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Armed and Ready

I just realized that a few posts ago, I mentioned a box I'd been long waiting for with stuff specifically for Shan Skailyn's maiden voyage. It came. I'm stoked.

Some of the things that were in that flat rate box (that took 3 months to get here) were items for fishing along the way. I'm on a rather limited budget and as I look around at the costs for trolling rigs, I have to pick my jaw up off the floor. They're expensive. But then I came across the idea of handlining. This particular handline was bought from WaayCool Handlines and is a fraction of the cost of any other trolling rig. Can't wait to see what it fetches us on the maiden voyage... which is now just over 6 weeks away.

Extra Stowage and Floatage

Most of my efforts on Shan Skailyn lately is geared toward preparing it for the maiden voyage coming up in just over 6 weeks. One of the things I've been concerned with for some time is trying to get a little more flotation in the middle section of the boat in case of capsize. My solution is simple and perfectly fits the needs of the voyage without permanent modifications that don't necessarily fit needs for the type of sailing we'll be doing once the boat is in Madang. It's just this longer voyage and my lack of experience that wants extra floatation for safety. So look here at my solution. I had some foam padding that I cut and glued together. It fits very snugly under the middle and aft seat of the middle section. Under the aft seat, goes a 5 gallon bucket. It adds extra waterproof stowage and stays put by wedging underneath the foam. That alone would probably stay put. But I added some rubber inner tube lashings which get lashed through the access holes in the bulkhead. Then under the middle seat, I'll be stowing my large waterproof 'sealine' bag (that I found for a measly five bucks!). Oh, and another little, almost insignificant thing I did recently was cut my bailing buckets out of some empty liquid laundry detergent bottles. Yippeee. I'm sure lots of other folks are as excited about that boring little detail as I am.

I've been looking over the google earth maps that I stored in my cache for offline viewing. I've found it worthwhile (though it's real worth will show during the trip) to go through and plan out some different places that look promising for stopping for the afternoon/night. One thing that is increasingly worrisome to me is the reality of the prevalence of opportunistic theft that is so prevalent in this country. There are many little things that I fear will get snagged during our nights staying in different villages. You might not guess it, but the most popular by far, and the most likely to disappear at a moment's notice, will be the inner tube lashings which I've made liberal use of throughout the craft. There are several solutions I can think of to curb the problem. We might end up settling on a combination of all of them when it comes down to it. I think the winner though is going to be either to sleep out next to the boat... but then there's still the problem of leaving the boat unattended any other time during the afternoon when hanging out with folks. Or we could offer some eager young soul a good wage if he can protect the boat from theft till morning. Then of course we'd take whatever we can with us if and when we leave the boat so as to not leave any obvious fodder. The rubber lashings are easy enough to replace. We'll just bring extra in anticipation of the need. However, there are a number of things that could get taken that would really put us up a creek. The access hatch lids, for one could really put a damper on things. Rope would be another popular item which would walk. Anyway, long story short... theft is going to be a problem and we will have to do what we can to minimize it.

Tying Up Loose Ends

Our family took this week off for some much needed rest. Of course, rest for me means being able to work on Shan Skailyn and playing with the kids and hanging with my woman. I actually didn't accomplish much work on the boat that is readily visible. I spent most of the time I had literally tying up loose ends. After working with the rigging over and over again to gain confidence in the different things I'd need to be able to do, I was able to better determine where to cut some of that all too precious rope with confidence that I wasn't making some stupid mistake that I'd regret. All ropes cut to length, whipped, ends fused, etc. Made up the proper lengths of braided inner tube lashings for the polas, and more of that kind of stuff.

I was sure to practice reefing and un-reefing the sail at least once each day. I'm really happy with how smooth the whole thing works. Now we'll have to see how it works out at sea, likely with at least some wind to fight against. One thing I realized is that it would be really easy to ignore the fact that the boom can give me a pounding not soon to be forgotten while reefing!

Finally I was able to rig up the harness by which the helicopter can safely sling Shan Skailyn down to the coast in not quite eight weeks time now. It's good to work out little details like that ahead of time. I'm regretting not having taken a picture of the thing all harnessed up. What was I thinking?

I've been working with Sesi too, teaching him some of the more important things about the boat and what he'd need to do in an emergency, like if Kyle and I both got knocked off the boat. For example, he needs to know how to depower the sail. Obviously there's so much more, but I don't want to bore you with too much detail, which I may have done already.

I've been very anxiously awaiting a package that I had mailed to me back in early October with all the last little tidbits that are needed to finish the boat as well as some essentials for the trip. This package has taken an unusually long time to arrive and my last chance to get it is coming up in just two days. I'll find out on Monday when the helicopter does our next supply run if the package is here. Gonna have to improvise on some things if it hasn't.

Shan Skailyn has been assembled in our yard all week and it's quite a hit for our friends passing by. During my week off it was fun to hang out around the boat and explain how it works. Most have never seen a sailboat before. "Where's the motor?" they keep asking. They can't believe that the wind alone is supposed to make Shan Skailyn move. It's a crazy thing this whiteskin is doing up here on the mountain!