Fixing Sailboats-Sailing Indian Ocean to Chagos; AIS,Squalls,Fuel Siphon, Patrick Childress Sail #14

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Most popular comments
for Fixing Sailboats-Sailing Indian Ocean to Chagos; AIS,Squalls,Fuel Siphon, Patrick Childress Sail #14

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Patrick Childress Sailing - 6 years ago

Thanks, Aaron.

Houses Built Tiny - 6 years ago

Great video as always.
What is the history behind the name brick house? Can we get a tour?

Patrick Childress Sailing - 6 years ago

That can be a long story as there is the raunchy one and the children's version. But the shortest version, which bypasses some of the raunch is.... I used to fix rotten houses, do remodel work and a lot of carpentry around Newport, Rhode Island. When Rebecca moved there she gave up computers to become a very good real estate agent. We teamed up and started flipping houses. We were in at just the right cycle. Buying a junker, fixing it up and selling it in about 4 weeks. When the housing boom turned, we were ready to leave to go sailing. Then there is the song by the Commodores called "Brick House" which had us dancing around the hotel room after drinking too many Black Russians while skiing at Killington, Vt....ahhh, the good old days of raunch and wild fun.

Dan McAfee - 6 years ago

First I've seen of that siphoning method, thanks.

cameron Gibbs - 6 years ago

I was in PNG and i had not had a cigarette in a week .We were yet to clear customs and were flying the yellow flag .A young group of men said do we want some fruit etc .I asked do you have any smokes and made a hand gesture .I gave him 20 bucks and in a hour he was back and threw a package wrapped in paper and plastic and was a huge bag of marijuana lol. I quickly threw it over board .lol

Alex C - 6 years ago

Patrick, thankyou for your very practical videos. Regarding the siphoning why not use a jiggler!

Patrick Childress Sailing - 6 years ago

Jigglers are nice. Out here in the middle of nowhere, simple things are very hard to get but more often just don't exist. This is not America, Australia or New Zealand, where such things are easily available. Back to the basics.

VillageIdiot8055 - 6 years ago

Love what your doing, it's refreshing to see a series that doesn't really glamorize sailing as a sunny vacation.

Snake Plisken - 6 years ago

I use these and they are excellent. I have for diesel and one for water. https://www.amazon.com/Jiggler-Express-Safety-Shaker-Self-Priming/dp/B07JBNGDNN/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1544046451&sr=8-2-spons&keywords=siphon+shaker&psc=1

Hans C. - 6 years ago

Siphoning fuel by blowing into a closed container? Shucks, every home brewer/winemaker knows that. ;-) interesting video, thanks!

Randall Walford - 6 years ago

Another good video, Patrick. I have a question about Brick House. Is it a Uniflyte boat? Any blister issues in the years of ownership by Rebecca - or previously? l am interested in hearing your thoughts and experience dealing with blister issues. Thanks.

Arek kaniewski - 5 years ago

Go to Svalbard

Randall Walford - 6 years ago

+Patrick Childress Sailing Your comittment to living aboard and actually cruising is an inspiration to all of us yet to cast off without a return date. It is great to hear that the blisters are only cosmetic. I recently did a bottom job on my boat and had to research the subject. FWIW - David Pascoe, a brilliant 'forensic boat surveyor', who unfortunately just passed away, has written extensively over the years about blisters, their repair, recurrence, cause and effect on his website yachtsurvey dot com. Mads Dahlke, over on 'Sail Life' youtube channel did an extensive blister repair job on his boat, and it is well-documented on his channel. What is interesting is he went beyond grinding and used a silicone heating mat and vacuum pump setup going section by section to dry out the hull and catalyze the uncatalyzed resin that is believed to be the cause ( though with Uniflyte, I understand it is the fire retardant they used - which may have prevented catalyzation). I am sure you and others know much more about this than I do, however having completed a hull strip, penetrating epoxy, epoxy, and bottom job on my boat, I found his approach quite thorough and progressive, yet not crazy expensive. Keep well.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 6 years ago

Randall, Brick House is a blister boat. From the water line down, before I got involved, Rebecca had that area peeled and fiberglassed. From the water line up, I did some blister treatment the two times we painted the topsides, but I did not go crazy and do all the blisters as there were far too many. Some of those topside blisters returned but it really seems the recurrence has greatly slowed. Below the waterline, I can see some of those blisters have bubbled up again. Is this a problem to worry about; I really don't know. We are going on 12 years on this trip and I am not aware of any major problem because of the blisters. Sometime in the next year, I want to haul out in S. Africa for as many months as it takes to grind out all the blisters from the toerail down and do a proper rebuilding job. We have no plans to ever end this life style so I want to make sure this boat can deal with any sailing conditions we might encounter. We are running out of places to go on this boat....but Uruguay and Magellan Straights are looking enticing to me but Rebecca does not like the cold weather....we will see.

