Logs, January 2003

SHIPS LOG OF M/Y MARY ANN

January, 2003

January 31, 2003

January 31, 2003, 1700 hours
31.29.41/116.49.48 – Baja California Norte

At long last we have departed San Diego, and a fine departure it was at 0705 in calm seas, clear skies, and bright sunshine. Aboard we have Kevin and Arna, our son and his spouse, accompanying Mary Ann and me on this next leg of our voyage. We were in San Diego a little longer than we expected when we tied up last September, but it doesn’t matter now and we are probably better off for it. As you can see from the San Diego punchlist attached to the web page, we did have quite a few things done and several “…shall I fix this now or wait until it breaks …” type of repairs made. At the moment the vessel is performing perfectly at 1300 RPM, making 10.7 knots, and burning 19 gallons per hour. This speed and fuel consumption makes our range about 1400 miles, which should be enough to get us to the next gas station.

We would have left three days ago except for the surprising addition to our underwater running gear of 40-50’ of heavy insulated four wire electrical cable that had wrapped itself around the port shaft and damaged the props in the process. When we were out on a sea trial I noticed that the port engine was working 50% harder than the starboard engine and wondered if I had hit something, but it turned out to be this mystery wire from hell. So that meant that we had to go back to the shipyard, have the boat hauled, props scanned and turned, port rudder dropped for inspection and re-packed, all of which took a day and a half. Further adding to our enjoyment of the day. the office computer, which had all of my files from home, addresses, and boat notes, crashed and has to have a new hard drive. The good news is that it was my third, deep reserve, navigational computer for when the first two failed so we haven’t gotten lost … yet. I plan to send it home with Kevin to be reloaded from the home PC. With all of that bad luck, needless to say, none of us were in a very good mood Wednesday night.

But we’re all set now! I’m writing on the number two backup navigation computer. The fog has closed in for the moment, but Captain Mary Ann has the watch and, as best I can tell, is awake and watchful. We’ll be running all night and until tomorrow evening to make it to Turtle Bay where we can take a break off the high seas.

Captain Mary Ann reporting: I have just come off Sea Watch and now go directly to Stew Watch. Nothing untoward happened on my shift. The fog rolled in right after I went on duty and I spent my entire time staring at the radar screens without seeing even one blip. Earlier, when Arna was on watch, there was a lot of excitement. Moby Dick and his buddies were giving us a look over but when the fog appeared they disappeared and so did my friends. Alone in the pilothouse my high point was turning on the foghorn. Fortunately, I am always tuned into the soap opera . . . channel 16. Today’s dramatic event was the Coast Guard rescue of an unconscious diver. I hope she is okay. And so now I go to the Stew Watch where my duty will be adding potatoes, onions, and carrots to the cooking sirloin chunks. Good-bye until nest time, Captain Mary Ann.