[PUP] Alanui 350 miles down, 150 to go!

[Milt Baker]

Scott,

Crossing the Atlantic last summer, Bluewater picked up a long 
polypropylene line on her starboard stabilizer.  It was about 75 
feet long by 3/8 inch in diameter and had been at sea for a long 
time--it was covered with tiny shellfish and seemed to have created 
its own small ecosystem. We were able to easily remove it with a 
long boathook.

The following may or may not be helpful to you, but when we are 
cruising in Maine among hundreds of thousands of lobster pots, I've 
found this to be very helpful in avoiding snagging lobster pot warps, 
the sometimes 100+ foot lines leading to the floats:

--A "kelp cutter" for each stabilizer fin.  This is simply a triangular-
shaped fiberglass guard on the hull directly ahead of the stabilizer 
fin which prevents line from going between the hull and the fin.  Some 
kelp cutters, like the ones on Bruce Kessler's Spirit of Zopilote, are 
made of stainless steel and are sharpened to cut lines.

--Keeping the stabilizer fins centered when cruising in pot-infested
waters.  That, of course, is because the kelp cutters cover the gap 
between the fin and the hull only when the fins are centered.

Of course, we also have Spurs on the main shaft for the occasional pot
warp that gets tangled in the propeller.  As much as we try to avoid
pot warps by steering around the floats, we typically cut three or 
four warps with our Spurs during a summer of cruising in Maine.

I'm enjoying your posts . . . keep 'em coming!

--Milt Baker, Nordhavn 47 Bluewater, Barcelona



Scott wrote: 

It's worth noting
that last night at sunset we were about 25 or 30 miles south of Puerto
Madero when we started to encounter long lines.  We navigated around the
first one after the panga skipper freed up a line from one of the boats
stabilizers, but about an hour later I picked up a line in complete
darkness.