november, 2002

hi all --

my sailing adventures are about to begin again as i head
for cuba (maybe) and the bahamas (definitely).

i got back from portugal in august and learned first hand
what happens to a boat that is left untended in florida
for 4 months.  as you all may know, florida is hot and sticky
in the summer and sports an environment very condusive to
bugs.  as i went on the boat there was the expected bit
of mildew and stuffyness. i checked the bilge and there
was a black carpet like thing extending into the bilge.
looked like hundreds of millimeter long dead bugs going
down into the bilge or coming back out.  then i looked
on counters and other spots and sure enough, more little
black bugs, all dead.  then i checked the food supplies
and yuck.  all packages -- card board boxes, plastic bags,
paper bags were full of little black bugs.

turns out they were weevils and can even eat thru tupperware
if you get the industrial strength type.  i had the medium
strength type -- can eat thru heavy plastic bags, but not
rigid plastic.  threw out all the food they liked, pasta,
rice, cereals, nuts, ...  we had bought a few packages that
were the healthy brands, all organic and packaged in fancy
paper boxes.  a disaster, totally full of bugs even with
the packages unopened.

they must have been in the bulk grains we bought (as eggs)
and then eaten their way out of the plastic bags they arrived
in and into all the other food.  probably tried to drink the
bilge water (YUCK) and having done so then died on the way
back out of the bilge, the boat is in salt water, so the bilge
would not have been very thirst quenching.

a few calls to the agriculture extension folks identified
them, and suggested using spray bug bombs. so i got the strongest
kind (a three pack) and calculated the volume of the boat and
set one off, holding my breath as i ran out and closed up the
boat.  next morning i went back into the boat and sure enough
there were dead bugs, but still some live ones too in the cupboards.
re-read the label on the bug bomb and it said "extra strength,
kills more hidden bugs", not all, not most, but more.  sigh.
set off 2 more bombs and that got most of them.  but i still
find corpses, like inside light fixtures and inside lockers
that have never held food.

have had some work done on the boat, getting it ready for my
next series of trips.  added a high output alternator and solar
panels and a wind generator.  should be in good shape and able
to run the fridge.  also added a wind vane so the boat can 
steer itself with just the wind.  i have an autopilot that
steers, but it also uses lots of electricity.  i had to have
the mast pulled out to free up the sheaves in the top of it
(pulleys that are used to pull the sails up).  they were all
corroded, anodized alumnium next to regular aluminum and no
lubrication.  taking a mast out is hairy.  you put your boat
in the place where they lift it to take it out of the water,
then they put a crane on the shore and reach out with a big
strap.  someone climbs up the mast and attaches the strap from
the crane to the mast. my mast goes all the way to the keel
and goes right thru my table.  they lifted it up pretty straight,
didnt even ding the table, at least not where you could see.
once it was out of the boat, it was quite unwieldy, a 60 ft
heavy pole swinging around as they tried to turn it and lay
it down on sawhorses.  laid down without incident, then spent
2 days working on it, freeing pulleys, cleaning and lubricating
parts, putting teflon goop between all the alumninum and the
stainless steel screws and fittings.  then we put it back in
the boat, this time grabbing it at a better balance point.
noticed after 2 days working in the hot sun that i must be
getting old, its hard work.  there are also an awful lot of
wires and stuff attached to a mast that have to go back and
hopefully to the same place.  i was a bit lax in making 
drawings on what rope went where.  should have used a digital
camera to record things.  next time.

hugs to all.  need crew after january 15 to sail the bahamas,
caribbean chain or cuba.

-evi