MFC,
Many thanks for pointing out the error.
Must say had dark feelings all day today.
I'm sure he's just fine.
Best
Dick
And we're off...
Moderator: Jim Walsh
-
tartansailor
- Posts: 1530
- Joined: Aug 30th, '05, 13:55
- Location: CD25, Renaissance, Milton, DE
-
barfwinkle
- Posts: 2169
- Joined: Feb 6th, '05, 10:34
- Location: S/V Rhapsody CD25D
-
fenixrises
- Posts: 450
- Joined: Feb 13th, '05, 08:01
- Location: SunShine S2 11c
- Contact:
SunShine in the Galapagos
Hi All,
We finally made it. 20 days to the Galapagos. What a long passage! I left the anchorage on the east side of the causeway, near Isla Noas, at about 7:30 AM Sunday 13 June, 2010. It was a good start with a light N breeze. By noon the breeze died off and we were powering along. There was a lot of floatsom about include one very large branch or small tree. All of the bigger pieces were occupied by sea birds, sitting about and chatting with thier neighbors. A big black squall line was to the south and when it finally reached us it brought some rain and a S wind. A number of dolphins decided this would be a good time come and play in the bow wake as well. By around 2:30 PM a breeze from WSW came up and after a bit of motorsailing we were going along nicely to the south.
By Monday AM the wind shifted to SSE so I went to the port tack. Around noon another squall came along with SE wind. This was great as it allowed us to boom along a bit W of S. During the first part of the trip I needed to go mostly due south. There are islands to the east and west. But there is a 15 mile wide clear path at first and that increased to 30 miles further south. All things considered it was good start. I cleared the Gulf of Panama in a day and a half. Previously it took near three days.
On Tuesday morning the trouble started. The wind came from SW~WSW basically dead on the nose for a course of 235* true to the Galapagos. For the next 18 days it didn't vary much. Sometimes it was a little over 15 knots and sometimes near dead calm. Squalls were common every day and often there was 100% cloud cover. Sometimes I could get between two squall lines and get a real lift from the wind. But this didn't last for more than a few hours.
With the wind SW or WSW I thought it might be better to go more south early. And a soon as I did that the wind would go SSW causing me to go more west. As time passed I noticed a shift in the wind between day and night. In the daylight hours the wind was more south and at night more west. This was terrible! It was easier to go west as the seas were more southerly but only during the daytime. At night when I wanted to sleep I was often forced to go south to take best advantage of the wind shift. The problem was the swells. The predominate seas were S and SW. And these were often 6~10' with the wind waves mixed up with them. This meant that the boat really had a lot of motion going south. And sometimes we would hit 3 or 4 closely spaced waves that would bring the boat to a stop. Then the bow would fall off 30~40 degrees until we picked up speed again. SunShine would go for 10 or 30 minutes likes this then Whap Whap Whap into these direct on the bow head seas again...and again.
I really missed not having a Yankee. When the wind was up around 15K the small genny was a tad too large. But the wind wasn't strong enough for the staysail and main alone. So I though about this for awhile. I decided to try a different setup. I took down the small genny and moved the staysail to the headstay. This was one of my e-Bay specials. The sail was really very much like a yankee for a smaller boat and miter cut. It was a bit smaller than the yankee on my CD28. To this I added my storm jib on the staysail stay. This sail was also a bit small for the job but when combined with the other sail on the headstay it made a pretty good combination. It was well balanced with good drive and a snap to drop one sail or the other if the wind piped up.
Other than getting out of the gulf, the first week was nearly a waste. I might as well have stayed in Panama. But I finally got far enough west and far enough south to get more consistent wind. Only problem was the direction. I went back and looked at my log from FeNIX for the same passage. I went further south earlier BUT then the wind was SSW for the rest of the trip. This made it possible to sail somewhat south of west so that by the time I reached the Gals I was only about 60 miles north of the Gals. This time I was about 150 miles north at 90* west, not good. And to top it off the last day and a half or so the wind finally went SSW, which made it right on the nose again as I wanted to get south. Additionally there is a NW setting current that runs through the Gals which at times can be up to 2 knots. Arrgghh!
I was really getting tired of sailing close hauled all the time. It started when I left Florida and chased me all the way here. From the time I sighted the first island it took another day and a half to finally get into Acadamey Bay. And I did that as the sun was setting behind the island. I had just enough daylight left to be able to anchor at about 7PM Saturday night on the 3rd of July.
All in all a real pain in the a** of a passage. I had near 100% cloud cover during the daylight hours for the entire trip. The sky sometimes cleared at night when the sun's heat was gone. The good thing was that I left just after the new moon so a week into the trip I had moonlight at least half the night. The wind rarely exceeded 15K and was often down around 8~10K so it was slow going for the most part.
When I was far enough west and south of the Panama Canal approach I no longer used the tricolor. Instead I used the spreader lights. These I installed new during the rebuild. They are sealed LED trailer clearance lights and throw a nice bright white light at around 1/10 amp each. They light up the deck and sail great. And the birds loved them. They would fly along trying to scoop up fish drawn to the surface by the light. I often had at least two and sometimes four seabirds taking advantage of me and my white lights.
One evening I was down below reading when I heard a loud thump up on deck. I quickly jumped to the companionway and looked up at the mast and rigging to see if all was well. It appeared so. Then I scanned the deck looking for something that might have fallen off the mast. Nothing. Then I looked at the base of the mast where it passes through the cabin top. And there he was, in a daze, just aft of and somewhat to port of the mast. One of the birds had a collison with the mast or rigging and crashed on deck. I just hoped he hadn't busted a wing or something. After a while he got himself down on the port deck and a bit aft, right next to the cockpit. I went out and looked a him and there he sat. I figured he would either be OK eventually or die from his injuries and/or stavation. Nothing I could do but let nature take it's course. Within an hour he was gone so I thought he was alright.
The next morning I was up on the str'b deck doing something when I looked on the cabin top forward and to the right of the mast. There were two dead flying fish. Then I wondered if my crashed birdie was trying to scoop up one of these fish last night but I didn't know for sure 'cause I didn't see the fish there the previous night.
Now the Galapagos. I had heard that they were charging outrageous sums for the right to visit the islands other than Santa Cruz. You have to hire a guide at US$200/day and pay some insane additional cruising permit fee. Not for me. When I came the last time it was similar but I hadn't planned to go anywhere else so I thought it wouldn't be too bad. HA! The gov't has jacked up the prices on every thing to a ridiculous amount. My one week stay will cost almost US$350. I would never have come if I knew it would be that much. Part of the money goes to an agent, which you must use. You cannot do the clearance yourself. So I would say pass on the Gals, unless you just have to see some of the stuff here. If so plan on spending US$1,000 ~ $1,500.
I will be leaving on Saturday 10 July. I am quite a bit behind schedule and must make up some time. Just hope I have a good passage to the Marquises.
Have fun during your summer sailing season. I am adding some new pics to the web site as well as some info on the canal transit.
Take care,
Fred
We finally made it. 20 days to the Galapagos. What a long passage! I left the anchorage on the east side of the causeway, near Isla Noas, at about 7:30 AM Sunday 13 June, 2010. It was a good start with a light N breeze. By noon the breeze died off and we were powering along. There was a lot of floatsom about include one very large branch or small tree. All of the bigger pieces were occupied by sea birds, sitting about and chatting with thier neighbors. A big black squall line was to the south and when it finally reached us it brought some rain and a S wind. A number of dolphins decided this would be a good time come and play in the bow wake as well. By around 2:30 PM a breeze from WSW came up and after a bit of motorsailing we were going along nicely to the south.
