Aleria's Adventures

  We've had so much wind lately that several boats have toppled over on the Quay in Westport. We haven't had a chance to go visit Aleria to check on her lately but we'll need to do that soon. We've had two named storms, Isha and Jocelyn, and two subsequent unnamed gales. It's pretty unnerving. I'm just glad we're not out there. 

Alex and Dmytriy have been fibreglassing and sanding their hearts out. Naturally, everything in the shed is now coated with a fine layer of fibreglass. The bottom is done, just needs paint. The top will get another coat of resin. Then they will start on the inside. 

  Alex and Dmitriy have been making great progress, today completing the fiberglassing of the hull. I must say it's looking good. They work well together and Dima is very efficient. It's just too bad his English is so rudimentary, but he is working on it.  This part is definitely a two-person job. It's the first time Dmytro has done fiberglassing but he really enjoys it. I think he's enjoying learning a new skill as well. 

The Century Black Demon that has been sitting in the barn at Ross for decades is being resurrected this winter. Dmytro is helping Alex make it seaworthy again. I can't say it's being restored because they are replacing much with new hardware, wood and so on. They are also epoxying the hull to make it waterproof.  This week, Dima and Alex stripped, sanded and faired the hull. It's quite the winter project, but it's going much faster than anyone expected. It's so great to have the shed.

We've been waiting for the sail to dry since the 10th of November.  We've had so much rain and the air has been so damp that it took 5 days for the sail, hung in the shed, to dry.  The shed has been such a wonderful addition to our holdings. It makes everything so much easier to do. Like flaking the yankee. We've always struggled with it on deck or the docks or the lawn. This time we made a skinny little sausage on a relatively clean floor.  That's it for sail maintenance for the season.  

Yankee headsail The last sail we took off Aleria is her powerful and gigantic yankee headsail. We just rolled it up and put it in the trailer. When we got it home, we unrolled it to let it dry as we'd had showers as we were taking it down. But when we inspected it, we realised it really needed cleaning. It had green slimy patches and black sooty grime in places. So we left it there until I could get it outside to wash properly. It's been raining cats and dogs and blowing gales ever since, until today. So we got it outside and stretched it along the gravel area outside the shed. What a blessing that shed is. It has made everything so much easier.  I got a hose, a soft brush and the washing-up liquid and got to work. Green slimy water was washing off the edge where it was mainly deposited. But it took scrubbing with a harder brush to get it really clean. Showers threatened but stayed distant. I am very pleased with the result.  Alex has rigged a drying clothesline or sailline i...

Is this the tipping point? The problem with models used to predict future events lies in the fact that “probabilities” are simply the odds that extreme events of a certain size will occur in the future, mostly calculated based on past occurrences. But as climate changes, the models become less accurate and less useful in predicting future probabilities.  As I watched the explosive cyclogenesis that made Tropical Storm Otis intensify into a Category 5 hurricane in 12 hours as it crossed a warm blob of water off the coast of Acapulco, I came to understand that there is no way to get out of such a storm's path. Acapulco was destroyed -- it looks like it was bombed out of existence. Not one of the models came close to predicting this development.  I believe that climate change will have a negative impact on distance cruising, and sailing in general. Many of the yacht captains who were told to stay onboard vessels at anchor to guard them have not been heard from since. Autho...