> putting the poles out. We had been watching the water temperature
> all night, and as it rose from 68 degrees to 74 degrees Jeremy was
> getting more and more excited.
>
> Not only the water was warming. The air around us was starting to
> feel like summer. Sans Souci has a fly bridge, but in the four
> months weve owned the boat, it has never been warm enough to
> actually drive from it. We decided to give it a try, and to my
> amazement, it was awesome. I think part of what made it so great was
> that the wind was coming from behind us. Thus, there was no apparent
> wind while we were driving. We put some loud music on, and everyone,
> except Jeremy, who was down in the cockpit fishing, went up to the
> Fly Bridge. This was the warm water cruising experience Ive been
> seeking ever since taking delivery of the new boat. The only
> disappointment was that Roberta wasnt there to enjoy it with me. We
> celebrated our 35th anniversary a couple days before the Fubar
> departed, but she had work to do, and couldnt come along.
> <- Running with Dolphins
>
> I was experimenting with the Sonar, using it as a fish finder, with
> mixed results. Not being a fisherman, I didnt know what depth would
> work best for Jeremy. I zig-zagged around chasing anything on the
> radar that looked somewhat like a fish. To improve our chances, we
> slowed to seven knots, and even turned off the radar. Jeff thought
> the radar might be frightening away the fish. Something worked.
> Jeremy was suddenly screaming FISH ON!. Jeff went running down the
> stairs to help him. I scrambled to wake my son Chris, and sent my
> dad out to watch. I ran the boat, trying to keep us aligned while
> Jeremy reeled in his fish. I was two decks up when Jeremy brought
> the fish into the cockpit, but I couldnt miss hearing it.
> Apparently the fish, which turned out to be a large Dorado, wasnt
> too happy about how his day was going, and was raising a ruckus in
> the back of the boat. I heard a lot of extreme flapping about that
> went on for much longer than I would have expected. Jeff relieved me
> at the helm so I  could go down to see Jeremys fish.
>
>
>
> Jeremy was a VERY happy guy. Over the next couple of hours, he
> continued fishing while cleaning the boat, and the fish. I was
> amazed by how hard he worked. There was far more blood than
> expected, and Jeremy worked his tail off cleaning it all off the
> teak and fiberglass. I made the comment that I sure hoped he didnt
> catch another fish. I couldnt imagine him working this hard a
> second time.
>
> While we were fishing our way south, we passed a roughly 60 foot
> fishing boat, that was stopped for fishing, and was rolling back and
> forth in the waves so much that I was getting sea sick watching it.
> I asked Jeff if the boat had come from Mag Bay. Jeff knew the boat,
> and said it had come down from San Diego to fish. I couldnt believe
> a boat had come all the way from San Diego just to fish. The story
> gets even more interesting: Jeff said the boat would normally have
> as many as 21 paying passengers, who were guys who wanted to fish
> Mag Bay. For seven to ten days, 21 guys jam into little cots, on a
> small boat, with a single head, and no stabilizers, to journey south
> to fish Mag Bay, and then return to San Diego. I dont get it, but
> then again, there are probably people who dont understand why I
> like to spend 12 hours a day staring at my computer screen.
>
> I had little time to ponder all of this, because Jeremy was once
> again shouting FISH ON!. This time it was for a Wahoo, which I now
> understand is a really big deal.
>
>
>
> Chris had gone back to sleep after seeing the Dorado, and my dad
> also didnt show much interest. I think Jeff and Jeremy are very
> disappointed in us. The cockpit was once again flooded with blood,
> which Jeremy worked for hours to clean up. Jeremy was very
> contented. We did a bit more fishing without luck, and decided to
> head to the anchorage before dark.
>
> We anchored at Santa Maria, just outside Magdalena (Mag) Bay. At our
> arrival there were about 15 other Fubar boats. I was worn out from
> running all night, and somewhat grumpy (an understatement). Boats
> tend to break, and this is understandable, but I do wish they could
> time it better. Sans Souci is a new boat, and still being broken in.
> During the final hours of our cruise: 1) One of our generators
> stopped working, 2) We discovered lots of VERY stinky water in the
> bilge, 3) One of the toilets failed, and 4) The diesel furnace
> stopped working. I was in the mood for nothing except sleep, and
> decided to get up early the next day (today) to start repairs.
>
> Repairs that had seemed impossible last night, seemed like no big
> deal this morning. In the first hour Jeff and I had nailed two of
> the items (the generator and the Kabola). This afternoon, the
> designer of the boat, Jeff Leishman, stopped by to assist in
> tracking down the gray water problem. For those not familiar with
> the terms Gray water and Black Water, the first of these refers
> to water coming from the sink, and the second to water (and, more)
> which comes from the toilets. Neither has a very pleasant odor, and
> yet both tend to be an inevitable part of boating. Ive been
> blogging for years, and the blog update that received the most email
> was one I did talking about marine toilets. There seems to be no
> topic that more frustrates boaters than dealing with marine toilets.