By Monday AM the wind shifted to SSE so I went to the port tack. Around noon another squall came along with SE wind. This was great as it allowed us to boom along a bit W of S. During the first part of the trip I needed to go mostly due south. There are islands to the east and west. But there is a 15 mile wide clear path at first and that increased to 30 miles further south. All things considered it was good start. I cleared the Gulf of Panama in a day and a half. Previously it took near three days.
On Tuesday morning the trouble started. The wind came from SW~WSW basically dead on the nose for a course of 235* true to the Galapagos. For the next 18 days it didn't vary much. Sometimes it was a little over 15 knots and sometimes near dead calm. Squalls were common every day and often there was 100% cloud cover. Sometimes I could get between two squall lines and get a real lift from the wind. But this didn't last for more than a few hours.
With the wind SW or WSW I thought it might be better to go more south early. And a soon as I did that the wind would go SSW causing me to go more west. As time passed I noticed a shift in the wind between day and night. In the daylight hours the wind was more south and at night more west. This was terrible! It was easier to go west as the seas were more southerly but only during the daytime. At night when I wanted to sleep I was often forced to go south to take best advantage of the wind shift. The problem was the swells. The predominate seas were S and SW. And these were often 6~10' with the wind waves mixed up with them. This meant that the boat really had a lot of motion going south. And sometimes we would hit 3 or 4 closely spaced waves that would bring the boat to a stop. Then the bow would fall off 30~40 degrees until we picked up speed again. SunShine would go for 10 or 30 minutes likes this then Whap Whap Whap into these direct on the bow head seas again...and again.
I really missed not having a Yankee. When the wind was up around 15K the small genny was a tad too large. But the wind wasn't strong enough for the staysail and main alone. So I though about this for awhile. I decided to try a different setup. I took down the small genny and moved the staysail to the headstay. This was one of my e-Bay specials. The sail was really very much like a yankee for a smaller boat and miter cut. It was a bit smaller than the yankee on my CD28. To this I added my storm jib on the staysail stay. This sail was also a bit small for the job but when combined with the other sail on the headstay it made a pretty good combination. It was well balanced with good drive and a snap to drop one sail or the other if the wind piped up.
Other than getting out of the gulf, the first week was nearly a waste. I might as well have stayed in Panama. But I finally got far enough west and far enough south to get more consistent wind. Only problem was the direction. I went back and looked at my log from FeNIX for the same passage. I went further south earlier BUT then the wind was SSW for the rest of the trip. This made it possible to sail somewhat south of west so that by the time I reached the Gals I was only about 60 miles north of the Gals. This time I was about 150 miles north at 90* west, not good. And to top it off the last day and a half or so the wind finally went SSW, which made it right on the nose again as I wanted to get south. Additionally there is a NW setting current that runs through the Gals which at times can be up to 2 knots. Arrgghh!
I was really getting tired of sailing close hauled all the time. It started when I left Florida and chased me all the way here. From the time I sighted the first island it took another day and a half to finally get into Acadamey Bay. And I did that as the sun was setting behind the island. I had just enough daylight left to be able to anchor at about 7PM Saturday night on the 3rd of July.
All in all a real pain in the a** of a passage. I had near 100% cloud cover during the daylight hours for the entire trip. The sky sometimes cleared at night when the sun's heat was gone. The good thing was that I left just after the new moon so a week into the trip I had moonlight at least half the night. The wind rarely exceeded 15K and was often down around 8~10K so it was slow going for the most part.
When I was far enough west and south of the Panama Canal approach I no longer used the tricolor. Instead I used the spreader lights. These I installed new during the rebuild. They are sealed LED trailer clearance lights and throw a nice bright white light at around 1/10 amp each. They light up the deck and sail great. And the birds loved them. They would fly along trying to scoop up fish drawn to the surface by the light. I often had at least two and sometimes four seabirds taking advantage of me and my white lights.
One evening I was down below reading when I heard a loud thump up on deck. I quickly jumped to the companionway and looked up at the mast and rigging to see if all was well. It appeared so. Then I scanned the deck looking for something that might have fallen off the mast. Nothing. Then I looked at the base of the mast where it passes through the cabin top. And there he was, in a daze, just aft of and somewhat to port of the mast. One of the birds had a collison with the mast or rigging and crashed on deck. I just hoped he hadn't busted a wing or something. After a while he got himself down on the port deck and a bit aft, right next to the cockpit. I went out and looked a him and there he sat. I figured he would either be OK eventually or die from his injuries and/or stavation. Nothing I could do but let nature take it's course. Within an hour he was gone so I thought he was alright.
The next morning I was up on the str'b deck doing something when I looked on the cabin top forward and to the right of the mast. There were two dead flying fish. Then I wondered if my crashed birdie was trying to scoop up one of these fish last night but I didn't know for sure 'cause I didn't see the fish there the previous night.
Now the Galapagos. I had heard that they were charging outrageous sums for the right to visit the islands other than Santa Cruz. You have to hire a guide at US$200/day and pay some insane additional cruising permit fee. Not for me. When I came the last time it was similar but I hadn't planned to go anywhere else so I thought it wouldn't be too bad. HA! The gov't has jacked up the prices on every thing to a ridiculous amount. My one week stay will cost almost US$350. I would never have come if I knew it would be that much. Part of the money goes to an agent, which you must use. You cannot do the clearance yourself. So I would say pass on the Gals, unless you just have to see some of the stuff here. If so plan on spending US$1,000 ~ $1,500.
I will be leaving on Saturday 10 July. I am quite a bit behind schedule and must make up some time. Just hope I have a good passage to the Marquises.
Have fun during your summer sailing season. I am adding some new pics to the web site as well as some info on the canal transit.
Take care,
Fred
You should always have an odd number of holes in your boat!
Fred has left the Galapalos
Just a note to Fred's fan club - ShipTrak shows that he has left the Galapalos and is headed for the Marquesas.
Fred has left the Marquesas
ShipTrak shows that Fred has left the Marquesas, sailing southwest for points unknown. This is his first ShipTrak entry since 7/31, before he arrived in Marquesas.
-
fenixrises
- Posts: 450
- Joined: Feb 13th, '05, 08:01
- Location: SunShine S2 11c
- Contact:
SunShine in the Marquises
Hi all,
I'm actually in Tahiti t this moment. The internet in the Marquises was not happening. Throughout Polynesia it is now possible to gain access through Iaora Net but the only cards to be had in Hiva
Oa were for 100 hours and pretty steep in price, so I passed on that.
Here's a quick recap of the passage to Hiva Oa:
After the frustratingly slow passage to the Galapagos I hoped the trip to the Marquises would prove to be a great deal better. It sure didn't start out that way. Upon leaving Acadamy Bay, at 9:45 AM Saturday 10 July, the wind appeared to be SE, ideal. But this was a land effect. As I got further south the wind became more SSW and the sky showed signs of clearing. It was often very cloudy while in the bay. The night before we left the temp was quite cool and I slept under my wool blanket.
Through the first day the wind drifted back to the SSE and slowly dropped. I was able to keep going under sail most of the time. I sure needed to because there was no way to power all the way to the Marquises. For the first day I was able to knock off 122 miles. The cloud cover remained at near 100% and the breeze up and down and back and forth from SSW to SSE. My plan was to head to an intermediate way point at 5*S X 95*W on a course of 235* true. Then we would alter course to 260*, the rumbe line to Hiva Oa.
The wind maintained a bit of west in it so I made 5*S at 96*W not too bad. By Monday we made 119 more miles and as the day progressed the wind went SSE. I thought this is great, only two days and here come the trades, HA! By the wee hours of Tuesday morning I was motoring along again. There was just enough of a breeze to be able to use the windvane as an auto pilot. My AP was drowned on the passage down from Panama and no longer worked. So by noon Tuesday we had made a whopping 105 miles.
