It’s Showtime

BruceK said:

Now we know different.

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In my experience that was proven a long time ago. With their history of longevity I can't see how any one could think otherwise.

Like the bunny, Lehman's just run and run and run.

Wxx3 said:

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How large do you think that wave is in the photo?

Later,
Dan

dannc said:

How large do you think that wave is in the photo?

Later,
Dan

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16'~18', my guess.

Not sure which one is more impressive, Richard or Dauntless.

This certainly has been a wild, woolly & briny voyage, or as the locals say great Craic

To echo everyone else, well done indeed.

WOWZA I had to make a emergency trip back to Zurich and missed the last couple days congrats

I am all caught up what a amazing trip

Moonstruck said:

Let us not forget kudos to Mssrs. Ford and Lehman. Great engine.

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Good thought, Don. I sent Brian Smith at American Diesel info on the Dauntless voyage and the Delorme link a few days ago, figuring they'd be interested. Have not heard back.

19'

deckofficer said:

16'~18', my guess.

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I was in some steep seas off the coast of NC that NOAA reported at 19'. I would say that about 16' would be my guess. I can't imagine being in a small boat in those seas 24/7.

Imagining is what we all were doing. Richard was actually doing it and imagining us in our easy chairs.

12-15 perhaps? Hard to say from a picture.

"In a boat it’s easy to overestimate wave heights. This is because of a phenomenon discovered by William Froude in 1861. He found that, no matter how your boat is situated on a large swell, what you feel to be “straight down” is actually at right angles to the wave. So when you think you’re looking out on a level line to judge a wave, you are actually looking on an angle, distorting your judgment. The only time to make an accurate appraisal of the waves is when you are at the bottom of a trough, midway between two waves, and you are sitting relatively level. In a small boat your eye might be about four feet above the waterline. If you can sight along several wave tops in a row when in a trough, then the waves are about three feet high, which is what most of us judge to be “six-footers.” Sight along the gunwale, about two feet off the water, to judge smaller waves. Stand up to raise your eyes to six feet or more to judge larger waves."

Capt.Bill11 said:

12-15 perhaps? Hard to say from a picture.
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It is hard to tell wave heights. I think one problem is that the waves are not the same height all of the time. We were in FLA as the first hurricane of the season was forming. We were at the beach and the weather was just off and something was brewing. The oldest kid and I rented a kayak and went on the ocean for an hour or so. I would guess most of the waves were 2-3 feet but there were some much larger ones as well that might have been up to 6 feet. The taller waves were at a certain area and I felt sure there must be some structure at that end of the beach.

That night I downloaded the chart for that area and sure enough there was a valley and ridge right off the beach. The ridge was causing the waves to increase in size but thankfully not breaking out where we were paddling.

In Richards case we know from ships, a weather buoy, and energy platform, that waves were around 5 meters. The problem with photos of sea state is that the lens used to take the photo can change the perspective, and if there is not a subject in the photo that indicates size, it is hard to tell the size of the wave. In Richard's photo we have part of the boat in the photo so that should help narrow down the wave size.

Later,
Dan

dannc said:

In Richard's photo we have part of the boat in the photo so that should help narrow down the wave size.

Later,
Dan

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That is what I based my 16'~18' guess on. The dinghy deck on Richard's boat is about 10' above the waterline. The picture that included that deck was shot from a slightly lower position, so if the wave appears in that sight line it is 10' plus the amount above the deck with an added amount for camera angle.

Most all of my time at sea the wave height was below my sight line from the bridge, which is a good thing considering I'm 60' above the waterline.

Richard...how have the locals been treating you & have you picked up a nickname yet?

Like the "F..king Crazy Yank that arrived in the middle of the night in a near gale in that wee boat"

Are the school children taking field trips to the harbor to view you & Dauntless?

Have you had to pay for a pint yet?

