Kai O'hana
~News~
07/17/07 - Stepping the Masts
-A word from Captain Bach
After the spars, the stainless pieces and the wire rope were all assembled according to plan, and Chad filled the mast chases with electrical wire and connected all their respective ends to the various components on the tops, the moment of truth had arrived. It was time to put the completed rig on the boat.
We woke up early on the morning of the lift to swing the boat along side the seawall (we are normally stern to) only to find out that we should have done it the evening before when it was high tide – we were hard on the bottom (this is one rare instant when I apparently should have listened to the Seawall Superintendents when they told me I’d better be careful, “Your boat’ll grow roots if you stay in the lagoon too long”). Certainly an inauspicious beginning to such a landmark day, but the tide was rising and the roots let us free enough so that by the time the “yardbirds” arrived with the crane we were ready to roll.
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07/13/07 - Standing Rig
-A word from Captain Bach
In October ’06, I traveled to Houston, Texas to acquire poles for the spars. While there, the lumberyard offered to consolidate a container for me – that is, I’d have other items shipped to their location, they would store them for me, and when I was ready for them, they would pack the spars that I bought from them and the materials I had shipped to them in a container, and have it shipped to me. Well, if you’d said to me it sounds too good to be true, you’d have been right, which was confirmed when Chad visited them in December to make a delivery for the container.
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07/03/07 - Spars
-A word from Captain Bach
A spar is any pole that acts, as in our case, as a main or mizzen mast, their respective topmasts, a bowsprit, booms and gaffs. I had originally intended to buy treated southern yellow pine poles from the deep south to fit the bill, and succeeded mostly (I acquired all the smaller poles this way), but apparently all the large “straight” poles that I needed for the masts were being used for the reconstruction of the south after Katrina’s wrath.
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05/29/07 - May Haulout
-A word from Captain Bach
Once the forward chainplates had been installed on the water, we knew that we would have to pull the boat out of the water to attach the aft chainplates. They were just too close to the waterline to safely get any tools that low so we would have to haul her out once again. I wasn't too disappointed as we were going to have to eventually do something to the bottom paint that had washed away at the water line anyway so now was as good a time as any to handle all our out-of-the-water projects.
I negotiated with the owner of the boatyard to get the same price to haul her and put her back in the water as I had paid the year before (in dollars as opposed to Euros), and that I would pay the same daily rate on the hard as I paid on the seawall. But for some reason (that wasn't totally unexpected), he told me that if we weren't back in the water in less than a week, he'd triple our storage rate, which made no sense because the yard was less than half full -- a condition totally attributable to his lack of business etiquette and charm, I'm sure.
Finish reading this article here.
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05/07/07 - Brightwork Topside
-Letters from Lauren
There were so many jobs to be completed on the exterior, it would have been hard to know where to start or what to work on without Craig managing the critical path schedule. But once we had our priorities set, it was just a matter of picking one of many projects, starting it, and following through until it was complete.
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04/27/07 - Working Below Decks
-Letter from Lauren
There is one thing for sure on a boat: if you have to work on anything, it will create all kinds of messes that affect practically the entire boat. The galley is a good example of this in that I had nowhere to put the food items while the shelves where being made. The canned items seem to multiply on their own, and no matter where I turned there was something always on the counter tops that I had just cleared. So I just gave up after I learned I could take my longest cutting board and put it over the sink to create a temporary work area to prepare our meals.
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03/26/07 - Salon
-Letter from Lauren
Ah, the Salon. This was the gathering point of the boat -- the living room and the dining room (as we use to say when we lived in a house) all in one. Well, at this point in the project, our primary living/dining area was a disaster, more like a workshop and a tool/material catchall at the same time. Getting this space to what we visualize it could be was going to be a big project requiring time and patience on everyone’s part.
Tracy and I decided that starting the finishing process with the chart table was the best strategy. Everyday before we started, I had to make sure the galley and captain’s quarters where always closed and taped off. This project required a lot of sanding, which created dust clouds that made the Sonoran Desert look like a sand box. As if the actual work wasn’t difficult enough, it had to be timed around lunch and dinner preparation. Some days were better than others when it came to actually getting meals out. When I was late with lunch, the crew would threaten mutiny, and the captain, a swing from the yardarm. I thought running a business was hectic and demanding; at least I got to wear fine clothing, and I smelled good most times.
