November 2002
Coast Hopping & into the Gulf
. . .
The last eletter described our ‘normal’ life in Mobile -- obviously
too normal for us, so it is time to move on. In the time before Thanksgiving we
will have given up our jobs, our phone, our convenient internet connections,
and our safe, secure little spot on the dock here in Mobile.
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Our projected course will take Windigo briefly to Ft.
Walton Beach, Florida; New Orleans, Louisiana; Galveston & Corpus Christi,
Texas. On or about the first of February we will sail across the full expanse
of the northern Gulf of Mexico from Corpus Christi to St. Petersburg/Tampa,
Florida. I am very excited anticipating an offshore adventure of greater scope
than I have previously experienced, Karin is less enthused, although very
willing to make the 800 nautical mile voyage.
We have been working on boat projects busily for the last
couple weeks. Karin has sewn new UV
cloth on two of most-used foresails to protect them from the Caribbean sun.
I have been working on the roof for our cockpit & helm enclosure. I’ve
reproduced the double bow roller I
designed and built in Door County before launching Windigo, this time out of
aluminum. It is now mounted on the boat and holds
the anchors nicely.
I am improving Windigo’s computer
network and electronic navigational interface to increase stability and
features. We will have wireless email at sea through our SSB radio. A new VHF
radio system provides two full-featured units – one at the helm and one inside
the cabin. The connection of the radio to the GPS and its new antenna system
provides one-button automated distress capabilities. The instruments of the
NEXUS system will display information from the computer network and vice-versa.
We have done “annual maintenance” on the wind generator and
water system. I have been patiently waiting for some company to manufacture an
HID lighting system based on the newly invented 12-volt DC ballasts. Sylvania
finally did, and I am installing two metal-halide lights on the spreaders to illuminate
the deck and the area* in front of the boat at night. HID light fixtures
provide very efficient illumination of a “color” that simulates daylight. These
lights will allow us to work on deck and see objects afloat in our path at
night, but most importantly, they will illuminate Windigo completely to assist
larger vessels to avoid collision in the dark of night. (“the area*” extends ½
mile ahead of Windigo!)
We really had to chuckle at the media, residents and
general feelings here on the Gulf Coast during “hurricane season”. I had been
through this before in the 70’s when I lived in Biloxi, Mississippi; but either
forgot or did not fully appreciate the total wimpiness of a population that has
really mundane weather 320 days a year. What it is, in a nutshell, is that they
had a hurricane here in mobile 23 years ago that blew things around in a
30-mile wide path for a few hours. It wrecked homes built on a barrier island.
A sand barrier island out in the Gulf of Mexico. Duh!
O.k., it knocked down dozens of trees at Spring Hill
College, too. Although that’s well inland, it is the highest point in Mobile
County. So anyway this storm happened three decades ago and now when a sub-tropical storm moves around out
in the Gulf within 600 miles of here, everybody talks ONLY about the
“hurricane” and all that it COULD do. The tides
move a couple of feet higher or lower than
normal; it rains for a couple of days, and then returns back to the normal
repetitive weather pattern. We had a grand
time touring the area marinas on Pedigo.
It is a good excuse to close schools (which they also do
when it gets down to 30°F. because there might be ICE on the roads!!!) and we
had a neighbor in our marina that last month used a storm in LOUISIANA [yes,
that’s TWO states over] as the excuse for running his boat up on the rocks and
sinking it at the entrance of Mobile Bay. I swear, if there were a good ol’
Milwaukee snowstorm here, with 12” to 18” falling at once, three to four
thousand Alabamians would perish. [Very few could believe I actually rode my
bike to work IN THE RAIN!!!]
The weather here in Mobile is becoming what it was last
December when we arrived. We enjoyed the “storm season”, but now it will be
chilly and breezy for a couple months. We are looking forward to the warmer
waters further south in the Gulf. We have logged over 700 nautical miles on
Mobile Bay since our arrival. We have had 28 passengers/crew aboard and dozens
more dockside visitors.
