Canadian Registry - at last!

Readers from our last trip out will remember that we did a haul-out in Nanny Cay in March in order to fulfill the ridiculous measurement requirements of Transport Canada to complete our registration.  TC won't accept the original builder's certificate of measurement even on a new catamaran and they have no 'formulaic' measurement such as is used for pontoon boats and monohulls.  I guess there just aren't enough catamarans in Canada for them and this makes a great money-grab for those providing the measurement services.  Anyway, off that rant ... we finally completed and received Mowzer's registration and she can now sail with the maple leaf fluttering off the back-stay.

First Meeting

Has anyone seen a missing US Air plane?  Apparently they've misplaced one.

About two hours after our intended departure from Philadelphia, it was decided to pull  one out of the maintenance hangar and get us on our way.  They did reassure us that it was a good plane and it did hold together through some fairly rough turbulence, but I am still left wondering whatever happened to the plane that was intended for this flight? I do believe the pilot was determined to make up some of the lost time as our max speed on our GPS during the flight was 1137 km/hr.

What a wonderful reception we received at CYOA! Joanne met us at the airport, it seemed the whole crew turned out to welcome us and there was Mowzer decked out with ribbons and flowers and looking absolutely beautiful. Congrats to all the folks at CYOA who made her look so pretty! Nancy gave us a quick briefing to see us through the night and then we set to, to make her our home for the next two weeks.

Sitting in the dock-side bar, “Hook, Line & Sinker” for dinner in the evening, it was a little strange watching the Canadian women’s curling team defeat Sweden. It amazed the fellow sitting at the bar next to us when I told him we’d been curling just yesterday. Turns out, he’s the hired captain of a ‘little private motor yacht’ (only 112 ft long) and he gave us all sorts of pointers on where to go for some nice off-the-beaten-path experiences. He actually referred to his boat as a ‘dinghy’ in these waters. What does that make us? A flea on the dinghy to the dinghy?

At Home in St. Thomas

For the next few years Mowzer will call the CYOA docks at St. Thomas home.  Arrival happened earlier this week and we were thrilled to receive the first pics from Kirsten of Mowzer as she settles in.

Like the passing of the Olympic torch, Laurent and crew have delivered Mowzer safely across the ocean and left us with this passing shot.

Now the fun begins as it is just a week before we will be able to put our own feet aboard, but in the meantime, there is much to be done.  Electrical system updates, canvas installation, all the onboard supplies for linen and galley, etc - the To-Do List is quite lengthy!  Mowzer has been installed at the docks, just next to Arcola - the Athena 38 we sailed last March with John, Eleanor and Carl.

 I guess squeezing into tight places becomes a necessity on a boat - glad to see the hat is safely stowed!  With the sun beaming down out in the cockpit, the canvas has all been installed and looks great.  The davits are on and work in the engine compartments is underway.

Back home in Ottawa, we haven't had much snow this winter but there is still a foot of the white stuff on the ground.  Talking to Nancy, she said it's been a strange winter down there as well with lighter than usual winds from the S/SE - sounds delightful and we're eagerly anticipating our visit.

Registration Decision

Had a long chat with John the other day and we've now decided that while we want to eventually persue the Canadian registration, especially as we get to the end of our charter period, it is not urgent to do so and certainly not to the tune of $1000 for a haul-out and tonnage measurement.  We've decided to put this off until annual haul-out in August in Puerto Rico and we will hopefully find a measurer who can get the job done once the boat is up on the hard.  For the short term, Mowzer can sail under her USVI registration which is required for the chartering business anyway.

In the meantime, Mowzer has arrived in St. Thomas and according to Kirsten she is beautiful, but could be prettier with a stylized logo and hailing port.  Even though we haven't finalized the Canadian registration we still want to identify Ottawa as the hailing port, so we're going with it.

Delivery Update #6 - arrival in St. Martin

They've done it!  Mowzer and crew arrived in Marigot on the island of St. Martin last night.  French crew - French Island (or at least half of it) - sounds like they knew where they were heading!  We were in Marigot in 2008 and the food is fabulous so I can bet the crew had a great meal off the boat last night.