Has the town commissioned a bronze, you at the helm, to be placed at the harbor entrance?

deckofficer said:

That is what I based my 16'~18' guess on. The dinghy deck on Richard's boat is about 10' above the waterline. The picture that included that deck was shot from a slightly lower position, so if the wave appears in that sight line it is 10' plus the amount above the deck with an added amount for camera angle.

Most all of my time at sea the wave height was below my sight line from the bridge, which is a good thing considering I'm 60' above the waterline.

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Ah, that is the type of guestimate I was looking for.

Later,
Dan

HeyJude said:

Richard...how have the locals been treating you & have you picked up a nickname yet?

Like the "F..king Crazy Yank that arrived in the middle of the night in a near gale in that wee boat"

Are the school children taking field trips to the harbor to view you & Dauntless?

Have you had to pay for a pint yet?

Has the town commissioned a bronze of you at helm to be placed at the harbor entrance?

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Perfection! I love it. (still laughing)

Waves are a bit like fish though....they get bigger with each time you describe them. Ten years from now I'm sure they will be 40'. lol

But the buoy measurements tell you they were as described and not pleasant. I never saw the period of the 5 meter waves mentioned. Something tells me it was not like the Pacific Coast swells with long periods.

Like the "F..king Crazy Yank that arrived in the middle of the night in a near gale in that wee boat"

That is Great!
You gotta hope having one of our very own pulling this off will improve our "street cred"!!


1983 Present 42 Sundeck
Twin Lehman 135's

HeyJude said:

Richard...how have the locals been treating you & have you picked up a nickname yet?

Like the "F..king Crazy Yank that arrived in the middle of the night in a near gale in that wee boat"

Are the school children taking field trips to the harbor to view you & Dauntless?

Have you had to pay for a pint yet?

Has the town commissioned a bronze of you at helm to be placed at the harbor entrance?

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Now THAT was an epic post!!

HeyJude said:

Richard...how have the locals been treating you & have you picked up a nickname yet?

Like the "F..king Crazy Yank that arrived in the middle of the night in a near gale in that wee boat"

Are the school children taking field trips to the harbor to view you & Dauntless?

Have you had to pay for a pint yet?

Has the town commissioned a bronze, you at the helm, to be placed at the harbor entrance?

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Great post, Phil:lol: The only thing greater would have been if he arrived with a cockpit load of fish and a record local catch hanging from the bent paravane!

Well, if you check Richard's new title, I'm in full happiness mode. The Dauntless Award indeed sums up the experience -- even for galley readers like self. Congratulations to both Richard and Julie.

You're amazing. And Dauntless too.

BandB said:

Waves are a bit like fish though....they get bigger with each time you describe them. Ten years from now I'm sure they will be 40'. lol

But the buoy measurements tell you they were as described and not pleasant. I never saw the period of the 5 meter waves mentioned. Something tells me it was not like the Pacific Coast swells with long periods.

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The reports were 4-5 meters with a period of 7-8 seconds. One buoy was west of Richards position and the energy platform was to his east. All roughly 30-50 NM from Richard. Not nice that is for sure.

Later,
Dan

I haven't boated in those areas of Europe. However, I envision that they would be much like the areas around our capes on both east and west coasts---colliding currents and steep waves. I have boated quite a bit off shore of the NC capes, and I can tell you with a NE wind the waves build fast and steep.

janice142 said:

Well, if you check Richard's new title, I'm in full happiness mode. The Dauntless Award indeed sums up the experience -- even for galley readers like self. Congratulations to both Richard and Julie.

You're amazing. And Dauntless too.

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I totally agree!!


1983 Present 42 Sundeck
Twin Lehman 135's

BruceK said:

Good observation Don. I understood certain engines are rated for long/constant running( like JD, Gardiner etc), at the risk of upsetting Bob and Brian, I don`t think the FL was one of them. Now we know different. Of course good maintenance is a vital component.

