Autopilot Part 1

If you do a lot of single hand sailing, like I do, you really want an autopilot.  I'm a born engineer with natural mechanical ability.  There's nothing I love more than tweaking my sails, wringing every last knot out of them without overpowering the boat. I get into the aerodynamics and read everything I can find so that I can "read" my canvas.

But that's hard to do when you have to keep a hand on the helm while standing under the bimini.

To maximize time with the sheets, cunningham, outhaul, vang, and all the other bits and bobs that control sail shape, an autopilot is ideal.  The problem is that I no longer have one.

As I mentioned in the last blog, my boat came with an old WP-100 by Navico.  The WP stands for wheel pilot, which means the unit attaches to the helm's wheel and applies force there, as opposed to the rudder quadrant. Unfortunately, my old autopilot was poorly installed and there were loads put on it that it wasn't designed for.  The internal components shattered under the twisting loads.  Because they don't make the WP 100 anymore, I couldn't find parts to fix it.

So, we bought a Raymarine EV-100 system, with a wheel pilot instead of a mechanical or hydraulic drive unit on the rudder quadrant. The boat has about 9,500 pounds of displacement, so a wheel pilot should work well if I keep the sails balanced.  It puts out about 30nm or 22 foot pounds of torque, which ought to do it.

The mechanical drive unit might be better, but the boat has never had one of those and I'm not sure how much modification will be required to install one for the first time.  The good news is that the Raymarine EV-100 is modular.  Someday, if we decide to upgrade it, it shouldn't be a problem to add a mechanical drive.

Anyway, due to a late arriving trailer at UPS, my plan to get the autopilot installed this weekend was a bust.  But, having been an auto and aircraft mechanic in a past life, I know that planning is half the battle on something like this, so I planned out what I was going to do instead. The web is great for this because I can download manuals and stuff to have a look before the box arrives.

The S2 9.2c has a lot of space under the cockpit thanks the the center cockpit design, so there's room for the parts.  Good thing, too, because there are Seatalk cables, a software unit, and a nine (!) axis sensor to find homes for, not to mention the display for the cockpit. I checked it all out and decided I can probably run the cables for the control head up the inside of the binnacle.

There are already wires there for the Garmin 536s GPS/Sonar, as you can see from this shot of the underside of the cockpit, but those wires aren't protected from the helm cables by a conduit or the like:

Helm Cables, GPS wiring, and Binnacle Light Wiring Below Cockpit

I'll probably have to modify that installation at the same time.  Another option is running the wires down the guard tubes that the control head will mount to, but as you can see, there is no exit for those tubes into the space below the cockpit. I'll figure it out when I get into it.  I think I'd rather avoid the helm cables, but a conduit of some kind would work pretty well and prevent chafing or worse.

Speaking of the helm cables, those have been bugging me.  The cables that run from the helm to the rudder have a lot of slack, which has led to a sloppy feel in the helm. I decided to tighten that up, which I hope will limit the shock to the new autopilot caused by the forces that can bash the rudder back and forth under way.

There's no information on the cable tension needed, so I just got the slack out until the rudder quadrant wouldn't move at all with the helm wheel locked in place.  That solution was pretty popular at most of the websites I checked. Then I made sure the wheel was still easy to turn and not binding.  The cables are far from piano-wire tight, so I think it's right.  The extra give, which doesn't seem to be adding to a sloppy helm feel, won't put excessive strain on the pulleys or quadrant.  The wind and waves do enough of that.

While I was there, I checked for rudder post leaks and any problems with the cables.  I used to install replace control cables in DC-9 and 727 aircraft, so I'm familiar with what good ones look like. Mine seem fine and didn't grab a towel I ran along the exposed areas.  If they grabbed, it would have been a sign that some individual strands had failed and the cables needed to be replaced.

Here's what the rudder quadrant looks like under the aft berth:

Edson Rudder Quadrant, Top Down View - Cables Run Forward

I wasn't able to find an emergency tiller on board, so I'll have to make one. If anything happens to the steering gear, that might save the boat and maybe my life. It would fit over the post in the photo above and use the slot for mechanical leverage.  There's a hatch above, so maybe if the post were long enough I could steer from the back of the boat and above the cabin.  Otherwise, it's a two-man operation.

