Well, Here I Am

Days 3&4

Distance Travelled: 139.5 Nautical Miles

Total Trip Distance: 224 Nautical Miles

The repair of the shaft coupling was completed at about 5:30 pm yesterday (Tuesday) and after some preliminary testing at the dock, we shoved off at 6:30  pm to resume our trek to Chicago. Peter the Great took the first shift driving until 10 pm while I fixed us some dinner and took a quick nap. I took over from 10 until about 2:30 when Peter woke up and drove on until around 7 am this morning. Then we took turns back and forth until we arrived at Riverdale Marina in the Calumet River south of Chicago.

Of course, we were scared to death of the new shaft coupling and we kept checking it throughout the night to make sure it was not vibrating or coming apart. We also nursed the boat along at reduced RPM going about 7.3 knots instead of the usual 8 knots. But the engine and shaft performed flawlessly and got us here in good shape at 4 pm this afternoon. This is an incredible boat built for long-range cruising and it is simply a crime the mistakes made in building it and the neglect it has had over the last three years. It turned out that the shaft coupling was bound to fail. First, it was a model not designed for an engine of this size. The attachment to the shaft was made with different sized bolts than the coupling was designed to use, and the engine was badly out of alignment. The mechanic spent about two hours aligning the engine to the shaft, and the coupling we installed is vastly stronger than the original, although still not adequate to allow operation of this engine at wide open throttle. The boat is far better off now than when we started, and should be fine for normal operation on the trip south.

A trip in open water all night is an exhausting but fabulous experience. We had good weather and calm seas, but there is always the constant vigilance of following ships and other boats on the radar while peering into the night to look for their lights and the lights of buoys to make sure you are safe. The long quiet hours give time to fiddle with the electronics and learn to set everything up to give you the information you need. There is a constant battle to have enough illumination to read instruments and charts while not creating reflections in the windshield that blind you to other traffic. We hugged the western shore of lake Michigan for safety and shelter from westerly winds and saw the lights of Milwaukee and Racine and numerous smaller towns. After sunrise, we saw the skyline of Chicago through the haze and at 11:30 this morning we entered Calumet Harbor and started into the river/canal system that will lead to the Illinois River and on to the Mississippi.

The first several miles of the canal system is an industrial area crowded with barges and depots for loading and unloading coal, fuel, scrap metal, etc. We must have passed through 20 bridges, many of which had to be opened to allow us through. We went through one lock, stopped briefly at a marina to lower our fold-down mast, and proceeded through many more low fixed bridges that we could not go under with the mast up. Finally, we arrived at Riverdale and, after three tries in slips where we ran aground, we parked at the end of a long dock which has no electrical power. I’ll just have to use the generator off an on until we leave Friday morning.

Peter the Great took off about an hour ago to get back to the Sturgeon Bay area where he lives. He took a cab to Midway airport where he is renting a car to turn in at Green Bay. My choice of a captain, recommended to me by the broker who sold me the boat and one of the boat yard workers in Sturgeon Bay, turned out to be a perfect choice. Peter was easy-going and knowledgeable and, when the shaft coupling catastrophe occurred, I could not have had anyone better to diagnose the problem and figure out how to get it solved. I owe Peter a lot and I feel like I made a new friend in the process. Here’s to you, Peter the Great.

So, tonight, I get to take my first shower in three days and head over to the bar restaurant here for dinner. Tomorrow night, D*ckh**d (deckhand) Jaames arrives to help me through the next leg to St. Louis. He’ll be bringing some extra Scotch from Laura Lee for his own use since Peter the great got into his supply, and no doubt some extra culinary delights.

Onward, to the Southland for Steel Magnolia. 

The new Shaft Coupling is here

The mechanic arrived here about 1:00 pm and is working now on installing the new shaft coupling. We should know in a couple of hours whether this will do the trick. If so, the winds are light from the west and we can head out this afternoon for Chicago.

Shaft couplings

No, I’m not referring to some pornographic movie.

The shaft coupling is a device used on the boat to connect the propeller shaft to the transmission at the back of the engine. Ours failed yesterday and sheared off the bolts holding everything together. Peter Jacobs, the captain who is accompanying me, is now officially to be referred to as Peter the Great. He has managed to remove the damaged shaft coupling, find the model number, determine that it was the wrong size/strength for this engine and gear arrangement, have the mechanics order us a new and stronger model for delivery tomorrow, and arrange for them to come down tomorrow to install it.

It is not a permanent fix, because something even stronger is needed if the boat is ever run with the throttle wide open, but this is the quickest way to get us moving again and should hold up in normal operation to get the boat to Mobile.

So now, best case, we fix the boat tomorrow, travel overnight to Chicago and arrive there Wednesday morning. At that point, Peter the Great could go back home and Deckhand Jaames can join me for the next leg.