> For Sans Souci, I told Nordhavn Spare no expense. I never ever want
> to deal with plumbing issues. We have a great system on Sans Souci,
> and I do not expect future problems. This was nothing more than the
> boat gods knowing I was exhausted and wanting to mess with me. They
> succeeded.
>
> My goal for today was to break out all the toys. This was our first
> real day of sunshine and warm water. All of the days for months to
> come will have sunshine and warm water, but the first day is still
> special. I wanted to drop both of the tenders, including the little
> jet tender. I also wanted to try out the scuba equipment and even
> the passarelle.
>
> One of my goals was to discover if everything was working, and if
> there was anything missing. For scuba I have a hookah system which
> is built into the boat. I have never tried it and was curious to see
> how it would do. Although the water is blue and clear outside the
> anchorage, it is dinghy and green where we are anchored. I had to
> think about if I really wanted to dive or not, but like any kid with
> a new toy, I just had to do it. All of the equipment was new, and
> untried. I quickly discovered that the flippers were missing, and
> then accidentally kicked one of the masks into the water (which
> immediately sank). As if we didnt have enough hints that diving
> wasnt going well, I discovered that I didnt have near enough
> weight to sink, and gave up. This may sound like it didnt go well,
> but overall I was delighted. Its 36 degrees today back home in
> Seattle. While Im whining about not being able to find my flippers,
> there are those who have it a LOT worse.
>
>
>
> Both of the tenders performed remarkably well when put into the
> water. I had never run the little Zodiac jet tender. Jeremy tried it
> first, and when returning to the boat said Ken  that thing is
> dangerous. You can really get hurt. The jet tender is based on a
> jet ski engine, and seems to only have two speeds; too fast, and way
> too fast. Add to this the steering that has only about two inches
> between being turned fully to the left and fully to the right.
>
> _One of the tenders we passed while exploring. Several Fubar-ers
> brought their dogs.
>
> At the back of Bahia Santa Maria there is a Mangrove forest. I was
> completely surprised by it. We took both tenders, and ran them
> across a shallow sand bar into a narrow little river. We ran miles
> through what appeared like something one might expect in a Louisiana
> Bayou, not a Baja anchorage. We raced the tenders, and had an
> absolute blast. Along the way we saw several little fishing
> villages. Very cool!
>
>   _ A very happy Chris and his grandpa.
>
>
>
>
> _ Fubar boats filling the horizon.
>
> _ Did I mention how spoiled we are on Sans Souci? Were not roughing
> it too bad. This is Jeff enjoying the view.
>
> Once again there was a Fubar event on the beach. I knew it was going
> to be messy getting to/from the event and didnt take the camera.
> The event was held on a cliff overlooking the bay. To get to shore,
> the Fubar group had arranged Pangas to transport us. We needed to
> enter the same river I had gone into this afternoon. Earlier in the
> day we had crossed the sand bar with nearly a foot of water under
> the bottom of the tender. Tonight, we had a panga loaded with 20+
> people, and no apparent way to cross the sand bar. We bottomed
> almost immediately, and most of the guys jumped out of the tender to
> help push it across the sand bar.
>
> Dinner was good, the margaritas were excellent, and the chance to
> talk with the Fubar-ees even better. I spoke with a Nordhavn 43
> owner who had just taken his boat up to Alaska from San Diego, was
> in Roche Harbor (near Seattle) when we were there, and is now with
> us here on the Fubar.  I spoke with another Nordhavn 43 owner from
> Los Angeles who is planning on leaving his Nordhavn in Cabo all
> winter, while he flies back and forth from Los Angeles.
>
> The wealth of boating experience here is impressive. I had
> previously thought that most of the boats would be captained by
> persons with little or no long range cruising experience. There are
> some of those here, but generally, this is a very seasoned group
> that knows what it is doing. To my knowledge no boat has had serious
> problems of any sort.
>
> During the party I asked around to see what comes next. Our schedule
> shows the group entering Mag Bay tomorrow, and then making the major
> overnight run to Cabo the next night. Of the first three people I
> asked tonight, two were going to stay in our current location
> another day, and the third was going to head straight to Cabo. This
> had me thinking about our own plans. We are in an incredible
> anchorage, but it is tempting to head straight for Cabo. It also
> sounds good to go into Mag Bay as originally planned. Ill see what
> mood I am in tomorrow. Thats one of the bizarre things about the
> Fubar. I get the sense that no one knows what everyone is doing
> tomorrow. We know we are loosely working our way towards La Paz, and
> that well all arrive at roughly the same time, but its not the
> tight coordination I had expected. Some of this is the high degree
> of competence of the group.
>
> Thats it for tonight. More when I can.
>
> Thank you!
> Ken Williams
> Sans Souci, Nordhavn68.com
>
> PS Donna Palmer-Wilson has been sending out daily Fubar updates, but
> it having Internet problems. She asked me to pass along that she
> hopes to have it sorted out tomorrow.