Friday, July 24, 2009

Tips for Prospective Blue Water Cruisers

Since we’ve been blue water cruising for over 7 years and 34,000 miles, we have had numerous people ask us questions as they prepare to go cruising.


Cruising is definitely not for everyone; It is a different lifestyle that comes with its own trials. Not every relationship can handle 24 hours a day 7 days a week in all kinds of weather. Purchasing and outfitting a boat is a tremendous committment and financial investment. Many fortunes have been lost in discovering it is not necessarily the most romantic mode of sightseeing. A Round the World ticket with a backpack can satisfy your desire to explore other cultures without banking your future on it, as can renting a charter boat for a brief period.


Once you go cruising, if you like it and stay out for a long time like we did, returning to the lifestyle you lived beforehand can be very difficult. I could write a book about that. Actually I AM writing about about that and our many zany adventures.


On a more serious note, here we’ll share a little of what we’ve learned about cruising. One could write a book to adequately cover this topic and several good ones already exist. While we’ve learned a lot from reading about cruising, much of what we’ve learned has come through using our boat and continually reevalutating what kind of lifestyle we want to lead and can afford. Note: Since we went on a small, old wooden boat with a tiny budget, take these tips with a grain of salt. Our learning experience was definitely a salt-encrusted one.


Please see other postings on this blog for information on boat preparation, the equipment we carried and what we thought of it, as well as communications, weather, and provisioning. And if you're just looking for stories of our adventures, there are plenty of those, too.



Helpful resources for cruise preparation


We'd suggest you find ways to experience cruising before making any committments to help you decided if the lifestyle is really for you. Chartering a boat without all the amenities and services for a period of 3-4 weeks can allow you to experience a more authentic look at the cruising lifestyle including getting your own fuel, provisions and water under various circumstances, generating your own power to meet your needs, laundry, repairs and navigation outside of home waters. A big part of cruising is being self sufficient and in modern society we have diverged a long way from that. Making an extended passage offshore can give you an idea of what life is like at sea and how you might adapt.


The most useful books we found for preparing to go voyaging were: Beth Leonard’s “Voyager’s Handbook” (very thorough and complete), John Neal and Amanda Swan’s “Offshore Cruising Companion” (specific practical information for getting your affairs in order and securing supplies) and Steve Dashew’s “Cruising Encyclopedia” (a great reference available on CD). For all kinds of fishing, the “Cruisers Guide to Fishing” by Scott and Wendy Bannerot is a complete instruction manual. Cruising articles in the major sailing magazines are helpful but can be intimidating. In a perfect world . . . We continually remind ourselves that magazines are mainly funded by advertising and they want to avoid advocating anything that might be considered unsafe to protect people lacking in common sense.


Preparing the boat for voyaging


It is impossible to have the perfect boat before you leave to go cruising since it is hard to anticipate everything. You have to just call it good enough and set off sailing at some point. Experience will teach you about your boat and your needs. Our nearly 2 month long shakedown cruise revealed many issues that we addressed before really leaving the conveniences of home. You may find it helpful to visit the section where we discuss the modifications we made to our boat before departing. Keep in mind that people have different priorities and each boat comes with its own set of strengths and weaknesses, so someone else's advice may not work for you.


Decisions about how to best prepare a boat for voyaging depend significantly upon individual lifestyle choices. We postponed several decisions about buying expensive items and have since added some and decided others were not necessary based on the way we live. Our list of modifications is always evolving based on how we are using the boat, deciding what is important to us and our evolving goals. We've found that planning stops once every year or year and a half in places where we can do a major boat overhaul helps us manage many problems until we can properly address our needs and helps keep maintenance from overwhelming us. (For example, we left with a brand new mainsail, but old jibs and staysails, since we weren’t really sure which we’d use. Once we got to New Zealand, we had a very good idea of what we needed and found good quality workmanship at lower prices than the U.S. Had we purchased sails before departing, we'd have made inappropriate choices).


Boat maintenance


There is no such thing as being finished doing boat work or to prevent having equipment problems. People joke about cruising being the opportunity to fix your boat in exotic places and that's not far from the truth. We are trying to keep sophisticated equipment (upon which we are often dependent for our safety) functioning often under very primitive adverse conditions. It is easy to break things when they get so much use, especially in a moist saltwater environment. A little oversight or mistake can cost big and that can happen more frequently when functioning on minimal sleep as you do on passages. Everyone experiences breakdowns and they can be time consuming and depressing, especially when you can’t deal with them properly. It can be frustrating and overwhelming sometimes trying to fix things in places that barely have a hardware store or a decent means of transportation. Electronics, watermakers, refridgerators and engines seem to be the most at risk items, but people have had problems of all sorts. The simpler the boat, the less there is to break and fix. Waiting for parts has put a major crimp in many a cruiser’s dream cruise. And lying with your head in the bilge or in the engine compartment, while never comfortable, can be twice as unpleasant in the heat of the tropics, especially when it entails ripping apart your full time home. If you believe you can’t live without it, make sure you have some kind of back up in mind so you can keep cruising anyway until you get a decent opportunity to address the problem effectively. We always have a project list and our priorities are always changing depending on the challenges we’re facing. To keep the list manageable,we try to schedule major overhauls each year or so in a location where we can get parts easily.


We also find it helps to do a little each day so we don’t get overwhelmed. Regular chores include important or easy repairs, getting and stowing supplies (food, water, fuel, parts), checking for and dealing with leaks, corrosion, mildew, wear and deterioration, laundry, varnishing, cleaning the galley and head areas, fridge, floor, rug, etc., making food and beverages we can't otherwise get (like bread,tortillas, ginger beer), polishing the stainless, scrubbing the waterline/bottom/rudder and transducers, scrubbing the dinghy, airing out clothing lockers, inventorying provisions and checking for rusting cans, punctured packaging and deterioration. The stainless rusts quickly in saltwater and can stain nearby cloth and hull areas. We’d recommend rinsing or or wiping down with fresh water any time you have an opportunity to prevent corrosion and using Wichinox with a generous freshwater rinse. One can catch fresh water to meet these needs. It is amazing how high spray can get and how it can permeate everywhere. Zipper cars will freeze if not rinsed with fresh water or protected, but they can be removed and replaced if necessary.


Replacement parts and spares


Make sure you have approximately a 1 year supply of regular maintenance items (like filters, belts and oil, stainless bolts and nuts and the like) and replacement parts for critical systems on hand. You can seal them in shrink wrap to protect these items until needed. Racor fuel filters have been a challenge to get in many locations. (Lucas CAV filters seem to be more available for a fraction of the Racor price in areas in the South Pacific.) Stainless steel shackles, pins and other hardware have been mostly unavailable outside of New Zealand and Australia and probably most major yachting centers, as well as line, electronics, most adhesives and sealants, boat specific electrical and plumbing parts, and of course, replacement parts for specific models of yacht gear. West Marine ships products all over the world and having a catalog on board is handy for figuring out solutions. Getting mail in some places can be difficult and import policies can delay your plans and create various hassles. (Make sure you have contact information for major suppliers of specialty gear you have, such as watermakers, autopilot, electric windless, etc. just in case you need them later.) Lead acid batteries and engine oil (but not always the kind you want) are available most places where there are larger towns. Machine shops are good in many population centers where there is light industry. Many boat yards and chandleries offer higher quality work and carry a wider variety of products in the more popular destinations and you can ask other cruisers about specific places. Planning ahead by making sure you have spares or doing preventative maintenance when you are in more developed areas can help minimize breakdowns and related hassles later.


Sometimes countries have more affordable quality products than the U.S. or cheaper labor rates. Talk to other cruisers for the current situation. New Zealand, for example, is an excellent place for doing work on the boat: Labor rates are much lower than the U.S. with highly skilled labor; Most local products are of decent quality; and importing products is quite easy they since waive all import duty for foreign vessels. New Zealand had good locally made mechanical items (epiglass, oars, stainless), although imported items and especially electronics cost more. Prices can vary significantly from store to store. Good quality sails and canvas work cost less due to cheaper labor rates (although most canvas dodgers we saw weren’t as attractive as ones designed and built in North America) even though materials often cost more. Australia is less ideal but offers another place to do a major overhaul.


Costs of voyaging


How much it costs to cruise really depends on your lifestyle and expectations. Some think of cruising as living a simpler lifestyle and others think of it as a once in a lifetime trip and this attitude will influence how you spend money. The size of your boat and the sophistication of your equipment also makes a big difference in costs. As more yachts visit an area, while more services become available, prices also tend to rise. We are trying to live within a budget of about $1000 a month including boat maintenance and finding that a bit challenging. Some months we spend very little and others we exceed the budget significantly. Our biggest cost is boat repairs and upgrades. The simpler your boat, the cheaper the repairs will be. There are many boats out here on a far higher budget than we are and often locals consider all foreigners to be rich and charge accordingly. But there is plenty to do that doesn't cost - snorkeling, swimming, surfing, hiking and we try to focus on those things. Hanging around with people on your same budget can make sticking to your budget easier.


Handling finances/money while voyaging


ATMs and credit cards work well in some countries but can be useless or expensive to use in more remote areas. Having travelers’ checks and a little cash (some single US dollars and $10 and $20 bills) is always a good idea to cover you in various situations. We’ve traded clothing and other items for things in some remote areas, such as northern Vanuatu, where money is of little value since there are no stores.


Setting up automatic bill paying can help you manage your money, but appoint someone you trust and provide them with a power of attorney and a checkbook to handle things that undoubtedly will come up because it is hard to anticipate everything. See Handling mail and business affairs for more info.


Earning income while voyaging


Getting paying work is possible on an informal basis in construction or boat maintenance/deliveries, teaching English or some restaurant work, but getting a work permit to work for a short time in an office position is much more challenging. Those wanting to work might need to stop for a longer period to find the job and then make it worthwhile for an employer to hire them officially. Often immigration visas specifically forbid one from working in a country so usually any work is done under the table. We have heard of people getting taken advantage of while working under the table since they can't complain. A trade or skill that might be useful to other yachties (equipment installation, sail making/repair, varnish/paint prep, rigging, electronics repair) could help earn some income. Many note these special skills on their boat cards. Yachties generally help one another gratis in the spirit of community, so approaching regular yachties on a work for payment arrangement should be done carefully. Megayachts with professional crew expect to pay for services.