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03/15/07 - Settee
-A word from Captain Bach
While the crew continued to work on sealing the decks and to make the interior more habitable (we still had a considerable amount of “roof leaks”, which made living in an unfinished boat while negotiating numerous partially filled pails, pans and pots of water untenable to say the least), I focused on designing and building the area on the boat that would be used more than any other (aside from the galley), that is the “outdoor” living area or the aft settee.
Finish reading this article here.
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12/28/06 - The Caribbean Christmas Spirit!
-A letter from Lauren
Hey Happy Holidays!
The Internet is back up a running. We could not get on for the last two days, and so it goes with technology on the Islands and in relatively remote areas.
We had a glorious Christmas day. First thing in the morning we went to Boo-Boo-Jams at Orient Beach. Surfing, playing volleyball, doing some art and laying in the sun were the order of the morning with the back drop of aqua marine water, white sand, and clear sunny skies.
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10/25/06 - On a Roll...
-A word form Captain Bach
My last update spoke of working between rainsqualls and being very frustrated about not having a dry place to work or a close place to securely store our tools and materials, but that didn’t last long. There was no telling how long it would take to get our container to the new site, so Daniel and I broke down the “paint booth” (an 8ft x 8ft plywood shed) and moved it in pieces on the truck to the boat. This way we could store a few essential tools and materials near the boat, get out of the mud and have a place where we could quickly duck out of the unpredictable showers. Within three days of the container’s arrival Preston and I had remodeled and expanded our little shed into a fully enclosed and secure, L-shaped, 300 square foot workshop that wrapped around the back and side of the container where we are all now working as productively as is physically possible.
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09/20/06 - Moving
Onto the Boat
-A word from Captain Bach
By October first, we were on the backside of the hurricane season, and if we could hold out 2 more months, we’d be home free. September is notoriously the worst month of the season (at least in the Leewards) so we were glad to see this month pass with hardly a single event in the Atlantic, much less the Caribbean. We continued to hope for the best, and made plans just in case.
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08/15/2006-Slogging On…
-A word from Captain Bach
Work seems to have stalled out a bit since we’ve “splashed” Kai Ohana. Not that we haven’t been working on her – we are still putting in at least 8 to 12 hour days, seven days a week. However, our container has yet to be moved to our new location because there is a large catamaran that is being repaired in the path of the crane. We are told, “When they are finished, you get your container.” As a result, we are working both without a shop or a close storage area so every time it rains (which is almost everyday), we have to roll up all our tools and materials until it stops, then roll everything back out and work in the mud (unless you’re fortunate enough to be working in the boat).
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07/10/2006 - And She is in the Water
-A word from Captain Bach
The Kai Ohana was “splashed” on Thursday, July 6, 2006 13:52:47 after a re-christened ceremony performed by Gregg Buyskes, the foreman of the hull restoration, a Captain of his own vessel, Providence, and the most spiritual person we know on the Island. The purpose of the ceremony was to change the name of the vessel from Saudade to Kai Ohana (“Ocean Family” in Hawaiian). You’d think that it’d be as easy as painting the new name on the transom and you’re done with it, but no, we’re talking about boats and sailing and all the superstition and lore that has evolved from the thousands of years man has been navigating the oceans of the world, you don’t just paint a new name on a boat.
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6/20/06 "The beatings will continue until morale improves!"
-A word from Captain Bach
As most of our friends and family know by now, we are the proud owners of a 43-year-old, 60 ft. (on deck, 75 ft. overall) Italian designed and built wooden schooner. Just about everyone I know tried to steer me away from wooden boats, “too much maintenance” was the primary reason given. I on the other hand had a dream, to sail around the world in a classically designed, built and rigged schooner. It’s just one of those things, once you get a notion in your head, you just do what your heart tells you regardless of what all the pundits say. Besides, I don’t like plastic boats, and I don’t know much about steel or aluminum. But most importantly, I definitely don’t want to own a boat that I can’t find in my dinghy because my boat looks like every other boat in the moorage.
Finish reading this article here.