Ragged Keys

After my first trip to the Ragged Keys, I think I understand why they have that name.  I feel pretty ragged after that run.  But I learned a lot.

The Ragged Keys are a set of islands in shallow water running north from Boca Chita Key from about 25' 31.550" N, 80' 10.374" W to 25' 32.592 N, 80' 10.181 W.

For a deep draft boat like mine (5'), they're basically impossible to get close to, with the exception of the northern most key.  There is an unmarked channel running up to the northernmost key from Boca Chita Key.  If you have a GPS and current charts, you can find it and stay in the deep water.  It runs about 047 degrees up to the northernmost island from the Boca Chita Channel Buoy 1.   Be careful; it does get very shallow on the northwestern side, so cheat southeast.

I've been thinking about this trip for a long time.  In 2012 I got checked out on one of my sailing club's cruisers, a 26 foot Beneteau.  The captain who gave me the instruction told me about the Ragged Keys - and the channel - and I'd been thinking about it ever since.  But, it is a long way down or back, depending on the wind.  Not knowing how long it would take, I'd never made the trip.

No time like the present for adventure, so I left my mooring at about 11:30 in the morning, just after high tide.  This allowed me to take the John A Brennan Channel to Biscayne Bay, cutting off some miles.  I was lucky enough to have a beam reach direct to Featherbed Bank East Daybeacon "1" at 25' 32.364" N, 80' 12.521" W.  This is a view of Boca Chita Key and the Ragged Keys from Daybeacon "1":

Ragged Keys and Boca Chita Key from Featherbed Daymark "1"

I made about 4.5 knots, over the 10.5 nm, with a minor deviation due to a sailing regatta - the 2014 Melges 32 World Championship.  I like to race, so it was fun to run with that fleet for a short distance and watch them go.  I headed up into the wind to pass safely behind them, but they are very fast.  They rounded their southern mark and came right back at me.  I didn't even come close to interfering with them, but it was a little intimidating to have 40 boats coming hard at me as they beat upwind.  Very cool.  This is a shot of the fleet running downwind after I maneuvered behind them:

Melges 32 World Championship 2014

Steering is fun, for a little while, but gets old quickly.  I turned on my autopilot and let it handle the helm duties for the two-hour journey to the Featherbed Bank Daybeacon.  The autopilot wasn't very happy and, by the time I made it to the Featherbed Bank area (25' 32.172" N, 80' 12.449" W), the internal track had come apart:

Busted Autopilot

The autopilot had come with the boat, though the prior owner didn't even list it as equipment.  I got it working again, but didn't realize just how poorly the autopilot fit the helm.  It wasn't lined up quite right and couldn't be lined up correctly due to that wrap you can see on my wheel - it rubbed hard on the control console (this is/was a Navico WP 100).

Adding to the problem, the pieces that are supposed to grab the helm were missing.  I jury-rigged it and it worked, but it was strictly temporary.  I planned to modify the system so that there would be a better connection between the drive disk and the helm using a similar arrangement to the Raymarine Evolution EV-100 Wheel Sail Autopilot (http://www.raymarine.com/view/?id=6866).

Apparently the misalignment put too much pressure on the plastic track inside the drive disk.  The internal track cracked, as you can see, making the entire thing useless.  It was going to be a long slog home.

I sailed on into the Featherbed Bank area (which is another nice anchorage I'll write about someday) and headed up the unmarked channel to the northern Ragged Key.  It was stressful.  I arrived just before low tide and it wasn't very deep in there.  The depth sounder showed 5.1 feet of water in several places.  I had to keep reminding myself that I haven't adjusted it for the position of the through-hull fitting, which is a foot or so below my waterline.  Really, there was quite a bit more water there than my sounder showed. Somehow, that's no comfort to a guy who lives in fear of damaging his baby by grounding.

Here's what the approach looked like:

Approach to the Northern Ragged Key

I didn't hit bottom and made it up to about 25' 32.563" N, 80' 10.286" W.  I slowed down to a stop and went forward to toss the hook over the side.  I had the plow anchor on the end of the chain since my last trip, but it wouldn't hold.  The bottom there is seagrass and sand, so the plow just skipped along the top.