Handling mail and business affairs


Sending mail to General Delivery or Post Restante still works pretty effectively without any advance warning at all and can be collected upon presentation of some form of I.D. Often merely addressing packages: hold for U.S. yacht in transit can eliminate problems with customs and be adequate to keep people from returning packages if you are not sitting right there. American Express will collect mail (for a short time for cardholders) and many marinas, yacht clubs and hotels will accept your mail in advance of your arrival with warning, but due to misunderstandings can be returned. The cruising guides for each country give you an idea of where you can send mail. In some places, like Vavau, Tonga, people never got their mail, but this is a rare occurrence. Because we have someone at home handling our affairs, we can minimize mail forwarding to a couple of times a year and usually choose to wait until we've reached countries we've heard are reliable.There are mail transferring services that you can hire (listed in John Neal and Amanda Swan Neal’s book) and some will even manage some of your affairs with a limited power of attorney. You may want to consider setting yourself up automatic bill paying and checking your accounts online to minimize mailing issues.


Double check expiration dates on credit and membership cards, and request replacing them early while it is convenient. Note the international collect numbers for your credit card so you can contact them outside the U.S. (Also renew your driver’s license and passport early if you can to prevent inconveniences later.) Don’t carry everything in your wallet. You can’t use credit cards everywhere anyway, so don’t take the risk of losing them and having to replace everything at tremendous inconvenience. Make copies of everything you are carrying in case you lose it and leave it with someone you trust. Carry a copy of your passport in your wallet and often you can avoid having to carry the original, especially to cash traveler’s checks. Carry a copy of your boat documents as well and always keep the original on the boat. (This is your title to the boat.) On board eamil can be useful for managing affairs in remote areas. See the Communications section for more info.

Insurance


Insurance for health and boat seem to present challenges to most American yachties, and few people seem content with their arrangement. Many Europeans are uninsured. Do some research beforehand and ask a lot of questions to make sure you are covered in any situation you might find yourself. Get an agent that is easy to reach by email and helpful in answering your questions. Policies have various requirements which could include: one or multiple surveys of the vessel, more than two people aboard for longer passages, restrictions for traveling in certain regions, and limiting the amount of time offshore in a calendar year. We've heard about insurance cancellation or lapses in coverage with little warning. Insurance is very expensive and we've heard stories of people paying nearly the initial purchase price of their boat in a matter of a few years. We decided to self insure by buying a boat that we could afford to lose or fix out of our own pockets. (The cruising book written by John Neal and Amanda Swan lists a number of insurers and has lots of other useful information included.) Health care is readily available and inexpensive outside the U.S. and usually of decent quality in major centers. There are doctors out cruising that can be consulted informally via SSB as needed and some services exist that offer formal advice via radio or email.


Computers


A laptop computer is handy for viewing electronic charts and receiving weather faxes, getting email aboard via SSB, with DVD’s for watching movies and CD burners for backing up files and storing digital photos. Few yachties are without a laptop on board these days and many add a second laptop for back up. We bought a cheap used one off the Internet and have stored it in a Pelican watertight case. A pelican case is a good investment to protect it from moisture and in case you need to take it ashore. We also found a laptop handy for preparing emails and logs in advance to send from a floppy when we get to a shore side Internet access location. Computers can draw a lot of power. Different laptops draw different amounts of power. When we bought a new computer, our power usage rose dramatically. Running the computer off of its own battery and then recharging it is a way to save power. The inverter can create a hum that interferes with weatherfax signals and also takes significant additional power to run the computer than would otherwise be required. We found a power cord (via Targus web site) that enables us to plug the old computer directly into a cigarette lighter and bypass the inverter. The new computer unfortunately can not use the same one but we were able to find one on the IGo site. (Note: many newer computers do not have serial ports, but they are still needed to hook into weatherfax demodulators, GPS for electronic navigation or Pactor II modems for onboard email. We bought a USB to serial port adapter. You can also buy a PCMCIA card adapter at many electronics stores for moving files, especially digital photos across computers.)


Dinghies


The dinghy is our car and as a result it is a very important piece of boat equipment which gets a lot of wear and tear. Each type of dinghy has its strengths and weaknesses and no one thinks they have the ideal dinghy for all situations. Inflatable ribs with engines are great for going places fast, but the engine better work because they can hardly be rowed even short distances. Being able to plane in the dinghy with 4 people can make for some great expeditions. Having bigger tubes makes for a drier ride, yet could make it harder to stow. Keen divers like to have big dinghies to hold all their dive gear and sometimes up to 4 people. Hard sailing/rowing dinghies can be great fun in flat water and last the longest with minimal maintenance but can also be hard to stow. We have a 2 part nesting, sailing dinghy which is very quick to launch and fun to sail and row. However we worry about it being stowed on deck in very rough weather and we are unable to plane with an outboard motor.


Stowing the dinghy on the boat so that it is easy to launch and safe aboard in rough sailing conditions is a challenge we all face, but most particularly on smaller boats. Stowing an outboard motor in a safe and inconspicuous location is another issue. Raising and lowering a heavy outboard between the big boat and the dinghy is easier with a hoist mounted on the stern rail. Every time we go sailing, we consider whether we should stow the dinghy or tow it for the duration of the trip. During short sails when conditions are calm, we sometimes tow the dinghy. But, sometimes the wind can come up unexpectedly and having a dinghy in tow can be a bit unnerving in marginal conditions. Having a good towing bridle with a back up painter is a good idea when towing, along with a floating painter to avoid wrapping it in the prop when backing down while anchoring. Being able to hoist the dinghy alongside at night can reduce bottom growth and the possibility of theft, yet if the wind comes up in the night or there is significant rainfall that cannot drain, a dinghy hoisted alongside can be precarious.


Many dinghy docks and landing areas leave a lot to be desired. A light dinghy can be easily beached above the tide line yet may not be as durable. Some buy wheels for the dinghy for landings when the dinghy must be moved far from the water’s edge. Native kids sometimes play in them while they are left unattended. Dinghies can bash against the dock or rocks in rough conditions or as a result of wakes and using a dinghy anchor can help to prevent that. (And the dinghy anchor is essential for most snorkeling expeditions.) A long floating painter or cable (with locking capability) enables yachties to fit a larger number of dinghies at a crowded dinghy dock and reduces some of the wear and tear on your dinghy where there is high traffic.


Getting underway


Each time we move the boat or go sailing we must consider how well we need to stow the boat for the trip. When we are stopped for long periods, we begin to move in. For short calmer trips, we may not be as well stowed, but might get caught by surprise. Preparing to get underway includes: getting out relevant charts/guidebooks, plotting a course, stowing solar panels, rolling up the awning, stowing the dinghy (stowing dinghy seat, oars, and sails below and placing the dinghy on foredeck, wiping down its bottom and tying it down), stowing items below (rolling up carpet and putting it in the v-berth and putting away any loose items from the shelves or counters), closing all hatches, removing sail covers, removing the line that dampens boom motion, turning on instruments/GPS, starting the engine, hauling up the anchor and washing it and the foredeck off, hoisting sails, and putting out the fishing line.


Comfort in the heat of the tropics


The heat in the tropics can be overwhelming at first. It is critical to have an awning to use while sailing. We can roll ours up and unroll it easily underway depending on how windy/sunny it is and how much visibility we need. Another larger one for in port is handy for keeping cool in still/wet conditions, but they can be a liability in unsettled conditions. Our large awning has thru hulls for water catchment which are useful, although we rarely use the big awning because we are rarely sit for long periods of time and we worry about the wind coming up unexpectedly. Shading for the foredeck can be nice in especially hot or rainy climates (so we can keep the hatch open while it's raining) and a foredeck awning can also be used to collect rain for filling your fresh water tanks. If they are deployed at lifeline level, unexpected wind can be less of an issue. Windscoops disintegrate rather quickly in the sun and wind but are useful for getting the boat cool.


You may want to make sure you have good ventilation inside the boat since it gets very hot in the tropics. We are lucky to have a hatch over the chain locker that we can leave open even when it is pouring rain. We also have a cockpit window that is usually protected by the awning in rainy weather. Fans mounted in the galley and near sleeping areas can be important for comfort. Figure what it takes to run these into your energy needs. Ours take about .3 amps each. Solar shower can easily puncture and deteriorate in UV, a buy a garden sprayer with pump for fresh water rinses after swimming. A hot tea kettle can heat the water to the ideal temperature in cooler weather, but usually tropical weather makes cool showers very refreshing. Polarized sunglasses are important for navigating through underwater reefs and saving your eyes from the glare on the water.


We found that summer clothes we wore in Seattle were too warm for the tropics. Regular t-shirts and polo shirts can be pretty hot in still conditions. Sleeveless t-shirts are good, as are large collared short sleeved loose dress (oxford or Hawaiian) shirts and, of course, bathing suits are standard cruising gear. Gauze type fabric is much cooler. Mexico, New Zealand and Fiji have a good selection of inexpensive bathing suits and decent summery clothes, sometimes of lower quality. You might want some UV protective, quick dry kind of clothing that REI, Columbia Sportswear, Ex Officio and catalogs like Travelsmith sell. Sometimes we are out in the sun without the awning for hours when navigating a tight lagoon or when we’re out in the dinghy and it is nice to have another way to stay cool and protected from the strong sun. Special, quick dry UV clothing (or nylon) is useful with the strong sun and all the wet dinghy rides. Men’s nylon swim trunks are perfect shorts for cruising, since they dry so quickly and let you air out without the need for underwear which can hold moisture. (In addition to beach landings, it is easy to get wet with waves splashing between the boat and dinghy as you are boarding.) Pareos/sarongs are handy to wear as skirts in conservative countries (even over shorts or bathing suits for easier dinghy landings) and are cool, as well as quick and easy to wash and dry. We see locals carrying umbrellas to keep the sun off in areas where hats and sunglasses aren’t as accepted. We bought hats at REI made by Sequel that were very well suited to the tropics, with a back flap to cover the neck, a strap, air vents to let air in the sides yet protect the scalp and a dark under rim to save the eyes and they came in sizes which means they fit us well.



Miscellaneous handy items to have on board


We’ve found dry bags absolutely essential. A small one is handy for keeping things dry when taking the camera and a few items to shore for short trips. A backpack or hip bag is handy for carrying the day’s necessities – water bottle, sunscreen, mosquito repellent, money, camera, towel, hats, bathing suit, etc. A larger dry bag has been useful for keeping laundry or groceries dry or other larger items on wet dinghy rides.


You may want a nylon mesh bag for snorkel gear so it is easy to carry for day trips and can drip dry when hung from the lifelines or stern rail. Make sure you have good snorkeling equipment that fits and feels comfortable to wear. It is a great diversion and great way to cool off. Armorall can help protect your fins as well as other plastic items from UV damage. A shorty wet suit can keep the sun off and keep you warmer during longer snorkeling sessions. You may also want to exchange thick terry cloth bath towels for thinner beach towels, since they dry quickly and are much easier to wash without dedicating significant fresh water to the effort. We sent our bath towels home from Mexico and bought beach towels to replace them. We often use hand towels to dry off after a swim and have found a pack towel/chamois cloth to be especially handy for day trips since we can wring it out well after use.