Onward!

When you travel by boat, sh*t happens

Day 1                                                                                                                                                           Distance Travelled: 84.5 nautical miles (73 miles under our own power and 11.5 miles under tow courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard).

We departed Sturgeon Bay at 6:40 a.m. The weather was fine and the boat performed well. Seas were 1 to 3 feet in the morning and built to about 2 to 4 feet in the afternoon, from the south, southwest. The boat was performing magnificently and the ride was very comfortable. I am accompanied by Peter Jacobs, a licensed captain and electrical engineer, a native of the area.

The day was uneventful until 3:45 pm. I had the watch and Peter was trying to nap. We had travelled about 73 miles and were at latitude 43 degrees 42 minutes north, 87 degrees 27 minutes west when suddenly there was a loud clank sound and we lost all propulsion. The engine was still running but we were not moving forward. I pulled back the throttle and put the gears in neutral while Peter rushed down to the engine room to check things out.

The engine is coupled to the shaft by a flexible coupling. All of the bolts holding the engine to the shaft simply sheared off, so that the engine turns without turning the shaft and prop. Peter got on the radio and called the Coast Guard station in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Since there is no commercial towing service here, they were kind enough to dispatch a boat out to tow us approximately 11 miles into the harbour. It took the Coast Guard approximately 45 minutes to reach us and almost two hours at 6 knots to get us into the harbour, where we arrived and finished tying up at almost 7 p.m.

We had a good dinner at a local waterfront place and we have a couple of recommendations as to good mechanics to try in the morning. I’ll report back when we know where we’ll go from here. We’re hoping it’s as simple as replacing the bolts and aligning the engine better with the shaft so that this doesn’t;t happen again.

Are we having fun yet?

We're On

Looks like we have a slight break in the weather so we plan to head out at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow (Sunday) and hope to enter the canal in Chicago Monday morning. I feel better starting this trip in daylight and knowing we’ll arrive in Chicago in daylight Monday morning. With everything else that doesn’t work right on this boat, I just want to start out when we can see what’s happening.

 And Auburn won, beating Florida 27-17.

I’ll report in the next time I have internet access…probably Monday night from somewhere in south Chicago.

Wish us luck. 

All is right with the world...except the weather

As in all boatyards, everything comes together on a Friday afternoon…or it doesn’t until the next Friday afternoon. The generator is fixed, all the spare parts are on board, the toilets work, and the little ship Steel Magnolia is ready for her voyage to the Southland. Everything got done right at 3:00 p.m. when the workers go home. I went by the office and paid the bill by American Express, giving me enough frequant flyer miles to go back to Burgundy. I got a free sweatshirt and a warm cap from Sheila, the owner, and said my goodbyes to everyone here in case I get to leave this weekend…which is looking doubtful but possible.

It’s snowing outside and blowing hard. Seas in Lake Michigan are up around 14 feet. However, there is a chance that we can leave Saturday late afternoon and hug the western shore of the lake to work our way south. Since the winds are from the west, we will be in the lee (does this sound familiar to anyone?). Anyway, we’ll wait and see tomorrow.

My only remaining tasks tomorrow are to purchase groceries and a bell for the boat (Coast Guard regulations). Right now, I am fortifying myself further against the cold winds with a little glass of Wild Turkey. I am typing this entry only because there are no local TV stations here that can be picked up with the boat antenna. Deprived of news and entertainment, I move back and forth between blogging and checking the weather. I’ll report back tomorrow if I’m still here, or later if we actually get underway. 

Where was I?

Oh yes, when I reported last night I was well-fortified with Wild Turkey and full of complaints. I turned on the generator to have plenty of heat overnight and hit the sack. Ten minutes later, the generator quit. I went into the engine room to check it out and found that the engine room lights were not working. I said “to hell with it” and went back to bed.

This morning, I marched over to the office to meet with Scotty the Terrible, the Scotsman who runs the place. I gave him a list of the items that had not been completed, reminded him that I hope to leave this weekend, and also broke the news to him about the generator and engine room lights. I was quite polite but he got on the radio and summoned all the workers to the office to tell them to drop everything and get me fixed up. The generator had a bad temperature sensor causing it to shut down. It’s presently disconnected and the generator is running fine without it. A new sensor will be here tomorrow. The engine room lights were hooked to a breaker labeled “lazerette lights” while the lazerette lights were hooked to a breaker labeled “spare”. We solved that problem by switching the labels. The mast was put back up from it’s folded-down position, the dinghy was put in the water, run a bit, and hoisted back on the boat. The spare parts were put on board and a few others will arrive tomorrow. I did a temporary fix on the toilets by plugging an air vent in the line that was not allowing enough water pressure to properly flush the toilets. All is right with the world.

