Working on Island Time

The Urban Dictionary defines island time as “the time vacuum created by the ocean's presence. Similar to stoner's time, everything moves nice and slow. This carefree aura even has the ability to travel with islanders and can engulf you in their presence.” Perhaps it's being surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and seeing palm trees sway lazily in the breeze or perhaps it's the hot, humid, sultry weather that sucks the energy out of you that accounts for the laid-back attitude and slow way of life here. Things don't happen quickly in Trinidad. We're definitely working on island time here.

People never rush. When they walk, they saunter or amble. There's no swift pace involved … no running. Even the traffic moves slowly … many times at a crawl for no apparent reason … but you rarely see road rage or angry faces on the drivers. So what … traffic is moving slowly … oh, well … we'll get there eventually. The cause of the traffic jam could be a huge pothole in the road or a broken-down bus or just as likely two cars heading in opposite directions stopped on the two lane road for a quick chat. Schedules and appointments are more of a suggestion than they are an actual timetable to which folks adhere.

In a country that has 17 national holidays (that's more than three business weeks of holidays – and that's not counting Carnaval), it's easy to understand the slow pace and delays, but it's especially difficult to deal with if you're relying on people to get projects completed “on time”, because “on time” has little meaning here. Things get done when they get done.

For cruisers, this is a frustrating issue. There seems to be no urgency about anything and, of course, for us everything is urgent. We want to get done and get back in the water. Case in point is David has been waiting for tradesmen to show up for estimates and project work. “I'll be there in an hour or so”, they tell him. The critical words “or so” mean perhaps sometime in the future. It's kind of like “just now” in South Africa. When they haven't shown up after a couple of hours and David calls, they promise “anytime now” which means sometime later in the day. We haven't figured out the American English equivalent for “now” which actually means “NOW!” We're not sure that word exists.

As a result, it's impossible to schedule more than one task a day and sometimes even the one doesn't get accomplished. Work on Nine of Cups is progressing more slowly than we'd hoped. Several projects, like pulling the prop shaft and removing the old sea cock from the engine through-hull, require more specialized tools than we have aboard. (I have trouble imagining a tool that David does not have). Since one task or project relies on another to be finished before starting a new one, we find ourselves getting “behinder and behinder”. The calendar days are quickly being eaten up and May 1st, our anticipated departure day, will be here before we know it.

Perhaps it's time to consider putting Plan B down on paper?

A New Way of Looking at Things

I think if I had to find a quote describing what it's like living and traveling on a sailboat, Henry Miller's quote would certainly apply. I remember visiting Key West for the first time by car and not enjoying it very much. We'd flown into Miami, rented a car, got stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic for hours along Route 1 South and then had to deal with shoulder-to-shoulder tourists in the Conch Republic aka Key West. It was neither fun nor enjoyable and I had no intentions of returning. My mind was made up. Then we sailed into Key West aboard Nine of Cups and I saw the port and the town and the getting there in a whole new light. I absolutely adored it.

And so it is with many things in life. You hear about places. You read about things. You watch videos. You form an opinion … and then you go there yourself. As with my first visit to Key West, it seems the way you arrive and the process of getting there, colors your first impressions. If you're only there for a short time, it's hard to get a true feel for what you're looking at. You can't get rid of your preconceived notions and first impressions. You have no time to poke into the alleys and corners to discover what's really there.

The sailing/cruising experience does more than get you from one place to another. It allows you to immerse yourself in a new town … or a new country or a new culture. It allows you to appreciate the sameness in people and celebrate the differences. It allows you to look at people and places and things in a whole new light. It's not just the destination that becomes important … it's what you experience along the way and while you're there. It's how you grow.

What's more, when you return to a place you've seen a thousand times before, it lets you look at it differently because of what you've experienced. That's what travel does for you. It opens up your mind. It lets you soak up experiences and feelings you'd never truly considered. It teaches you tolerance and understanding and patience and self-reliance. It lets you expand and learn till you think you've seen it all and then you look … and it's all changed and you're looking at it for the first time again.

There's so much world out there and so little time. And you sometimes ask why we live this lifestyle? That's why.

The Blue View - Alternative Antennas

In the last Blue View, I talked about a long line antenna, which is what most cruising boats use for transmitting, either on the marine bands or on the HAM frequencies. As I mentioned, probably 95% of the cruising sailboats we see use a long line type antenna for their HF radios, but there are a couple of other alternatives.

One alternative is a whip antenna. This is a 23' fiberglass antenna that is mounted to a rail, usually near the stern of a sailboat. The rail is typically used as the counterpoise. The whip antenna is more often used on power boats, but we have seen a number of sailboats using them as well. The drawbacks: they are expensive (although no more so than buying and installing a couple of backstay insulators); the mounting method must be robust as a 23' pole aboard a sailboat that is rolling in a seaway will put a lot of stress on the mounting point; the transmission range is typically less than that of a properly installed long line antenna – some estimates I've seen indicate as much as 30% less.

Another alternative is a dipole antenna. A dipole antenna may be the most widely used antenna for shore-based systems. The most common version is made up of two identical length conductors placed end-to-end. The radio signal connection is made at the junction of the two wires. The dipole antenna is only resonant within a small frequency range (example: 14.0Mhz-14.5Mhz), and is tuned by adjusting the length of the two conductors. If it is operated at the tuned transmission frequency, no antenna tuner is needed – the dipole can be connected directly to the radio. We commonly transmit in the 14Mhz range, so the dipole I built was tuned for this range. I found, however, that if I connected it through my antenna tuner, it transmits reasonably well throughout the 10Mhz to 18Mhz range – maybe not quite as well as the long line, but not bad. On the other hand, within its resonant frequency band, it is superior to our long line antenna.

I built a rather simple version. I used coax cable from the antenna tuner to the junction of the two dipole conductors. As an insulator, I used a one foot section of 1x2 wood, and soldered the connections between the coax and the dipole conductors. Each of the conductors were secured with cable ties, and the entire insulator was wrapped in rigger's tape to protect it from the elements. I used a spare halyard to hoist one end of the antenna and secured the other end to the stern rail. The coax wire was led from the insulator to a cable tie on the backstay, then to our antenna tuner.

The length of the two dipole conductors should be 1/2 wavelength in total which, if you're not a radio geek, is determined by the formula: length in feet = 468/frequency in megahertz. So if you want to transmit at 14.2Mhz, the theoretical length of the conductors should be 468/14.2 = 32.96 feet, and each conductor should be half of this, or 16.48 feet. Note that this is the theoretical length. The optimal length will vary from the theoretical based on a host of variables – the type and length of feed line, other rigging, masts, angle of the dipole, etc.

To tune the antenna length, I used my radio's built in Standing Wave Ratio (SWR) meter. I was at anchor, but if I was at a marina, I would have moved Nine of Cups to an anchorage or mooring to avoid any interference from other boats or structures. I started by making the length of the dipole conductors slightly longer than the theoretical lengths, hoisted it into position and checked the SWR. The SWR will be lowest at the resonant frequency of the dipole, and to start, the center of the resonant frequency was lower than the desired frequency of 14.2Mhz. I lowered the antenna and trimmed off an inch from each conductor, then repeated the process until the the resonant frequency was centered around 14.2Mhz.

The purists out there will know this wasn't the optimal method of building a dipole. I should have used a balun between the coax feed line and the dipole conductors, or alternatively used a twin lead feed line instead of coax. There are also ways to build a multi-frequency dipole that will transmit at three frequency ranges. This was my first attempt, however, and I wanted to keep it simple. As it turns out, I was quite happy with its performance and didn't modify it.

If I didn't have a SWR meter, I would have made the lengths of the conductors the theoretical lengths and used an antenna tuner between the dipole and the radio. This is the configuration I use anyway, since I often use the dipole at other than the resonant frequency.

So what do we actually use? Most often we rely on our old long line antenna, and the dipole is our backup. Since it doesn't require a ground plane, I also dig it out when we are on the hard where the performance of the long line drops dramatically.

Well – to paraphrase my dear old dad – I've taught you everything I know about HF radios and antennas and you still don't know nuthin'.

Next week I'll move on to a totally new subject – stay tuned.