A word about anchoring in Biscayne Bay National Park.  It's permitted, but the park service doesn't really like it.  They're installing moorings where ever they can to give us options and avoid damage to the bottom caused by anchors.  I wouldn't call myself an environmentalist, but I don't like damaging the sea, either.  If there was a mooring, I would have picked it up.  I did see a sailboat tied off to old pilings on the northernmost Ragged Key (you can see her in the photo, above), but there sure wasn't room for me and I didn't think my draft would let me in that close anyway.

In any case, I think my danforth anchor would have worked, but I couldn't change it out when I was all by myself.  I decided to abandon the anchorage and head back to my mooring to see about the autopilot.  Best decision I ever made.

On the way out, I saw two boats anchored at about 25' 32.090" N, 080' 12.243" W.  That looked like a better idea to me and they had a nice view of the Ragged Keys and Boca Chita Key:

Featherbed Bank Anchorage

Boca Chita Key

In theory, a beam reach going down to the Ragged Keys should have meant a beam reach home.  Reality, however, always wins the battle between theory and practice and, of course, the wind had shifted to the northeast while I made my way south.  It would be a beat all the way home, with at least a couple of tacks.  And no autopilot to help tack.  Only one word for that: ugh.  As much as I enjoy sailing, I knew it was going to be a lot of work.

As I made my turn north and settled in, close hauled on a starboard tack, the GPS predicted a 5:30 p.m. arrival at the Dinner Key Channel.  5:30?  It was 2 p.m. when I got here! Good thing I didn't anchor.  Sunset is 5:30 and I didn't like the idea of trying to pick up my mooring after sunset.  I was alone, without an autopilot, and wouldn't be able to turn on my running lights without heaving to.  I also don't have a spotlight.

So, I did my best to make as much speed going north as I could.  Depending on the gusts, I was making 5.5 to 6.2 knots, which isn't bad for the S2 9.2c.  The GPS wasn't wrong - after three tacks, and some motor sailing to increase speed, I got to Dinner Key Channel at 5:15 with the sun one finger's width above the horizon.

There was still daylight when I picked up my mooring.  I admit I let out a sigh of relief when I was safely back on the mooring, but I shouldn't have worried.  The engine on my boat is solid and I know what I'm doing.  I probably can pick up that mooring in the middle of the night, but since I haven't done it yet, I'd rather not have the first attempt while I'm single-handing the boat and tired after six hours of sailing.

So there it is - another adventure and more experience.  The Ragged Keys are picturesque and would probably make a great anchorage.  But it's at least a day trip and one needs to leave Dinner Key earlier than 11 a.m. to have any amount of time there.  You need to have the right hook for the bottom, too.  Lessons learned.

Next time:  installing a Raymarine autopilot in a 1979 S2 9.2c!

Coconut Grove Sailing Club

One thing we always need for cruising is a safe place to spend the night.  When the Coconut Grove Sailing Club has the capacity, it fits the bill for Biscayne Bay.  CGSC (http://www.cgsc.org/).  


Located in one of the most protected areas of Biscayne Bay (Latitude:25º 43' 32.79N | Longitude: 80º 14’ 19.19W), CGSC is home to nearly 250 sailboats.  They will allow guests to stay overnight and it isn't uncommon to have cruisers staying for weeks at a time before heading off to the Bahamas, the Keys, or other world destinations.  Although normally reserved for club members, the club has facilities for mooring guests including:

Showers with dressing rooms

Block Ice and Cube Ice

Shaded Work Bench Area

Barbecue Grills

Picnic Tables

Professional Security Guards (every night)

Main Dock for Loading/Unloading and Service

Pump-Out Facility

Walking distance to two grocery stores

Walking distance to two ship chandlerys

Walking distance to two hardware stores

Walking distance to Cocowalk, shopping, dining, movies and more entertainment

A live camera feed shows the club from the top of the nearby Sonesta Hotel and, if you know where to look, you can see my boat:
http://www.miamiboutiquehotels.com/coconut-grove-webcam.aspx
Here are the club's directions from the sea or intracoastal:

Coconut Grove Sailing Club is located adjacent and south of Dinner Key Marina south of the Port of Miami at 25 43 34 N 80 14 21 W just over a mile south of where the Intra Coastal passes south under the Rickenbacker Causeway which has a 76 ft vertical clearance. By sea you must approach us from the northern end of Biscayne Bay there are three possible approaches:

Coming south down the intracoastal and under Richenbacher Causeway just south of Richenbacker there is a Fl G 2.5s at 25 44.5 N 80 11.0 W. The entrance to Dinner Key Channel is at 25 42.8 N 80 12.6 W.