10. comment for Fixing Sailboats-Sailing Indian Ocean to Chagos; AIS,Squalls,Fuel Siphon, Patrick Childress Sail #14

Ed G - 6 years ago

Hi Pat, thanks for making these videos.
Can you make one video on bad weather sailing? Maybe how you set your boat up to heave-to.
What do you do when you're caught in a squall? Do you heave-to?
Do you use a drogue or sea anchor? If yes, did you make your own?
Do you have a storm sail? Or do you just reef in your jib?
Some actual footage of you dealing with a squall will be interesting. :-)

Patrick Childress Sailing - 6 years ago

Ed, That is a good idea. Till recently, I never had the cameras or video know how to document rough weather. We just arrived in Tanzania, Africa, on the east coast. In about a year, we will be rounding the south of Africa. Maybe we can find some challenging weather there.Actually, we rarely get into anything more than 25 knots. Even 30 knots of wind is no problem as long as we don’t have to head into it. Then it is just uncomfortable. I have been in extreme weather between New England and the Caribbean and also in the Indian Ocean, south of Madagascar. In those conditions I never hove-to as actively sailing seemed the best strategy. Only time we have hove-to was simply to hold station in pleasant weather till the sun came up. A lot of the strategy depends on so many factors, the boat, crew, shape of the waves, direction of desired travel…… With our cutter rig, the staysail is our storm jib. It is amazing how much lift that little sail can give in 40 knots of wind off the beam or close hauled. Rolling in the big jib really kills its aerodynamics so in anticipation of high wind areas, we put on the 90% and use the 120% in anticipated lighter wind areas. Only once was the wind so high we were moving directly down wind under bare poles at 9 knots did I start to consider using a drogue to slow us down....but the Monitor self steering vane was doing a good job steering and the conditions did not get worse so we had a good run for that part of the passage. I will keep the cameras ready!

Walther Budman - 6 years ago

diesel breath!!! ha ha ha

Culpable Injustice - 6 years ago

Amazing!

Les Garten - 6 years ago

Why did you not cruise the Maldives? Too expensive? Not yacht friendly?

Rebecca Childress - 6 years ago

Hope you all know that we also have a great blog...www.WhereIsBrickHouse.com. Lots more info to be found there, as well as many of our past articles.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 6 years ago

The cost to cruise the Maldives is $1,400. for 4 weeks. I have better things to spend my money on. The cruisers we know who went through the Maldives, for the most part, say it was something they would not do again. There were far too many tourist boats, too few things on land of interest and the free diving depths of the reefs have been destroyed by global warming. But even from the Maldives, cruisers had a difficult time fighting their way south as they also had difficult currents and winds to contend with. In retrospect, since the wind never did what it was supposed to have done, we should have hugged the south coast of Sri Lanka and used some favorable currents and wind along that coast to get us some westing. Next time.

John Angelo - 6 years ago

A shaker siphon is a sweet thing. Love your no nonsense videos!

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Shaker-Siphon-Transfer-Pump-for-Gas-Fuel-Oil-Automotive-Emergency-Fluid-By-Katzco/106358512?wmlspartner=wmtlabs&adid=22222222222060863864&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=e&wl1=o&wl2=c&wl3=10393233226&wl4=pla-1105736025577&wl12=106358512_10000006275&wl14=shaker%20sophon&veh=sem&msclkid=a486e9bab42e1f331453b2d4bc21c60c

Patrick Childress Sailing - 6 years ago

John, Thanks for watching and posting another good way to siphon.

SpaceWalkTraveller - 6 years ago

Thanks for taking the time for doing your great videos. Keep up your great work it's really much appreciated.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 6 years ago

SWT, Thanks for the positive comment!

SailnBlue - 6 years ago

I think I was your 100th sub, glad to see you growing!

SailnBlue - 6 years ago

20th Century...My father did some of that Island Hoping with MacArthur and i intend to follow his route...landing, then and now...I have tons of Old archival stuff to weave in...all completely from the human perspective of all involved...not at all a celebration of the old victory. I am in touch with some Japanese veterans groups as well ( Very few left) and their sons. The boomer sons of WWII vets took a long time as one would expect, to realize the impact all of this has had on their lives...Some of the stories are INCREDIBLE...Of course, there is no history without context, and the hundred years or so before WWII is especially relevant.

SailnBlue - 6 years ago

Hello Patrick, We are in Oregon. Our home port, at least for now, is in Charleston Oregon, near Coos Bay.
You are headed to the Atlantic? We have a history related voyage planned across the South Pacific. I hope we meet up someday.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 6 years ago

You will always have my appreciation for being #100. The growth is moving along which is nice to see. Where are you located?

Patrick Childress Sailing - 6 years ago

Thanks for the positive comment! I can't imagine living in a house again in Rhode Island.

Scot Steenson - 6 years ago

Fun video, Uncle!

Patrick Childress Sailing - 6 years ago

Thanks for watching! In a couple weeks I will be able to post my favorite videos about surviving on a coral atoll...fresh water, coconuts and coconut crabs, 3 separate videos...but first I have to put part 2 of the very difficult passage to get to Chagos.

Sailing Infidels - 6 years ago

Nice, you've been at it quite a while. Will be watching with interest. Cheers!

Patrick Childress Sailing - 6 years ago

Thanks for watching Sailing Infidels.

20. comment for Fixing Sailboats-Sailing Indian Ocean to Chagos; AIS,Squalls,Fuel Siphon, Patrick Childress Sail #14

How to Sail Oceans - 6 years ago

I was fascinated with your eyewitness weather forecasting. I remember trying to use Alan Watt's book Instant Weather Forecasting, but found the whole thing rather tricky. I'm curious how you judge how much wind is in a squall--I've been fooled several times, both with reefing down and virtually nothing happening, and again with a squall that didn't look like much and packing over 40 knots. Look which way the anvil top is bent for direction--didn't know that, thanks! Fair winds on your passage ... Kevin Boothby

Patrick Childress Sailing - 6 years ago

Thanks for the comment. Spend enough time in the tropics and you run through plenty of, intense and not so intense, localized weather. Black lines of weather near the water are big trouble. In that black wall pictured in the towering Q, winds can easily be 40-50 knots. In the smaller localized weather, 25-35 knots is common. Without the black line but having gradients of gray easing into the squall the severity is not so bad, but I have been fooled at times. Having studied aviation weather helps. The large, dangerous, towering Qs will have an anvil top but the smaller localized systems may not show an anvil top. The other day I had out Instant Weather Forecasting as I wanted to compare its forecast of larger weather systems with our Predict Wind coupled with the satellite communication of Iridium Go! for downloading. As often happens, the clouds in my sky were not pictured in the book….

SailnBlue - 6 years ago

You have a rare consciousness that the world is not our Disney. There can be purpose in life beyond pleasure seeking, which is what most sailing channels offer.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 6 years ago

SailinBlue, Thank you.

SailnBlue - 6 years ago

Straight up sailing and no baloney. Thumbs up!

Patrick Childress Sailing - 6 years ago

Thank you SailnBlue.

Mark Bowers - 6 years ago

Great to see your latest! Looks like your passage is going well.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 6 years ago

Hi Mark, The passage to Chagos was extremely difficult due to contrary wind and contrary current. The current was especially strong for a wide swath above and below the equator. We never did get the westing we wanted. 1,100 miles took 15 days. Chagos is 110 miles north of Diego Garcia, the U.S. forward operating base, so security in the area is tight. Here in Rodrigues, the internet gets the award for being the slowest in the world. It took 15 hours to upload this simple video….then I realized at the end “Suscribe” was spelled wrong! I couldn’t spend another 15 hours fixing that! In Chagos I put together 3 videos called “Surviving The Atoll”….if anyone ever gets marooned and needs to live off the land…but first, there is one other passage video to put up. Thanks for watching!

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