Through the day the wind finally increased and came from the SE. Now we were really off or so I thought. At least the next 24 hours brought us the first 150 mile day. But through the night the breeze eases off and picks up a bit the next morning, so just 123 miles made good. It is still quite cloudy and there are a lot of line squalls coming through. I think this is a good sign and I am on the verge of the trades. By Friday morning it looks like we finally made it. The wind is up to 20K and firmly in the SE so we get a 143 mile day.
For the next couple of days the sky clears more and I am trying all manner of different sail combinations to get the boat moving. It works! The end of the first week finishes with a 149 mile day and 890 miles total for the week. The next 24 hours we are really honking and knock out an impressive 170 mile day, now that's sailing. Then it's 157, 144, 157, 145, 164 and 163 miles to finish the second week at 1,100 miles. During this week the seas got really big for trade winds. 10' or 12' was not uncommon and I think I saw an occasional 15'er. The wind had also gone to about 100* true. Therefore I was sailing DDW most of the time because I didn't want to go too far south too soon.
One late afternoon, just after my evening meal, I was sitting out in the cockpit enjoying the day when I heard a loud bang from back aft. I immediately looked aft and saw the head of the auxiliary rudder pointed at an uncanny angle. Yikes!! I dashed back to take a look. Sure enough the upper brackets for the rudder that I had fashioned from SS angles snapped right at the point where they were through bolted to the deck.
The boat at once started to fall off the wind and round up to starboard, a good thing. I looked at the whole aux rudder mess and hoped it would hold together long enough to get the boat under some sort of control. I lashed the wheel over to hold the bow into the wind then went forward to down the poled out genoa, in my haste to do this the sail went in the water and managed to get a BIG rip in it. After a bit of a struggle I got the sail on deck and the pole under control.
I then went aft with a small tackle and some short lines. I had to get the head of the rudder under control and stabilized. It was hanging from the lower gudgeon alone and flopping around as the boat rode over the 10'~12' swells that the 20 knot winds generated. I had to be very careful as the forces exerted by the water on the rudder could have snapped my arm like kindling wood. It took a fair period of time to accomplish the task but I got it done and things looked OK to leave for a few minutes. I went forward again and lowered the big genoa as the boat was making too much way even though just drifting. I then reset the main rudder and got the boat to drift off down wind. This helped stabilize the boat but not by much. Previously when hove-to the motion back aft was horrendous and I had to hold on half the time so as not to go tumbling across the small aft deck.
With that accomplished I headed below to dig out whatever I could find to make some kind of temporary repairs. I grabbed a bunch of hose clamps and a scrap piece of SS angle that I had and two short pieces of 7/8" round SS tubing that had been the supports for a slide out double in the main saloon. With this stuff and a nut driver to tighten the clamps I headed aft again. I opened the port lazerette locker and set my goodies inside the space so they wouldn't escape overboard.
I managed to get this all put together but I could tell that by itself this would not be stable or stout enough, the torque at the rudder head being pretty strong. While assembling the pieces I thought about what else I had below that I could use to strengthen the makeshift bracket support. Back I went to my various storage areas below. I dug out two spare 1/2" turnbuckles, some big anchor shackles, some old 1/8" SS 7X19 wire and some bulldog clamps. I had to go back and forth several times for tools and to see if I had the right parts and then was finally able to put the whole thing together.
This was a real challange as the boat was rolling from side to side as much as 25*, so as before I spent much of my time holding on for myself and being very careful with my bits and pieces as I had only enough to make the fix. On the starboard side I sandwiched one of the SS tubes with the SS angle and hose clamped it together over the existing angle. On the port side I just used the tube as a doubler as I didn't have another piece of angle. Fortunately when I was in the Gals I purchased two new 1/2" and 3/8" anchor shackles. The 1/2" ones just fit around the stantion bases and the 3/8" allowed me to attach the turnbuckles. From the aft corners of the existing bracket I wrapped the SS wire numerous times around it and the t/b pin. I pulled the wire a snug as I could by hand and then installed the bulldog clamps. Then I tightened the turnbuckles and released the lines and tackle. It held!!! Yeah. And it is stronger and far stiffer than the original set up.
Altogether it took about two hours to affect the repair. A good thing it wasn't much longer as I finished just after sunset working under the illumination of the stern light. I was a bit tweaked that this delay had most likely cost me a 150+ mile day and sure enough we only made 145 during the 24 hour period.
We arrived in Hiva Oa on a dying breeze abd dropped the hook after a good 21 day passage.
I will update the web page with lots of new pics in the next couple of days.
There is more to come about my passages on to Rangiroa and Tahiti.
Take care,
Fred
I'm actually in Tahiti t this moment. The internet in the Marquises was not happening. Throughout Polynesia it is now possible to gain access through Iaora Net but the only cards to be had in Hiva
Oa were for 100 hours and pretty steep in price, so I passed on that.
Here's a quick recap of the passage to Hiva Oa:
After the frustratingly slow passage to the Galapagos I hoped the trip to the Marquises would prove to be a great deal better. It sure didn't start out that way. Upon leaving Acadamy Bay, at 9:45 AM Saturday 10 July, the wind appeared to be SE, ideal. But this was a land effect. As I got further south the wind became more SSW and the sky showed signs of clearing. It was often very cloudy while in the bay. The night before we left the temp was quite cool and I slept under my wool blanket.
Through the first day the wind drifted back to the SSE and slowly dropped. I was able to keep going under sail most of the time. I sure needed to because there was no way to power all the way to the Marquises. For the first day I was able to knock off 122 miles. The cloud cover remained at near 100% and the breeze up and down and back and forth from SSW to SSE. My plan was to head to an intermediate way point at 5*S X 95*W on a course of 235* true. Then we would alter course to 260*, the rumbe line to Hiva Oa.
The wind maintained a bit of west in it so I made 5*S at 96*W not too bad. By Monday we made 119 more miles and as the day progressed the wind went SSE. I thought this is great, only two days and here come the trades, HA! By the wee hours of Tuesday morning I was motoring along again. There was just enough of a breeze to be able to use the windvane as an auto pilot. My AP was drowned on the passage down from Panama and no longer worked. So by noon Tuesday we had made a whopping 105 miles.
Through the day the wind finally increased and came from the SE. Now we were really off or so I thought. At least the next 24 hours brought us the first 150 mile day. But through the night the breeze eases off and picks up a bit the next morning, so just 123 miles made good. It is still quite cloudy and there are a lot of line squalls coming through. I think this is a good sign and I am on the verge of the trades. By Friday morning it looks like we finally made it. The wind is up to 20K and firmly in the SE so we get a 143 mile day.
For the next couple of days the sky clears more and I am trying all manner of different sail combinations to get the boat moving. It works! The end of the first week finishes with a 149 mile day and 890 miles total for the week. The next 24 hours we are really honking and knock out an impressive 170 mile day, now that's sailing. Then it's 157, 144, 157, 145, 164 and 163 miles to finish the second week at 1,100 miles. During this week the seas got really big for trade winds. 10' or 12' was not uncommon and I think I saw an occasional 15'er. The wind had also gone to about 100* true. Therefore I was sailing DDW most of the time because I didn't want to go too far south too soon.
One late afternoon, just after my evening meal, I was sitting out in the cockpit enjoying the day when I heard a loud bang from back aft. I immediately looked aft and saw the head of the auxiliary rudder pointed at an uncanny angle. Yikes!! I dashed back to take a look. Sure enough the upper brackets for the rudder that I had fashioned from SS angles snapped right at the point where they were through bolted to the deck.
The boat at once started to fall off the wind and round up to starboard, a good thing. I looked at the whole aux rudder mess and hoped it would hold together long enough to get the boat under some sort of control. I lashed the wheel over to hold the bow into the wind then went forward to down the poled out genoa, in my haste to do this the sail went in the water and managed to get a BIG rip in it. After a bit of a struggle I got the sail on deck and the pole under control.
I then went aft with a small tackle and some short lines. I had to get the head of the rudder under control and stabilized. It was hanging from the lower gudgeon alone and flopping around as the boat rode over the 10'~12' swells that the 20 knot winds generated. I had to be very careful as the forces exerted by the water on the rudder could have snapped my arm like kindling wood. It took a fair period of time to accomplish the task but I got it done and things looked OK to leave for a few minutes. I went forward again and lowered the big genoa as the boat was making too much way even though just drifting. I then reset the main rudder and got the boat to drift off down wind. This helped stabilize the boat but not by much. Previously when hove-to the motion back aft was horrendous and I had to hold on half the time so as not to go tumbling across the small aft deck.
With that accomplished I headed below to dig out whatever I could find to make some kind of temporary repairs. I grabbed a bunch of hose clamps and a scrap piece of SS angle that I had and two short pieces of 7/8" round SS tubing that had been the supports for a slide out double in the main saloon. With this stuff and a nut driver to tighten the clamps I headed aft again. I opened the port lazerette locker and set my goodies inside the space so they wouldn't escape overboard.
I managed to get this all put together but I could tell that by itself this would not be stable or stout enough, the torque at the rudder head being pretty strong. While assembling the pieces I thought about what else I had below that I could use to strengthen the makeshift bracket support. Back I went to my various storage areas below. I dug out two spare 1/2" turnbuckles, some big anchor shackles, some old 1/8" SS 7X19 wire and some bulldog clamps. I had to go back and forth several times for tools and to see if I had the right parts and then was finally able to put the whole thing together.
This was a real challange as the boat was rolling from side to side as much as 25*, so as before I spent much of my time holding on for myself and being very careful with my bits and pieces as I had only enough to make the fix. On the starboard side I sandwiched one of the SS tubes with the SS angle and hose clamped it together over the existing angle. On the port side I just used the tube as a doubler as I didn't have another piece of angle. Fortunately when I was in the Gals I purchased two new 1/2" and 3/8" anchor shackles. The 1/2" ones just fit around the stantion bases and the 3/8" allowed me to attach the turnbuckles. From the aft corners of the existing bracket I wrapped the SS wire numerous times around it and the t/b pin. I pulled the wire a snug as I could by hand and then installed the bulldog clamps. Then I tightened the turnbuckles and released the lines and tackle. It held!!! Yeah. And it is stronger and far stiffer than the original set up.
Altogether it took about two hours to affect the repair. A good thing it wasn't much longer as I finished just after sunset working under the illumination of the stern light. I was a bit tweaked that this delay had most likely cost me a 150+ mile day and sure enough we only made 145 during the 24 hour period.
We arrived in Hiva Oa on a dying breeze abd dropped the hook after a good 21 day passage.
I will update the web page with lots of new pics in the next couple of days.
There is more to come about my passages on to Rangiroa and Tahiti.
Take care,
Fred
You should always have an odd number of holes in your boat!
-
fenixrises
- Posts: 450
- Joined: Feb 13th, '05, 08:01
- Location: SunShine S2 11c
- Contact:
SunShine on to Rangiroa
Hi all,
For more info and pics about Hiva Oa check out the SunShine site.
Sunshine and I left Atuona harbor on Tuesday morning a little after 10 AM. The trades were blustery and up around 25 knots when we cleared the small harbor. We had to make a bit east of due south to clear the end of Hiva Oa. I had originally planed to sail south past the southern end of Tahuatu, the island just south of Hiva Oa. But after getting outside the harbor and seeing the conditions I decided to run off between the two islands. The reward was not having to sail close reaching in the strong trades for an additioal 12 miles or so, the penalty was having to sail in the lee of Tahuatu for a number of hours on smooth seas and swirling and variable winds.
The first day was a little wild with 25 knot trades and sometimes gusting a bit more and of course the 10~12 foot seas. But it was good for boat speed and I thought that if conditions continued in a similar fashion I would do the 600 miles to Rangiroa in four days. So much for plans! The second day was very pleasant as the winds eased a bit but contained enough punch to keep us moving along nicely. With the wind being as strong as it was I started out with a reef in the main and the small yankee up front. After getting out of the lee of Tahuatu I added the storm jib as a staysail. This is a good combination and had the boat going quite well but I was carrying a bit too much helm, about one spoke on the wheel which I figured was about 5* on the main rudder. On the next day I decided to try a different set up. I dropped the two small headsails and hoisted my extra e-Bay genny and then put a second reef in the main. Perfect! the boat had neutral helm and the same speed.
By noon on Thursday I was half way so it looked good for a four day passage. After sunrise I noted a cloud build up back to the east and sure enough it brought some rain but unfortunately it also brought decreased wind speed and the wind went more easterly, not a good combination. Eventually I had to pole out the genny to hold my course line. The rain and squalliness continued through the night and the breeze continued to ease.
On Friday the conditions continued with heavy cloud cover and the wind winding up about NNE with very lumpy seas. This made it hard to keep the boat moving as it would often roll the wind out of the sails.
By Saturday morning the wind was all but gone. When I woke up at sunrise I found the boat slowly drifting to the east! Frustrating. So on with the motor. About noon a good light breeze came in from the NE. This usually means some big goings-on down south some where and often presages a SW'erly. By check in time, Pacific Seafarers Net, at 18:00 local time I was power sailing and then in about a half hour the wind came in from the SSW at 10 knots.
I had hoped to be in the lagoon of Rangiroa by this time but now I was still 80 miles or so away and the wind had come near right on the nose. Arrrrghh! Sunday morning the wind continued light from about WSW giving me just enough of a slant to powersail straight to the entrance. I reached the pass, in a near dead calm at 15:30 which according to my tide program would be slack water at the end of the ebb. HA! The tide program was in error althought the last time I used it for Rangiroa it was spot on.
Since it was late in the afternoon I didn't want to wait too long outside, really I didn't want to wait at all. I looked in the pass and could see some breaking waves, had to be from the ebb still flowing as the ocean was nearly glassy calm at this time. So I slowly approached the pass and noticed the boat speed dropping. By the time I was half way in the pass SunShine was standing still while the motor was running at 1,800 RPM. This normally means about 5 knots in a dead calm. And there were overfalls in the 4~5 foot range. Not too dangerous but unsettling at the least as we were not moving at all. So I commanded Scotty to go to warp 9 and ever so slowly we inched ahead.
A local boat was puttering along slowly on the the east side of the pass, just in case I got into trouble, very kind of him to be looking out for me. As I got farther into the pass I started to tack back and forth hoping to make some headway against the strong flow. This did the trick. I gained a bit on each tack until I got far enough through the pass to get out of the strongest flow. I exstimated the ebb at near 6 knots as for a short time we made no better than .1 or .2 knots against it. All told it took about 1/2 hour to travel 300 yards. Exciting to say the least but I really do not want to do that again. While I was entering a big fancy catamaran went out...zip..took maybe a minute to clear the pass.
In reality it was not too dangerous. The pass is wide enough to turn around in and I was considering the possibility if needed. By 5PM we were anchor down, safe and sound in the near deserted lagoon.
Once in side I got the hook down and breathed a sigh of relief.
The next day I went ashore. I went over to my old favorite the Kis Oro hotel but is was closed!! The tourist season was over, that's how late I am in getting here.
It's a long ride, even by bicycle into town which is at the other end of the island. I made the trip twice for some provisions and a look see. I only stayed for four days and I was one of the only cruising boats about. I think I saw only 2~3 others during my stay.
Then it was off to Tahiti, a place I had not seen for 17 years.
Take care,
Fred
Take care,
Fred
For more info and pics about Hiva Oa check out the SunShine site.