Coming from the Ocean and the East you can enter Biscayne Bay through the Biscayne Channel the easterly entrance is at 25 38.3 N 80 07.9 W. The Channel is wide, carries 6ft plus at low tide and passes through famous Stiltsville, a collection of houses on stilts.

Coming from the South you are coming up Biscayne Bay and the IntraCoastal, beware the Middle Ground shallows to the landward side at 25 42.3 N 80 13.7 W

Once in Dinner Key Cannel you enter the channel between the spoil islands and the Marina turning to port (south) and enter our mooring field as shown on the chart below. Call on VHF Ch 78 to arrange a mooring.

It Begins

So we finally did it.  My wife Vicky and I bought a 30 foot sailboat suitable for cruising.  Dream come true, life goal realized, check it off the bucket list, etc.  Now what?

Sail the hell out of it, of course.

But where?  I'm lucky enough to have a home five minutes from a fabulous sailing club located directly on Biscayne Bay in Florida.  And even luckier to have my boat sitting on a mooring in said club.  The problem is, I don't have the first clue where to go or what to do.  And, believe it or not, the internet is almost useless to answer this question.  Hard to believe, I know, but just try Googling "Biscayne Bay Cruising."  You'll come up with a magazine article or two, but nothing like what they publish for the Virgin Islands, for example.

What to do?  Well, I enjoy writing, exploring, and sailing, so if no one else has done it, I'll write a guide. As a blog, of course, since that's obviously the thing to do now.  Everyone has a blog.  I'll check that off the bucket list, too.

Be warned: this is going to be a bit more than just a guide.  You will go along with me on every adventure, of course, but you'll also hear about every screw up, maintenance hassle, minor irritation, major problem, and whatever other minutiae comes to my mind.  You should also know that I'm a lawyer, so there will be some consideration of rules and regulations from time to time.  Sorry - I can't help myself.

First, some background.  I've dreamed for years of owning a sailboat in Miami.  Really.  More on that some other time.  For now, all you need to know is that I used to spend about an hour a week trolling internet websites drooling over boats for sale, hoping to finally find something decent in my price range.  I didn't have much hope of matching my price range with my dreams for many years.  Then, one day, the wife gives me a budget to work with.

You know how they say the stars align when something is meant to be?  It was like that.  I couple of days later I'm in a hearing with another lawyer.  Turns out, he's a sailor, too.  I start chatting him up about what he's sailing.  One thing leads to another and I discover that his firm's boat is for sale.  At the top of my price range, but he thinks they'll take less.  Okay, I'm interested.

He sends me the photos, which are posted up on a broker's website.  I have to tell you, I was blown away.  I had never heard of an S2 9.2C, which is a 30 foot center cockpit design.  I'd heard of S2, of course, because my old sailing club had several S2 7.9 boats that raced every week.  A center cockpit?  On a 30 foot sloop?  This should be good.

It was.  The boat was in pretty good shape according to the marine survey, but here's the best part: nearly new engine!  Someone had installed a new Yanmar in 2011 and it had about 200 hours on it.  Barely broken in.  Basically, I bought that engine and it came with a boat:

So, that's how I got the vehicle that will generate stories for this blog.  I can't introduce her to you yet, she needs a new name.  I won't even tell you the old one because I'm superstitious.  The ceremony to change a boat's name is really important and the first step is erasing all record of the old name.  So it won't appear here. Ever.

I won't bore you with the details of learning to sail her.  I go through my own process and teach myself.  I make mistakes, but try to minimize the damage by being careful. I even created a checklist for getting the boat ready to go and closing her up when I get home.  So far, so good.  Which brings me to the first-ever day sailing "cruise."