I went out for lunch and found a Target store for pillows, a blanket and some towels. With hot water and towels, I can now take a shower. On the way back, I found a gourmet market and picked up a few frozen dishes to have on board for the trip. I had some hot chile and grilled cheese sandwich for lunch which warmed me up nicely.

I’m back on the boat now. It’s snowing outside and winds are about 20 mph gusting to 30. But I have the generator humming away and all the heaters working so I’m snug as I can be. The workers are all off the boat and I only need them to finish a couple of things tomorrow and I’ll be ready to go. Deckhand Jaames was so concerned with my posting last night that he called today to cheer me up. I assured him I am now in good spirits and all is looking up…except the weather. After all the boatyard rush, I may not be able to leave this weekend at all. The Lake Michigan forecast looks like this:

.THIS AFTERNOON...WEST GALES TO 40 KNOTS. PERIODS OF SNOW. WAVES
14 TO 18 FEET.
.TONIGHT...WEST GALES TO 40 KNOTS. CHANCE OF RAIN SHOWERS OR
SNOW SHOWERS. WAVES 14 TO 18 FEET. 
.FRIDAY...WEST GALES TO 40 KNOTS. CHANCE OF RAIN SHOWERS. WAVES
14 TO 18 FEET. A GALE WARNING MAY BE NEEDED. 
.FRIDAY NIGHT...WEST GALES TO 35 KNOTS EASING TO 30 KNOTS AFTER
MIDNIGHT. CHANCE OF RAIN SHOWERS. WAVES 12 TO 16 FEET. 
.SATURDAY...WEST WINDS 30 KNOTS. WAVES 10 TO 14 FEET. 
.SATURDAY NIGHT...WEST WINDS 15 TO 25 KNOTS. WAVES 6 TO 9 FEET. 
.SUNDAY...SOUTH WINDS 10 TO 20 KNOTS. WAVES 4 TO 6 FEET. 
.MONDAY...SOUTHEAST WINDS 15 TO 25 KNOTS. CHANCE OF RAIN. WAVES
5 TO 7 FEET. 

We'll see how it goes. Meanwhile, I'm preparing for a nap. 

What in the world have I gotten myself into?

I arrrived in Sturgeon Bay Tuesday afternoon to do some provisioning and prepare the magnificent Steel Magnolia for her trip south to her rightful home. My first night aboard the new ship was nothing if not eventful.

My first discovery was that the shore power system on the boat is woefully inadequate. To make a complex story simple, there is not enough shore power to run even the simplest of onboard systems. The result is that if you turn on more than one of the air conditioner/heater systems, the breakers trip. You can’t have heat and also charge the batteries. If you want hot water, you have to turn off the heat and the battery charger. If you want coffee, you can’t have heat, etc. etc. Finally, to get a good night’s sleep, I just ran the onboard generator which allows everything to work.

I thought the hot water system was not working at all so I couldn’t shower last night or this morning. I figured this because I kept running the kitchen sink with the lever all the way to the left. Finally, I discovered today that there was hot water everywhere else and I just thought the kitchen plumbing had two cold water lines to it. Later, I found that the kitchen is hooked up backwards so hot is to the right and cold is to the left. 

Then there are the toilets which don’t flush correctly because they are the wrong type of toilets to be mounted below the water line. The only toilet useful for serious business is the powder room off the galley.

And then there’s the issue of space. I admit that I’m spoiled rotten from used to my 72’ boat with a 21.5 foot beam, but there is nowhere to put anything on this boat. The only way to access the closet and drawers in the master stateroom is to crawl across the bed. All of the kitchen cabinets are full and I still have five unopened boxes of “stuff” to put somewhere.

On top of all this, I have a cold and the weather up here is unreal. It’s been snowing lightly this evening and there are gale-force winds. It doesn’t look like we can leave until at least Saturday afternoon and then Sunday another front is coming in. I feel like crying.

So finally this afternoon, I decided to take charge of the situation and went to a local liquor store. They had no French Burgundy so I settled for a bottle of Wild Turkey bourbon (101 proof). I brought that back to the boat with it’s one heater working and fortified myself for the remainder of this experience. Suitably relaxed, I then headed out in search of a warm pub where I dined on a grilled chicken sandwich and a glass of chardonnay. Now that things are under control, I’m feeling much better.

The boatyard has done some of the work I requested. I’ll spend the next two days trying to beat them into submission and buying provisions. I hope to get away Saturday, weather permitting. I was looking for a project when I bought this boat, so I guess I got what I was looking for. Right this minute, I’d rather be dog sledding, but I’m sure things will get better. I’ll keep you posted. 