Sunshine and I left Atuona harbor on Tuesday morning a little after 10 AM. The trades were blustery and up around 25 knots when we cleared the small harbor. We had to make a bit east of due south to clear the end of Hiva Oa. I had originally planed to sail south past the southern end of Tahuatu, the island just south of Hiva Oa. But after getting outside the harbor and seeing the conditions I decided to run off between the two islands. The reward was not having to sail close reaching in the strong trades for an additioal 12 miles or so, the penalty was having to sail in the lee of Tahuatu for a number of hours on smooth seas and swirling and variable winds.
The first day was a little wild with 25 knot trades and sometimes gusting a bit more and of course the 10~12 foot seas. But it was good for boat speed and I thought that if conditions continued in a similar fashion I would do the 600 miles to Rangiroa in four days. So much for plans! The second day was very pleasant as the winds eased a bit but contained enough punch to keep us moving along nicely. With the wind being as strong as it was I started out with a reef in the main and the small yankee up front. After getting out of the lee of Tahuatu I added the storm jib as a staysail. This is a good combination and had the boat going quite well but I was carrying a bit too much helm, about one spoke on the wheel which I figured was about 5* on the main rudder. On the next day I decided to try a different set up. I dropped the two small headsails and hoisted my extra e-Bay genny and then put a second reef in the main. Perfect! the boat had neutral helm and the same speed.
By noon on Thursday I was half way so it looked good for a four day passage. After sunrise I noted a cloud build up back to the east and sure enough it brought some rain but unfortunately it also brought decreased wind speed and the wind went more easterly, not a good combination. Eventually I had to pole out the genny to hold my course line. The rain and squalliness continued through the night and the breeze continued to ease.
On Friday the conditions continued with heavy cloud cover and the wind winding up about NNE with very lumpy seas. This made it hard to keep the boat moving as it would often roll the wind out of the sails.
By Saturday morning the wind was all but gone. When I woke up at sunrise I found the boat slowly drifting to the east! Frustrating. So on with the motor. About noon a good light breeze came in from the NE. This usually means some big goings-on down south some where and often presages a SW'erly. By check in time, Pacific Seafarers Net, at 18:00 local time I was power sailing and then in about a half hour the wind came in from the SSW at 10 knots.
I had hoped to be in the lagoon of Rangiroa by this time but now I was still 80 miles or so away and the wind had come near right on the nose. Arrrrghh! Sunday morning the wind continued light from about WSW giving me just enough of a slant to powersail straight to the entrance. I reached the pass, in a near dead calm at 15:30 which according to my tide program would be slack water at the end of the ebb. HA! The tide program was in error althought the last time I used it for Rangiroa it was spot on.
Since it was late in the afternoon I didn't want to wait too long outside, really I didn't want to wait at all. I looked in the pass and could see some breaking waves, had to be from the ebb still flowing as the ocean was nearly glassy calm at this time. So I slowly approached the pass and noticed the boat speed dropping. By the time I was half way in the pass SunShine was standing still while the motor was running at 1,800 RPM. This normally means about 5 knots in a dead calm. And there were overfalls in the 4~5 foot range. Not too dangerous but unsettling at the least as we were not moving at all. So I commanded Scotty to go to warp 9 and ever so slowly we inched ahead.
A local boat was puttering along slowly on the the east side of the pass, just in case I got into trouble, very kind of him to be looking out for me. As I got farther into the pass I started to tack back and forth hoping to make some headway against the strong flow. This did the trick. I gained a bit on each tack until I got far enough through the pass to get out of the strongest flow. I exstimated the ebb at near 6 knots as for a short time we made no better than .1 or .2 knots against it. All told it took about 1/2 hour to travel 300 yards. Exciting to say the least but I really do not want to do that again. While I was entering a big fancy catamaran went out...zip..took maybe a minute to clear the pass.
In reality it was not too dangerous. The pass is wide enough to turn around in and I was considering the possibility if needed. By 5PM we were anchor down, safe and sound in the near deserted lagoon.
Once in side I got the hook down and breathed a sigh of relief.
The next day I went ashore. I went over to my old favorite the Kis Oro hotel but is was closed!! The tourist season was over, that's how late I am in getting here.
It's a long ride, even by bicycle into town which is at the other end of the island. I made the trip twice for some provisions and a look see. I only stayed for four days and I was one of the only cruising boats about. I think I saw only 2~3 others during my stay.
Then it was off to Tahiti, a place I had not seen for 17 years.
Take care,
Fred
Take care,
Fred
You should always have an odd number of holes in your boat!
-
Sea Hunt
- Posts: 1310
- Joined: Jan 29th, '06, 23:14
- Location: Former caretaker of 1977 Cape Dory Typhoon Weekender (Hull #1400) "S/V Tadpole"
Hello Fred:
These are wonderful short stories told with great humor and much appreciated detail. For those of us who will probably venture no further than Miami to Key West or Miami to Bimini, it is inspiring to read your "journal". It is what dreams are made of.
These are wonderful short stories told with great humor and much appreciated detail. For those of us who will probably venture no further than Miami to Key West or Miami to Bimini, it is inspiring to read your "journal". It is what dreams are made of.
Fair winds,
Robert
Sea Hunt a/k/a "The Tadpole Sailor"
CDSOA #1097
Robert
Sea Hunt a/k/a "The Tadpole Sailor"
CDSOA #1097
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fenixrises
- Posts: 450
- Joined: Feb 13th, '05, 08:01
- Location: SunShine S2 11c
- Contact:
SunShine in Tahiti
Hi all,
We left Rangiroa Wednesday morning about 10 AM. It was the last of the flood as I headed to the pass. I took the short cut through the channel just to the NW of the small motu, no problem minimum depth about 25'. The flood was still running with some authority at about 3 knots but SunShine powered through without a hitch or undue delay. The straight line distance from the anchorage to the entrance of Papeete harbour was 185 miles. But I had to exit the lagoon and sail about 15 miles west to clear the western end of the atoll before heading SSW to Point Venus. The trouble with a 200 mile passage is that it is too long to do in one day and doesn't really need two days to complete.
The wind at the start was NNE and by the time I reached the western end of Rangiroa it had clocked to the east and eventually went ESE. So it was an easy beam reach at about 210* to Tahiti. I was actually going slow so as to arrive at the harbor entrance at sunrise but the wind and SunShine wouldn't co-operate. As we approached the northern end of Tahiti I was down to 2R main and the small yankee and still making 6 knots. Oh well! Looks like a night time entrance. The harbor and it's entrance are clearly marked and there are two sets of range lights. One set to enter at 148* and the next to go deeper into the harbor at 55*.
I pulled in and found a dramatic change. Papeete's water front was very different from 17 years ago. I side tied to the new seawall and dropped below for some sleep at about 4AM. I awoke to a pleasant voice calling me around 7:30AM. It was the Port Captain astride his bicycle telling me to come check in by 9AM. This I did. And I found out theere is no more anchoring in the main harbor. The Que is gone but there are floating pontoon docks to tie to Med style, for about US$20 a day. No thanks. I went south through the channel inside the lagoon and by the airstrip(you must call port control on VHF before crossing the runway approach at each end of the runway) to the new yachtie center near the Taina Marina. There I dropped the hook in 50' and dingyed ashore to find Franchesco, an agent, to complete the check in.
I have updated the website.
Take care,
Fred
We left Rangiroa Wednesday morning about 10 AM. It was the last of the flood as I headed to the pass. I took the short cut through the channel just to the NW of the small motu, no problem minimum depth about 25'. The flood was still running with some authority at about 3 knots but SunShine powered through without a hitch or undue delay. The straight line distance from the anchorage to the entrance of Papeete harbour was 185 miles. But I had to exit the lagoon and sail about 15 miles west to clear the western end of the atoll before heading SSW to Point Venus. The trouble with a 200 mile passage is that it is too long to do in one day and doesn't really need two days to complete.