We participated in two
parades and one race celebrating the TRIcentennial of
Mobile (yes, 300 years old!). The last
parade was organized at a meeting at Fort Conde in downtown Mobile. This is
a French installation that has been here since the first days of the city.
Besides the museum/fort setting, there was food of every variety catered in for
the event. I thought Karin was going to eat herself sick on shrimp, her
favorite food.
Speaking of Karin and sickness, she has discovered the
ultimate method to avoid seasickness. Although she has never been seasick
aboard Windigo, she has been close, and wishes to never experience the full
effect of mal-de-mar. The new method incorporates the ancient principal of
acupressure into a high-tech product that has FDA approval. It is non-invasive
and uses no drugs. It also boasts of curing an episode of motion sickness once
it has begun, something most drugs cannot do. It is called a ReliefBand and is worn as a wristwatch on
the inside of the wrist. It is powered by a watch battery and applies a
periodic pulse of electric current to a nerve in that area connected with the
portion of the brain that deals with incongruities that cause nausea from
sensitivity to motion. I’ll keep you updated to the efficacy of the device.
I had a good experience working at Silver Ships, welding aluminum boats, installing
electrical systems, finishing up a couple of home
projects, and I had a couple chances to go out on the water in a few of the
finished craft. One trip was to test the righting capabilities of a SOLAS
approved 4-meter rescue boat. When I inquired if I was chosen for my USCG
rating and Captain’s License the answer was ‘no’. I then guessed it was because
of my electrical knowledge and many years experience troubleshooting and
repairing complicated systems in the field. Again the answer was ‘no’. So I
finally surmised that it was that fact that I lived aboard and being on the
water daily gave me an insight into things marine-like. When I was told ‘no’
this time I simply asked, “Why am I going down to the test?” “Because you are
big and heavy and dumb enough to get in the water on an upside-down boat.”
I did get
to pilot one of the three Jamaican Gunboats later, though. It was a treat to
skim along the surface of the water at 40 knots in a 44’ boat that weighs as
much as Windigo. These boats are powered by twin Caterpillar diesels connected
to jet-drives, turning out over 1300 horsepower. The drives may be shifted from
full-speed forward to reverse without throttling down. I did that with just the
starboard engine and went from a straight-line at 40 knots, to a 360° circle
within the length of the vessel, and back on plane again in as much time as it
takes to drop the mainsail on Windigo. Oh, but the fuel bill!
Because
of my association with Silver Ships, I was able to work a deal to purchase a
demo welder to carry aboard Windigo. This isn’t any ordinary welder, though –
it utilizes technology just a few months old. It is a Lincoln Electric TIG
/ stick machine capable of welding steel, stainless steel, aluminum,
magnesium, titanium, copper, bronze and all manner of exotic metals. It can
easily join ¼” plates, and thicker metals with greater preparation and several
passes. It weighs 33 pounds and runs on Windigo’s inverter system so is able to
weld “at sea”. One more tool for Windigo Skilled Services. Cool.
Being this close to New
Orleans, it was an easy
decision to make the trip there to see the spectacle of Halloween
on Bourbon Street.
Jim Kasdorf
made the trip from Milwaukee to dress-up
and see what makes New Orleans
home of the wildest street
parties in North
America. The photos speak
for themselves.
(I Saw Elvis.) Costume contest entrants: Kevin;
Karin;
and a TOP TEN qualifier – JIMBO!
Upon meeting Joe Bru
last March, he was a typical family
man: owned the house he lived in with his wife Jeanne and their kids Megan & Dylan. He worked in
a hospital, as did his wife. They spent weekends down at the Marina on their
34’ trawler, a beautiful Marine Trader. When he mentioned he would like to move
onto the boat but his family probably wouldn’t go for it, I commenced to recite
a list of advantages for the whole family and insisted he should do whatever he
could to allow his family to share in his dream. Well, last month they untied
the lines and are heading for the Bahamas! The children are being
home[boat]-schooled, Joe & Jeanne sold their house, vehicles, ski boat, and
left their jobs & cares behind! The American dream takes many forms.