Learning about the Great Lakes

I leave tomorrow to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin to do a little provisioning and then move the boat down lake Michigan to Chicago. I’ve already learned a few things about winter in this part of the world. All of the Chicago area marinas close on October 15 and all boats have to be gone. This means we will have to start into the canal system and proceed about seven miles down to have a good stopping place. Out of curiosity, I checked the marine weather for Lake Michigan Wednesday and received the following forecast:

WEDNESDAY NIGHT…WEST GALES TO 45 KNOTS DIMINISHING TO 35 KNOTS
OVERNIGHT. SCATTERED RAIN OR SNOW SHOWERS DEVELOPING. WAVES BUILDING
TO 10 TO 14 FEET

It should start subsiding Friday but it looks as if our departure from Sturgeon Bay will be Saturday at the earliest. Since there are so few stopping places, we will probably run about 25 hours straight to the canal entrance and then the remaining seven miles to a marina. This is going to be quite interesting. Stay tuned.

Final Day in Burgundy

I think I can, I know I can, Godammit I did! We have completed the bicycle portion of the trip. I have travelled some 105 miles by bicycle over five days and the lovely Laura Lee, having taken two optional rides, has travelled about 155 miles.

Today, we left our hotel and travelled about two hours by bus to Avallon, a lovely medieval town. There, we got back on the bikes for a 28.5 km final day of riding. We went downhill into the Vallee du Cousin where we followed the Cousin River through a forest, then up and down through small villages, all a part of the Parc National du Morvan. After a final killer hill we arrived at Vezelay, a walled village built in the 13th century. After a great lunch in a little bistro there and a tour of the Basilica, it was an all downhill run of 1.9 km to our hotel L’Esperance, another country inn and restaurant with a three-star Michelin rating, a little like the hotel where we spent our first three nights in France. Just in case we haven’t had enough calories, we will enjoy a three-star dinner with wine here tonight and head back into Paris by bus tomorrow morning.

I have to say that this has been the most magnificent trip I have ever taken. I have always wanted to see Burgundy and learn of the most famous wines in the world, and there is no better way to see it all than by bicycle. As we have gone through each little village, we have experienced the sights and sounds and smells of wine making and cooking in a way that would never be possible passing through in a car.

Butterfield and Robinson has done a magnificent job. The hotels and food are incredible. The bikes are tuned and ready each morning, water bottles are filled, and our guides Lisa and Sarah have always been nearby, one in the van and one on a bike. They have been helpful, cheerful and good-humored throughout (and, of course, cute and fun).

I have a new appreciation of the history of this area, the people, the food, and the wine. While all of the wine is outstanding, the Grand Cru is overpriced in relation to its quality, only because of the laws of supply and demand. There is only one small vineyard designated Romanee Conti Grand Cru, so there is no way to increase the supply. Demand continues to grow and prices spiral in response. Nevertheless, if I can buy a few bottles during my lifetime, I’ll do so. You only live once.

We’ve enjoyed the company of an interesting, fun and adventurous crowd this week, not the type of people you’d usually meet on a cruise or a tour bus. Here’s to our new friends:

Owen Billes, St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada

 

Bob and Esther Hougham, St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada 

 

Mark and Jeanne Juneau, New Orleans, Louisiana

Patrick and Kelli Brandner, Las Vegas, Nevada

 

Kirk Resler, Shelter Island Heights, New York

 

Marne and Peggy Obernauer, New York, New York

Andy and Dede Kohn, St. Louis, Missouri
 

Brian and Susannah Bristol, New York, New York

You can see all the trip photos here.

I’ll report back in sometime. Next week the Ship’s Log returns to logging the ship “Steel Magnolia” as she moves south from Lake Michigan to her new home. Stay tuned.

Day Four Biking through Burgundy

For the first several days of our trip, I was worried a little about the lovely Laura Lee. She could not get a decent night’s sleep, had some stomach disorders, and just generally seemed out of sorts. Monday night, she only slept about three hours and she got up Tuesday and took an alternate route adding about seven miles to the trip. Then, last night at dinner (Tuesday night), she had a little wine and agreed to join a group attempting a “century trip” today, a ride of just over 100 kilometers or 62 miles. I thought she had lost her mind but she slept pretty well Tuesday night and she actually completed the 100K trip today.

I, on the other hand, have been perfectly happy to do the regular route so my distance today was about 25 miles, 40 kilometers. The route today took us up into the mountains to the west of Beaune, south through magnificent villages, and then down into the most famous white wine vineyards in the world. The uphill portion of the trip this morning was terribly difficult but we were rewarded with incredible views. The weather was cold but the rain has stopped. As we came down from the mountains, I found myself at the corner of the Chassagne-Montrachet vineyards and the Puligny-Montrachet. We had lunch (from noon until 3:30 p.m.) in the village of Puligny-Montrachet including a tasting of 10 wines and then returned to Beaune through the village of Mersault. Tonight, we were on our own for dinner in Beaune. The lovely (but tired) Laura Lee and I found a nice little restaurant near the hotel and we’re now back in the hotel lobby, checking email and blogging.