The wind at the start was NNE and by the time I reached the western end of Rangiroa it had clocked to the east and eventually went ESE. So it was an easy beam reach at about 210* to Tahiti. I was actually going slow so as to arrive at the harbor entrance at sunrise but the wind and SunShine wouldn't co-operate. As we approached the northern end of Tahiti I was down to 2R main and the small yankee and still making 6 knots. Oh well! Looks like a night time entrance. The harbor and it's entrance are clearly marked and there are two sets of range lights. One set to enter at 148* and the next to go deeper into the harbor at 55*.
I pulled in and found a dramatic change. Papeete's water front was very different from 17 years ago. I side tied to the new seawall and dropped below for some sleep at about 4AM. I awoke to a pleasant voice calling me around 7:30AM. It was the Port Captain astride his bicycle telling me to come check in by 9AM. This I did. And I found out theere is no more anchoring in the main harbor. The Que is gone but there are floating pontoon docks to tie to Med style, for about US$20 a day. No thanks. I went south through the channel inside the lagoon and by the airstrip(you must call port control on VHF before crossing the runway approach at each end of the runway) to the new yachtie center near the Taina Marina. There I dropped the hook in 50' and dingyed ashore to find Franchesco, an agent, to complete the check in.
I have updated the website.
Take care,
Fred
You should always have an odd number of holes in your boat!
Fred has left Tahiti
For those following Fred's adventures, ShipTrak shows he left Tahiti a couple of days ago, heading west.
Fred has sailed from Arutanga
ShipTrak shows Fred has left Arutanga in the Cook Islands. He apparently visited there for over a week.
Fred has sailed from Suvarov in the Cook Islands
ShipTrak shows that Fred has sailed from Suvarov - this is a very isolated string of atolls surrounding a large lagoon, accessible only by boat. There are a number of interesting stories relating to Suvarov, including the story of Tom Neale who lived there alone for years. His story can be seen at http://www.janesoceania.com/suvarov_tom_neale/. It looks like Fred was there for about 9 days - hope he will fill us in on his visit there when he gets to civilization.
-
fenixrises
- Posts: 450
- Joined: Feb 13th, '05, 08:01
- Location: SunShine S2 11c
- Contact:
SunShine in American Samoa
Hi all,
Arrived in Samoa. Cleared the harbor about 12:30 AM, Sunday morning, in a light rain. My C-Maps seemed to have about a .2 mile east offset so while I was well clear of Whale Rock on entering my charting program showed me going right over the top of it.
Much of the damage from the recent tsunami has been cleared up but some places that were here are now gone, including my favorite convience/lunch shop store that was right next to the gas station.
Info and pics from those places after Papeete can be found here:
http://www.sbastro.com/SunShine/
I also have changed the home page background to this pic.
It was snapped by a crew member from another boat's masthead.
I will be adding more from and about Samoa in the near future.
Take care,
Fred
Arrived in Samoa. Cleared the harbor about 12:30 AM, Sunday morning, in a light rain. My C-Maps seemed to have about a .2 mile east offset so while I was well clear of Whale Rock on entering my charting program showed me going right over the top of it.
Much of the damage from the recent tsunami has been cleared up but some places that were here are now gone, including my favorite convience/lunch shop store that was right next to the gas station.
Info and pics from those places after Papeete can be found here:
http://www.sbastro.com/SunShine/
I also have changed the home page background to this pic.
It was snapped by a crew member from another boat's masthead.
I will be adding more from and about Samoa in the near future.
Take care,
Fred
You should always have an odd number of holes in your boat!
-
fenixrises
- Posts: 450
- Joined: Feb 13th, '05, 08:01
- Location: SunShine S2 11c
- Contact:
Samoan UpDate
Hi all,
SunShine and I have been in American Samoa far too long. What was to be a 3~4 week layover for provisioning and the arrival of new parts is rapidly turning into a stay of two months or more. The reason? Breakdowns!
My new AP and SS angles arrived in a timely fashion. The new AP did not require any installation as it is the same as the old unit. I only had to swap the power cord connectors. Along with that I made some minor modifications to the cable hold downs that transmit the control arm's movements to the trim tab on the aux rudder. A simple enough job.
The aux rudder was a bit more work as I had to take the old broken parts off and deliver them to a welder for a quick fix and re-inforcement. I had to remove the aux rudder entirely as I noticed the the lower gudgeon strap was also broken and required some welding to repair. While awaiting the welding repairs I went over the aux rudder and added some new f/g and epoxy to the area where the lower gudgeon strap was bolted to the rudder. This took a bit of work and much hand sanding which was time consuming there being no 120v power aboard to power my small grinder and orbital sander. This work took a number of days between epoxy applications, allowing the epoxy to cure properly between layers and fairing.
After retrieving the parts from the welding shop I reassembled the entire thing after giving the rudder a couple of new coats of antifouling and enamel. As of now it is all back together. During the rebuild I also moved the trimtab 4" aft the trailing edge of the rudder. I did this because at speed the water would flow between the rudder's trailing edge and the trimtab's leading edge causing the latter to viberate excessively. Putting the trim tab in a clearer water flow behind the rudder will eliminate much or all of this problem.
After doing all this work and making a couple of big provisioning runs to the "Cost U Less" store and some other food stores I was able to sit back and relax for a bit. That's when things started to go downhill. As I stated before my solar panels will keep my batteries topped up nicely even with the reefer running and occasional use of my laptop. But in a 2~4 day day streak of cloud cover I have to recharge the batteries with the main engine.
One day I ran the engine for about two hours and all was well. Then a couple of days later it was recharge time again. I went out into the cockpit to start the engine. Turn the key on, press the preheat button for a number of seconds and then crank the engine up. Well I did this normal routine and the engine didn't start. It was turning slowly so I could tell the batteries were pretty low. So I switched all the batteries together and tried again. Nada, zip, zilch! The engine wouldn't start and the cranking was really bring the batteries way down.
I thought I better stop and find a way to recharge the batteries, because maybe the low voltage wasn't spinning the engine fast enough to get it started. Thus began what has become a two week plus nightmare of failure. I borrowed another cruisers portable generator. I hooked it up and then fired it up. It started easily and went on to fry my 120v battery charger. The reason? The portable unit was putting out way too much voltage. Evdentally it's internal voltage regulator was not operating properly. Oh S**t! Now what do I do.
The cloudy conditions continued off and on. I was able to direct the full output of the solar panels to recharging the engine start battery. During the interim I was able to borrow another portable genset. This unfortunately only confirned that my charger was almost totally fried. I did still work but at a much diminished output. Anyway back to the main engine problem. Even with a fully charged battery and spinning quite well it wouldn't start. Not even a sputter or an occasional sputter.
I went through the whole routine of normal trouble shooting. I have the engine shop manual and my own knowledge as well. Nothing worked. I went to an online forum that specializes in VW diesel engines. I mostly got the same hints and tips that were in the manual and my own brain. Nothing helped. And eveytime I went through some routine to test the engine that required cranking the engine the batteries were of course discharged because I had only the solar panels to recharge them.
During all the hassle I was also rewiring a 30' Cheoy Lee sloop. It was up on the hard and being reclaimed by a new owner after sitting in the harbor here at American Samoa for nearly 14 years as a live aboard dump. Mike the new owner told me he had purchased a small portable genset(1kw) at the Cost U Less but he returned it as it did not develop enough wattage for his requirements. But the price was right, about $130.
Great thought I. That's maybe just what I need as a backup for the solar panels. So I went to the store. They didn't have any left. They did have a bigger unit for what was still a pretty resonable price of $250. The trouble however was it's size and weight. I just couldn't imagine hoisting this monster up and down the companionway and out on deck somewhere. My lazeretts were far too small and wet for storing something like this.