Having a sewing machine onboard is very handy for sewing flags, clothes or slipcovers, as well as repairing clothing, stitching on awnings and dodgers (which only lasts 3 years), and sails.

Laundry


Coin operated laundry is scarce in Mexico and the South Pacific, but laundry services are more readily available. We had a number of clothes ruined by them and a couple of things lost, so tend to approach the laundry services cautiously. The wash water and dryers are often very hot, heated by a wood fire in many cases, so separate your laundry carefully and provide specific care instructions along with a list of items included. The hot water will bake in any stains, so pre-treat any spots. Soaking laundry in baking soda or a great diaper product we found in New Zealand (and Australia) called Napi-san can brighten dull and stained clothes. If in doubt, ask for cold water and no drying. Only hand wash things with lycra/spandex and elastic, like bathing suits, stretch pants, biking shorts, or bras and even underwear if you can manage or the elasticity will be gone in a short time. And hand wash any special clothes or favorite items. For hand washing, a deep paint bucket with a mini toilet plunger works well, along with a fingernail brush to work on spots. Liquid detergent of most any kind works well in saltwater, although we tend to use a little more than in fresh water. I often use salt water until the final rinse and sometimes will do the final rinse at the tap on shore if I can to avoid using specially treated tank water that we have to haul. Bringing laundry ashore in a bucket or dry bag for a quick final rinse and wring can work well in some locations. We have been impressed with how much water we can catch with a small foredeck awning and make a point of doing laundry when we've been able to catch lots of fresh water. Our dinghy collects lots of water and (since we have no engine fuel can inside and it's usually relatively clean), we can use that for the wash cycle. Hand wringing can be tough on the wrists after a large laundry session; Wringers are handy but big to carry aboard the boat. Sometimes we make sure the stays are clean and use them to help wring.


Having 2 sets of washable slipcovers to protect the permanent cushion covers, saves them over the long run, especially on passages when they get abused. Salt from our skin and clothes inevitably gets on the cushions, as does oil from suntan lotions and mosquito repellent, and it’d be nice to be able to clean them more often and easily. Slipcovers can be softer on your bare skin and can be rotated if you have more than one set to keep things clean and looking good. Fleece is a great material that is soft on the skin. Bright floral patterns available in the tropics can brighten up the interior and offer a easy change of decor.


Water


Fresh drinking water has not been hard to get in our travels. It is not available absolutely everywhere, but with a little bit of planning and water management is available most places and is good – and it usually tastes better than water made from a water maker. We treat our tank water with chlorine or Aqua tablets, but usually it is fine without. Having 4 jerry jugs on hand to haul water is critical since filling tanks alongside isn’t usually possible. Many fuel docks do offer free water as in the States sometimes only with fill up. We use saltwater for washing and bathing with a quick fresh water rinse and can live for 3 weeks on 50 gallons. Most boats carry more than this and a majority have water makers but water makers need special care and take fuel to run. Catching water on awnings can defray the hassle of obtaining or making fresh water and we are amazed at how much we can catch, usually enough for all our needs. We have cut a silver tarp (with a thru-hull and hose that run from it into jerry cans) that we have at hand in the v-berth area and set it up if it looks rainy and we need water. Others have some sort of deck fill system. Catching is the ideal way to get water, and although we found it rarely rained in Mexico and the Tuamotus, we could catch what we needed most everywhere else, and catching water makes a rain squall fun. Since we've started catching water we find we can be more free with our fresh water and don't need to rely on saltwater as much for washing.


Fuel


Fuel docks are adequately plentiful in most major ports, although planning ahead is important. Sometimes fuel docks require Med mooring to a gnarly concrete fuel dock and filling with jerry jugs becomes more appealing. We only carry 18 gallons and have found that adequate, but we tend to sail more than most people and use our engine little for charging. Many boats carry fuel jugs on deck. UV tends to fade and crack them over time. (In rough conditions these jerry cans can be swept overboard taking the stanchions with them.) Fuel is usually much more expensive outside the U.S. Premix gasoline (sometimes called Zoom) for the dinghy outboard is also readily available.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Boat Prep

Preparing your Boat for voyaging

It is impossible to have the perfect boat before you leave to go cruising since it is hard to anticipate everything. You have to just call it good enough and set off sailing at some point. Experience will teach you about your boat and your needs. Our nearly 2 month long shakedown cruise revealed many issues that we addressed before really leaving the conveniences of home. You may find it helpful to visit the section where we discuss the modificationswe made to our boat before departing. Keep in mind that people have different priorities and each boat comes with its own set of strengths and weaknesses, so someone else's advice may not work for you. Our philosophy was to go small and simple so we could go sooner.


Decisions about how to best prepare a boat for voyaging depend significantly upon individual lifestyle choices. We postponed several decisions about buying expensive items and have since added some and decided others were not necessary based on the way we live. Our list of modifications is always evolving. We've found that planning stops once every year or year and a half in places where we can do a major boat overhaul helps us manage many problems until we can properly address our needs and helps keep maintenance from overwhelming us. (For example, we left with a brand new mainsail, but old jibs and staysails, since we weren’t really sure which we’d use. Once we got to New Zealand, we had a very good idea of what we needed and found good quality workmanship at lower prices than the U.S. Had we purchased sails before departing, we'd have made inappropriate choices).





Power generation


All the electricity you need for daily living must be generated somehow. You need to become completely self sufficient without shore power since it isn't really feasible to rely on it over the long term once you leave your home marina. Estimating your power needs will be is challenging in advance, but we'd suggest you overestimate your needs and set up a variety of methods for generating that power. Reducing your power use minimizes the power one needs to generate. At one time, all of the four methods we had of generating power: Alternator, solar panels, trolling generator and wind generator didn’t work for various reasons. In general, we were glad to have the redundancy so that when once system had a problem or the weather wasn’t suitable (cloudy or calm), we could rely on another. Most people use a combination of the various means of generating power, along with running the engine or a generator two hours each day. Fuel is much more expensive outside the U.S. A book called “Alternative Power Sources” can be useful for making decisions about meeting power needs, although the book is not written specifically for boats. We've connected all our power generating sources to one regulator, a flex charge 25 and this diverts power if we are topped up. Again, the lower your needs are for power, the less need there is for generating it.



Alternator
We don’t use our alternator for much of our power generation, but it makes sense to have a high tech alternator/regulator to maximize the output and an alternator that will take the stress and heat of operating at maximum output. We have a 50 amp alternator and it generates 35amps at the speeds we run it at high idle. We have a Next Step regulator which works fine. A monitor that allows you to keep track of your power generation helps you figure out how much power each item draws and your current state of battery charge. We like our new Link 10, but for a long while we were using the voltage meter to establish our state of battery charge after our original monitor died. We used to have a monitor that interfaced with our alternator regulator and the system worked well until we had a voltage spike and both were destroyed simultaneously. A general suggestion would be to insure that all systems can work independently if needed.


Solar panels
A quarter of their watt rating equals the number of amp hours per day that solar panels generate on average. Solar panels seem to lose some output over time. The rigid solar panels do better in cooler climates and need air flow beneath them for better power generation. Finding a safe, secure and unobtrusive way to mount rigid panels can be a challenge. Many people mount them to rigid horizontal lifeline poles so they can be tilted, but the edges are sharp and can present the potential for injury when getting in or out of the dinghy in their vicinity and lines can catch on them. They add windage to the boat which can be scary in high wind conditions. Others mount them onto radar arches and still others on pivoting brackets attached to verticle pole mounted aft of the cockpit. Flexible solar panels can offer an option if rigid panel mounting isn’t feasible. They can be stored under settee seats and are more tolerant of shadows (hard to avoid on a boat) than the rigid ones. Flexible solar panels can kink if they are not tied well in windy conditions and williwas can come up at night without warning; Damage to our flexible panels has reduced their output. Solar panels of both types need to be cleaned periodically to keep power generation at top levels. In addition, electrical fittings can corrode over time. We think the ideal solar panel would be the Solara since it could be glued to the deck (and could be walked on), and we would choose this next time, mounted on top of a hard dodger or cabin top.


Trolling generator
Trolling generators that drag behind the boat generate power pretty well when you’re moving, but work best at a hull speed of between 3 and 6 knots. Ours is a homemade 10 amp DC generator fixed to the boat (no gimbal). It has a ring on the end of the shaft to which we tie a 100 feet of 1/2" doublebraid. The line then is spliced to a 3 foot long 5/8" stainless bar, with a ring at one end for attaching the line, and a 6 inch diameter 3 blade outboard prop on the other. The output is run through a 15 amp power diod. It puts out about 4-5 amps at 6 knots of boat speed, but we find at about 8 knots the spinner can jump out of the waves when the swell is large and kink the line, which reduces its effectiveness and creates extra drag. Trolling generators can interfere with radio reception and can be challenging to recover in windy conditions. We’ve found heaving to be the best way to stop the generator from spinning while recovering it. Fishing is incompatible with the trolling generator.


Wind generator
Wind generators can often be quite loud, especially the Air Marine brand (although we hear the blades can be shaved to reduce noise on these). For some generators, it has to be howling in the anchorage to generate much. Our Rutland 910 generates power at lower wind speeds but doesn't generate as much as others at higher speeds. It will generate all the power we need in windy anchorages (above 15 knots) and when sailing to weather. It can increase our stress in windy conditions and sometimes we’ll tie it off for peace of mind, particularly if we don’t need the power. Given a choice, we'd forego the noise and windage and set ourselves up for a higher solar input.


Shore power
Marinas are much more prevalent than they used to be and do offer an option to anchoring for a special treat, for getting projects done (with unlimited power and water if you’re lucky) or leaving the boat for extended periods, but they are expensive. Most marinas typically offer only 220V power except in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. so 110 volt battery chargers as well as many power tools aren’t worth much after leaving those areas. And replacing electrical appliances can be difficult unless you’re traveling home. Installing a 220 volt battery charger will allow you to use foreign power sources. You may need some plugs and receptacles to create your own shore power cable that will plug into your boat. You can always buy the appropriate end fitting for that particular country upon arrival. Some marinas will allow you to use a transformer to convert the power from 110 to 220, but they are expensive, heavy and large, and marinas require an electrical inspection before you can plug in. Dual power transformers are common for many electronic appliances but you might want to have U.S. style plugs on hand to make your own adapters so you can hook into foreign sockets.

Estimating your power needs


Estimating your power needs is hard since you haven't lived aboard offshore before, but perhaps you can learn from our experience. Generally we use less power than most people and we use approxately 20-30 amps per day. Since we do not have pressure water, radar, auto bilge pumps, an electric windless, a satellite phone, or an autopilot, we cannot estimate the draw for those items. We are not using our Adler Barber Coldmachine refridgerator but it was our biggest draw when we did, using 60 amps per day alone. Visit our section on Keeping up with Refridgeration for a more thorough discussion. The following are estimates for items as we might use them on a high usage day. (Usage would be balanced based on charging ability that day and the general state of battery charge):




































Estimated Power Draw
At Anchor
Item # of units amps Time Amp hours
Lights: Incandescent 2 1.5 amps 4 hours 12 Amp hours
Lights: Flourescent 2 1.0 amps 5 hours 10 Amp hours
Fans 2 0.3 amps 12 hours 7.2 Amp hours
Shortwave radio 1 0.5 amps 5 hours 2.5 Amp hours
Stereo: radio 1 1.0 amps 1 hour 1 Amp hour
Stereo: CD 1 3.0 amps 1 hour 3 Amp hours
VHF: listening 1 0.5 amps 24 hours 12 Amp hours
VHF: transmitting 1 1.0 amp .5 hours .5 Amp hours
SSB: listening 1 2.0 amps 2 hours 4 Amp hours
SSB: transmitting 1 6.0 amps .5 hour 3 Amp hours
Computer: floating 1 2.0 amps 3 hours 6 Amp hours
Computer: charging and on14.0 amps 1 hour 4 Amp hours
Computer: charging and off11.0 amps .5 hour .5 Amp hours
Digital camera battery charging 1 .5 amps 1 hour .5 Amp hours
Cordless drill charging1 .5 amps 3 hours 1.5 Amp hours
Handheld VHF charging 1 .5 amps 3 hours 1.5 Amp hours
LED Anchor light 1 .1 amps 12 hours 1.2 Amp hours
At Sea
Item # of units amps Time Amp hours
Lights: Incandescent 1 1.5 amps 1 hour 1.5 Amp hours
Lights: Flourescent 1 1.0 amp 1 hour 1 Amp hours
Fans 1 0.5 amp 24 hours 12 Amp hours
GPS 1 0.5 amp 24 hours 12 Amp hours
Instruments 1 0.5 amp 24 hours 12 Amp hours
VHF: listening 1 0.5 amp 24 hours 12 Amp hours
VHF: transmitting 1 1.0 amp .5 hour .5 Amp hours
SSB: listening 1 2.0 amps 2 hours 4 Amp hours
SSB: transmitting 1 6.0 amps .5 hour 3 Amp hours
LED Tri color 1 0.1 amps 12 hours 1.2 Amp hours

Minimizing your power requirements


There are various ways to reduce your power needs. Keeping up with Refridgeration is the biggest challenge. Using LED lights can reduce your demands. When we sit in the cockpit and talk in the early evening, our power usage is significantly lower. And also lower when we read in bed since we share the same light. Computers can draw a lot of power and different laptops draw different amounts. Running the computer off of its own battery and then recharging it is a way to save power.



Keeping up with Refridgeration


It is difficult to keep up with refrigerator power requirements. Since it is so much hotter in the tropics, it takes much more power to keep a refridgerator going than in more temperate climates. You might want to double or treble your power requirement estimates if you plan to rely on a fridge/freezer. Consider adding insulation or at least placing an insulating mat on top of the fridge area or just inside the lid to help keep the cool air inside. Avoid side opening units if you are installing a new one. You might also want to make sure any air cooled unit has adequate ventilation, which ours did not. We decided to turn our fridge off because we were unwilling to run the engine to keep up with its demands. The engine heats up the boat in an already hot climate and we find the noise unpleasant and the time inconvenient. Plus we cannot carry the fuel to power it. The adjustment was hard for us at first, but we live pretty well without it now. We are among the few who live without refrigeration but our power needs are a small fraction as a result. Visit our section on Living without refrigeration to learn how we've adjusted.


LED Lights


We run LED lights for our anchor light and tricolor which draw less than an amp a day. We bought them off the Internet from a company called Deep Creek Design, but they may also be available from West Marine. Deep Creek Design stands behind their products and has been good to deal with. The bulbs fit into a standard tricolor fixture and the anchor light even has a solar cell so it comes on automatically at dusk. While they weren’t cheap, we have been glad to have them so we can be seen even if we are worried about our power consumption. We also use LED flashlights and a cockpit light, which you can find at garden stores and often feature a solar sensor.

Communications


We initially bought a Sangean short wave receiver for $200 US from a catalog, and through it we listened to short wave and local radio programs and could hear the SSB nets, and receive weather faxes. After traveling for a while, we decided that we wanted an SSB so we could join radio nets and talk to our friends and add onboard email via Sailmail. In addition to the radio programs that we could listen to on our shortwave radio, which help us keep track of what is going on in the world, when we can transmit on SSB, we can keep in touch with other cruisers and give us another way to call for help if needed. We bought our ICOM 735 used via the Ham Radio Outlet on the Internet for about $600US including a tuner. We installed it with a backstay insulator and a copper strap (painted beforehand to prevent corrosion) stretched along the bilge between the antenna tuner and the keel bolts.



Communications with the outside world
Internet Cafes are usually readily available (throughout the Pacific in the larger towns) and affordably priced, although in a couple of places they were very expensive, like in Bora Bora, Vavau (in the northern islands in Tonga), and the resort areas of Fiji. Again, asking other cruisers and planning ahead can reduce the hardship of expensive email facilities. Other cruisers who have onboard email are often happy to let you send a brief email on occasion to let family know you are safe. Many people complain that Hotmail clogs their inboxes with lots of junk mail and closes the accounts after a month of inactivity. We have often been unable to check email for more than a month when we are in remote areas. We have had good luck with Yahoo and Yahoo includes a photo album which we have found handy for sharing images of our travels easily with a large number of people while we are away.


Onboard email via Sailmail
With a Pactor II/III modem, an SSB and a subscription to sailmail ($200 per year) or using Winlink for those with a Ham license (free), one can stay in touch via email on board. As we traveled to more remote areas, we became more interested in getting a Pactor II/III modem. We added a Pactor II/III modem recently and have found it to be very useful. We bought the Pactor II/III modem from the Offshore Store in Seattle, it easily plugged into our ICOM 735 and we didn't need any extra assistance to get it running.


Shortwave and Local Radio Programs
We can get news and entertainment on the short wave radio and have found we can get local radio stations that otherwise we couldn't receive on our auto scan stereo which is programmed for U.S. frequencies. We’d suggest researching the schedules for Voice of America, BBC, Canadian Broadcasting System, Radio New Zealand and Radio Australia, or doing a general search for Short Wave radio programs. They can be quite interesting and informative.




Communications with other cruisers and SSB Nets
Asking other cruisers is the best way to find out about current SSB radio nets in the area. The nets form a bond within our community. It’s a close-knit community that shares information freely and helps cruisers in need. (Caution: There can be a tendency for people to get overexcited about things that ultimately turn out to be non-issues, such as customs procedures for a specific country or for misinformation to be spread like wildfire on these nets.) Exchanging boat cards with email addresses is a great way to stay in touch over longer distances and over the long term. Lots of cruisers email one another via Sailmail to plan a rendezvous, share information and stay in touch.



Weather information


Weather dictates our lives so it pays to understand weather patterns. We can find out from other cruisers, via nets and often weather maps are posted and many useful sites can be found on the Internet. Weather routers like Commanders Weather out of Vermont is another resource. Being able to retrieve your own weather faxes makes you better prepared. Learn as much as you can about interpreting weather maps. One of the most useful sources of information we have come across is the Metservice Yacht Pack put out by New Zealand’s Metservice weather forecasting service. Steve Dashew's "Mariner's Weather" and "Surviving the Storm" are helpful resources as well.



Weather faxes
To receive weather faxes aboard, we also purchased Weather fax for Windows from a New Zealand company called Xaxero, which we found on the Internet. The program included a demodulator to connect the computer to the short wave radio. Another weatherfax program is JVComm which doesn’t require a demodulator. We generally plug the demodulator into the headphone jack of the radio but since we need to be able to listen to the signal to fine tune to the station for the clearest signal, we need an adapter with 2 outlets making it possible to plug in earphones as well as the demodulator. After we are done tuning, we unplug the headphones and turn up the volume for best results.
We found out what stations to listen for weather from an incredibly valuable booklet called the Metservice Yacht Pack put out by New Zealand’s Metservice weather forecasting service. It includes useful information about weather patterns and specific sources for weather information around the Pacific ($29.95NZ or about $15US). Bob McDavitt, who caters to yacht needs, can be contacted through email: mcdavitt@met.co.nz. Russell Radio is a ship to shore net run out of New Zealand, that provides personalized weather forecasting for one’s current location while underway, and the time and frequency details for this and many other nets around the Pacific are included in the Metservice booklet. Many nets offer weather information and can be accessed easily via short wave radio. Grib files of weather data can be requested via sailmail or Winlink (listed in their online catalogs).

Modifications to Velella

Velella was basically a well found boat when we bought her in 1998, but not quite ready for blue water voyaging. Most of the initial modifications that we made follow:
o Replaced 21 year old stainless steel standing rigging
o Rerigged the main sheet for more purchase
o Replaced undersized bow pulpit
o Replaced hatches
o Removed roller furling
o Added inner forestay
o Added running backstay
o Painted deck and added non-skid
o Added bow netting and replaced lifelines
o Added Spade anchor and rode
o Replaced main, jib
o Raked spreaders
o Added topping lift
o Replaced running lights, tri color and Anchor lights with LED bulbs
o Added jib tracks
o Replaced dodger, made sailing and full awning
o Rigged main preventer
o Rigged jack lines for safety
o Cut cockpit window for ventilation
o Replaced wind vane
o Replaced prop with folding model
o Added trolling generator
o Added Rutland wind generator
o Added flexible solar panels
o Installed SSB, Pactor IIEx modem for sailmail, short Wave radio
o Installed weatherfax software
o Made knife rack
o Made crash bar for galley
o Made Sunbrella pouches for clothing storage
o Added seatback tie downs
o Built chain locker for enclosing chain under V-berth storage
o Added ventilated crates for vegetable storage
o Added Snapware canisters for air tight dry food storage
o Replaced speakers with non-magnetic ones
o Added fiddles for shelves
o Built book shelf
o Added Jordan Series drogue and sea anchor
o Added liferaft
o Added EPIRB
o Built 2 part nesting, sailing dinghy
o Added 2 horse outboard dinghy motor

Equipment Evaluation

Cruising Equipment Notes about the equipment we carried and what we thought about it.

VELELLA

Sailed by Garth Wilcox and Wendy Hinman around the Pacific, approximately 34,000 miles.

Velella is a Tom Wylie designed 31 foot cutter rigged light displacement cruiser. Built in 1979 with a shallow canoe body and no IOR distortion she has a transom hung rudder on a skeg and a fin keel, tracks beautifully and surfs easily. Velella is cold molded, strong, light, and very seaworthy. Weighing 8000 pounds, she carries 45 gallons of water and 10 gallons of fuel. Space and weight carrying ability are very limited. Keep this in mind when reading these notes. Most of our equipment choices were limited by what came with the boat, space and our budget. Here is an overview of the equipment we carried and how it worked for us.


MOORING GEAR

Ground tackle
The best insurance you can get.
Primary anchor: Spade A80 (16lb aluminum), 240’ 5/16” BBB chain, 100’ 5/8” nylon. Very good holding, never drags, sets easily, holds in all bottoms, coral, rock and weed, sand, mud. Have seen 50+ knot winds with strong currents. We use very short scope – usually 2 times depth + 30’. Maximum depth of water we have seen is 100’. We try to anchor in less than 50’ to allow free diving the anchor if stuck. We would have liked to have a pony bottle for emergency diving to retrieve anchor. Every time we used a trip line it fouled around a coral head which prevented lifting the anchor or the line got dangerously close to the prop. We always used a chain hook with a 15’ nylon line for a snubber to absorb shock loads. Keep the hook off the bottom. Our aluminum anchor had coral scars, paint blisters, cracking (replaced by manufacturer). We only had a single bow anchor roller, but would have liked another for emergencies.
Secondary anchors: Spade A80, 45lb plow, 22lb danforth, 2-300’ 5/8” nylon rodes with 30’ chain, and 150’ 3/8” nylon rode with 30’ chain. These were rarely used but would have liked at least one rigged and deployable in less than 30 seconds. If we had a bigger boat we would like to have had a roller for an easy to deploy stern anchor though we rarely would have used it.

Anchor Winch
1st winch: Simpson Lawrence Anchorman, manual with vertical capstan. This worked well for 5 years. Difficult to raise anchor in over 50’ although a ratcheting winch handle helped with this. The separate chain pipe was easy to block with clay. (Clay seals well, molds to any shape, and can be removed cleanly. In the tropics it is nice and soft but in Northwest it is hard as a rock. Use oil based clay not play dough. Flower arranging clay works can handle submersion more effectively.)

2nd winch: Lofrans Project 1000 with 1000W motor and vertical capstan. This wasn’t as powerful as the manual winch. Integral chain pipe leaks like crazy and is impossible to seal, even with lots of clay. Manual backup is available instantly but is too high friction for deep water. We used a switch on a cord rather than cutting holes in the deck. This was not available quickly in an emergency. Reverse mode was never hooked up but might be handy. (We only used power for raising the anchor and lowered it manually.)

Next time: Muir 1000/1200 has good manual function which is always available and separate chain pipe. Also good would be the Anchorman with a power winch handle.

Mooring
Rub rails are designed to work directly against vertical pilings which we never docked against. Otherwise they are useless or vulnerable to damage. They catch on things when rolling or with tide. Fenders don’t work with them. For isolated protuberances or vertical pilings a pair of fenders with a fender board works much better.

We carried 3-10” “Big B” fenders. These take a lot of space but you want the biggest ones you can fit. Carry a pump and deflate them. In Japan, with lots of gnarly wharfs, we picked up 2-24” diameter Styrofoam floats on beaches to use as fenders. Round fenders rotate and transfer dirt to your topsides. Square would be better. Fenders can be cleaned with orange hand cleaner – GoJo Brand.

2-5/8” x 75’ nylon lines the same as our anchor rode to allow dual use. 12” cleats were minimal for this size line. 10” was definitely too small. You need to be able to tie 2 lines to each cleat when using spring lines.

RIGGING

Reefing
All reefing is handled at the mast. Worked well for single handing. Stainless tack hooks broke and were replaced by Wichard hooks. Clew blocks on tracks are terrible because they pinch and chafe the sail and chafe the reef line. Spinlock clutches were very nice and we used them for our last 2 years. Reef in jib was vital several times but a hard job to put in.

Stayloks
Worked well. Easy to install and reuse. Rerigged boat once for $100-and replaced back stay in the Philippines with materials on board. (We carried an extra forestay, our longest stay, in case we needed a replacement.)

Halyards
3/8” Vectran worked well. The rest were 5/16 spectra and a bit stretchy. We had a spare main and jib halyard which were not really needed. Mostly these were used to climb he mast. All halyards were terminated at the mast to allow single handed sail handling.

Running Backstays
We used line because wire chafes the sail. Spectra was too stretchy and used to howl in high winds. Polyester covered Technora was ideal.

Preventers
We used them constantly. 2:1 tackle from mid boom led aft to cockpit on each side of boat. Used ¼” nylon with shock cord retractors to keep them off the deck to allow ducking under when walking forward on the deck.

Flag Halyards
Aladdin shroud cleats are a very good product. Parachute cord rots quickly with UV and often needs to be replaced.

Our favorite Knots:
Figure eight usual stopper knot
Oysterman’s stopper a larger stopper - jams
Bowline usual loop
Climber’s loop loop in a bight
Overhand eye loop for shock cord
Buntline hitch compact very secure hitch - jams
Rolling hitch can tie with line under tension, adjustable
Icicle hitch won’t slip on anything, changing sheets, jib wraps
Cow hitch better than clove hitch
Cleat hitch for cleats
Sheet bend different sized lines
Zeppelin bend best bend - strong, symmetrical
Truelove bend for shock cord - jams
Diamond knot for making spectra strops
Jarsling water bottle handles
Constrictor temporary lashing, wire bundles

Note: stoppers are for keeping the tail of a line from pulling through something, hitches are for securing a line to something, bends are for tying 2 lines together.

SAILS

We carried a very roachy fully battened main that overlapped the backstay with 3 reefs and a fully battened non-overlapping jib. For heavy air we reefed the jib or set a storm stay sail on a removable inner forestay. We carried a storm trysail which we never used. We did sometimes rig the storm trysail in case we needed it, but found it was often in the way and a third reef in the main was adequate. For light air we had a 150% light weight genoa and an asymmetrical cruising chute with an ATN snuffer.

Jib battens
Full length battens maintained good sail shape and reduced twist while reaching. These made jibing with the pole more difficult resulting in cracked battens. We removed them when we wanted to keep the inner forestay rigged on longer passages.

Main battens
We had full length battens with BattCars. BattCars worked flawlessly. Flat battens split lengthwise due to twisting. Round battens broke. We finally found a heavy duty diamond shape and this shape worked the best. Main roach overlapped our backstay by up to 18”. UHMW sewn onto batten pockets helped the sail slip past the backstay easily in winds over 5 knots. Under 5 knots, tacking requires a special technique (tighten mainsheet, pop battens, then let out main sheet). UHMW patches lasted about 2 years in UV. We drilled holes in the UHMW where stitching was needed before sewing them on because otherwise pushing the needle through the material was too hard.

Boom angle
We cut the mainsail to raise up the aft end of boom to clear heads and prevent dragging the boom in water when rolling. This caused a lot of strain on the sail and slides as the boom drooped when furling, particularly if the outhaul or reef lines were tight. We ripped some of the grommets right out of the sail and pulled many rivets out of the mast track over time.

Leach line
We couldn’t safely reach the leach line at the clew in rough weather. A leach cord operated from the mast would be much better.

DECK GEAR

Spinnaker Pole
3” diameter with aluminum Forespar ends. These were durable but froze up constantly. Pole was too heavy to handle with one person, would like carbon. We rigged the pole as a temporary bow sprit to hold off mooring buoys.

Life lines
5/16” spectra core (Sampson Warpspeed) with covering. These were large and easy to grip with no metal fittings to corrode, just splices and lashings. The polyester cover protected the spectra from damage but after 6 years was damaged itself by UV and became prone to chafe. Bow netting was useful for keeping people and sails on deck. Parachute cord was too weak after UV damage and occasionally needed to be replaced. 4-5mm is the proper size. 24” lifeline height was too low. Would like as high as possible like 36”.

Jacklines
¼” spectra run inside nylon webbing resulted in no rolling under foot, no corrosion, and no stretching with moisture.

Winches
Stainless drums rust a little. Would have liked self-tailing.

Blocks
Harken: Good, low friction. UV damaged balls after 10 years.
Schaefer: don’t get aluminum cheeked blocks. Stainless cheeks are OK but tend to bleed rust.
Ronstan: Cheaper, effective, and don’t corrode.
Nicro Fico: Snatch blocks are excellent.

Hatches
Started out with Bomar cast hatches but we ripped one off the deck in a gibe and the other would never stop leaking even with new gaskets and standing on the hatch while dogging. We replaced these with Weaver (Maxwell) hatches from NZ and never had a problem although the dogs are flexy. Would add outer splash coamings around the hatches next time to prevent spray hitting gaskets directly.

Wind vane
Cape Horn Varuna model. Good in light air. Adequate in heavy air – a little underpowered. Most reliable piece of equipment on the boat. Replace fabric air paddle with Sunbrella for longer life.

SAFETY GEAR

Life sling
The bag lasts about 3 years and is very expensive. The new design is more compact and fits our boat better.

Inflatable life ring
Easy to throw. Inflates accidentally if gotten wet. Stowed in dodger pocket with heaving line.

Harnesses
We carried combination harnesses/inflatable life jackets. Auto inflated all of them in rough weather. CO2 cylinders are hard to get in many countries and can’t be flown in on an airplane. We switched to manual operation only. One SOSpender burst on inflation due to a corroded snap.

Radar Reflector
Davis 12” Echomaster mounted on backstay was seen by many ships. The symmetrical mounting to back stay allowed the reflector to spin in high winds. This caused the back stay to twist and untwist until it failed. The reflector is now tied off to prevent spinning.

Spot light
1,000,000 candle power very effective for scaring away ships.

Horn
A mouth powered horn met the regulations but sounded like a party favor. It was very fatiguing for long period use in fog.

EPIRB
ACR, the case cracked but was replaced at no charge. Batteries are very expensive.

DINGHY
Started with Avon Redcrest for first year. This was hard to row, hard to motor, and started to delaminate. It was very light and ideal for carrying over rocks and up beaches.

Built a Danny Green Chameleon 2 piece nesting dinghy in New Zealand. This rows, motors, and sails well. Built it too heavily and it is harder to carry long distances. Would consider leaving off sailing gear next time to save weight and work.

The lug rig sails well but next time would use a sprit rig with a boom like an Opti rig. This would allow better control downwind and in heavy air and is self flattening in a puff. Would have liked reef points for longer expeditions.

Oars were epoxy coated with glassed blades and painted for durability.

2 HP Yamaha pushed the dinghy just fine but was little used as the dinghy rowed so easily and distances were usually short. The impellor tends to melt in the heat and sticks to the casing causing ripped off blades.

CANVAS WORK

Dodger
Lexan windows lasted 3 years without covers. Fabric lasted 6 years with one restitch. Pockets sewn on inside were very useful for storing safety gear and other items. Eventually we built a foam and glass hard top over the original dodger frame for mounting solar panels and hand grabs. We still use the Sunbrella fabric and windows underneath for side panels. It needs gutters.