Tomorrow will be the last day on the bikes. Friday, we will be dropped back in Paris for one night and Saturday we’ll be back in the good old U.S.A.

Day 2 and 3 Biking

After 26 miles of biking Sunday, I was looking forward to the shorter 21 mile trip Monday. However, the shortened distance was more than made up for with a killer hill at the beginning of the day. We left the hotel and climbed straight up for about two miles to the haute cote, the top of the slope. I had to walk the bike for part of the hill but we were rewarded with spectacular views of the vineyards below, and an exhilarating long downhill emerging at the village of Gevrey-Chambertin, home to more Grand Crus vineyards than any town in Burgundy. After a lunch in town on our own, we followed pretty vineyard roads through the Cote de Nuits (the Northern half of the Cote d’Or, the Golden slope) back to our hotel. After another of my brief power naps, the lovely Laura Lee and I went to the “cave” connected with our hotel for a taste of some of the local burgundies. Dinner was nearby at a fantastic hotel restaurant where we were served courses too numerous to count and wines that went on and on.

Today, Tuesday, we woke up to a terrible rainy day. Despite the miserable weather, this was the most magnificent day of all. We started out heading south, turned off onto small vineyard roads, and suddenly found ourselves at 10 a.m. at the corner of the most expensive real estate in the world. We were actually standing at a corner where La Tache and Romanee Conti came together. While none of this land is ever sold, we were told that 1 hectare, or about three acres in these vineyards would be valued at about $1 billion. After sharing a bottle of wine with our crowd at 10 a.m., we moved on through the town of Nuits St. Georges, through beautiful villages, and on to the town of Beaune where we have checked into the Hotel Le Cep. It was cold and rainy, but really just a fantastic day.

So if you want to duplicate this at home, go to your gym and get on the lifecycle at about 9:30 in the morning. Set it on random at about level 15 and pedal for about two hours. Pause any time you want for water but pedal on until about noon. Then get off and go have a great lunch with about 4 glasses of wine. Then go back and pedal another two hours before you go home to rest. At dinner, drink another six glasses of wine with an eight-course meal, and then get up the next day and do it all over again. The only thing you’ll miss is the scenery we have here and, of course, your wine will not be as good.

Our travel agent Meg has emailed me to say “Anyway, the only thing I see missing from your “BLOG” is reference to your “lovely Travel Advisor” at Brownell Travel…www.brownelltravel.com.” When I was a kid, I knew Mr. Brownell of Brownell Travel in Birmingham. He was known personally throughout Europe because of the vast number of tours he arranged and because of his well-heeled client list passing through on private journeys. My grandparents never travelled to Europe without Mr. Brownell personally arranging every aspect of the trip. They dined where he had dined, they stayed in hotels where he had stayed, and they rode with drivers that Mr. Brownell knew personally. If you were stuck and needed to cash a check somewhere in Europe, you only had to mention to the hotel that you were a personal friend of Mr. Brownell and any needs would be accommodated.

I have been remiss in not mentioning here that Brownell also arranged this trip for us. The company is now epitomised by the lovely Meg McGriff North who is every bit as capable and well-connected as Mr. Brownell was. We refer to Meg around our house as “The Travel Chick” or “The Travel Babe.” We use sentences like, “If you want to go bicycling in France, you need to call the Travel Babe”, or “Have you ever gotten the itinerary from the Travel Chick?” So, here’s the reference Meg. I used to find Meg completely without fault until, about 10 years ago, she started charging $10 for every airline ticket she bought for you. Travel agents used to be free. Anyway, Meg was never free or even cheap but I still resent that charge. God knows, it’s probably $100 a ticket now.

Anyway, we still love Meg. If you need any travel arrangements from anywhere to anywhere, she’ll fix you right up. Just call the Travel Babe or look her up at www.brownelltravel.com.

First Day of Biking

    We took a taxi this morning from our hotel in Saulieu to Dijon where we met up with our bicycle group at the Hotel de la Cloche at 9 a.m. From there, we all rode in a bus about 20 minutes to the outskirts of Dijon to the Chateau de Saulon-La-Rue, a vast 17th century chateau where we met up with our bicycles. Our luggage stayed on the bus and appeared in our rooms at the end of the day. The great thing about biking trips with Butterfield and Robinson is that luggage, bicycles, water bottles and meals are all handled for you, perfectly. After getting seats and pedals and everything else adjusted and getting a map and detailed instructions for the day, we headed out for our first day of 44 kilometers, 26 miles of pedaling.

