Blue Star Logbook

Gerry Cooper former BSL Engineer, his wife Nicky and ship's  cat  Priss  are shortly setting sail from Florida on an ocean going yatch called Opal of Queensland. After heading South and visiting the Caribean  Islands they  will be passing through the Panama Canal and then  island hopping in the South Pacific until reaching Tasmania via diversions that might take their fancy.


If you want to follow their progress use the following website:


https://www.sailblogs.com

Using the Google search box on the site , type in : Coopers Quest

At which point you will see a couple of blogs and a image of the yatch on dry land and afloat (but not its best viewing point).

I am sure Gerry will appreciate a few posts during his voyage from past shipmates.
Pass on to others that might know Gerry.

Gerry and I sailed on Starman Anglia in 79-80 with John Suddes and Barry Hastie.

Gerry has now 4 posts on his blog and is just doing last minute jobs whilst waiting for the weather to be favourable.
There is a facility on the blog to leave comments, so don't be shy.

Immigration cleared, Blue Peter up at the masthead, All on Board book has been round.
Stand By and Stations for leaving harbour am Sunday EST.
BOT sports @ 16.30, Steaming Bonnets and Shades ( whether its sunny or not) for Deck Department, the rest come as you are.
Smooth sailing and a following wind Nicky, Gerry, Priss.
Buen vieja.

Vessel Name: Opal of Queensland
Vessel Make/Model: Tayana 52AC
Hailing Port: Bundaberg
Crew: Nicky, Gerry and Priss
About: Motley mostly, especially the cat

After setting sail from Florida, Gerry, Nicky and Priss (the ship's cat though often goes by other Anglo Saxon names from Gerry), anchored off the Bahamas in several places and carried out tweaking. One major job was to repair a leaking watercooled exhaust using the trusty Thistlebond and other 'gobbing up' remedies, well used on the BSL 'ships of character' ( the old bangers, tfa). Next job was acid cleaning the SW cooled Reefer heat exchangers. Despite that and a reroute of the SW cooling to them, they are hanging on with a 'wing and a prayer' .
After the Bahamas it was off to various anchorages at the Turks and Caicos, waiting for a weather window before moving on to the Dominican Republic for Chistmas.
Twickmus takes them to Peurto Rico for the New Year at which point there maybe some tweaking of the jib sail if a sail loft can be found. You can always tell a man from the 'cut of his jib' and Gerry is no different.

Happy New Year to all our readers (as we tried to insert in the old log sheets and hope the C/ Eng didn't catch it).

'Q' Flag up in Boquoron for the weekend after a boisterous passage due to squalls.

Gerry & Nicky are now exploring the US & British Virgin Islands, but not noticed any yet.
They had a bit of sadness recently, Priss the third member of the crew, 'Ship's Cat' had to be put to sleep due to cirrosis of the liver. Perhaps she liked the local rum too much was Nicky's suggestion.
Gerry's new overboard discharge for the reefer cooling water and a new electronic gubbins in the circuit seems to have done the trick so far.
It reminded me of the days of CO2 machines and high sea temps, with frosty having to run the Freon booster.
At the moment they are biding their time in exploring the VI's waiting for some friends in a catamaran who they are going to 'buddy sail' in the Pacific.
Thanks for all those that have looked at the post, please drop Gerry & Nicky a post on their Sailblog.

Gerry is still swanning around the B&US Virgin Islands, looking for an illustrious on. They did see a couple of Swedish yachties skinning dipping, but that was it. They are itching to start sailing again, but waiting for another yacht to join them.
No major mechanical problems recently, though Gerry does like to keep busy inventing things to be done.
He might even drop the Log a line, if I give him a nudge, or at least Nicky, she has the way with the words, well the sort of words suitable for polite company.

Well there is an addition to Gerry's Crew, a Kiwi friend who is learning how to be a helmsman ( helmswoman). They are still killing time round the Virgin Islands awaiting the arrival of the Sailing Catamaran.


I see the viewing has jumped up to 1100+. Perhaps a few comments on here or start a post of your own on a topic, now that Jim B has relaunched the full website.
Have a look on the old Gangway centre spreads of the ships you were on and I am sure you can come up with a story or two to amuse everybody.

Gerry is still in the Virgin Islands, the elusive catamaran Gypsey Palace has finaly made it and Gerry (Tweaker) is helping the owner (Tinker) with a few repairs while the wives catch up on gossip, supply sustenance and plan the route ahead. For the past few weeks Gerry has had nothing to Tweak, so he is in his element now.
It seems that his reroute of the cooling water for the reefer plant and some electrical tweaking has cured the overheating for now.

Give Gerry a call on Sailblog (see above).

Gerry now in Frances bay St John. A day of keelhauling to remove the barnacles on the Gypsey Palace.
Followed by hull cleaning on his yatch. They had the services of a Hooker to help them on both yatchs to speed things up.

Seems in the US Virgins I's they are going to be stopping inter island movement, yet Trump wants everybody back to work, so work that one out.