The plan is now to sail to Tortola, BVI and then the crew will have to ferry into the USVI on the commercial boat to obtain their visas, ferry back to Tortola and then bring Mowzer into the USVI.  Apparently, foreign nationals cannot arrive by private yacht in US waters without visas with the exception of US citizens (d'uh) and Canadians.  Too bad we're not on board.

Here's the last log track (for this voyage) ... and below are a couple of pictures from our previous visit to Marigot.

In Marigot - notice the proximity of the restaurant table to boats in the Marina!

Sunset over Marigot, Simpson Bay Lagoon and Sandy Ground (view from Pic Paradis).

Delivery Update #5 - 478 nautical miles to go!

One month since departing La Rochelle, Mowzer and the crew are within a couple of days of St. Thomas.

January 31 18:42 GMT N19 26.733 W56 35.083 (591 nm since Jan 27)

Delivery Update #5

Holy cow - they're really motoring, or should I say sailing.  It seems almost surreal to see the track progressing across the map on a daily basis...

January 24  0811GMT  N23 11.781  W35 26.157  (194 nm)
January 24  1503GMT  N22 57.170  W36 19.416  (  51 nm)
January 26  0717GMT  N21 58.111  W41 22.945  (287 nm)
January 27  2045GMT  N20 52.736  W46 12.599  (277 nm)

Over these last few days they've been averaging 7-8 knots which is a good cruising speed but not pushing the boat too hard.

Registration Frustration

Trying to wrap up the Canadian registration today and it really is a process designed for Canadian built commercial vessels.  I'm sure it all works fine for fishing boats on the coast or for the big tankers on the lake/seaway, but for an itsy-bitsy catamaran in the Caribbean that had the audacity to be built offshore, the beaurocracy is living up to its name.

Neither of the two bills of sale that Fountaine-Pajot have supplied seem to be what Transport Canada is looking for although they haven't been able to articulate what is wrong with them.  One of them is signed and notarized on the TC form itself so I am going to send the original (praying they will return it) and hopefully convince them that this is it.  I also need to lay hands on the original builder's certificate which has not yet appeared from F-P so that is the next paper-chase.

Finally, the "Attestation de Juage" from the French Direction Generale Des Douanes et Droits Indirect Interregion de Bordeaux (say that 10 times fast) does not meet the requirements for a Measurement of Tonnage.  TC requires that the measurement is done by one of their certified measurers but when I called one listed for Europe, they laughed at me and told me that the ships they measure are used to transport boats like ours.  Now that Mowzer is almost in the Caribbean, I'm going to investigate one of the BVI measurers to see if he can go to the USVI to complete this requirement.

The good story in all of this is that John has already obtained a USVI registration for us so the boat can be brought into port.  We just need to get the Canadian side completed for our own ownership requirements.

Nice of the government to have cashed our cheque already though - hope they're enjoying the fun as much as I am.

Delivery Update #4

Well out in the Atlantic now and the updates become a series of latitude/longitude posts.  The plot really shows the progress.

January 19  1015GMT  N23 23.492  W24 55.649  (275nm)

January 20  1037GMT  N23 21.627  W27 27.134  (139nm in 24 hours)

January 21  1634GMT  N23 9.816    W29 55.353  (137nm)

January 22  1605GMT  N23 7.324    W31 55.364  (110nm)

That's 2095 nm done and 1870 nm to go!

Delivery Update #3

Mowzer's been underway now for two and half weeks and has begun the final but immense stage of crossing the Atlantic.

Here's the progress of the last week:

Jan 11 - evening - arrived in Lanzarote, Canary Islands
Jan 13 - 12 noon GMT - departed Lanzarote (ETA in St. Thomas - 3 weeks)
Jan 13 - 1529 GMT  N28 36.756  W13 50.598  (24nm)
Jan 13 - 1819 GMT  N28 17.069  W13 50.895  (20nm)
Jan 17 - 0622 GMT  N24 31.467  W20 3.609  (403nm)

I`m trying to figure out how to map out her progress - here`s my first attempt:

For this, I used a little app I found on the web that lets you take lat/long co-ordinates and track them on a Google map.  It's designed to work with Garmin GPS track logs but I just typed in the co-ordinates that the delivery crew has sent out.  Of course I have a couple of problems - I only have sporadic locations so some of the track crosses land as they came around Spain and Portugal (obviously, they didn't chase the birds but had to go the long way round!)  The second issue is that the picture is very nice and shows the track on the map, but it is not a link or app that I know how to post so I just took a 'picture' of it and posted that.