The route took us along the Saone River through fields, rustic farms and villages to the Auberge des Canards, a duck farm, where we stopped for lunch after travelling 19.6 kilometers. The lunch was a salad with duck meat on top followed by a full serving of duck with vegetables. The lovely Laura Lee was feeling indisposed and skipped most of the lunch, but she rallied to complete the day’s ride after lunch.The afternoon ride was slightly longer than the morning at about 26.4 kilometers.

I was feeling good at lunch that none of this had been too difficult so I made the mistake of enjoying several glasses of wine. With the longer ride after lunch and a slight uphill run for the final few miles, I was feeling pretty weak when we finally arrived at our hotel at around 3:45 this afternoon. However, I can say to you with certainty that this trip is far better and easier than dogsledding. I took a quick nap at the hotel and by 6 p.m. I was ready for the evening.

Tonight and tomorrow night we are staying at the Chateau Andre Ziltener in Chambolle-Musigny, a tiny little village just south of Gevrey Chambertin. We will do a loop trip tomorrow through Gevrey Chambertin and around the area (35 kilometers, 21 miles), shorter than today’s ride but far more hilly. Tuesday, we will head south through Nuits-St.-Georges and on to Beaune.

Tonight, we gathered for a wine tasting in a cave beneath a local restaurant where we heard a talk by a local wine professional explaining the history and the strange classification of wines from this area. Suffice it to say that Bordeaux is far simpler to understand than Burgundy. This was followed by a traditional Burgundian dinner with escargot or eggs poached in red wine followed by Coq Au Vin or a filet of sole. The meal was accompanied by outstanding local wines.

I’ll let you know how I do tomorrow. My plan is to have less wine at lunch, but much will power will be required. 

Bernard Loiseau

In February of 2003, all of France and the culinary community around the world was shocked to learn of the suicide of Bernard Loiseau, chef and owner of the Cote D’Or restaurant at the hotel Relais Bernard Loiseau in Burgundy. At the time, Bernard was perhaps the most famous chef in France and was one of only 25 whose restaurants held the coveted three star rating from the Michelin Guide. In fact, he sat atop one of the most competitive and high-pressure businesses in the world. In The Perfectionist, author Rudolph Chelminski asks the question: “Did France’s obsession with food kill it’s most famous chef?”

Probably not. Bernard was a driven perfectionist. While wildly successful as a chef and hotelier, his business had serious financial problems with millions of dollars in debt incurred to continue improving the property. But it was also known that Bernard suffered from bi-polar disorder or manic-depressive personality disorder. The highs that had always driven him to incredible achievements were followed often by the depths of depression and despair. While France’s obsession with food created the high pressure in which he operated, the causes of his suicide were far more complex.

He was deeply loved and respected in France. His funeral was attended by thousands and by each of the other 24 Michelin three-star chefs in France.

Following his death, the business benefited from an enormous insurance policy on his life which paid off most, if not all of its debts. His wife Dominique took over the management of the company and his primary assistant took over as chef. Today, the restaurant retains its three-star Michelin rating and the hotel is as near to perfection as you can find. We dined twice in the restaurant and were greeted warmly by Dominique, a lovely and charming woman who nightly makes her way through the restaurant to speak with each patron. All of the senior employees in the kitchen and dining room worked for Bernard for many years and remain with the property, loyal to his memory and to Dominique.

Reading The Perfectionist while staying at Bernard’s hotel and chatting with his widow was an amazing experience. If you’re ever over this way, I highly recommend it.

Bonjour from France

Well, let’s just admit at the outset that the lovely Laura Lee and I are wimps when it comes to time-zone adjustment while travelling. Thus, we have learned to always allow ourselves a couple of days to recuperate from the time shift. Wednesday, we left Birmingham at 5:30 p.m. and connected with a flight departing Atlanta (late) at 9 p.m. CDT for Paris. After a huge dinner with wine, etc. on the flight, we began trying to sleep at around midnight CDT. Three hours later, we were awakened with breakfast being served (we just had coffee) and just after 5 a.m. Birmingham time, we arrived in Paris. By 9 a.m. Birmingham time, we had arrived in the tiny Burgundy town of Saulieu. It was 4 p.m. here and we checked into our local hotel having only had a couple of hours sleep and no breakfast yet.

We tried to solve the problem by moving straight into cocktail hour, enjoying wine and cheese on the grounds of the beautiful little hotel Relais Bernard Loiseau. This was followed by dinner at 7:30 p.m. local time and at 10:30 p.m. (still 3:30 in the afternoon back home) we were off to bed. We each took two Benadryl tablets and I slept reasonably well and was up by 7:30 this morning. The lovely Laura Lee tossed and turned much of the night and she is having breakfast now and getting past her grouchiness.

