Two Hearted Trail Marathon

For years I've been doing a bit of running.  I'm not really very serious but I like to run in order to try to stay more or less in shape.  In particular, when the weather is nice, I like to trail run.  We have some really nice trails in the Pinckney Recreation Area near Dexter.

For the last couple of years I've been kicking about the idea of running a marathon.  Now, please understand that I don't intend making a habit of this.  For one thing, racing long distances requires that you train long distances which means spending a lot of spare time away from family and the Australis.  Second, it's rough on your body, particularly your joints and, so I read, even your heart muscles. Despite these few detractions, I've felt for some time that running one marathon in my life would be a fun, healthy achievement and I reason that if I'm ever going to do it, at 48 years old, now would probably be a pretty good time.

I don't much care for crowds.  In 2013, I ran in the Dexter Ann Arbor half marathon.  It was a fun run but the crowd at the beginning of the race, before everyone spread out, was not my thing and besides, I prefer trail running over road running.  So, I reasoned that if I was going to run a marathon, I should run a trail marathon.

But where?  Searching about online I came across the Two Hearted Trail Marathon which is billed as follows:

Located in the remote, wild northeastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the Two Hearted River captured the imagination of Ernest Hemingway in his novel "The Big Two Hearted River." In addition to world class trout fishing this region features one of the most remarkable stretches of shoreline in the entire Lake Superior basin. Runners in the 50K and Marathon will experience this rugged coastline first hand via single track on high bluffs and more intimate shoreline forests. In addition, the race course winds inland along the shores of Culhane Lake and the Little Two Hearted River. The course is 80% single track and 20% dirt forest road or two track. This course has the capacity to transform the way you see nature and the world. half marathon is a challenging loop that takes runners through old growth white pine forest and along the much loved ridge on the southern shore of Clark Lake. All races finish at the Upper Tahquamenon Falls, second highest east of the Mississippi. Camp 33 Brew Pub is located 200 meters from the finish.

How could I resist?!  Towards the end of last year (2015), I started training for the race which will be held in and around the Tahquamenon Falls State Park on June 25th.

Running in this race has indirectly been the catalyst for an upcoming cruise to Lake Superior. Lake Superior has been high on my list of places I wanted to cruise with the Australis before I take her out of the Great Lakes and start working south but I had mentally kicked the can for a Lake Superior cruise down the road some years ahead.  But, with my marathon race registration comfortably setting in my inbox, I started thinking about where I would stay during the race weekend and the thought occurred to me, "Wouldn't it be nice if I could get the Australis up there and stay on her while I was running the race?".  A quick consultation with my friend and sailing buddy, David Kunitz, resulted in him kindly agreeing to deliver her up to Whitefish Bay for me earlier in June, and have her there on the 24th ready for the race.  Wow!  How cool is that?

After the race, I'm planning to take a 3 week vacation to cruise over to Isle Royal National Park and then sail along the NE Canadian shore.



So, now not only do I get to run a marathon along some beautiful wilderness trails, I then get to cruise some of the most pristine and remote wilderness in North America.  I've got a lot of preparation between now and then but this is shaping up to be quite and adventure.

I've been putting in some descent miles on the treadmill and on the trail when the weather permits.  I've been running into some hip bursitis trouble but my dear friend Ingrid Crause, who is an experienced athlete and certified trainer, has been giving me some good training advice and I'm confident that one way or another I'll get my wombly arse into shape enough to finish the race sometime before the sun goes down on the day of June 25th.

Lake Erie Late Summer 2015

Lake Erie 2015:

I have three sons, Victor, Elijah and Jonas.  Back last year I spent 6 weeks of the summer working in the North Sea aboard a cable lay vessel the Ndurance.  While this was a wonderful opportunity for me it really cut into the summer and so, it wasn't till the last week of the summer vacation that I got to go for a few day sail to Middle and South Bass islands and Kellys island with my youngest son, Jonas (10 y.o,).  The following is a little video that we put together about that trip.

