March 13, 2024
I’m late with this update, couldn’t get to write it down. And not because something bad happened in Cartagena. On the contrary, overall, things went well. I was finally able to sail BEHEMOTH, and what a wonderful sailboat she is. It happened on Tuesday, February 27th. Three crew came along: Hector, BEHEMOTH’s handler, and Luis and Camilo the engineers who have been working on the blue monster. From Marina Club de Pesca we motored past the statue of the virgin Mary that marks a shallow in the middle of the bay and set sails against a light breeze from the Southwest. BEHEMOTH is less tender than ANTARES, heavier and more stable but not slower because of a larger sail area, tracks her course well, and is easy to balance.
We didn’t have much wind, 7-15 Kts, but still reefed the main to check the reefing lines. We also hoisted the self-tacking staysail which has one reef that converts her into a storm jib. The pulpits by the mast are nice additions to have when hoisting, dowsing, and reefing sails. We didn’t get to set the wind vane, but tested the Simrad autopilot that, at least under those benign conditions, was always on the mark.
Things are not perfect yet. The blue monster, which is essentially a new engine, runs smoothly and, without the drag of the wind vane rudder (see last post), it was able to power BEHEMOTH at 6-7 Kts at only 2,000 Rpm. But when changing gears – from forward to reverse –, there is some vibration and the boat struggles to get underway in the new direction. Luis went down below and concluded the problem wasn’t the transmission. There are three possibilities: a misalignment of the propeller shaft (unlikely); a worn cutlass bearing (very likely); and/or a problem with the propeller (also likely). The propeller is one of those that folds when sailing and unfolds when the shaft turns. If one of the blades is not opening properly it could explain the vibration and why BEHEMOTH is like a sitting duck when in reverse.
The red monster is also not operational. Before bringing it back on board, it was tested at the boatyard. It run smoothly and delivered 220 volts as it should. But once in the boat it stopped charging after a few minutes. The electrician came a few days later to remove again a few parts from the generator — by then I had left –, and hasn’t gone back yet. They are telling that it will happen this coming week.
Once the red monster is ready, Hector is going to move BEHEMOTH to the boatyard where she will be hauled out so that they can change the cutlass bearing and check the propeller. The other pending jobs are just cosmetic. They include things like varnishing, painting the blue stripe on the topsides, changing the covers of the mattresses in the AFT and stern cabins, installing a new bimini, and resealing the hatches on deck.
I’m going back to Cartagena in June, this time with Natalia, Marina and Sofia. The plan is to cruise around Islas del Rosario. Then the crew will change; the ladies leave and Juan David joins me for the passage to Panama.
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I came back from Cartagena on Saturday March 2nd after a short stop in Paris to visit Sofia. It took a few of days to get rid of the jetlag and fallback into a routine. I was walking up early, feeling tired during the day, and struggling with my workouts. This last weekend Natalia, Woland and I went to Hua Hin– mainly for Woland because the dog park is closed and there is no place for him to play and exercise. We saw a few friends and had a great time at the beach walking, reading, wining, and dining. I was loose with my diet, but no damage was done. Back in Bangkok I had a new battery of tests. The level of my low-density lipoprotein, alias bad cholesterol, is down.
For some unknown reason – remember there is no free will –, before departing Cartagena I bought an uncensored Kindle edition of the Picture of Dorian Gray for USD 0.88. I read it on my way here and it was delightful. The interesting character is not Dorian, but Lord Henry Wotton his friend and mentor. He is the Oscar Wild of the novel. Many quotes worth sharing including this one:
“The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are. A great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating. The mere fact of having published a book of second-rate sonnets makes a man quite irresistible. He lives the poetry that he cannot write. They others write the poetry that they dare not realize. “
The novel was a nice break from the rather technical and sometimes dry How Life Works. The main insight from the book is that genes play a much less important role in determining who we become than is generally assumed. And I’m not talking about the role of nurture, but the random fluctuations that occur at the cellular level as the zygote becomes a fetus that eventually grows into a baby homo sapiens. Much of what happens as cells divide and reproduce is not codified in the genes, but results from local chemical and mechanical interactions. If the zygote I came from was to develop again in the same womb and in the same environment, I would most likely look quite different; I might still resemble my mother but would be a different person. To be healthy, smart and beautiful you not only need to have good genes and caring parents, but also a lot of luck.
Sailing to the Pacific 