Manai'a Explorations
HC SVNT DRACONES

Forgot to turn on tracking at 5AM You can follow along here . We motored across the Bay of Bangkok yesterday, straight into the wind and the swells for 12 hours. My crew said it was a relatively calm sea, but watching the bow swing up and down with the swells made me seasick, so I spent most of the day laying on the sofa with my eyes closed. Had I known what we were in for, I would have put a scopolamine patch on. Many lessons learned like: If we are going to motor for a long time, turn on the generator first thing to keep the batteries topped up. Don’t discharge the batteries and then turn on the generator – it can not catch up. I gotta load shed system to protect my batteries – good to have, but I had no idea how to manually take control of the charging and we wound up discharging the 12V house battery to 19%. The guy that did my electrics, Malcolm, is terrific, and I spent an hour on the phone with him this AM. Now I know how to manually control battery charging. We are now in P...

We are headed for Koh Samui. Gonna take our time and stop at all the beautiful spots along the way.   

Everyone asked if I was excited to come get Kanthaka, and of course I was, but the predominate emotion I was experiencing was anxiety. I expected, once I took possession and was out sailing, the anxiety would diminish and be replaced by some mixture of happiness, excitement, joy … I read an article by Nikki Henserson that set my expectation for there to be issues – “I’ve never heard of a new boat that was perfect.” and Kanthaka is Seawind’s first electric boat, so I knew there would be bugs to work out, and here we are, working through them. The major issues: The propellers have three pitch positions: Forward propulsion, Neutral for low drag while sailing, and reverse/regen for reversing under power and regenerating while sailing. My props are stuck in reverse/regen. The torque/speed characteristics of the props and electric motors are not matched.   Coolant seems to be disappearing from my diesel powered generator with no apparent leak and is discolored – like coolant and m...

 

Kanthaka is amazing. But complicated. And a huge commitment. I don't think I appreciated the magnitude of the commitment. It's not like a car you can leave parked for months at a time, get in and drive away. There is a lot to learn, a lot of skills to develop, a lot to maintain. But it sure feels good when the sails are trimmed and powered and the boat is zipping across the water. I am a bit knackered. 14 hour time shift. Meeting new people, getting food, water, the hang of getting a taxi to the grocery store, daily instruction on the boat's systems. The good news is I've been sleeping great - surprising given the jet lag, the heat and humidity (no air-conditioning on the boat), the noise and lights in the marina. I've been sleeping outside on the trampoline and when the wind comes up, I actually get cold even though the nightly low is 82F. Lots to do in the next 2 months. Looking forward to a more relaxed and groovy pace.

 

  My favorite pictures of me and my dad, Sam. The Jacques Cousteau seed was planted early. This is why I fly hang gliders. My grandfather was an authoritarian and disciplinarian, and yet my father is the very opposite. I asked my father and my aunt Nancy how Sam came to be so calm and gentle and loving and they both named their uncle Denton as their male role model, but they also traced Sam's personality and disposition to my grandmother Hazel and her sister Jewell and my great grandparents Charlie and Boombie. We inherit not only neurosis and dysfunction from our ancestors, but also health and our capacity to love and nurture. The word husband used to mean more than "a married man;" it meant caretaker, cultivator, nurturer - a perfect description of my father. I am blessed by my father.