After a successful sea trial and a satisfactory survey, with check in hand I bought Annabelle. we, my girlfriend and I, left Travers City, MI en-wrought to Hammond Marina with 5 knots of wind we motored the first two days. Kathy was not comfortable motoring through the night so I choose an island to anchor by, it took awhile to find a shallow enough spot to drop anchor 9' was what I found but by then it was dark and I couldn't get the Delta anchor to set I knew something was amiss but did not want to alarm Kathy anymore than she already was so I didn't sleep I just kept getting up every half hour or so to make sure we weren't drifting, when the sun came up I seen why I was having problems, we set on top of a rock field but with all the anchor rode I had paid out we wrapped around a half dozen rocks which kept us firmly in place. toward the end of day two as land started to slowly disappear our engine acted up so I made the decision to find a marina for fuel since that is what it sounded like, it wasn't, after getting towed into Ludington, MI filling only 16 gallons of fuel into a 75 gallon tank I knew that was not the problem, but hey its a sail boat right, we motored back out just for the engine to act up again just about 5 miles off shore so I went back in for further investigation. I wound up replacing the fuel filter which was filled with all kinds of junk and Kathy jumped ship and my daughter came aboard to bring Annabelle home. and with less than 5 knots of wind coming out of the SW we motored more for the next 9 hours till the engine stared complaining again so with no further ado my daughter and raised the sails and sail through the night making almost no progress due to wind direction and lack of wind so we tried the engine again and walla it ran for another 6 hours and complained again so again we set sail and carried on for the next few hours till the engine fired right up and brought all the way home. The problem with sailing all the way was no or little wind and it was coming in the exact direction we needed to go my daughter and I sailed as close to the wind as we could without loosing the sails. all in all I think Annabelle did a fantastic job getting to Hammond , IN I just wish we had the wind so we would have never known about the engine faults, but everything happens for a reason.
Stay tuned in as I begin all the repairs that need to happen before I can take her out to the deep end of the pool aka the Atlantic Ocean
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Sea Drifter has a sea worthy sailboat
Update on the Annabelle....Let's start by the seller's reconsidering the offer and selling her....So we are now the proud owners of a 35 foot Halberg-Rassy Rasmus called Annabelle.
The sale took place Saturday a big shout out to Rourke and Annie for selling this amazing vessel. So Saturday afternoon we loaded S/V Annabelle to start her voyage to her new home. We had perfect weather to start our destination although we had to motor out of Traverse City since we had no wind. We had a very pleasant first day. With the minor hydraulic leak she kept wanting to go to starboard, but was a very good first day. We motored into the evening until about 10pm. We ended up anchoring on the north side of Manitou not realizing we were on a bed of huge rock, but luckily dropped enough chain to wrap around it to keep us anchored. It wasn't until the next morning with crystal clear water that we seen this thankfully all went well since there was no wind there was no problems.
Second day of the voyage all started well we again had to motor all day as again there was no wind. The day was fairly pleasant until my sea legs drifted away with the tide as it was my first time on a large body of water and seeing nothing but water around I became paranoid and scared myself enough to want to get off the boat.
We made it into Ludington when we had three large ships pass making large waves which again freaked me out as I was sleeping when this happened. Then at 9:00 pm the Annabelle stalled, the captain of this vessel tried everything in his power not to have to call the Coast Guard to assist we ended up getting towed into the Ludington Marina to dock overnight and get fuel in the morning.
We fire Annabelle up the next morning after only needing 16 gallons of diesel in a 75 gallon tank. The captain (Kevin) found this to be very odd, we attempted to start out again pulled her out of the marina only for her engine to start acting up again. So we turned her back around just to be safe as there still wasn't enough wind to sail her home. When we got back to the marina, Kevin was back on the phone with Chris the guy who towed us in the night before, also on the phone with the broker Bill as they were trying to figure out the problem. After about two hours it was determined the fuel filter was the place to start. When Kevin replaced the fuel filter he also noticed there was no dipstick for the oil so with a little ingenuity Kevin and the mechanic came up with something that would work.
At this time my nerves gave out so we called his daughter to drive out to come get me. Two nights in Ludington and Annabelle, the captain Kevin and his daughter Becca are bringing her home. Will see ya here have a safe voyage.
A few shout outs to everyone involved. Again to Rourke and Annie for selling the amazing Annabelle...to Bill Allgaier the broker for going above and beyond to make sure this sale went through and for all his help and genuine concern about our safety. To Chris and the guys for getting us towed into safety. For Becca an amazing young woman who is always there for her dad and I when really needed. And finally to my Captain Kevin who even under stress kept his strength and composure you are the best.
Welcome home Annabelle
The sale took place Saturday a big shout out to Rourke and Annie for selling this amazing vessel. So Saturday afternoon we loaded S/V Annabelle to start her voyage to her new home. We had perfect weather to start our destination although we had to motor out of Traverse City since we had no wind. We had a very pleasant first day. With the minor hydraulic leak she kept wanting to go to starboard, but was a very good first day. We motored into the evening until about 10pm. We ended up anchoring on the north side of Manitou not realizing we were on a bed of huge rock, but luckily dropped enough chain to wrap around it to keep us anchored. It wasn't until the next morning with crystal clear water that we seen this thankfully all went well since there was no wind there was no problems.
Second day of the voyage all started well we again had to motor all day as again there was no wind. The day was fairly pleasant until my sea legs drifted away with the tide as it was my first time on a large body of water and seeing nothing but water around I became paranoid and scared myself enough to want to get off the boat.
We made it into Ludington when we had three large ships pass making large waves which again freaked me out as I was sleeping when this happened. Then at 9:00 pm the Annabelle stalled, the captain of this vessel tried everything in his power not to have to call the Coast Guard to assist we ended up getting towed into the Ludington Marina to dock overnight and get fuel in the morning.
We fire Annabelle up the next morning after only needing 16 gallons of diesel in a 75 gallon tank. The captain (Kevin) found this to be very odd, we attempted to start out again pulled her out of the marina only for her engine to start acting up again. So we turned her back around just to be safe as there still wasn't enough wind to sail her home. When we got back to the marina, Kevin was back on the phone with Chris the guy who towed us in the night before, also on the phone with the broker Bill as they were trying to figure out the problem. After about two hours it was determined the fuel filter was the place to start. When Kevin replaced the fuel filter he also noticed there was no dipstick for the oil so with a little ingenuity Kevin and the mechanic came up with something that would work.
At this time my nerves gave out so we called his daughter to drive out to come get me. Two nights in Ludington and Annabelle, the captain Kevin and his daughter Becca are bringing her home. Will see ya here have a safe voyage.
A few shout outs to everyone involved. Again to Rourke and Annie for selling the amazing Annabelle...to Bill Allgaier the broker for going above and beyond to make sure this sale went through and for all his help and genuine concern about our safety. To Chris and the guys for getting us towed into safety. For Becca an amazing young woman who is always there for her dad and I when really needed. And finally to my Captain Kevin who even under stress kept his strength and composure you are the best.
Welcome home Annabelle
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