Next time we would build a complete hard dodger. Opening front window is nice for ventilation but leaks and zippers corrode.

Sailing Awning
A cruising essential. Running from dodger to backstay. Used all the time for rain and sun except in high winds in and out of port. Rolled up easily. Lasted 6 years with restitch.

Full Boat Awning
Kept the boat very cool. However it was hard to put up and take down quickly. This meant that we only used the awning for long term stays when there was no chance of the wind coming up, i.e. hardly ever. Covered the solar panels so limited power generation when used.

INSTRUMENTS

Compass
Hard to mount on tiller steered boat. Broke a bulkhead mounted Ritchey by leaning on it too hard and it was impossible to see with people sitting in front of it. We finally used the biggest possible (Suunto) bulkhead mounted in a console over the companionway. We also have a back up below decks. The best card for hand steering is the traditional one with cardinal points but these are hard to find.

GPS
3 Garmin 12 handheld GPS with power/data connection and backup dry cells. The small screen is hard to read in high glare conditions with old eyes. Color might be better.

Speedometer
Raymarine ST40 Bidata: Not accurate and always fouled up. Need easy access to transducer to keep clean. Possibly sonic type would work better. Not reliable enough for dead reckoning. Nice to have it when it worked, but overall it was not worth the trouble.

Sounder
Raymarine ST40 Bidata: Mostly OK, sometimes fouled up. Very important to have for unknown depths. The lead line is more reliable and we sometimes needed it but it limits your speed with only a crew of 2.

Clock and Barometer
Weems and Plath Orion. This is expensive garbage. The case corrodes, the chimes don’t stop chiming, and the barometer isn’t accurate. It’s good to have a clock set to UTC near radio. A digital barometer would be more useful.

LIGHTS

Navigation lights
LED anchor light draws 0.1 Amp; LED Tricolor light draws 0.24 Amp. Deep Creek Designs (1st star) Mk 3 are very reliable and service is good. Low power consumption is essential. Would have liked a strobe, illegal here, these are commonly used for small boats in Asia. Note that the incandescent tricolor bulbs break easily when slatting. Aqua Signal cases can crack over time with UV exposure.

Also used LED flashlights, dive lights, and headlights, and they were excellent, using few batteries.

Spreader light bulbs were always burned out but were too bright anyway. They are blinding and prevent looking up. It is never really that dark at sea. There was always enough ambient light to work on deck.

Fluorescent Lights
The thin lights we used are expensive and low quality but are effective in reducing power use.

HULL

Paint
Antifouling:
All ablative paint sucks. We tried:
International CSC ultra hull covered with soft growth in 5 months
Alcraft No 5 (NZ) no growth for 1 year but extremely soft, bare patches from touching while swimming.
Petit Ultima covered with acorn barnacles in 6 months
Seajet Platinum (Japan) covered with acorn barnacles in 2 months. Later covered with gooseneck barnacles in 1 month.
Hard scrubable paint is probably better. Many cruisers like Petit Trinidad. Others manage to find TBT paint.

Varnish: Bristol finish is quite good. Lasts 3 years in the tropics. You can put on 6 coats in a day. Can be used in marginally dry conditions as long as you have an hour of dry weather. It is difficult to get a really smooth finish due quick drying but it looks WAY better than Cetol.

Polyurethanes: Single part paints last about 1 year. 2 part paints are very tough and scratch resistant. Most marine paints can’t be buffed. Use car paint which is designed to be repaired. Note that polyurethane and many epoxy primers are not waterproof. At anchor the lower topsides are always wet unlike at a dock. Therefore move the waterline up and use underwater primers on topsides.

Nonskid
Awlgrip medium grit was not aggressive enough. Coarse grit is much better.

Bedding compounds
Polysulfide: 3M 101 has poor adhesion and often hardens in tube.
Polyurethane: 3M 5200 can be permanent and isn’t UV resistant.
Lifeseal: very good but leaves silicone residue on paint.
Dolphinite: worked very well for us.

Through Hulls
Plastic through hulls and valves had no problems although the ½” size was too small and got plugged with barnacles and coral worms. At sea on a very long passage (49 days) we had to take the hoses off and to ream out the through hulls to get any water flow to engine or head.

Water tanks
Stainless: very good
Aluminum: Pitting problems
We filled tanks through the cleanout port. These were easy to clean, and we wiped out empty tanks periodically before refilling. Deck fills can leak salt water into tanks. Vents will leak sooner or later and should be led into the sink if possible.
45 gallons lasted us about 3 weeks, though we used often used saltwater for dishes and bathing (up to a final rinse). We carried extra jugs for longer endurance. We used the jugs often for carrying and filling water.

ELECTRONICS

Stereo
Car stereos don’t last long with heat and moisture. For international use one needs: AM tuning steps of 9 and 10 hertz, FM tuning for both odd and even frequencies. Japan uses an extended frequency range. Should play MP3 CDs and have an auxiliary input for the IPOD or a computer for stereo movie sound. Use low magnetic speakers to avoid interference with compasses.

Music
We didn’t carry cassettes. CD’s corrode when damp. We converted everything to MP3’s and stored on hard drives. Multiple back ups are key.

Movies
DVD’s play on computer. Would like auxiliary speakers and a bigger screen. Sometimes we heard of people who encountered problems with regions on when renting or buying DVDs in foreign countries. There is a way to deal with this but we never had a problem.

VHF
Icom 45. The remote mike feature was great for us allowing the watch stander to contact a ship while actively sailing the boat and we could hear it in the cockpit while motoring. DSC controls are hard to operate on a simple VHF with limited buttons. We never used this feature.

SSB
Used old ham set, ICOM 735, modified for all frequencies. This worked well and was cheap but a marine SSB might be more corrosion resistant. You need a very good ground. For email get a line isolator and lots of ferrites. We carried a Sangean ATS909 battery powered short wave radio as a backup but it wasn’t as sensitive.

Computers
We carried 2 for backup. Computer should have a serial port for GPS and PACOR connections (this is changing), at least 2 USB 2.0 ports, a CD burner, and have low power consumption. We used Lind car charges for more power efficiency and no inverter noise. All data was stored on multiple duplicated USB powered hard drives which are more reliable, more convenient, less power hungry, much smaller, don’t need an inverter, but are twice the price of AC powered ones. We had 3 AC powered drives fail probably due to heat. We had 300 GB of space times 2 which was all full of music, digital pictures, and cruising data. All computer gear was stored in Pelican cases. WiFi is very useful in some ports. Get a long range Omni antenna. Skype has a lot of potential if your relatives will buy into it. Software that requires a phone call to activate, like Microsoft XP, can’t be reinstalled in remote locations. There is lots of good, free software available. We would like a printer/scanner and a DVD burner as there were occasions when we would have used them.

MECANICAL SYSTEMS

Tools
Carried a good selection of hand tools adequate to re-build the boat. Battery powered tools are never charged when needed. If a large inverter is available consider some power tools. Would have liked a vise, a breast drill, and a small portable drill press. You can usually find a vise to use somewhere ashore.

Foot pumps
Whale double action foot pumps perform very well for salt and fresh water but are very hard to fix. At sea it is sometimes difficult to stand on one foot while pumping. An additional hand pump would be nice.

Bilge Pump
Henderson Mk 5 like our head pump for redundancy. Not much capacity but never had a problem with this. We rigged a 3 way valve to take suction from the bilge or the sink when heeled on port tack.

Head
We had a Groco head which required semiyearly rebuilds with very expensive kits. We eventually replaced it with a Lavac which never required any service. We would install a pressure release on the intake line in order to minimize the amount of water left in the bowl. The Lavac is also smellier than the Groco was. We rarely found facilities for pumping a holding tank out in any other country. First we bypassed ours and then eventually we removed it to use the space for other things. We actually mailed it home and reinstalled it when we got home.

Refrigerator
Adler Barber cold machine. This worked until we shut it off due to its large power requirements in the tropics. Eventually the evaporator corroded and all the refrigerant leaked out, preventing it from working again. The air cooled model isn’t suited for the tropics as we used 50-60 AH per day.

Heater
Our Force 10 propane heater was never used on the cruise however the weather cap leaked and the controls corroded away. We mounted the weather cap in a screwed deck plate so we could seal it up when not in use. Ours was mounted above the counter which limited its effectiveness for heating the entire boat in cold weather.

Propane
2-10lb aluminum tanks were adequate but we wanted more capacity. We used one tank every 6 weeks which included extensive baking. In 50% of countries we visited we could fill our tanks ourselves from rented tanks using a pigtail. Most rented tanks are 20lb making this size tank more convenient. The American POL fitting works everywhere (except America of course). You can always buy the correct fitting locally and make an adaptor with your pig tail.

Engine
Universal 3-20 18 HP diesel. Basically reliable but we had problems with auxiliary systems:
Long running fuel problem caused by a plugged up Racor filter housing. Racor 120 filters are very expensive and not available in many countries. CAV is half the price and easier to find.
Overheating caused by heat exchanger problems. Once the heat exchanger was partially plugged by broken off zincs. Another time the heat exchanger was overwhelmed by hot air and water and was eventually replaced by a larger one.
PSS shaft seal worked well but traps air bubbles in rough weather and needs a vent even on low speed vessels.

We didn’t use the engine much averaging about 20 gallons of fuel per year. Our 10 gallon fuel tank precluded long range powering. I probably spent as much time working on the engine as running it. The boat would get very hot when running the engine in the tropics and would take 18 hours to cool off after use. We carried minimal spares: impellors, belts, filters, and oil. We considered the sails to be the backup, or visa-versa.

The Martec folding prop was good for sailing and adequate for motoring including in reverse.

Engine controls
Morse 2-lever. Constantly froze up. Steel parts rusted badly. Caught lines and clothing. Next time would prefer one that works with a winch handle.

Engine gauges
We sealed the engine panel behind a Plexiglas panel. We moved the key and buttons to just inside the companionway where they are more protected. This made it more complicated to single hand while motoring, though we did that rarely.

ELECTRICAL POWER

Alternator
50 Amp Prestolite wasn’t used much for battery charging. When we did use it, it charged so slowly that we had to put a modern regulator on it to get it work. The Ample Power Next Step Regulator worked well.

Solar Panels
2-50W BP panels with a Flexcharge 25 regulator provided plenty of power in the tropics even on cloudy days. Outside the tropics, we needed sunshine to generate enough power from these solar panels alone. The dodger top mounting saw plenty of sun even while sailing.

Towing generator
Hamilton Ferris 10Amp. Made about 1 Amp per knot if over 3 knots. Over 8 knots spinner leaps out of waves and tangles line. Recovery requires heaving to or the funnel method which didn’t work as well. Electrical noise interferes with SSB. Sharks try to eat spinner. Prevents fishing. Eventually it died due to corrosion.