Let's get started

The Australis' engine is a Perkins 236-4. I'm by far a diesel expert but on three occasions in my limited experience I have come in contact with this same engine. Once in my Dad's Massey Ferguson 585 harvester (1963 vintage I believe), once in the Flinders Chase, the Adams 45 I fitted out, and here, in the Australis. I really like this engine for it's basic simplicity and also that it's pretty much ubiquitous in every nook and cranny of the Commonwealth since it has been used extensively in agriculture equipment and generator sets all around the world. It's cheap, basic and simple.  I imagine the Taiwanese were sourcing them out of Hong Kong when it was a British Overseas Territory back before it went under Chinese rule in 1997.

Why do you, who deals with all kinds of modern whiz-giggery, care that your diesel be as basic as possible? Well, I'm glad you asked...

 Back in 2011, my colleague and 2nd cousin Geoff Cook and I had a great opportunity to support a salvage survey in a small island group down in the South Atlantic; Tristan De Cunha.  Tristan is the most remote inhabited island group in the world.  It's 300 or so residents live a good life rearing a few sheep, potatoes and fishing for crayfish (rock lobster).  In early 2011, a Greek freighter, MS Oliva,  loaded with 60,000 odd tons of soy beans ran fair smack, at 18 knots, into one of the outer islands of the group; Nightingale Island.  The damage to the island and it's birdlife from the subsequent oil spill and smothering caused by the soybeans released into the sea was as significant as it was sad.

In November of 2011 our company, SeaView Systems, Inc., was contracted to join a salvage expedition to go out to Tristan De Cunha from Cape Town (5 day sail) to support a survey of the wreck to establish the extent of the damage and, if possible, propose a means to remove the wreck from the island.

As part of the expedition preparations, the salvage company we were working for purchased a brand new rigid inflatable from which we were to perform the inshore surveys.  The craft made from HDPE by Rhinomarine had a Hamilton Jet and was extremely tough and maneuverable.  Seemingly ideal for the extraordinary location where it was to be deployed.  Among it's checklist of features was a fancy new European diesel engine.

Well, it's a long, bumpy way from Cape Town to Tristan De Cunha.  We traveled aboard an ocean going tug and for 5 or more days, the back deck, including the RIB, was awash.  Once we arrived on location at Nightingale Island the salvage crew went to check out the boat.  They lifted the engine bay lid only to find the engine compartment completely full of seawater.  The manufacturers of the beautiful new RIB had forgotten one small detail; a drain bung!

Once drained out, attempts were made to start the engine.  Geoff and I spent a couple of days stripping and cleaning all the wiring in the hope that it might spring to life but despite a few coughs and farts, it wouldn't run and we had to conclude that the ECU was fried.  Yes, I'm sure the ECU would squeeze another 5% of efficiency out of that engine but maximum efficiency is not the key specification for an engine in that application.  Instead, it's reliability and ease of service that really make the difference.  Had that engine  been a clunky old Perkins, I've no doubt at all that we could have gotten it to run.  Instead, we had to go to the islanders, cap in hand, to ask if they would let us rent one of their outboards.  They graciously agreed and the salvage crew jury rigged engine mounts and the ancient 250hp outboard was controlled by a length of water pipe lashed to it.  A far cry from the nimble Hamilton Jet that we had planned to use as we surveyed within one swell's wavelength from a cliff face on the windward side of the island in the South Atlantic.

So, the Australis engine is old, simple and clunky, just the way I like it.

Given the simplicity, I was a little frustrated this last summer when I went to head out for a daysail with some friends for the first outing in months, only to find that the engine would not turn over.  I tried bypassing the solenoid to no effect.  After some messing about I found that by tapping the starter with a soft mallet I must have jolted the brushes on the commutator enough that the starter spun straight into life and we went off and enjoyed the days outing.

Arriving back alongside I recalled that I had a spare starter onboard and changed out the starters, thinking that the "new" starter would be good for another 20 years or so and that I could look into getting the "old" one refurbished (or exchanged).  I installed the new starter in minutes and it seemed to run fine.