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There are two FL120s with over 80,000hrs on them. They run 24/7 as irrigation pumps. I have run mine for several days straight and would think they preferred to not be shut down.

Daddyo said:

There are two FL120s with over 80,000hrs on them. They run 24/7 as irrigation pumps. I have run mine for several days straight and would think they preferred to not be shut down.

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We had a 4 cylinder derated to about 60hp on an asphalt machine. It had well over 20,000 hours when sold. It was still going strongly.

deckofficer said:

That is what I based my 16'~18' guess on. The dinghy deck on Richard's boat is about 10' above the waterline. The picture that included that deck was shot from a slightly lower position, so if the wave appears in that sight line it is 10' plus the amount above the deck with an added amount for camera angle.

Most all of my time at sea the wave height was below my sight line from the bridge, which is a good thing considering I'm 60' above the waterline.

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Man, I missed you guys.

I have this strange tendency to both over and then underestimate, because I don't want to be second guessed.

So, I'll see in this case a wave, I'll think, that wave is 12-14', but am I exagerrating?, I don't want to say 14' if its not, so I'll say 10'!


Yes, sometimes I clearly overthink things.

I really tried to take pictures when the boat was level and I could get some perspective into the shot.

THe top of the cowling on the fly bridge is 14.6'

I'd say now that wave was 13 to 15'.

I appreciate everyone's help and Deck Officer's expertise, as he has seen more waves than I'll ever see in this lifetime.

Richard, we are lost not tracking your every step. Oh, what happened, he slowed down to 2 knots and.... what could be wrong...
This is what was going on our side of the world. The best one was just before you went behind Bere Island you stopped. All of hearts sank. He ran out of fuel, he got air in the fuel, the seas are so rough something bad happened.
Well we don't know but my bet was you were pulling the parvane....

dannc said:

The reports were 4-5 meters with a period of 7-8 seconds. One buoy was west of Richards position and the energy platform was to his east. All roughly 30-50 NM from Richard. Not nice that is for sure.

Later,
Dan

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The period was the killer. The boat would be literally heeled over at 30° when the next wave would break on the exposed hull with a bank like a cannon shot.
This would then push the entire boat sideways and down with the down wind cap rail being pushed into the water.

It's hard to describe my feelings. I had a few scary moments, but not really htis.

It's best described as if I were tied onto a roller coaster for 30 hours. i sort of knew that the coaster was not going to fly off the tracks, I knew that pattern, but I just was desperate for it to end.

When I get extremely stressed. I get sleepy. I think it's my body's defensive mechanism. I'm sure had I been on the open ocean I would have taken a bunch of benedryl and gone to sleep. But as I contemplated what to do, I realized I was too close to shore to take any sleep.

I'd just have to grin and bear it.

But I did have a plan if the engine stopped

Richard: I got to hand it to ya when it comes to trust in your vessel. Of course, we'd need that to make the kind of voyage you've just completed, but the belief that you were on a roller-coaster that would NOT come off the rails.....well, that's a lot of trust.

BTW, the photo of the paravane doesn't show where you suspect the bend happened initially. Where along the pole was it exactly? Thanks for your continued sharing of this important data.

What was the plan???


1983 Present 42 Sundeck
Twin Lehman 135's

Wxx3 said:

Man, I missed you guys.

I have this strange tendency to both over and then underestimate, because I don't want to be second guessed.

So, I'll see in this case a wave, I'll think, that wave is 12-14', but am I exagerrating?, I don't want to say 14' if its not, so I'll say 10'!


Yes, sometimes I clearly overthink things.

I really tried to take pictures when the boat was level and I could get some perspective into the shot.

THe top of the cowling on the fly bridge is 14.6'

I'd say now that wave was 13 to 15'.

I appreciate everyone's help and Deck Officer's expertise, as he has seen more waves than I'll ever see in this lifetime.

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Not from the perspective of a 42' vessel, you win hands down on that over me.