Combining Steel and Synthetic Stays

When converting your standing rigging to systhentic, you might feel inclined to change "some of the stays now, and some of the stays later" as the budget allows. I strongly recommend against this, as combining steel and synthetic standing rigging can lead to more problems than solutions.

Yes, changing the stays one by one as time and money allows may seem fine from a theoretical standpoint, but they will not play well together.

As temperatures change, steel and aluminum will expand and contract at a similar rate, meaning that the steel stays will always remain around the same tightness. Synthetic standing rigging actually expands when it cools, making the stays just a bit longer than they were when initially setup. As the air heats up, they contract and get tighter.

If you setup your rigging at 80F, and then decide to go sailing on a day that is 60F, you will find that your mast will be out of tune! The steel stays will be tighter than your synthetic stays, making the whole system out of whack.

When I converted to synthetic standing rigging, I switched all the shrouds except for the check stays (that run aft from the height of the inner forestay). I didn't swap these stays out simply because I ran out of time before we were going on a long sailing trip. I figured that I would swap them out when we got back.

It seemed that I had to tune the rigging as the temperatures changed, especially the cap shrouds. As fall approached, the check stays (which attach about 3/4 of the way up the mast) remained the same tightness while the cap shrouds at the top of the mast were a bit looser. This meant that the mast would be in column and then bend sharply at the check stays. All I had to do was tighten the cap shrouds and this issue would resolve! The problem was this tight bend that was occurring at the check stay tang.

I was worried that if the temperature was cool enough and the shrouds loose enough, that the mast might bend far enough to buckle and cause serious damage to the spar! This kept me always adjusting and tuning the rigging for quite some time.

Eventually, I replaced the check stays with dyneema and all these problems disappeared! Now, all the shrouds expand and contract at the same rate, meaning that the mast will always remain in column.

On warmer days, the mast is obviously straighter as the rigging is tighter. This gives us the ability to point very well! On cooler days, the mast leans over slightly until the windward stays become tight and the leeward stays hang limp. The headstay also hangs a bit slack and our ability to point is degraded slightly.

While mixing steel and synthetic shrouds is not ideal, there seems to be no problem with having steel or synthetic headstays. Our setup is currently a synthetic headstay and backstay, with a steel inner forestay.

The reason the inner forestay was not replaced with the rest of the rigging is it is still new! The inner forestay was only 3 years old when I converted to synthetic standing rigging, and the cost of materials to swap out that additional stay just wasn't justifiable! When the inner forestay reaches 10 years old or starts to show signs of deterioration, it will then be replaced with a synthetic stay. Until then, it will remain.

On our setup, where we are a cutter rig with all synthetic standing rigging (except the inner forestay) the mast is able to remain in column and we are able to sail very well in all conditions! Having an adjustable backstay is a huge help for taking up some of the slack in the headstay on cooler days while trying to beat to windward.

Synthetic standing rigging is a wonderful and easy setup that you can create and install yourself. The weight savings will make your yacht less tender and the resistance to corrosion will give you peace of mind. If you decide to make the switch, make sure that you convert all your shrouds at the same time and not a few at a time to see how it works on your yacht.

Watching a Monster

Maddie and I are currently anchored in a tiny creek, next to a tiny town. There is deep enough water for our keel and enough room for us to swing, but that is about all there is to appreciate in this small town. 

Reedville has a few restaurants, a museum, and an ice cream shop. These locales are only open a few days a week, and are all closed by 9pm. When we asked what the locals do for entertainment, the answer is unanimous: get in their car and drive to the next town over which has everything! 

Being how we do not posses this luxury, we instead opted to stay on the boat and pass the time with projects that needed to get done. 

You might be wondering why we are anchored in such a random place, and why we don't just sail to a different town that has more activities and amenities? The answer is simple, Hurricane Jose has passed by and Hurricane Maria is close on his heels. We were in a completely protected anchorage for Hurricane Jose, but had no town to visit and explore.

Instead of heading out into the bay and risking getting caught with no wind to return to a safe anchorage, we chose to sail to Reedville and wait out the time. It was a full week between the storms. The winds were all in upheaval as the hurricanes disrupted their normal patterns, and we just waited at anchor. 

In a few days, we had explored the entire town, made a few friends, and had friends come visit us, but the reason we were staying here seemed to slip past our minds. We often wondered why we were anchored on such gorgeous days! The winds were steady and pleasant, on sunny yet cool cloudless days! We often completely forgot why we were here and almost raised the anchor when once again, we remembered that we were hiding from Hurricane Maria. 

After being here for over a week, we were both on the deck. Maddie was reading a book in the hammock while I was dissasembling our windlass to re-grease it. The winds had been building steadily as the storm was approaching. The day before, sky became completely covered by altostratus clouds, letting us know that severe weather was nearby. Today, the sky was completely clear, as the hurricane had drawn all the clouds back into it. Off in the distance, a giant mound of clouds sit. 

That mound of clouds was Hurricane Maria! It was passing a few hundred miles away but the towering storm reached up into the sky and we could see it from our protected anchorage. 

That giant monster of a storm had destroyed the homes of millions as it tore through the Caribbean, smashing islands that had just been devastated by a Hurricane Irma! This moment felt like in an action movie, when the superhero would leap out from the shadows and command the attention of the monster villain. Then they would duel and justice would prevail. 

Unlike in a movie, we simply sat quietly as the monster slowly lumbered on by. We sit quietly in our protected refuge hoping that it doesn't notice us, and instead passes on by.  