I have included a photo of our HoopDeCar,
as promised in the last letter. Karin drove it up to Columbia, South Carolina
to see her son Nicholas graduate from Army Basic Training (good job Nick). We
will be using it to drive to Arizona to visit my Mom & Dad next week, and
then some lucky luxury car owner wannabe with $3000
will be driving it. It has served us well while in Mobile, and will always be
remembered as our last car. . . .
One last note:
I have worked since 1997 designing and installing a simple
yet complete electronic navigation and communication system aboard Windigo. I
utilized all my years of electrical and computer experience to create a
reliable and useful tool. The single most expensive item placed on Windigo
during the extensive two-year refit was a weatherproof, helm-mounted LCD
computer screen. I researched the purchase extensively (most of you know how
cheap I am) and bought an Ocean PC brand 15” monitor from Jim McCreary
Enterprises in Lockport, Illinois. Since I received the unit the first time and
discover shipping damage, it has been nothing short of a disaster. While most
everything else we fit onto Windigo either worked great from the start or
required a minor bit of tweaking, this monitor has been shipped back FOUR times
to the manufacturer, DigitalView in Morgan Hill, CA. Ocean PC has since gone
out-of-business (no wonder when they sell crap) and Argonaut Computers have
taken over the miss-management of the Ocean PC brand name.
Presently, the monitor is not sealed & allows water
into its case. The membrane switch is so unreliable that turning the unit on
and off is a gamble at best. A defect in the screen puts a green vertical line
across the entire display. And even when it turns on, and is only ‘fogged-up’
and not ‘soaking wet’, the display is intermittent and usually unreadable. All
totaled, I have had maybe a month of sporadic use of the monitor. It was not
worth $165/day.
Mr. Jim McCreary, (to whom I wrote the FIVE THOUSAND DOLLAR
check to purchase the unit), has up until recently arranged for the unit to be
shipped back and forth, not getting repaired. He has not been able to refund
any of the money for the defective unit, nor has he been able to comply with
requests to exchange the unit for another more reliable one – even one of
lesser value.
Mr. George Kioutus of Argonaut Computers declined a request
from Mr. McCreary to make good on the defective unit. This did not surprise me,
as in a past matter, Mr. Kioutus forced me to pay $90 to replace a floppy drive
for a computer still under warranty. [A $3000 dollar computer which I could
have purchased elsewhere for much less without Argonaut’s “armor” - which is $1.79
of rubber glued to the outside of the computer. What a rip.]
Mr. Neal Wood of DigitalView, although handling the
defective unit FOUR times without repairing it, says there is nothing his
company can do as the Samsung screen in the unit is no longer made, and
besides, they are “not responsible, as we only built the unit according to
Ocean PC specifications and they are out of business”.
Sorry for the diatribe, but unless somebody makes a stand
in these matters and attempts to reveal the true nature of the customer
diss-service, these companies will continue with the “it’s not our fault,
you’re screwed” attitude until they are all out of business. I needed to blow
off steam and will refer hundreds more of prospective customers to this URL as
I travel the world.
Fare Thee Well, Mobile,
our unexpected host for 2002. . .
Our permanent and EXACT address:
Capt. KL & Karin Hughes
S/V WindigoIII • PMB 365
88005 Overseas Hwy. #9
Islamorada, FL
36033-3087
NO Cell phone number!
Email addresses:
And a soon to be activated HAM address for TEXT ONLY
messages (received on our SSB radio):
Latest big shot article on internet:
http://www.sailnet.net/collections/articles/index.cfm?articleid=hughes0008
and of course, the Windigo Travelogue Catalogue:
