SS Pacifica

by Coleinger, Ronnie

  When we walked into the marina, one of the ladies that knew us stepped up and said, “You are right on schedule. The guys are just hooking up the lifting cart if you want to go out and watch.” As we walked out into the work area, I heard a gasp come from Dawn. She said, “Oh my. This place is huge.” When we walked up to where the foreman stood, he smiled and said, “As you can see, we are ready to move your vessel over into the main channel. First, we need to load your fuel containers. Then, once the Pacifica-Two is out over the concrete floor, we will walk under her and make certain everything is undamaged and ready to sail. Once the vessel is sitting in the water, you may connect your batteries and power up the electrical systems while we hand line the vessel out of the canal. From that point on, you are ready to sail.” Becky said, “Stanley, while you work with the vessel, I will go back to the office and pay our bill. I will join you for the inspection.”

  As I worked to get the fuel containers in their proper storage units and fastened down, Henry and Dawn looked around in the cabin. When I began explaining the systems to them, Dawn said, “And you and Becky built this vessel?” I smiled and said, “Becky designed the original version and I installed the electrical systems. On this second build, we worked together to implement what we had learned into this upgraded model. We had the hull built in Oahu, Hawaii and we sailed her to San Francisco. There, we installed most of the electrical and mechanical systems. We had a marine carpenter do the word work. You must remember that this vessel is Becky’s lifelong dream; I only came along later to design and install the electrical systems. Now, I have fallen in love with the sea and with Becky.”

  Once we carried the fuel containers down into the cabin, we climbed down to the floor of the work area and the guys prepared to hoist the Pacifica-Two up out of the water. We stood to the side, out of the way. Once they swung the vessel out over the floor where we could inspect her, the foreman said, “I can only allow the captain of the vessel and myself under the Pacifica-Two while she is suspended, safety issues being as they are.” While the foreman and I checked every inch of the vessel, Becky began saying goodbye to Dawn and Henry. When I had signed the paperwork stating that the hull of the vessel was undamaged, I walked over and said my Goodbyes to my family. As I hugged Dawn, she started to cry, but quickly stepped back and said, “I promised myself not to cry.” I hugged her again and said, “When this child is born and ready to travel, call and we will work out a trip to San Francisco for you.” I shook Henry’s hand and said, “You are welcome to join your wife and Son in San Francisco. It would be wonderful to show you around San Francisco and take you out on a day trip in the Pacifica-Two to enjoy the Pacific Ocean.”

  As the men sat the Pacifica-Two down into the water, they threw the hand lines to Becky and I and we secured them to the safety rings. As the hoist moved out of the way, the line walkers began pulling us through the canal. I quickly connected the power and got everything working. As we passed the dock where Henry and Dawn were now waiting, we waved goodbye to them one last time and watched them head towards the warmth of their Jeep. As they drove out of the parking lot, we saw a hand wave out the open window. As I waved back, I realized I was freezing. We moved the vessel out of the channel and dropped anchor. We needed to put on our warm clothing and dry suits before we went any further.

  Once dressed, we moved the sails and tackle up on deck, and then prepared the vessel for the sea. When we were ready, I began motoring out of the harbor. We wanted to be out of sound before dark if possible.

  Chapter 36 – Port of Call - Barbados

  As we sailed out of the Long Island Sound, Becky guided me with her handheld GPS. An hour later, we began to make the southerly turn around the south side of Block Island. Once we were sailing due south, we began carrying up the sails and tackle. Twenty minutes later, we were under full sail and headed towards our next destination.

  We planned to sail, nonstop, from New York to Barbados. We planned to purchase groceries and supplies once we arrived, and probably spend a night or two in a nice hotel. We worked out the mileage calculations while at Dawn’s house and found that the trip would take us at least twenty-one days, if we had good weather.

  We took one-hour shifts standing watch on the deck during daylight and then I took the first six-hour shift after sunset. We wanted to get to warmer water as soon as we could; this cold weather was killing us. Becky relieved me around three o’clock in the morning. By then I was getting tired. Becky asked if was cold. I chuckled and said, “If anything, I have been too warm all night. I will remove one layer before I relieve you later this morning.” Becky snapped the lanyard to her safety belt and hung the steering remote around her neck.

  When I got down into the cabin, I ate some toast with peanut butter and drank a cup of coffee. When I crawled into bed, I set the alarm for quarter to nine in the morning.

  When the alarm went off, I quickly got myself dressed. I fixed a pot of coffee, poured myself one and headed up to relieve Becky. When I opened the hatch door, a spray of water hit me in the face. I hooked my safety line and went up to check on Becky. She was standing at the bow mast, staring out ahead of the Pacifica-Two. The white caps on the water were breaking on the bow and splashing water over the deck. When I stepped up beside her, she looked at me and said, “Hello, Husband.” I chuckled as I looked through the glass of her dive mask. She had her dry suit hood pulled up and her diving mask covering the rest of her face. Her foul weather outfit covered here from head to toe. I asked if she was cold and she said, “No, I am quite warm.” She handed me her GPS and said, “The course is plotted on the GPS. All you have to do is try to stay on course, which is not so easy in this wind. The wind is suppose to die off in another couple hours. Wake me if things get worse and we will sail together.”

  As Becky headed down into the cabin to get some rest, I checked the GPS and realized all I had to do was sail a straight line towards the south. As long as no vessels got in my path, I had little to do but enjoy the sea. The sun was up and shining bright. Now if the wind would die off, we could sail in comfort. One benefit of the wind was that it was pushing us along at 5.1 knots.

  Around noon, the wind began to die off and the white caps began to settle down. As I looked up at the sails, I realized that one sail on the stern mast had a tear just below the top eyelet. I decided to change it before it ripped so badly that we could not repair it. I lowered the stern sails and removed the torn sailcloth. I opened the hatch and put the sail in the corner. When I took a new sail out of the cabinet, I realized Becky was up. She seemed to know something had changed with her vessel. I told her to go back to bed. She laughed and said, “I cannot sleep anymore. I have rested enough.” I carried the new sail up on deck and hung it. Once the opposing sails were properly set, the vessel surged forward in the wind.

  Around one o’clock in the afternoon, the wind died out and became a gently breeze. The waves remained high and I was certain they would remain high for the remainder of the day. Out here in the deep water of the Atlantic, wind and high waves were a normal daily occurrence.

  Now that the wind was light, the sun began warming the air. I soon was getting hot in my dry suit. I decided to shed the dry suit and some of the warm clothing under it and put on my rain suit instead. I opened the hatch and quickly changed. When I returned to the deck, there were six sea gulls walking around as if they owned the place. I had never seen sea gulls hitch a ride before; they were not bothering anything, just annoying.

  Becky came up on deck around three in the afternoon. She said, “There is food cooked in the cabin if you are hungry.” As we stood on deck and talked, we decided to drop the sails for a couple hours when the waves calmed down a little more. Just as I was about to head down into the cabin, I looked out across the rolling sea and realized we had company. I spoke to Becky and said, “We have a following, Captain.” Becky stood watching the pod of dolphins heading towards us. Within a couple minutes, they were swimming and diving all around us. They swam with us f
or ten minutes or so before turning east. When I stepped up beside Becky, I realized she was laughing. I hugged her and asked why she was so happy. She giggled and said, “The dolphins are so incredible. They speak to my soul.” I kissed her wind-chapped cheek and headed down to the cabin for some coffee and food.

  Around six o’clock, I felt the vessel begin to slow. At least that is what it felt like down here in the cabin. I quickly dressed and climbed up the ladder to see what my wife was doing. When I got up on deck, Becky had lowered and tied the sails to the masts. I realized that the wind had completely died out and the waves were now only gently rolling crests. Becky said, “I stink.” I chuckled and said, “Shall we wash that cute body of yours?” She giggled and said, “I had better wash it myself. You will not want to get anywhere near me until after my bar of soap has worked its magic.”

  I went down into the cabin and returned with our robes, towels and our soap. The current was moving us along at a fast pace, so we put on our safety belts and connected the lanyards to the safety rings in the swim platform. As we slid into the water, we realized it was cold. We quickly washed and got out of the water. Becky said, “I love the Atlantic Ocean, but it certainly is not an ocean to bathe in.” While she was drying with the towel, I realized that she had goose pimples on her skin. Then I laughed and said, “You seem to have two bumps that really like the cold water.” She looked down and said, “You could warm them for me.” I stepped up and warmed them with my lips and the end of my tongue. She giggled as she squirmed away.

  Before we set the sails, we took time to catch two fish. Once we filleted them, we had enough meat to last us to Barbados. Once the fish was packaged and stored in the cool box, we set sail again. We were eighteen days out of New York and should arrive in Barbados in four more days. We planned to drop anchor and bathe one last time before reaching our destination.

  We carried the solar panel up on deck and began charging the batteries. We had been using cabin and running lights at night and we realized me might need the batteries in the near future. The weatherman was calling for thunderstorms by noon tomorrow, and out here at sea, one never knows how intense those storms may become. We hoped for rain, but certainly did not want to have to submerge to weather severe storms.

  We knew we had enough water to make it to Barbados. However, a good rain would allow us to refill our water jugs at sea instead of having to fill them at the marina. Lugging the heavy water filled jugs around in the dinghy was hard work, very hard work.

  Becky said, “I have cell phone service. I am going to take a few minutes and find marinas along the east coast of South America where we can refill our water jugs and purchase food and supplies. We cannot make it all the way from Barbados to the Falkland Islands without stopping. There certainly must be some English speaking marinas and hotels along the way.”

  When Becky came back up on deck, she said, “I found a marina and hotel in Salvador, Brazil and they speak English. We have open reservations at both places. All we have to do is call two days ahead and they will work with us. The marina has a service barge that can refill our water jugs. The man I spoke to explained that they purified their water using steam condensate distillation. He said their water was 99.9% pure and would not sicken us. He said they supply fresh water to yachting clubs from all over the world. I guess if we had to, we could fill our water jugs at that marina. I still prefer rainwater.”

  We had just begun to turn towards the west so we could circle around to the southwest side of the Barbados Island when we saw an amazing sight. We saw a bunch of beautifully colored butterflies flying around over the surface of the water. I had never seen butterflies out on the ocean and neither had Becky. As we passed by, the butterflies would take flight and then land on something. The butterflies were beautiful. They had black wing tips, and then the colors changed to blue in the center and then to pink where their wings connected to their bodies. There were hundreds of them and they seemed to hover over a spot in the water. As we watched, we realized the butterflies were resting on a section of someone’s boat dock. It had probably torn free in the recent hurricane. Soon we were out of sight of the butterflies, but we discussed looking them up on the Internet to see what kind they were.

  Right on schedule, we ran into heavy rain. It rained so hard that within two hours we had filled all of the water jugs. As the wave height increased in the winds, we finally took down the foresails and fastened them to the mast in an attempt to slow our speed a little. There was no sense sitting out in the storm, so I sat in the bow hatch and watched for other vessels. As I looked out through the viewing windows, Becky’s gave me information on how to keep the Pacifica-Two on course. Without the GPS, we had no idea which way was south. The rain came so hard at times that I could barely see out of the viewing windows.

  I realized that Becky was doing something in the bow. I leaned down and saw that she was emptying out two plastic totes that we had stored cans of food in. When they were empty and clean, she placed them under the rainwater collection hatch and began filling them. Each tote would hold about thirty gallons of water. It took thirty minutes to fill the first tote. Becky carefully placed the lid on top of the tote, and then wrapped two wraps of plastic wrap that we used to seal food around the lid and sides of the container. The plastic wrap would keep any dirt or contaminants from getting into the tote. Then she slid the full tote to the side and began filling a second one. As she filled the second tote, I realized she would now have sixty additional gallons of good water stored within just a few minutes.

  The heavy rain had turned into a drizzle. I put on my rain slicker and when up on the deck to stand watch. When I stepped outside, I realized that the rain was very warm and the air smelled wonderful. Then it dawned on me that I was smelling land. I looked to my left and could see the island of Barbados. I opened the hatch and yelled, “Land ahoy, Captain.” Becky scampered up on deck and stood beside me. She wrapped her arm around my waist and said, “I was afraid we would never see land again. I love that smell, it almost makes me cry.” I hugged her and looked at her. The rain had soaked her hair and clothes. She stood beside me with water dripping from her chin onto the deck. Within minutes, the rain stopped and the air became hot and steamy. Becky headed to the cabin, dried off and changed her clothes into shorts and a lightweight top. When she came back on deck, I did the same.

  Once our GPS said we were in the harbor leading towards the marina, we took down the mainsail and used the propulsion motors to move us into our mooring location. Once the harbormaster was satisfied, we dropped the anchors and took down the sails. The sails were very wet, so we laid them on the deck to dry. The sun was very warm and it only took the nylon sails an hour to completely dry out. While the sails dried, we packed our clothing totes and moved the dinghy up on deck. Once we had it inflated and the paddles secured, we lowered the dinghy down into the water.

  Just as I was about to lock the hatch door, Becky said, “The torn sail.” I looked at her and said, “Yea. What about it?” She giggled and said, “We might want to get it repaired. I will call the marina and see if they have the equipment to repair it of make us another one.” As she dialed the number and discussed the problem with the service manager, she hung up and said, “The marina does not repair sails. They send their work to company a mile or so down the road to a place that specializes in creating sails and repairing them. The manager will take our sail to them for repairs or replacement.” I went down into the cabin and retrieved the torn sail. When I climbed back up on deck, Becky was in the dinghy. I passed her the torn sail and our totes, and then stepped into the dinghy from the swim platform. It only took us a couple of minutes to paddle to the docks. Once there, we flipped the dinghy upside down and tied it securely to the side of the dock.

  After we registered at the hotel, we quickly took showers, dressed and headed down to the restaurant for some food. We were determined to assault our bodies with greasy food. I ordered two eggs over easy, bacon, hash brown potatoes and to
ast smothered in butter. Becky ordered her eggs scrambled. As we ate, Becky giggled and said, “They have a walking trail along the edge of the harbor. Shall we take a long walk and listen to the birds singing. I don’t want to be cooped up in the hotel room for a couple more hours.” When our meal was over, we started walking. When we returned to the hotel, the sun was setting.

  When we woke in the morning, we rented a golf cart and drove it to the market, two blocks down the road. The market had an incredible fresh fruit section and a health food area. Most of the food items we purchased came in plastic containers, ideal for use aboard the Pacifica-Two. We had difficulty storing used metal containers after we emptied them, so plastic and paper packaged products were perfect. We could burn those items in our small stove. We filled the golf cart the first time, carried our purchases to the Pacifica-Two in the dinghy and then prepared to make a second food run in the golf cart.

  While we were putting the first load of food into the cabinets of the Pacifica-Two, we checked the sails we had laid out on the deck to see if they were dry. They felt damp, so we ran a rope through the eyes and tied them securely so they would not blow overboard if the wind suddenly came up. We wanted to insure the sails were dry before returning them to the cabin. We would be staying in the hotel for one more day. As I feared, the wind had damaged the sail beyond repair. The sailcloth had frayed badly along the edges and the repair facility simply could not repair it. The company had material in stock and said they would have a new sail ready for us tomorrow. We decided to enjoy the luxurious hotel for one more night.