News from ASA# 106 Punta Gorda Florida - Marsh Harbor Bahamas

After a day of preparation, the crew of CELESTIAL departed Burnt Store Marina in Punta Gorda Florida at 1:45 PM on Monday April 21, 2008. The first leg of their passage will be a non-stop cruise to Key West. Captain Andy Prescott expects this leg to take 24 hours and so the crew will reach Key West by early afternoon on Tuesday April 22, 2008.

Pictured here are crew members Manny Rosa, Richard Dixon, Wolfgang Linke, Bill Magness, and Jim Spilbor with Captain Joe Kliment and Captain Andy Prescott. Captain Joe Kliment, who lent his vast expertise in the preparation of the crew for the journey, reports that "these guys will be a GOOD crew! They were a pleasure to work with!"

Further details on the voyage will be posted here as comments to this original post. Thanks, as always, to Ruth Kliment for the crew picture!

Dry Tortugas Cruise #2 Report by Captain Joe Kliment

The crew members for the second Dry Tortugas Cruise March 22-29 are pictured here: Patrick Paul, Karl Engkvist, Tom Caulkins, Mustafa Dosemeci, Peter Brubaker and Captain Joe Kliment. Below is Captain Joe's report:

The second Dry Tortugas ASA 106 cruise was as challenging and enjoyable as the first. The crew provisioned on Saturday, March 22, then prepared the boat for departure. No one felt threatened by the heavy rainstorm with serious thunder and lightening overnight, since CELESTIAL was still at the dock.

We departed at 8:30 March 23, Easter Sunday morning, with good winds and beautiful weather, sailing on a great broad reach down the Gulf toward the Dry Tortugas. The students practiced dead reckoning and learned to use the ship's radar, observing traffic along the way. We had previously divided into 3 teams, with a watch schedule of 3 hrs on and 6 hrs off. It was a pleasant overnight sail with a swallow coming aboard the boat for much the night.

We arrived at the Dry Tortugas, after carefully running the course to Ft. Jefferson, where we anchored at 11:30 AM Monday, March 24. The crew toured the Fort and rested after the long sail. Unexpected excitement arose on the dingy trip back to CELESTIAL, when the engine of the dink failed this crew - leaving us adrift without paddles. With wind gusting to 30 knots, one crew member quipped “We're on our way to Cuba!”.

The National Park came to our rescue, when Ranger Jason Olds arrived in a large inflatable patrol boat and towed us back to CELESTIAL. (The dink engine was later found to need a tune up and carburetor adjustment.) The heavy gusting winds caused other boats to drag anchor through the night, but our properly set anchor, with plenty of chain rode held firm.

On Tuesday, March 25, we prepared our main meal at noon and departed the Dry Tortugas at 3 pm for our second overnight sail. With 25 knot east winds on the nose, we motor sailed through 8-10 ft seas. This rough ride, in the blue water south of the barrier reef, was the biggest challenge for this crew thus far. Like true seasoned sailors, this crew took care of each other!

Arriving at the outer mark for Key West at 7:30 AM Wednesday, March 26, we were surprised to see a nuclear submarine and it's tender nearby. Proceeding up the channel we were indeed fortunate to get the last slip available in Conch Harbor Marina. The challenge of docking this large vessel in such a narrow lagoon brought (well deserved) applause from the bystanders. The crew toured Key West and thoroughly enjoyed a meal ashore. Luckily the weather was kind and sleeping conditions comfortable, since the air conditioner on the vessel failed (this was later found to be a cooling water problem)

On Thursday, March 27, we ate an early breakfast before departing Key West via the North West Channel. Setting the genoa, staysail and full main while beating into a 15-20 knot NE wind, the crew was exhilarated to be speeding along at 8 knots. Some time later, we found the autohelm was non-functional, so we manned the wheel for the next 24 hrs. By evening the winds had diminished and we motorsailed through the night. Shortly after sunset, a large osprey circled CELESTIAL, landing on the bow pulpit to accompany us for a 6 hr ride.

A beautiful sunrise off of Captiva Island found us motoring, with no wind for an uneventful return to Burnt Store Marina at 11 AM Friday March 28. We refueled and pumped out, then docked and cleaned Celestial. Since there were no students testing for ASA 106, this cruise was now completed and the crew began to depart. The 5 student crew members had become good friends though this challenging experience and we plan to stay in touch in the future. It was truly a cruise to remember for all of us!