On a trip out to towards Leone to the Ace Hardware store looking for some other stuff I spied a 1600watt offbrand Honda genset. The price was good for this unit as a new Honda 1000watt in the US is about $700. This one was $600 and already here. I thought about it for a few days as this is a hefty chunk of change. I decided to bite the bullet and get one. I could also use it to power the few 120 power tools I have which make life much easier when doing maintenance and repairs.
By this time the wiring job was done on the 30'er and I was still awaiting the arrival of my new battery charger. It's shipment being delayed because of the fed holiday, Veteran's Day. See here in Samoa the only way to get small stuff in a resonable time is to have it sent by USPS Priority Mail. Usually if the item gets to a US post office by Monday the item will arrive here on the Thursday flight from Honolulu. It then takes until Saturday AM to get sorted and ready for delivery at the one and only post office on the island. Somehow the Tuesday holiday threw the USPS for a loop and the delivery was delayed one week.
The next Saturday in the pouring rain I made my way to the post office and returned to my dingy. The dingy was nearly swamped from the rain fall in about 1&1/2 hours. Then I had to bail the dingy and return to SunShine. Sure enough about 1/2 hour later the rain stopped. By that time I was well into the replacement of the old charger with the new. OK, all set. I went out into the cockpit to start my brand new genset. NOTHING!! I couldn't believe it. I had it for two days and it wouldn't start. I had good gas and plenty of it but upon checking the spark plug I found no spark. Unbelievable.
Since it was by now 2 PM I knew the Ace was closed. Samoa rolls up the sidewalks on Sundays for sure and most of the businesses knock off work by noon on Saturday. ARGHHHHH! So I had to wait until Monday to shlep the genset back out to Leone and try to exchange it for another one. When I arrived everyone was quite pleasant but said they had to have thier mechanics check the thing out first to determine the problem. I'm not sure why. Because there were no parts available on the island for the genset and the shade tree mechs here are far from being authorized to do repairs on this unit.
The mech found out what I already knew, No Spark. So my request for an exchange was granted. Of course the unseen manager was rather like the Wizard of Oz. He could only be talked to by phone and wouldn't show up in person. The person I was dealing with at first wanted me to pay a %10 restocking fee since I didn't have the original packaging with me. I said you want to charge me $60 for a unit that has a two year warrenty and that I have only had for four days and it doesn't work, I don't think so. I told them to use the packaging from the new unit I was taking with me. That seemed satisfactory. But to make sure we hauled the next brand new unit back to the "lawnmower" shop for a quick checkout. It did eventually run although the choke lever is a bit hard to turn.
I wonder if Honda is satisfied having many of its products manufactured in China.
As I sit here, Tuesday PM, typing this up on my laptop the new-new genset is sitting out in the cockpit happily cranking out killywinkles into my new battery charger and the laptop as well. My refer is nice and cold again and the batteries are getting a good charge. And low and behold I think the sun is starting to shine again after nearly a week of solid cloud cover and rain.
Oh! The main engine, I almost forgot. I found a diesel mech on the island who agreed to come out and take a look at my unsolved dilemma. We cracked one injection line and then I cranked the engine. He took one look at the flow and said the injection pump is shot. Just like that! There is no one on island to do a rebuild and no equipment either. That is something I find amazing considering the number of diesel engines on island between the cars and trucks and fishing boats one would think there is a need. But hey Hawaii is close, only five hours by plane and there they have competent people galore or so I'm told.
I ordered a rebuilt injection pump from the states. And since I'm at it four new glow plugs and four rebuilt injectors. Might as well go whole hog. In for penny in for a boat unit. When I ordered the IP the guy on the phone said no problem we have one in stock. He said he would send an e-mail confirming shipment of my order. Just to make sure I called him again last Friday. Oh! says he. We are waiting for the IP, should be here today. Oh! say I, I thought you had one in stock. Well it wasn't at this store(meaning NO they did not have one in stock). Here it is Tuesday and no order conformation. That means no possible delivery this week especially since Thursday is Thanksgiving. So another week goes down the toilet. Normally I would not be too upset BUT hurricane season is just around the corner. Starts here officially Dec 1st if memory serves. And when I was here in '92 there was a small hurricane in Dec of that year.
I found another SunShine while here. There was what I thought a Coronado 35' here tied up to the seawall. No one was around so I figured it was owned by a long timer. Turns out to be owned by a medium timer. Lou and his wife and daughter spent a year here. Lou is a retired teacher and his wife was working a government job while they stayed here. The reason they stayed is because like a couple of other boats thier SunShine got tzunamied. It was washed ashore, dismasted and then washed back into the harbor. Damage was minimal fortunately except for the cost and time required to get new rigging and a lot of cosmetic touch up.
The other SunShine turned out to be a Coronado 32'. I didn't think Columbia did a center cockpit raised flush deck on thier 30' hull. Learn something new most every day.
Lou did an abbriviated crew/delivery job to Hawaii on a 40'er. He and the other crew jumped ship at Christmas Island and flew on to Hawaii as the owner/skipper was a whack job. Earlier Lou went to Hawaii and found a nice piece of propery on the Big Island. He and family are moving there, so he is somewhat swallowing the anchor. Although he is keeping his boat and already found a very hard to come by mooring. Now he only had to bring SunShine back to Hawaii. A job I do not envy. His departure was also delayed. After much head scratching he finally found the low oil pressure problem. Turned out to be a faulty but brand new oil filter. The engine? A venerable old MD7, Volvo.
Lou and SunShine have been gone now for a week and a half. He took 90 gals of diesel with him expecting much dead to windward or no wind conditions. Hope he's doing OK.
And hopefully SunShine and I will get out of here soon.
Take care,
Fred
SunShine and I have been in American Samoa far too long. What was to be a 3~4 week layover for provisioning and the arrival of new parts is rapidly turning into a stay of two months or more. The reason? Breakdowns!
My new AP and SS angles arrived in a timely fashion. The new AP did not require any installation as it is the same as the old unit. I only had to swap the power cord connectors. Along with that I made some minor modifications to the cable hold downs that transmit the control arm's movements to the trim tab on the aux rudder. A simple enough job.
The aux rudder was a bit more work as I had to take the old broken parts off and deliver them to a welder for a quick fix and re-inforcement. I had to remove the aux rudder entirely as I noticed the the lower gudgeon strap was also broken and required some welding to repair. While awaiting the welding repairs I went over the aux rudder and added some new f/g and epoxy to the area where the lower gudgeon strap was bolted to the rudder. This took a bit of work and much hand sanding which was time consuming there being no 120v power aboard to power my small grinder and orbital sander. This work took a number of days between epoxy applications, allowing the epoxy to cure properly between layers and fairing.
After retrieving the parts from the welding shop I reassembled the entire thing after giving the rudder a couple of new coats of antifouling and enamel. As of now it is all back together. During the rebuild I also moved the trimtab 4" aft the trailing edge of the rudder. I did this because at speed the water would flow between the rudder's trailing edge and the trimtab's leading edge causing the latter to viberate excessively. Putting the trim tab in a clearer water flow behind the rudder will eliminate much or all of this problem.
After doing all this work and making a couple of big provisioning runs to the "Cost U Less" store and some other food stores I was able to sit back and relax for a bit. That's when things started to go downhill. As I stated before my solar panels will keep my batteries topped up nicely even with the reefer running and occasional use of my laptop. But in a 2~4 day day streak of cloud cover I have to recharge the batteries with the main engine.
One day I ran the engine for about two hours and all was well. Then a couple of days later it was recharge time again. I went out into the cockpit to start the engine. Turn the key on, press the preheat button for a number of seconds and then crank the engine up. Well I did this normal routine and the engine didn't start. It was turning slowly so I could tell the batteries were pretty low. So I switched all the batteries together and tried again. Nada, zip, zilch! The engine wouldn't start and the cranking was really bring the batteries way down.