We left the sailing club a little after noon on November 29, 2014, with no particular destination in mind.  Actually, I was thinking of heading down to the Ragged Keys, but it's a long trip and days are pretty short this time of year.  So, I figured we'd go where the wind took us, since, as I mentioned, there isn't much information about where to cruise in Biscayne Bay.

It was a windy day, about 15 to 20 knots, gusting about 25, and the bay waters were about as choppy as they get short of a gale.  There are two ways out of the club.  One is a shallow channel called the John A. Brennan Channel.  It appears on NOAA Chart 11451 at Inset 2 (page A). It leads directly to and from the Dinner Key Marina and my sailing club.  The channel is fairly deep until you get to channel marker 5.  Then, at low tide, I've got about six inches of clearance between the bottom and my 5 foot keel.

Yes, I tried it while I was still in the initial stages of learning the boat.  I made it out without hitting anything, but when that sonar was showing 5.2 feet, you can bet my heart was in my throat.  Luckily, Chart 11451 is well marked and if you look very carefully, you'll see that there is a 5 foot deep path from channel marker 1 to the deeper parts of the bay on a heading of about 111 degrees.  I followed that path and never heard so much as a scrape, but the bay was pretty smooth that day.  I think if there had been chop, it would have been different.

The other channel is Dinner Key Channel, which  I've been using at low tide ever since.  It is considerably deeper and can handle virtually any sailboat keel I've ever heard of.  It's narrow, so it's better to motor back and forth, though you'll spend some time doing that.  It is about 1.3 nautical miles long. I suppose you could sail it, but only with the wind from the North through the South. Tacking in that channel is out of the question - it can be only a foot deep on either side of it in places.

It was a fairly lumpy ride across the bay, so I turned south as I came up on the entrance to the Cape Florida Channel.  Just short of channel marker "4,"  I decided to hug the barrier reef that protects the bay from the Atlantic Ocean.  Vicky said she wanted to see the houses that are still out there, called "Stiltsville."  I thought that was a pretty good idea.

As we came up on the Biscayne Channel, I spotted several fishing boats moored just off the southern end of Biscayne Channel Light 21, at about 25 degrees, 39.260' N and 080 degrees, 11.200' W.  I had no idea where we can and cannot anchor, so  I figured if all these boats were doing it, it must be okay here.

It was after lunch time and we hadn't eaten.  I didn't really want to try to juggle my lunch and the boat under sail, so I thought it might be a good time to try anchoring my new boat.  For the first time ever. In 20 knot winds and choppy seas.  Hey, I did mention that I can be adventurous.

Here's a tip.  You might want to check out your anchor and rode before anchoring the first time.  I had done a cursory inspection of my ground tackle, and it looked okay.  I actually have two anchors, which is great.  What I didn't discover during this cursory inspection is that the prior owner thought it might be a good idea to tie a loop about 40' into the rode and attach the second anchor there.  I discovered this after dropping my plow anchor over the side in 16 feet of water and letting about 38 feet of rode out. Surprise!

Fortunately, the plow holds very well on the sandy bottom out there and even with that short scope, I was able to hold without tossing the second anchor over the side.  I got the second anchor shackle off the rode (had to leave the loop) and paid out some more to get what looked like a pretty good scope on it.  It probably wasn't 7:1, but it held well.  I set the GPS so I could keep track of my position and see if the anchor was dragging.  It stayed pretty much put through lunch, despite the choppy water, wind, and considerable swinging.

So there you have it.  My first anchorage and lunch spot in Biscayne Bay.  You might be thinking it doesn't sound very good, out at the end of a channel in an entirely exposed part of the bay, but you'd be wrong.  It wasn't a particularly smooth ride and it sure was windy, but you will not beat that view anywhere.  Off the bow (the wind was ENE) we had Key Biscayne and the Cape Florida Light.  To the East were all the remaining houses in Stiltsville.  We could see the boats coming and going out of the Biscayne Channel and off to the North was the City of Miami.  Spectacular.

This is the view of Stiltsville from the anchorage

I'm going to try to do some more research on where a person can anchor in Biscayne Bay - a lot of it is protected.  Stay tuned.