We are not superheroes, nay, we are merely extraordinary chickens. 

The Kindness of People

Living nine years in a large city has sort of put a hamper on my outlook towards the general population. I used to hear people plotting how they were going to hold up a store while walking down the sidewalk in broad daylight! I have been held up by people in the city as well. All of these years in a city put a very sour taste in my mouth. 

Even though other people in the city would not help in a time of distress, I always treated others as I would like to be treated. I would give rides to cruisers that were passing by, as I had a car and they needed transportation. I would also invite them over for meals and show them around the local areas.  

When we set off cruising, I kept that bad taste in my mouth from living in a city. I seem to expect the worse at first, as that is what I have been conditioned to expect. Then I get to meet the people in these small towns and I get a fresh blast of refreshing hope for humanity! 

While here in Reedville, VA, a small fishing village on the Great Wicomico River, we have been aided by a few locals. We were in a local restaurant and were asking for directions to the nearest grocery store. It turns out that there is no such store in this town, and the nearest market is 15 miles away. I was ready to travel the distance on my bicycle with a backpack when a waitress there offered to drive us to the store! She picked us up, took us to the store, and drove us back to the boat. 

On another occasion, we were sitting in the cockpit as a storm was approaching. We were keeping an eye on shoreside landmarks to make sure that the anchor was holding well and that we weren't dragging. An older gentleman came over in his motorboat and offered that we tie up to his pier to ride out the storm. The offer was very tempting, but the water at his pier was a bit shallow for our keel to make it, so we had to decline. 

People really are helpful and caring for other people. They will go out of their way to make sure that everyone is able to meet their basic needs. Be it food, or the security of a pier in a storm. They will help give you directions, or even take you the distance, because they care! 

Flies!

I typically think of flies as an insect found at outside gatherings or around garbage cans, but not out at sea! Flies can transform a normal day into a fight against insanity. 

These little buzzing nuisances seem to come out of nowhere and for no reason. We will be sailing along, fly free, miles from any shoreline and then all of a sudden, the flies will appear! Almost out of thin air, flies will begin coming out of every part of the boat! We always first notice them in the cockpit, since that is where we are sitting while we cruise. We may find a few flies buzzing around us in the cockpit and think that the flies are really bad. Then when we anchor and go below deck, the number of flies is mind boggling! 

Having a parrot onboard denies us the ability to use all those wonderful chemicals that instantly handle the fly problem, and leaves us with only more passive methods of fly control: Fly paper. 

We currently have 3 of these ribbons hanging in various parts of the boat where the fly population seems most dense. While the paper becomes riddled with flies in a short matter of time, it doesn't seem to put a dent in the number of flies we have onboard. 

Naturally, our first thought in these situations is that they are coming from something we are carrying. This means that we will instantly do all the dishes, in hopes of removing a possible food source for the flies, and I check the composting toilet to make sure it is not a fly factory. After that, we begin searching through our provisions for any foods that may be spoiled and a spawning ground for flies. 

As always, none of these places turn up to be a source, and the flies seem to linger for a while. Talking with other cruisers, the going theory is that a mass of flies will get blown off the land and out to sea. When the flies hit the sails, they quickly dive down into the boat to hide from the wind and set up shop in the cabin where the wind is never as fierce as it is outside. This is why we only see a few flies in the cockpit, because they would easily get blow away. In the protection of the cabin however, the flies can live for a long time! 

Parrots have very sensitive respiratory systems, meaning that we can't use anything like spray bug killer or citronella candles. Instead, we have to set up fly tape and wait for them to get attached to the trap!  

Flies can really drive you crazy though, always buzzing around, and making you feel like you live in an actual trash can! While most of the flies we seem to house don't bite us, they do annoy the heck out of us! 

When we leave the pets with our parents as we head offshore towards Bermuda, we will certainly take full advantage of all the toxic fly killers we can find. Until then, the closest thing we have to sanity is a full fly ribbon! 

Reedville, VA

We originally anchored in the Great Wicomico River (on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, not to be confused with the Wicomico River on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay) for Hurricane Jose. The holding was superb and we had good protection from the waves, but there was nothing to do there. As soon as Jose passed, we were planning to shoot over to Tangier Island, but Hurricane Maria is close behind Jose.  

There is a good week between when the two storms will hit, but the winds between such monsters can be rather fluky. If the winds die out on us while we are in the middle of the bay, our small electric motor won't be of much help in getting back to this wonderful hurricane hole. So instead, we chose to explore new areas in the same river. 

We raised our seriously buried anchor and headed up a narrow creek towards Reedville, VA. We arrived at 8pm, and only one restaurant was still open, Tommy's. Being how we had just spent over a week away from civilization, anchored out in the quiet parts of St. Mary's River, we really wanted a meal off the boat and around other people. 

It was dark, so we walked down the middle of the main road, though no one was to be seen! The houses had their lights turned off, the stores were all closed, and everything was very desolate. Tommy's was the only place still open at this "late" hour, so that is where we ate. What a treat this place was! Maddie and I both got delicious meals with dessert for $40! 

It turns out that Reedville is a sleepy little town. The restaurants are only open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And they are all closed by 9pm!  

We plan to be anchored here for a few days as we explore the town and visit the local museums, but it will take some getting used to as we are accustomed to tree lined creeks where you won't see another soul or port towns that never seem to sleep. This seems like a very sleepy little town that will strike a nice balance in the middle for us as we explore around while waiting for the next hurricane to pass by.