Our hotel is quite famous for its cuisine and its founding chef, Bernard Loiseau. I have been reading a little about his career and his tragic death by suicide three years ago. I plan a little post about him and this spectacular place tomorrow. We have a couple of days just to relax in this beautiful village before embarking on a 5–day bicycle tour of Burgundy. I will report in on the tour and let you know if it is an easier trip than dogsledding in Canada. But what I really want to talk about here is bathrooms.

The French seem to have some inexplicable urge to automate a number of functions in their bathrooms. My daughter Suzanne tells a story of staying in a completely automated hotel in France where there were no visible employees. She checked in by inserting a credit card into some machine that produced a room key. The bathroom was designed to be self-cleaning so that when she entered, it sensed her presence and turned on lights, etc. It was designed so that when she left, the door would lock and the bathroom would clean itself by spraying disinfectant soap everywhere and then rinsing down with hot water. Not knowing this, Suzanne opened the door to get something she had forgotten, and then closed it back. The bathroom, thinking she had left, locked it’s own door and proceeded to spray her down with disinfectant. Suzanne described it as being in a human carwash. She emerged later, completely cleaned and disinfected.

Laura Lee’s great grandfather invented a gadget he called a “rump washer”, something along the lines of a bidet which was still in the bathroom of her house when she was growing up on the family farm in Georgia. Here, our bathroom has some type of device called a “clos o mat” instead of an ordinary toilet. We first noticed that when one sits on it, the bathroom vent fan comes on automatically. But it does much more than that. It serves as a combination toilet and “rump washer”. If you press a start button before sitting on it, you can then press a switch with either elbow which causes a small sprinkler head to emerge in the toilet and spray water up to wash you off. Then, when you let go of this elbow switch, a blower comes on to dry you off. I haven’t actually used this device yet but I did try to figure out the instructions while standing above the toilet and the result was I got sprayed in the face, an instant cure for the grogginess of jet lag. I’ll continue to keep you posted on bathroom automation throughout our trip.

The Trip South

Here’s a map of the route we’ll take to move the boat from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin to Mobile, Alabama. Click on the map to bring up the website where it was created. There you can zoom in or out on any area, see satellite photos and other details of the trip.

Steel Magnolia

We completed the surveys yesterday on the 52’ custom steel trawler in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Accompanied by the lovely Laura Lee, I watched as a surveyor and engine surveyor poked and punched and gave the boat a thorough physical exam. We took her out for a “sea trial” where she was run wide open for a few minutes to look for any engine problems. And, finally, she was hauled out of the water for a view of her ah…figure, below the waterline. She’s quite voluptuous.

Everything seemed to go well and the surveyors had no serious concerns. As Laura Lee says, the boat has been thoroughly “vetted”. We are awaiting results of the oil sample analysis and the actual written surveys, but it appears that we’ll own a new boat within the week.

We have been discussing several alternative names but we keep coming back to “Steel Magnolia”, reflecting the new southern home for this steel vessel. In an amazing coincidence, we found that the current owner, Bob Leitz, had planned on using the same name when he built the boat but changed it to Acadian in honer of the many Acadian workers involved in building the boat. When we found that out, it seemed that “Steel Magnolia” was simply meant to be for this boat.

Starting in mid-October, I hope to be bringing the boat from Sturgeon Bay to Chicago and then down the river system to the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway and on to Mobile, Alabama. There we will pause to have some work done at Dog River Marina, among old friends. I’ll be posting the ship’s log here during the trip.

For those interested in ship’s systems, I’ll be setting up a new section of the blog called “Principal Particulars”, a term I like, used by the naval architects in all the drawings and details for this boat. If you’re not interested in such strange things, just don’t go to that page. For now, I’ll just give the basics:

Principal Particulars

Length, Overall 51’ 11-1/4”
Length on DWL 47’ 5-15/16”
Breadth, Moulded 15’ 3-3/4”
Max Depth, Skeg to Sheer 12’ 11-1/8”
Draft to DWL 5’ 9-5/16”
Displacement 36 Long Tons
Cruising Speed 8 knots
Propulsion 370hp @ 2600 RPM

A Slight Change of Pace

    My search for a boat that could meet my spoiled expectations, on a budget of less than one third of what I sold my old boat for, quickly led me to look at single-engine boats. They are more economical to buy with only the cost of one, usually small, engine. They are certainly more economical to operate, running slowly, burning very little fuel, and the maintenance of one engine is half the maintenance of two. To give an example, my old boat had two 1350-horsepower diesels that would allow the boat to cruise at 18 knots burning 100 gallons per hour. I usually cruised at 10 knots burning 20 gallons per hour or 1/2 mile per gallon. A typical smaller single-engine trawler has one engine, usually less than 500 horsepower, and cruises at around eight knots getting close to two miles per gallon.