Capt Joe Kliment, March 30, 2008

March 30, 2008 6:31 PM

News from CELESTIAL and Dry Tortugas Crew #1

After a day of preparation, the crew of CELESTIAL set sail Sunday morning March 9th at 07:30. It was a chilly 41 degrees when this photo was taken by Ruth Kliment. Pictured are Captain Joe Kliment and crew: Jeff Scott, Frank Crumb, Ken Stevens, Mike Coyne and Jeff Harper. Captain Joe has been posting positions using his HAM radio, and at last report on Monday March 10th at 13:08 he says "In GULF. Crew and vessel OK." You can follow the ship's progress by going to http://shiptrak.org/� and typing in the call sign W3HZM and selecting "Last 30 days" from the drop down menu. Zoom in and hover over each point, or look at the bottom of the screen for comments associated with the position. I enjoy the "Hybrid" view myself, where you can make out the Dry Tortugas. Further details on the voyage and post cruise input from the crew can be found as comments to this original post. Pictured here is the crew returning to Punta Gorda.

Bilge Vigilance!

In reponse to Charles Doane's (a well known and respected delivery skipper) article in ON about how bilge flooding fried all his electronics, I sent this letter to the editor, Tim Queeny. Some of our offshore students wonder at our hourly checks. They are important.

This letter was included in the September 07 issue of ON.

April 19, 2006

Tim Queeney, Editor
OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAGAZINE
PO Box 569
58 Fore Street
Portland, ME 04101

Dear Tim:

Charles J. Doane's account of his bilge water plight during s/v AVOCATION's "Wrong Way to the West Indies" voyage in your May/June issue reinforced the importance of Rules with which I indoctrinate my crew before every passage, on my own deliveries and on the training voyages I skipper for The Maryland School of Sailing and Seamanship.

Rule #1 is KEEP THE BOAT AFLOAT! Maintain watertight integrity and be vigilant about it. We have practices outlined in our Standard Operating Procedure manuals to insure we keep our vessels on the surface where they are designed to sail best, and avoid shipping water into compartments where critical gear, like batteries and electronic equipment, is stowed. Procedures are:

1. Shut down electric bilge pump when going off shore. Use visual and manual checks to monitor bilge, or, if so equipped, a bilge pump cycle counter.
2. Make hourly visual checks of the bilge.
3. If any water is found in the bilge, pump with manual bilge pump, count the strokes and log them in the hourly Ship's Log entries. Each watch is responsible for this as part of our routine hourly boat checks.
4. Each oncoming watch checks the Log for bilge entries and condition. Usually there may be a few strokes each hour, especially in heavy conditions or heavy precipitation. This is "normal."
5. Any increase in "normal" bilge pumping routine MUST be investigated immediately. Just getting the water out is problem enough, but the most important thing, FIND THE LEAK AND STOP IT, is near impossible if the leak is already submerged!

This routine has saved me from serious difficulty on several occasions. Failure to follow it got me into a couple of frightening situations. Don't ask!

This last March I skippered delivery of a sailing vessel from Grenada to Florida. She had neither an "off" option on the electric bilge pump, nor a bilge cycle counter. I advised the owner of the potential danger. I even considered cutting the wires and making a jury rig switch, but didn't. So the electric bilge pump whirred merrily along every so often, clearing the bilge. We watched the bilge as if our lives depended on it. They did... or at least could have.

With this setup the electric pump could be overwhelmed by a leak and fail before we realized we were taking on water. If not vigilant we wouldn't notice anything until the cabin sole boards started floating. At that point we would be in deep trouble indeed (headed deeper!!) with only the manual bilge pump in operation, and the leak probably well submerged and disguised. If this pump should fail.... !! I have seen this happen!

So a further requirement we have for vessels in our charge venturing off shore, or even near shore, is to have some robust back up pump aboard, beyond the built in manual and electric bilge pumps, one not dependent on the vessel's electrical system. Several good ones are available on the market. This mobile pump and can be used to clear isolated compartments that do not drain into the bilge.

And for sure all boats in all waters should have at least two stout buckets aboard and handy. As we all know, nothing clears a watery bilge more effectively and efficiently than a scared sailor with a bucket!

I don't know if our bilge monitoring regime would have worked with Captain Doane's shallow bilge issues, but it might have.

By the way, RULE #2 is STAY ON THE BOAT!

Hope you find this useful.

Fair Winds,

David Appleton, Head Instructor
Maryland School of Sailing & Seamanship

Yacht Charters for Graduates

As a new offering to our graduates, we have added a Continuing Education Program consisting of Captained Charters and Bareboat Charters on our Island Packet sailing yachts to assist graduates in practicing and reinforcing skills learned in our regular training courses. This offer is not available to graduates from other schools or to the boating public in general. Refer to http://www.mdschool.com/Charter.htm for details.

Why Maryland School?

Several years ago I began searching for a sailing school to enroll in and, hopefully teach for. What follows are the criteria that ultimately led to my selection of The Maryland School of Sailing and Seamanship.

Several schools that I found on the east coast offered only introductory courses, whereas the Maryland School offered the full ASA (American Sailing Association) curriculum from 101 through 108, including offshore passages, celestial navigation, and instructor certification. For me, a school offering introductory courses and advanced blue water sailing meant credibility. Maryland School also exceeds ASA minimum requirements by including docking classes and additional training not provided by other sailing schools. Maryland School is the only school I found to train exclusively on blue water boats (Island Packets) with an overnight live-a-board experience included as part of the tuition – even for a beginning 101 class. Other classes that I compared required that you either commute to class each day or establish a temporary residence in a nearby hotel. And now Maryland School offers charters to former students of MSSS. Finally, I made note of the Maryland School instructor resumes. The fact that ASA themselves approached the Maryland School owner – Tom Tursi - to incorporate Maryland School’s lesson plans into the ASA curriculum made the choice easy for me. And as if that weren’t enough, add the fact that Lankford Bay Marina – host site for the North America based locaton for Maryland School - is a full service marina voted among Chesapeake Bay Magazine’s 10 Best Marinas – I think other students will be equally pleased with Maryland School as their choice for either introductory or advanced sailing instruction in North America or the B.V.I..

Inflatable Vest Cartidges and Airline Regulations

Students often ask about federal regulations governing inflatable vest cartidges in carry-on and checked luggage. The regulations have changed several times over the last few years. As of today, this is the current regulation:

Federal Regulation 49 CFR 175.10 (11)
(11) A self-inflating life jacket fitted with no more than two small gas cartridges (containing no hazardous material other than a Div. 2.2 gas) for inflation purposes plus no more than two spare cartridges. The lifejacket and spare cartridges may be carried in carry-on or checked baggage, with the approval of the aircraft operator.

The key phrase is “with the approval of the aircraft operator”. It is each airlines choice whether to allow these on their airplanes, and each sets their own policies (currently about 1/2 allow them and 1/2 don't). We recommend checking with your airline (and returning and connecting flights) in advance. You can see the regulation here: [Federal Regulation 49 CFR 175.10 (11)]. Also, look here under "Disabling Chemicals & Other Dangerous Items" for specifics: http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/prohibited/permitted-prohibited-items.shtm

Even if your airline permits them, you may be prepared with copies of the Federal Regulation and the regulations for your specific airline, since it's not a common item and airline personnel may not know that they are allowed.

Captain Credentials

"The Maryland School of Sailing & Seamanship boasts an impressive staff of offshore-savvy instructors and is notable for its high level of organization and dedication to real ocean sailing." Quote from Blue Water Sailing magazine, July 2002 issue, page S-10

Halimeda arrives in St Thomas

After a long ocean voyage from Norfolk to the Virgin Islands, Halimeda, the school's 45' Island Packet yacht, arrives in good form at Crown Bay Marina in St. Thomas today, November 15, 2007 with her crew of six -- Captain David Appleton, First Mate Carroll Christiansen, and students Rick Koubek, Peter Schloss, John Kalliongis, and Dan Stephenson. The crew has been at sea non-stop since November 2nd. We'll be posting a cruise report here and on our website on the cruise reports page.

Celestial Sets Sail; Bahamas to Punta Gorda Florida

November 14, 2007: Captain Jochen Hoffmann aboard Celestial reported this afternoon that all crew had arrived safely in Marsh Harbor, Bahamas, and spent the day in preparation for their voyage. They will depart Marsh Harbor Marina at 4:00 PM Wednesday November 14th. Their plan is to anchor in the bay Wednesday night, acclimate themselves to the boat and living aboard, and leave early in the morning for the 70 mile sail to the Berry Islands. They will spend Thursday night anchored near the Berrys, and then will leave early Friday morning for Key West. This is a 120 mile run, which will take them 24-36 hours of non-stop sailing to complete. Their expected ETA in Key West will be sometime Saturday, when they will take a well deserved rest before heading toward their destination in Punta Gorda, Florida. A total of 5 crew members are on board, including the captain and 4 students.