I thought I better stop and find a way to recharge the batteries, because maybe the low voltage wasn't spinning the engine fast enough to get it started. Thus began what has become a two week plus nightmare of failure. I borrowed another cruisers portable generator. I hooked it up and then fired it up. It started easily and went on to fry my 120v battery charger. The reason? The portable unit was putting out way too much voltage. Evdentally it's internal voltage regulator was not operating properly. Oh S**t! Now what do I do.
The cloudy conditions continued off and on. I was able to direct the full output of the solar panels to recharging the engine start battery. During the interim I was able to borrow another portable genset. This unfortunately only confirned that my charger was almost totally fried. I did still work but at a much diminished output. Anyway back to the main engine problem. Even with a fully charged battery and spinning quite well it wouldn't start. Not even a sputter or an occasional sputter.
I went through the whole routine of normal trouble shooting. I have the engine shop manual and my own knowledge as well. Nothing worked. I went to an online forum that specializes in VW diesel engines. I mostly got the same hints and tips that were in the manual and my own brain. Nothing helped. And eveytime I went through some routine to test the engine that required cranking the engine the batteries were of course discharged because I had only the solar panels to recharge them.
During all the hassle I was also rewiring a 30' Cheoy Lee sloop. It was up on the hard and being reclaimed by a new owner after sitting in the harbor here at American Samoa for nearly 14 years as a live aboard dump. Mike the new owner told me he had purchased a small portable genset(1kw) at the Cost U Less but he returned it as it did not develop enough wattage for his requirements. But the price was right, about $130.
Great thought I. That's maybe just what I need as a backup for the solar panels. So I went to the store. They didn't have any left. They did have a bigger unit for what was still a pretty resonable price of $250. The trouble however was it's size and weight. I just couldn't imagine hoisting this monster up and down the companionway and out on deck somewhere. My lazeretts were far too small and wet for storing something like this.
On a trip out to towards Leone to the Ace Hardware store looking for some other stuff I spied a 1600watt offbrand Honda genset. The price was good for this unit as a new Honda 1000watt in the US is about $700. This one was $600 and already here. I thought about it for a few days as this is a hefty chunk of change. I decided to bite the bullet and get one. I could also use it to power the few 120 power tools I have which make life much easier when doing maintenance and repairs.
By this time the wiring job was done on the 30'er and I was still awaiting the arrival of my new battery charger. It's shipment being delayed because of the fed holiday, Veteran's Day. See here in Samoa the only way to get small stuff in a resonable time is to have it sent by USPS Priority Mail. Usually if the item gets to a US post office by Monday the item will arrive here on the Thursday flight from Honolulu. It then takes until Saturday AM to get sorted and ready for delivery at the one and only post office on the island. Somehow the Tuesday holiday threw the USPS for a loop and the delivery was delayed one week.
The next Saturday in the pouring rain I made my way to the post office and returned to my dingy. The dingy was nearly swamped from the rain fall in about 1&1/2 hours. Then I had to bail the dingy and return to SunShine. Sure enough about 1/2 hour later the rain stopped. By that time I was well into the replacement of the old charger with the new. OK, all set. I went out into the cockpit to start my brand new genset. NOTHING!! I couldn't believe it. I had it for two days and it wouldn't start. I had good gas and plenty of it but upon checking the spark plug I found no spark. Unbelievable.
Since it was by now 2 PM I knew the Ace was closed. Samoa rolls up the sidewalks on Sundays for sure and most of the businesses knock off work by noon on Saturday. ARGHHHHH! So I had to wait until Monday to shlep the genset back out to Leone and try to exchange it for another one. When I arrived everyone was quite pleasant but said they had to have thier mechanics check the thing out first to determine the problem. I'm not sure why. Because there were no parts available on the island for the genset and the shade tree mechs here are far from being authorized to do repairs on this unit.
The mech found out what I already knew, No Spark. So my request for an exchange was granted. Of course the unseen manager was rather like the Wizard of Oz. He could only be talked to by phone and wouldn't show up in person. The person I was dealing with at first wanted me to pay a %10 restocking fee since I didn't have the original packaging with me. I said you want to charge me $60 for a unit that has a two year warrenty and that I have only had for four days and it doesn't work, I don't think so. I told them to use the packaging from the new unit I was taking with me. That seemed satisfactory. But to make sure we hauled the next brand new unit back to the "lawnmower" shop for a quick checkout. It did eventually run although the choke lever is a bit hard to turn.
I wonder if Honda is satisfied having many of its products manufactured in China.
As I sit here, Tuesday PM, typing this up on my laptop the new-new genset is sitting out in the cockpit happily cranking out killywinkles into my new battery charger and the laptop as well. My refer is nice and cold again and the batteries are getting a good charge. And low and behold I think the sun is starting to shine again after nearly a week of solid cloud cover and rain.
Oh! The main engine, I almost forgot. I found a diesel mech on the island who agreed to come out and take a look at my unsolved dilemma. We cracked one injection line and then I cranked the engine. He took one look at the flow and said the injection pump is shot. Just like that! There is no one on island to do a rebuild and no equipment either. That is something I find amazing considering the number of diesel engines on island between the cars and trucks and fishing boats one would think there is a need. But hey Hawaii is close, only five hours by plane and there they have competent people galore or so I'm told.
I ordered a rebuilt injection pump from the states. And since I'm at it four new glow plugs and four rebuilt injectors. Might as well go whole hog. In for penny in for a boat unit. When I ordered the IP the guy on the phone said no problem we have one in stock. He said he would send an e-mail confirming shipment of my order. Just to make sure I called him again last Friday. Oh! says he. We are waiting for the IP, should be here today. Oh! say I, I thought you had one in stock. Well it wasn't at this store(meaning NO they did not have one in stock). Here it is Tuesday and no order conformation. That means no possible delivery this week especially since Thursday is Thanksgiving. So another week goes down the toilet. Normally I would not be too upset BUT hurricane season is just around the corner. Starts here officially Dec 1st if memory serves. And when I was here in '92 there was a small hurricane in Dec of that year.
I found another SunShine while here. There was what I thought a Coronado 35' here tied up to the seawall. No one was around so I figured it was owned by a long timer. Turns out to be owned by a medium timer. Lou and his wife and daughter spent a year here. Lou is a retired teacher and his wife was working a government job while they stayed here. The reason they stayed is because like a couple of other boats thier SunShine got tzunamied. It was washed ashore, dismasted and then washed back into the harbor. Damage was minimal fortunately except for the cost and time required to get new rigging and a lot of cosmetic touch up.
The other SunShine turned out to be a Coronado 32'. I didn't think Columbia did a center cockpit raised flush deck on thier 30' hull. Learn something new most every day.
Lou did an abbriviated crew/delivery job to Hawaii on a 40'er. He and the other crew jumped ship at Christmas Island and flew on to Hawaii as the owner/skipper was a whack job. Earlier Lou went to Hawaii and found a nice piece of propery on the Big Island. He and family are moving there, so he is somewhat swallowing the anchor. Although he is keeping his boat and already found a very hard to come by mooring. Now he only had to bring SunShine back to Hawaii. A job I do not envy. His departure was also delayed. After much head scratching he finally found the low oil pressure problem. Turned out to be a faulty but brand new oil filter. The engine? A venerable old MD7, Volvo.
Lou and SunShine have been gone now for a week and a half. He took 90 gals of diesel with him expecting much dead to windward or no wind conditions. Hope he's doing OK.
And hopefully SunShine and I will get out of here soon.
Take care,
Fred
You should always have an odd number of holes in your boat!
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tartansailor
- Posts: 1530
- Joined: Aug 30th, '05, 13:55
- Location: CD25, Renaissance, Milton, DE
Fred
Any news on Fred?
Dick
Dick