Fast forward another two months and I'm back from working in the North Sea.  The yacht hasn't been run for two months.  I have Jonas onboard and we're planning on heading out for a few day adventure together.  We're all packed and ready to go, I go to start the engine....nothing.  What??!  Can it be that the new starter is bad too?  Certainly not.  I reason that the issue must be a voltage drop over the old starting conductor  and that it must have been a coincidence that the starter kicked in after I had been tapping it with the mallet.

I had a solenoid onboard and stout wire so I installed a small lighting solenoid right at the main starter solenoid to ensure that it received a good, healthy 12V starting command.  I try again and the engine roars into life.  Great, that was it, and off we go.

Heading off to Put-in-bay, all is going well and I'm looking forward to our few days together but as we steam along I'm noticing that the engine temperature is continuing to climb.  The engine typically runs pretty cool and so this is a concern.  Finally, I can go no more and I have to shut down the engine.  As the engine cools a thunder storm comes in and there we are on a lee shore in torrential downpour with no engine.  I anchored and waited things out.  Things were not going so good so I decided that once the weather settled down a bit I'd head back to shore and see what was going on.

Once the engine cooled I topped it up and went to start the engine again..no start.  What!!?  I thought I had fixed that!  It MUST be a dodgy commutator.  I hit the starter (more of a hit by this stage than a tap!) and sure enough, it kicks in.  Oh boy.  My spare was not a spare, it was a bad starter.  That is one of my pet hates.  Something that is posing to be a spare or a tool but is in fact broken.  More dangerous than not having it at all since you believe you have an asset though in fact you just have a red herring fooling you into thinking your covered....but I digress.  In fact, I digress from my digression.

So, finally I get to the point of this post.  Here we are in February and I have a duff starter that needs attention.  Today I opened up the starter to see what was afoot.

Starter set up to open

When I opened up the motor I saw quite a bit of moisture entrapped inside.  I don't rightly know if this was there from when it was on the boat or if it happened where I was storing the starter.  In any case, the commutator was quite grimy as were the brushes.

Commutator and brushes (taken after I had cleaned the commutator)

End cap and bearing with two holding bolts

To start cleaning out the motor I flushed it with electric motor degreaser.  I recommend this product as being something that you should carry onboard.  It's quite a bit stronger than the lighter contact cleaner (which you should also carry) and it will cut through a lot of the fine grime that resides around the commutator.

Cleaning tools:  Acid brushes and 600 and 400 grit wet and dry

Electric Motor Degreaser

To clean the commutator I first scrubbed the commutator clean with an acid brush which I had removed all but the last 1/4" stub of hairs.

Once degreased, I first tried to make a cleaning tool by bending a folded piece of 600 grit wet and dry paper over an acid brush handle with the hairs removed.  This proved to be too fine and just gummed up.  So, I then tried with 400 grit and this seemed to clean the commutators nicely without being too aggressive.  I was tempted to remove the brushes but they looked like they would have been very tricky to reinstall and so, I just pushed them open with a spanner and cleaned them off with degreaser and 400 grit paper.

Once I worked my way all around the commutator it all seemed pretty clean and bright and so I cleaned the bearing and re-assembled the unit.

Finally, the proof of the pudding.  Using an emergency car power pack I tried the motor out and sure enough, it kicked into life every time.

Testing the starter.  Kicks in every time.

Would you go to sea with this starter?  I'm not convinced ... yet, but I think it might prove to be OK. What I'm going to do is install this starter and then buy a "new" reconditioned starter to keep as my spare.  This time, with a greater expectation that my spare may actually be operational.  If I run into trouble again, it's only a 10-15 minute job to change out.  Let's hope that that moment isn't when I've just stalled the engine and I'm drifting downwind onto a $2,000,000 Hatteras.  You can be sure that I'll be testing this plenty before heading out for the first time.

The Australis story so far...