    A few companies, most notably Nordhavn, are turning out very high-quality trawlers like this, seaworthy and with sufficient range to easily cross oceans. The problem? These boats have become very popular and are quite expensive both new and used. So I began looking at more offbeat boats, slow single-engine trawlers built by lesser-known names or custom built by interesting owners. Many of these, while expensive to build, have not held their value as well as the brand name boats because they are custom built.

    Last week, the search took me to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin to look at a custom-built steel boat, designed and built in 2003 in Nova Scotia by a knowledgeable owner. It’s a shippy looking boat, 52 feet long, with two nice staterooms. It’s powered by a 350 horsepower Lugger engine located in one of the prettiest and best-laid-out engine rooms I’ve ever seen. It needs a few improvements for my use…stabilizers, perhaps a second generator, and perhaps an emergency “get-home” engine. The exterior needs a few cosmetic improvements and some sturdy rub rails along the side. But overall, it’s a nice boat, and I decided if I could get it at a price I could afford, I’d go for it.

 

    So Monday I made the owner an offer and today we have a contract to buy a new boat. It’s all still subject to a complete survey and engine survey to make sure the boat is well-built and in good shape, but if all of that goes well, I’ll buy it in late September and start moving it south through the river system in October.

    It’s going to be a little different cruising at eight knots with no ability to speed up. But the fuel savings will be lots of fun and the project of moving the boat 1,300 miles to Mobile, Alabama, understanding its systems, fixing things up the way I want them, promises to be the adventure of a lifetime. Stay tuned.

Click the picture to see all of the new boat pictures.

    Oh, and what to name her? The new owners kept the name Suladan on my old boat, and it was the ultimate Suladan. So we’re looking for a new name. Let us know if you have any suggestions. 

A week in cyberspace

It’s hard to explain, but I wanted a simpler “URL” for this website. After a week of trying to understand how domain names work and are directed and redirected, you can now get to this website at www.johnsamford.com instead of using the squarespace address.

Why buy a new boat?

     I am looking hard at boats for sale right now, and the question I ask myself daily is: "why buy another boat?" Boats are expensive. They are not good investments as they never increase in value. Time on a boat can be considered "antisocial" in that you cannot have all your friends along and there are long, lonesome delivery trips to get the boat where you want it to be. As an alternative, I could get a lake house, a beach house, a condo in a ski area. Any of these would be good investments. Any of these would provide a place for family and friends to gather. Any would be places to relax without the hassles of operating a boat.

     The answers are not simple. First, I have owned a boat for 16 years. My boat has always provided me a refuge when I needed it...a place to get away when the world was not always going as planned for me.

     Antisocial? Perhaps. But my boat has also been a place where I have formed enduring relationships that come from time alone in close quarters. I courted my wife aboard my boat. I have spent time with acquaintances on long voyages and had them become true friends. I have had too much to drink with Hamlin. I've run into a range marker with James. I had an engine blow up with my three young children aboard. I had a fire in the engine room with my wife's Uncle Randy. I stupidly ran out of fuel in the Atlantic Ocean with my nephew Sam. I grew close to my son aboard my boat when he finished college. I have come to be close friends with captains and boat yard owners and mechanics and electronics specialists that I would never have known without a boat. I have sailed into New York Harbor with my wife and all of my children aboard. I have had long talks at anchor alone with a friend on the aft deck over cigars and brandy at night. I have come to know and love people in a way that would never be possible in a larger group anywhere.

     A voyage by boat allows me to see the world in a different way. I could fly into a remote resort in the Bahamas and experience the beauty and solitude.  But I could never replace the awareness of place that comes from travelling across oceans to discover the perfect anchorage just off the perfect beach. I could never experience the remote island towns of coastal Maine without travelling there on my own.

     There is an intellectual challenge to boating. Keeping the systems running smoothly, navigating, communicating, provisioning, finding safe harbors, arranging travel logistics. All of these challenges keep me alert and involved, and are infinitely more rewarding than relaxing in a great resort, where the challenge of the day is arranging tee times or getting good dinner reservations.

     Ultimately, boating keeps me alert and involved and alive. I have had many great adventures in my life, from climbing Kilamanjaro in Africa to dogsledding in Quebec. But nothing has ever approached the pure rush of planning and setting out on a great voyage by boat. There is never a guide along. Iteneraries are always flexible and dependent on weather and performance of the boat. You often don't know where you'll spend the night. But yet, you are safe and secure in your own vessel. There's simply nothing like it.

     So despite the insanity of it all, I continue to look at boats. I've had to lower my standards considerably, partly because of the money I've lost on previous boats. But there's something out there in my price range, and I'll keep looking until I find it.

Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in the old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal-temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

From Ulysses, by Alfred Tennyson

   "`Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats...Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular..."

From The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame