:: Trying to keep track of it all... ::

:: 1.06.2003 ::

Well, you guys wanted some pics.

Heres a pic of yours truly on top of Mauna Kea, on the big island. (below)
Please allow me to apologize in advance...


So you want to know why we left the boat...
Lets see where shall I begin.

Let me give you a little background of the dynamic on the boat. There were 7 of us on the boat. 4 crew, 2 owners, and 1 daughter of owner. The names have been abbreviated to protect the guilty.

There was Tabitha and I as crew. There were also 2 other gentlemen crewing.

S. (age 60) who is a retired IBM engineer. Has been sailing for many, many years. Owned and lived on his own boat in Seattle for a couple of years. Plans on circumnavigating the globe. Great guy. Had a lot of the same ideas and ways of doing things as Tabitha and I.

The other fellows name is H. (age 57). A retired bank exec from Jerusalem. He also is a sailor, has been sailing on the Med for years, is an artist, and also is very likeminded with the other three of us crew.

The family/owners consisted of The Grandfather (age 75). He spent eight years building the boat in Israel in the late eighties and early nineties after his wife died. The boat is her namesake. He is a machinist and engineer by trade, owned his own factory, and is(was) a brilliant carpenter, and metalsmith. Some time after they left Israel on their circumnavigation (1994) he lost it. Old age, senility, whatever you want to call it, he is a menace to the safety of everyone on the boat. Sweet guy, but dangerous. Thats a story for another time though.

Then theres The Father (age 47). Very well meaning, very talented electrical engineer. Fairly good sailor, with some bad habits. Without his father and daughter on board, he probably would have been just fine to deal with. A good if slightly imbalanced guy in a bad situation.

Then theres The Granddaughter (age 17 going on 11). She was the straw that broke the camels back. Horrible, horrible person. She's was failing out of high school, hanging out with a bad crowd, and crashed her friends parents car while joyriding un-licensed and without permission the day before her father was supposed to fly to CA to meet us on the boat. He didnt know what to do with her so he brought her along. Lucky us... She didnt shut up, she didnt listen, she was a slob, bossy, spoiled little brat. She fancied herself a skate punk, but she was definitely "daddys little girl". She did nothing for the 4 weeks she was on the boat, except complain, sleep, make a mess, and get in the way. She made the 4 of us crew (and probably her own father, except he'd never admit it) miserable.
OK thats enough of that.

Heres a little background on the boat.
Its a 53 foot 30 ton steel ketch. It VERY overengineered. Over strong, over heavy with safety systems for the safety systems. With some maintenance and a little TLC it could be an icebreaker class cruising boat.
The only fly in the ointment is the above mentioned maintenance and TLC. It's never gotten any. So everything sort-of works. Everything is almost fully functional. There are systems designed by the grandfather back when he "had it" that are indestructible and sheer genius. Then there are sytems that he has cobbled together in the last few years that are going to kill someone someday.
The boat is also filthy and cluttered. When The Grandfather is working on a project he leaves tools, chunks of wood and metal, metal shavings, etc. etc. everywhere. The cockpit of the boat is like the garage bay. Thats where all the crap gets stored. old ripped sails, tools, lumber, all kinds of crap. It all gets stuck behind the benches or stuffed into every open area. Without all the crap it would be a huge very comfortable cockpit. As they had it it was cluttered and dangerous.
The family were also all slobs. They never washed the dishes, and in the 5 weeks we were with them, the father cooked 1 meal and the daughter cooked 1 meal. They would leave manuals, books, their laptop, tools, food, cell phones, clothes, boat gear, and all kinds of crap everywhere. When we hit a big swell it would all fly across the cabin to the other side. Very. very dangerous. But more on that later...


Tabitha and I have only been sailing for a few years. And we originally learned by taking about 6 months worth of classes at the Boston Sailing Center in Boston Harbor. We started out on smaller daysailers, and worked our way up to larger cruising class boats. So while were still new to sailing, and can easily be classified as "inexperienced" we have a certain way we were taught to do things to be safe, effecient, whatever.

The owners of the boat, while having also built the entire boat from scratch, by themselves, which is an astounding feat in and of itself, were also self-taught sailors. Nothing wrong with being self-taught as long as you learn safe habits and dont endanger yourself crew and other boats in your vicinity. *sigh*

Before a major 2500 mile ocean crossing, Tabitha and I were taught in our classes to make sure the boat you were travelling on was ship-shape. You go around on deck and look for loose items, or you make sure all the lines and blocks are in their proper places, and not binding. You then go below and make sure the kitchen and living areas are clean and free of items that could fall on your head in a big swell, like a fire extinguisher, or a dictionary. You then test your systems, steering, engine, sail operation, anchor windlass etc. etc.
When youre reasonably secure with the shape of the boat and you feel ready to go you then get a F#$%&*NG WEATHER REPORT!!!!

Seems pretty logical and simple right?
Yeah well, surprise surprise.

We headed out across the Pacific after having done NONE OF THE ABOVE. That was a little disconcerting. We tried our best to do some of the items listed above on our own but it was difficult to approach the owners and tell them that this was wrong or that was wrong. Especially since we were labeled as "inexperienced". A couple of times we mentioned things that we had noticed and they would agree, and say that would be taken care of and not to worry. They were very convincing so we gave them the benefit of the doubt. I mean after all they had been sailing for 8 years and already made it halfway around the world from the Mediteranean with no casualties or major failures. So we tried to do things their way. Everything seemed to work OK on our 1 hour shakedown cruise.
The boat had been sitting for about a year and a half and we only did a 1 hour shakedown cruise. That right there should have made us flee in terror, but we always try to see the good in people, and like I said everything seemed to work OK. Well, except for the steering. There was a leak somewhere in the hydraulics for the steering, so every three days on the crossing we had to refill the fluid reservoir. You knew you were out of fluid, when the autopilot would fail for mystery reason number 178 (more on that later) and you would grab onto the wheel to hold the course and the wheel would spin freely in your hands.
Whee....

Tabitha also felt a tiny bit unsafe when she went down into the kitchen one day after some particularly rough weather and found an 8" chefs knife sticking into the wood floor of the kitchen like a stilletto. Yeah, that made her just a teensy weensy bit nervous.

Does that give you some idea? The funny thing is THATS NOTHING!!!! I could go on and on, but Ill leave my last remaining anecdotes for other days.
You guys are probably bored at this point and have better things to do. Trust me though the final reason we left the boat in Maui is a great story. Ill get to that eventually, just hang in there.

Cheers!
Zachary and Tabitha

:: Zachary 11:13:23 AM [+] ::
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