The Australis was hull #10 of 31 built in the Shin Fa boatyard in Taiwan.  She was built in 1984.
At that time, I understand that the Taiwanese boat yards were some of the few in the world that could produce a vessel of this quality at an affordable cost.  The Shin Fa yard apparently had a good reputation for high quality.   More information about the design can be found on the liberty website http://libertyyachts.net/ .  What I have since learned from my own experience and having discussed these Taiwanese built vessels with folks who know about such things is that, though their hulls and joinery were impeccable, their systems such as wiring and plumbing were rough.

Having fitted out the Adams 45 back in the '90's I had some specific features in a yacht that I was looking for:

• Be of solid construction that will stand up to the rigors of sea.  If glass, be heavy and overbuilt.  I loved the steel Flinders Chase for it's strength but the steel was too hard to effectively maintain in the saltwater environment.  There is a sister ship to the Australis, the Nine of cups, which has sailed some 60,000+ miles by David and Marcie from Kemah, TX.  They've successfully sailed their Liberty around the world, twice.  That track record gives me some confidence that this hull design has what it takes to carry me and my loved ones over the ocean in safety.

• Have a skeg mounted rudder (so many stories of woe at sea go something like this "The seas were up but we were holding our own until the rudder post sheered" or something along those lines).
•  Have a cutaway forefoot keel.  I wanted as shallow a draft as was consistent with fair performance.  The cutaway forefoot is a good balance between shallow draft, seakindly tracking and ability to point to windward.

  

  Skeg mounted rudder and cutaway forefoot keel.  Ideal combination for bluewater sailing.

  
  
  
  
• Comfortable accommodation.  With beautiful teak joinery throughout and well thought out accommodation, the Liberty 458 is extraordinarily comfortable to live in.  I lived in her for two years on hard alongside my workshop in Dexter, MI and can attest to that level of comfort.

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• It needed to be affordable:  At 30 years old when I bought her, the Australis has pretty much devalued as much as she is going to so long as I keep her up.  Quality never ages.

The Liberty 458 encompases those characteristics more than any other production boat I know of.

I  bought her in Ensenada on Mexico's Baja Peninsula in April 2012 and changed her name from Menagerie to Australis (latin for "Southern") to reflect the general direction in which I hope to sail her.  The previous owners sailed her back up to San Diego where I had her trucked over to Michigan.  There, alongside our workshop, I kept and lived in her for two years as I tidied up a few issues and waited till I could afford to launch her.

Unloading Australis after delivery from California

"Stitched" view of deck

While I had her on hard I performed a number of repairs and additions, the most significant of which was to sandblast and treat with potable water safe epoxy the four 60 gallon 316ss water tanks which were leaking at the rusted weld seams and to install a 22 gallon holding tank to satisfy Coast Guard regulations for heads used on the Great Lakes (the Great Lakes has a zero discharge policy).

In the spring of 2014 I launched her and kept her at the Toledo Beach Marina on Lake Erie, about 1hr from Dexter where I live during the winter months.  I try to spend as much time living aboard her as my work and family life permit.  This old lady really gives me a great deal of pleasure.

Home Sweet Home

Christmas 2014: Dry Tortugas on a 26ft MacGregor

Back in 2011 I bought a MacGregor 26M.  My idea was that I could use it with my work (www.seaviewsystems.com) to inexpensively perform underwater surveys on the Great Lakes while also have access to a small cruising boat that I could trailer that was suitable for coastal cruising.

Well, the idea was not very commercially successful but a great success with regard to cruising.  The Macgregor is "light duty" but I set it up to solo sail and went on a few short cruises on Lake Erie (Bass Islands, Pelee Island and Kellys Island) as well as hauling her up to Mackinaw City and sailing over to the le Cheneau islands on the south shore of the Michigan Upper Peninsula.

Once I bought the Australis, the writing was on the wall for the little Macgregor but I had one last trip I wanted to do with her.  That was to escape a northern winter for 10 days or so and to take her for a cruise somewhere down south where it was warm.  I had thought to sail her over to the Bahamas but a look at the prevailing weather in December showed that there are typically moderate to strong northerly breezes at that time of year which kick up against the Gulf Stream to create choppy, uncomfortable and in the case of the light Macgregor, possibly dangerous, seas.  So, instead, I chose to haul her all the way down to Key West and sail out to the Dry Tortugas.