Wind Generator
Rutland 910, old version of a 913. Produces 1 amp in 10 knots of wind. Useful for low load boats (no fridge). This is very quiet for a wind generator but we still found it too noisy. Tended to increase our stress level in higher winds. Ours suffered from bad bearings and old UV damaged blades so we eventually got rid of it. Most anchorages are well protected from the wind. In sunny situations, solar is a better choice and at sea a trolling generator works better. Best for stormy overcast places like New Zealand.

Exterior power plugs
Perco plugs were garbage. Amphenol worked great as they were plastic and watertight with o-rings. We wired the 4 pole plugs for 3 functions.

Batteries
House bank: 1 4D at 180 AH. These spent their lives chronically undercharged because of our reliance on non engine charging.
Gel - was old when we bought the boat and was replaced within a year.
AGM - never seemed to hold a charge. We nursed it along for 4 years until we hit significant cloud cover.
Wet – A cheap battery to get us across the north Pacific is still working fine.

Starting bank: 1 Optima charged through a Shotkey diode. 8 years and no problems.

We would probably get lead acid golf cart batteries next time for the house bank since they are more durable.

Shore Power
20 Amp Statpower. Works great but hardly used. We probably had 5 opportunities to use shore power in 7 years. 10 Amps would be enough for our battery capacity. Note that the big, heavy, hard to stow 30 amp marine cables are way more than most people need and are hard to stow. Our 20 amp battery charger if running at full load would draw only 2 Amps at 120V. We use a 15 Amp extension cord with various adaptors. We carried several 3 prong sockets for making foreign adaptors. A dual voltage battery charger would be wonderful.

Voltage Spikes
We had 2 devastating voltage spikes when charging with the alternator. The first was caused when the cables came loose from the battery switch. The second came when I leaned on the new battery switch and rotated it about an eighth of an inch. This occasion caused 100% of the electronics to go up in smoke even those that were not on at the time. Some ideas to prevent this: Put the battery switch in a less vulnerable location with a cover, wire a small battery in parallel with the house bank which can’t be shut off, wire a zener diode across the leads of all electronics including LED’s.

Battery Monitor
Link 10. This is nice to have. Though a digital volt meter is all that is really needed, the Link 10 gave us a better grasp of the state of the batteries by monitoring amp hours in and out, especially useful considering that we were perpetually charging with our solar panels.

Cigarette lighter plugs
Found on most 12V devices. Many are very poor quality and I carry extra Marinco plugs to replace these.

MISCELLANIOUS

Hose
We carried the flat canvas style hose on a reel for compact stowage. We rarely used it, but it was quite handy in some ports. It kinks easily and must be carefully laid out during use and while reeling it in to stowage reel. It is the only kind of hose we had space to carry.

Sponges
PVA sponges soak up more water, don’t dribble, and last forever. Normal cellulose sponges fall apart if left damp.

Wants for next time
Radar, bicycles, sewing machine, weather cloths, chart table, folding cart, beer brewing supplies, hatch board storage location, clear hatch for storm boards.

Food and Provisioning Tips





Provisioning


People eat all over the world, so provisioning is a lot more like a monthly trip to the grocery store. Many cruisers arrive in New Zealand after crossing the Pacific with food they bought in the U.S. more than 2 years before. Canned food doesn’t last forever and can rust and explode. We haven’t had any problem with exploding cans but it does happen. We're not picky eaters, but if you are, you may need to plan for carry items you need to satisfy your particular tastes. There aren’t very many items we’ve had a hard time finding, except specialty items. Visit our section on hard to find items to find out what has been challenging for us to find. Not everything is available in every major port, but with a little planning of your needs for about 9 months, you’ll have as much food aboard as you really need to carry unless you visit more remote areas for extended periods. When buying products in more remote locations look for best by dates, since sometimes expired items are shipped on to secondary markets after not moving. (Flour, sugar, rice, and dried milk are available in most major ports and are even subsidized in French Polynesia.) Buying fresh from markets where there is higher turnover can help you avoid bugs. Specialty items and mixes that you may think are rare might be worth buying in extra quantities, but we often find them eventually. Supplies of Chinese ingredients are excellent throughout the Pacific since many of the stores are Chinese owned.



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Food Storage


Food storage is a continual issue, since every time you reprovision, packaging shapes and sizes can be different and therefore alter your storage configuration. Having containers in which you can decant many staples can be invaluable and help you avoid issues with packaging sizes and shapes. Also, avoiding cardboard packaging can prevent a bug problem from developing on your boat. Avoid plastic containers with square lids, since the corners warp, and ones without gaskets since they aren’t airtight. Snapware™ containers are excellent for keeping things airtight since they have gaskets. Crackers and chips stay fresh. Plus they come in many handy shapes and sizes. Snapware™ has an Internet site from which you can order items and have them sent directly to you in the U.S.



Don’t be too quick to throw out plastic containers from the U.S., since the packaging most everywhere else is often of a lower quality. You might want to buy some bottles for oil, vinegar, detergent, etc. that you may buy in packaging that won’t hold up. Buy as many shapes and sizes of freezer grade (thicker) zip top Ziploc bags as you can find. You’ll be unable to find good big ones after you leave the U.S. A 2 gallon size is particularly hard to find, but very handy for all kinds of things, so keep searching. (A hardware store near the library in Sausalito had some and I wish I had bought more of this rare size.) You can wash them (with Simple Green or whatever) and reuse them but they will wear out and need to be replaced. Generally, Ziplocs are not foolproof and decanting items into designated containers is often a better idea than just putting something inside a Ziploc for protection, since the bags are actually porous and can easily puncture. Vacuum packing can be a good way of protecting things that don’t get frequent use (frozen meats, mixes taken out of original packaging with a clipping of the cooking instructions). Double bag everything.



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Living without Refridgeration


Without a fridge, we have survived well and don’t miss the high power demands of the fridge. Although we really do miss cold drinks. People lived for many centuries without refridgeration and the techniques they used for food preservation can still be used today. Canning, drying, pickling, salting and other processing (i.e. making yogurt and cheese) were invented for long term storage and we still eat those foods today, but have grown accustomed to storing them in the fridge when it is not necessary.



Annie Hill’s book “Voyaging on a Small Income” has lots of food storage tips for living without refrigeration. Bluewater Sailing has an excellent article about living with out refrigeration that is well worth reviewing (even if you plan to have it, just in case and because cold space is so tight). Few condiments really need to be refrigerated as indicated on the label (as long as you only use a clean utensil). Cheeses keep a surprisingly long time (vinegar helps keep mold off the surface after opening), although they do get oily. We tend to buy things in smaller packages since once things are open we need to finish them quickly. (In the 3rd world, foods don't seem to come with volume discounts anyway, so it isn't costing us any extra.) We have figured out how much to make for a meal to avoid leftovers, but eat any we might have within 24 hours. Storing leftovers in the pressure cooker with the lid on while warm keeps them sterile.



Instead of stocking up on frozen meats that require keeping the fridge going (a nightmare if it breaks), while in port we buy fresh meat the day we want to cook it or buy it frozen the day before and let it melt. (Frozen whole chickens are available most places and good meat was available in major towns throughout Mexico and the South Pacific). Some countries (New Zealand and Australia) require you to declare fresh meats and sometimes confiscate them, so stocking up may be useless unless one can finish it before arriving in those locations. We buy lunch meats, salami and ham, which will stay good for months until the packaging is opened. Cooked bacon keeps a long time and adds great flavor to dishes. (We hear Costco sells packaged precooked bacon.) We also use canned chicken and beef (hard to get outside the U.S.), boullion and gravy to add flavor to dishes rather than making meals centered around a hunk of meat, which we could easily do once or twice a week when in port with a little planning and a visit to the store. When we catch fish we bottle any that we don't eat immediately for use later in recipes or for a quick snack. Canned (tinned) crab, shrimp, clams work similarly. Canned and dried beans make can also form the centerpiece for a meal as well and we've found lots of tasty recipes. We eat a dhal curry that’s delicious and filling.



The fridge is useful for dry storage, but moisture does get trapped in there since it sits under our drain board. We air it out each evening by hanging or propping the door open to prevent mold from growing in there.

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Cooking and eating in the heat of the tropics


In the tropics, the heat changes the way you want to eat. Cooking outside on a BBQ or in a pressure cooker to reduce cooking time can help reduce the heat of the kitchen. Fixing meals that are cool to eat and don’t require heating up the galley become more common, like salads (usually without lettuce or spinach but rather various combinations of carrots, peppers, cabbage, cucumbers and tomatoes), sandwiches and snacks. Clean raw veggies well with soap before eating, especially lettuce and spinach (on the rare occasion when you get it). Jello, applesauce, yogurt, jerky, dried and fresh fruit are great snacks that are cool and refreshing in the heat. Many people make their own. Bread with humous and Baba Ghanoush, tabouleh salad, salads with beans and meats (crab, shrimp and clams) make for filling meals without much cooking. Instant mashed potatoes are quick to make without heating up the galley and they taste quite authentic with butter and milk added. We often top the potatoes with warmed meat in gravy from a can. Couscous is another quick cool meal that requires only heating water to prepare. We add garlic, sundried tomatoes, and dried mushrooms to flesh it out. Instant refried bean flakes and black bean flakes are the base for another quick meal, which we toast a tortilla and serve with cheese, tomatoes, and salsa. Avocadoes available in Mexico, vanuatu and the solomons were a base for great salads. We often have cheese and crackers with sardines, smoked mussels, oysters or clams. Popcorn is quick to prepare, cools quickly and can be topped with many interesting toppings.



I have enjoyed cooking more than I had time for at home so really am getting a lot of use out of the recipe books I carry – Choose wisely which to bring along. We see many fruits and vegetables that aren’t as common at home, so a wide variety of options makes it easier to work with what’s available in the more remote areas (taro, cassava, squash, papaya, coconut). Someone suggested a cookbook called “Uncommon Fruits and Vegetables” although I haven’t seen it. I have enjoyed “Hot and Spicy” and “100+ Vegetarian Pasta Recipes” both by Marlena Spieler have been great ones. “Joy of Cooking” is an old standby that can explain measurement conversions, substitutions and recipe adaptations, as well as menu suggestions for a wide variety of ingredients.