Back to the Factory (oops - just kidding)

Here are some pictures we received from the factory - our first glimpse of Mowzer (the real deal!)

There's our baby!

Must Do's and Wanna Do's

Once Mowzer arrives in St. Thomas there's still some work for the intrepid CYOA crew to accomplish before she can set out on her first charters.  John has just forwarded the list to us.  Some are "must do's" before her first cruise and others are things that will be done for sure, but don't have to be done first.


Propane System - changes to factory butane system

• provide propane tanks
• LPG regulator
• LPG solenoid and switch at galley

Electrical - 110 volt

• provide end to shore cable that matches US mains
• install inverter
• connect outlets to inverter (do not connect hot water heater)
• provide and install converters for freezer and fridge to operate on 110V (and 12V DC)

Ground Tackle

• provide and install main anchor chain
• provide and install main anchor
• provide and install secondary anchor rode
• provide and install secondary anchor
• install foot switches for windlass operation (wanna do)

Electronics

• provide and install TV and DVD player (wanna do)
• provide and install chip for plotter
• provide and install remote VHF at helm (wanna do)

Electrical - 12V (all wanna do's)

• install fans in cabins and galley
• upgrade house batteries
• marry charging from both engines to all house batteries
• add switches with pilot light for freezer and fridge
• provide and install visible and audible alarms at helms for engine room flooding 

Deck

• install sun protection for helm (wanna do)
• provide and install sheet stopper and leads on coach roof for port jib sheet
• upgrade lazy jacks to be adjustable from deck level (wanna do)
• remove cast parts from end of davits, machine rough edges and re-install
• provide and install blocks and sheet stoppers as neede for davit lines
• provide and install USCG PFDs
• provide and install misc deck gear (boat hook, bucket, etc.)
• provide and install engine room fire suppression systems (wanna do)

Plumbing

• provide and install electric toilets in lieu of manual toilets (wanna do)

Interior

• provide and install door stops for all doors
• provide and install USCG approved fire extinguishers
• provide and install bell
• provide and install all galley gear, linens and other domestic items

Miscellaneous

• provide and install "No Smoking" decal
• provide and install "Do Not Step" decals on hatches
• provide and install oil polution placards in each engine room
• provide solid waste placard in galley

Tender

• provide and commission tender

Lots to get done but it should all be possible before our first visit.

Delivery Update #2

Apparently the weather is less than desirable so the crew has had to pull into Sines, Portugal for a 36 hour stopover - the seas were running too high.

They have now departed for the Canary Islands (rather than Madeira.)

Position on Jan 8 at 1806 GMT:  N34 32.245  W9 44.379

Delivery is Underway

Mowzer was built at the Fountaine-Pajot yard in La Rochelle, France.  La Rochelle is on the western coast of France about half-way down and of course this is a long way from St. Thomas.  The solution - a delivery crew.

Mowzer was actually completed and delivered to the marina for rigging and testing on December 10.  Once the boat was masted, rigged and the sails were bent on, she underwent a period of testing and tuning before being handed over to the delivery crew just prior to Christmas.  With some pretty nasty weather hitting Europe, the crew decided to wait out the weather and then finally departed from La Rochelle on December 31st.

Here's the progress so far:
Dec 31  -  1700 GMT - departed La Rochelle, France
Jan 2     -  1447 GMT - N44 2.779  W7 1.196
                  crossing the Bay of Biscay, north of Spain
Jan 4     -  stopover of 36 hours in A Coruna, Spain to avoid a warm front
                 departed in the morning for Madeira

I'll post more updates as they come in.