This video is a little Vblog of that mini-cruise:

10% Inspiration and 90% Determination

I don't know just when I caught the cruising bug but I'm pretty sure that I wasn't very old.  I grew up on a small farm on Yorke Peninsula in South Australia.  I was very fortunate that I had a skilled dad who, along with a good friend of his, built a simple holiday home on the beautiful limestone coastline.  It's still in our family. It's really only a single room, with particle board partitions and curtains for doors.  We love it and we call it our "shack".

Our family would stay down at the shack for several weeks every summer, sometimes I'd stay a couple of weeks by myself, and my shack neighbor Steven and I would spend our days playing on the water in one of many vessels we cajoled from parents, borrowed from neighbors and later built.

These vessels ranged from wooden and aluminum dinghies, to a very heavy sailing canoe made from sheet galvanized iron to an International Cadet sailing dinghy and once, before our parents made us dismantle it, even a hideously dangerous contraption made from a tractor tyre inner tube with a plank lashed to it and fitted with a 1.5 hp Seagull outboard motor.  When I think back on those days its a wonder we didn't kill ourselves with that outboard.  Fortune smiled and we weren't killed but instead those early experiences built primarily the ability to make our own fun but also a sense of independence and capability that was probably not deserved but grew with us none-the-less.

I think my first cruising voyage might have been the day when, at about 13 y.o., my friend Steven and I rigged a 10ft dinghy with a canopy made from a tarpaulin propped up with broomsticks and oars, and packed spearfishing gear, fishing hand lines, water, food and fuel, and took off maybe 10 miles around Point Soutter for a day of spearfishing, diving for scallops and fishing for "Tommy Ruffs" (a type of herring native to the south coast of Australia).

It was a very modest cruise and as the seabreeze picked up when the days hot sun baked the limestone coast, causing the heated air to rise, drawing in the cooler sea air to replace it, we headed back to the safety and comfort of our simple shack, to eat my Mum's delicious, simple meals of fried fish and salad and to sit outdoors of an evening and listen to the adults tell stories of their days of pioneer diving back in the '50s when they would head down to the pristine, rocky coast around Cape Spencer on Norton and Aerial motorcycles and dive those waters, often for the first time ever.

I certainly didnt know it at the time, but this wonderful, childhood experience was to start a largely unfulfilled itch to live an independent life of exploration aboard a sailing vessel.  Over the years, I've made some pretty major attempts of realising that lifestyle, the greatest being a 6 year project to fit out an Adams 45 steel cutter

on my folks farm near Minlaton, South Australia in the '90's.  I launched that yacht and cruised it a little around Sth. Australia but, having immigrated to the US with my American (then) wife, ultimately had to sell it to a family who did cruise it throughout the western Pacific, South East Asia and Indian Ocean.  That adventurous family worked hard to live out the same dream that I, too, still carry with me.

Ever since those days, to walk the trodden path has never had lasting appeal.  I'd rather live in a room connected to the workshop of the small business that I founded, as I do, and be happy and independent, then follow the mainstream and watch my one life eack away, day by uninspired day, in a conventionally comfortable suburban life.

At 48, my race is not yet run and it is my hope and will that, over the next few years, I'll reach that goal of living an independent life afloat while finding balance with my rich life and family ashore as I fit out and sail my 1984 Liberty 458 cutter rigged sloop; Australis.

This blog is intended to be a documentation of my ongoing effort to experience the richness of life that cannot be bought but comes with the development of skills and the eschewing of the protections and burdens of civilization while striking out on a vessel which I have prepared, and which, if I do my work well, will provide a safe and sturdy home in locations and situations traveled by individuals of a similar temperament and desire for independance.

My experience along this trail has, to date, been one of constant learning. It's my hope that some of what I experience along the way might be of help to others and should anybody ever read this, maybe you can offer me some advice to help me along my journey.