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Hard to find items


Some notable items we’ve had trouble finding more frequently are canned chicken (only available in North America) and canned beef of any other type besides corned and meat with gravy, canned seafood (besides canned mackeral) and good quality canned ham. Baking items like dark brown sugar, molasses, corn syrup, tapioca, shortening, baking spices, baking powder and baking soda, corn meal and corn flour, powdered eggs (handy for baking when you run out of fresh) are often hard to find. Specialty items like dried wild mushrooms (like morels and chanterelles, although Shiitake are available in the many Asian groceries throughout the Pacific, along with many other Asian food ingredients), fancy condiments like pine nuts or pesto and salsa sauces. Just add water pancake mix and just add water cake and other mixes are very handy when we're out of fresh items (like milk, cheese or eggs) but can be hard to find. Cheeses besides cheddar are basically unavailable as well as many dairy items like cream, ricotta cheese and sour cream. Herbal tea is also hard to find in most places. Fine coffee beans were rare, although instant coffee was available most places. The availability of candy besides hard candy was variable at best and is great for passage treats.



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Things to stock up on


It’s best to buy in quantity only when the market looks like it has high turnover and watch expiration dates so food is as fresh as possible. Paper products, aluminum foil, plastic bags, food storage containers and cleaning products are often a lower quality outside the U.S. and so are the Ziploc plastic bags so we'd suggest stocking up on these items. Shrink wrapping toilet paper, napkins and paper towels can protect them for longer term storage. Film and batteries don't tend to be as fresh in remote countries, so we tend to stock up on these in major markets, although they'll only last so long in the heat. Ziploc bags and sponges are other household goods we make sure to have in abundance.



We like to have a good stock of canned chicken, canned ham, canned tomatoes, tomato paste, mushrooms, artichokes, olives, red peppers (dried or canned) and sun dried tomatoes, and dried mushrooms, so that we have meat and vegetables when out of fresh stuff. Pastas and pizzas are good with these items and are surprisingly good even without any cheese. Cheeses besides cheddar are basically unavailable so I like to load up on these (especially parmesan and Romano) and salamis. I like to stockup on ready to eat meals for passages. It helps to taste things before stcking up to avoid getting stuck with stuff you don’t like. (For example we’ve found that tomato sauce and ketchup as well as mayonnaise in New Zealand to be incredibly sweet to the point of being inedible. Peanuts in New Zealand were usually stale when we bought them there.) We try to have a lot of instant hummos, baba ghanoush and tabouleh salad mixes since they can be quickly made and are cool items in the heat of the tropics. And also canned (tinned) crab, shrimp, mussels, sardines, salmon and clams which are great centerpieces for cool, hearty salads. Whenever we can get tortillas, we stock up on them since they usually last a long time and make for lots of quick meals. We make sure we have lots of just add water pancake mix, cream of wheat and oatmeal since it is handy for breakfasts when we’re out of almost everything. We carry a bit of smoked salmon from home. We also buy a bunch of flavor packets like Thai,Indian and Chinese seasoning for easily prepared meals. Instant mashed potatoes, canned stir fry vegetables, dehydrated vegetables, spaghetti and sauce are other favorites. UHT box style juice concentrate, canned fruit, several long life breads and crackers are other staple items. We buy a number of instant soup mixes in packets since they are light and stow well and can be enhanced with fresh items to make a more hearty meal. Chinese instant noodle dishes are handy for quick meals.



Specialty items we stock up on are pine nuts, olive paste, often used herbs like oregano, cilantro/coriander, Thyme, Basil, cayenne, minced ginger and garlic in jars, anchovy paste for a few examples. We like to have lots of nuts on board for recipes and snacking and availability is unreliable. Dried fruit is also nice to have in quantity for recipes and snacking and is often hard to find, but does not last longer than 9 months. We stock up on beef and fish jerky for snacking.



Good duty free ports were Mexico, Rarotonga, New Zealand, and Vanuatu, as well as Hong Kong and various places in Japan.



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Passage Meals


For passages, we often make ready to eat food in advance, like bread, a bacon cheese quiche, a pot pie, chili or dahl that we can enjoy the first day or two (we keep it in the cool oven, using the oven much like a breadbox or keep it in the pressure cooker and reheat.) Instant foods like mashed potatoes, bean flakes are quick and easy to make as well as filling as a meal base. Rice is a staple on passage. Precooked pasta, which you can make or buy, is handy when you want pasta to avoid sloshing hot water under way. We always have beef jerky and fish jerky on hand to munch on. We also make sure we have lots of canned meals at the ready. We found the packaged meals we could buy in French influenced areas, while expensive, to be delicious, especially the cassoulet.



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Miscelleneous tips for the galley



  • People sometimes microwave flour and any baking mixes to minimize the possibility of bugs growing for longer life storage. Bay leaves or peppers in flour are rumored to chase away bugs.
  • Can openers bought in the U.S. may not work well on international cans. We often had to use our Swiss Army knife to open certain kinds of cans.
  • Pressure cookers are handy to use underway because they feature a locking lid. They can reduce cooking time to a third of the original cooking time. Do not overfill since they will explode if the vent gets blocked.
  • Sometimes it is difficult to find appropriate places to dispose of garbage so we end up carrying it longer that we might normally expect. Separate food scraps from the rest of the garbage and dispose overboard when appropriate. We'd suggest washing food residue out of cans, bags and plastic containers so that the garbage doesn't stink if you are unable to dispose of it for extended periods. (Simple green can remove even the odor of fish and other items from plastic containers.) Flatten boxes and crush cans for compact storage. Separate bottles, cans and paper from plastic garbage. Sometimes bottles are useful to locals for bailers or food storage containers. See if you can recycle.
  • Baskets are handy for holding vegetables and snack foods away from other items to avoid crushing.
  • In the tropics, the heat will melt rubber bands and cheap plastic bags and sometimes distort cheap plastic: Also the markings on grocery bags, bread bags, etc will rub off onto other things, so watch where they are sitting.
  • We found making ginger beer to be easy and fun, and we sure enjoyed consuming our refreshing product. Making drinks, including beer and wine can allow you to have these items without having to buy, transport and store these heavy items before you're ready to drink them. Kits are available in the U.S. and New Zealand and we met lots of cruisers making them. And it's duty free.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Retrograde Maneuver:
Sailing back across the Pacific

A typical view: Lots and lots of fog
We stayed in Japan for as long as we dared, given
general weather patterns and our next selected
destination: Seattle, approximately 4,500 miles away.
We were nearly ready to go: We'd gone over the boat
thoroughly; we'd brought out the storm trysail and
staysail, Jordan series drogue and sea anchor, stowed
our anchor, set up the inner forestay and hanked on
the storm staysail; we'd bought more jerry jugs to
carry extra water and topped off our fuel tank and
extra fuel jugs; we'd purchased mountains of hearty
heat and serve meals; we'd stowed most of our Japanese
charts and pulled out charts covering the entire north
Pacific, plus Alaska, Hawaii, and the Pacific
Northwest, all potential stops.

About 3 days before we planned to leave we noticed a
deepening low east of the Philippines where northern
Pacific typhoons usually form. (While typhoons can
pass through this area anytime between June and
October, typically they form east of the Philippines
and pass through the Philippines towards Vietnam, Hong
Kong or Taiwan until around August when they begin
curving more northeastward towards Japan.) That low
soon became typhoon Man-Yi and was forecast to come
right to the Tokyo area, unusually early for passing
this far to the east. In a well protected marina in
Yokohama, south of Tokyo, we prepared the boat (moving
slips, reducing windage and stringing a spider's web
of lines to the marina docks around us and placed huge
Styrofoam fenders to protect the hull just in case)
and waited for the typhoon to pass. Despite being
physically and mentally ready to go, we had a week to
wait before we could think of leaving, giving us the
opportunity to do several more "final" trips to the
store for more food. We even managed a trip to Costco
(pronounced coostecoo by the Japanese). While we
waited we received emails from friends scattered
around Japan reporting the weather they faced as the
typhoon passed. One set of friends suffered bent
stanchions and pulpit and gel coat punctures in the
Ryukyu Islands, but while we had torrential rains, our
winds were quite manageable in the comfort of the
protected marina. And so mentally we began our voyage
across the Pacific, already so likely to be dominated
by concerns about weather, even more acutely aware of
the weather and feeling somewhat boat bound.

Generally we refer to Pilot charts to study general
trends in an area to guide where we want to be and
when. But since day to day weather can vary
significantly from the averages and affects us so
profoundly, we evaluate the weather every day. Over
our years of cruising, we have grown to understand
weather patterns in the areas where we've spent some
time and identified good sources for weather data.
The tools we use to check the weather include a number
of websites when we have internet access onshore, plus
grib files, a graphical depiction of weather systems
resembling a pilot chart of an area that we select by
latitude and longitude plus a range of details such as
wind direction, barometric pressure, wave heights, fog
or ice areas, etc. which we can via Sailmail, a very
limited email we can access while underway through a
very slow radio link. In addition to grib files, we
can download weather faxes that are broadcast by
weather bureaus on certain frequencies at certain
times of the day for different areas of the world.
That gets us the raw materials with which we can
determine the conditions we might be likely to face
and estimate the best time to leave - a weather window
- for a certain passage, if we're smart. Getting weatherfaxes

Despite our years of learning, our experiences prove
to us time and again how difficult weather can be to
predict and how much we still don't understand. And
then we get to relearn old lessons when we get
complacent! With so many variables to consider, we
often see different actual conditions than the
prognosis would suggest: predictions based on models
that don't always agree that are then affected by
local geographical factors. For example, off the
northern coast of the Philippines we had very light
winds suddenly build to 35 knots accompanied by short
nasty seas. We were taken by surprise since we saw no
obvious clouds hinting at a coming change in the
weather - sunny hot conditions we'd had along that
coast for days - and nothing in the 3 day forecast
indicating any change was expected. With difficulty
we returned to an anchorage we'd passed up while we'd
had good conditions and the intensely strong winds
totally vanished the following day as though we'd
hallucinated the whole miserable episode. We surmised
that we'd seen a lee trough effect like we see off the
California Coast where a very strong sea breeze builds
as a result of the land heating effect. Kicked in the
butt by an old lesson long forgotten!

The weather in the north Pacific is quite different
from the tropics, which is typically governed by large
stationary highs that provide a nice steady flow of
air that doesn't change much. Outside the tropics, we
are affected by a series of highs and lows that move
across the area and move against each other in often
unpredictable ways, so the wind changes all the time
and can dramatically change speed and direction.
For a little peace of mind, we solicited extra help
analyzing the weather to identify a good weather
window, because once we leave . . . . So we asked our
friends at Commander's Weather who provide weather
forecasting for countless cruisers like us and also
for many famous world record sailing attempts and
round the world race and America's Cup campaigns. We
first met them while they were assisting the One World
Challenge America's Cup Campaign and the Volvo Ocean
Race ABN Amro team and enjoyed their company many
times, including Thanksgiving and Christmas after One
World lost to Oracle BMW in 2002. They confirmed our
decision to wait for the typhoon to pass and then our
decision to depart on our second proposed departure
date as the adverse winds and swell from the typhoon
abated. And their service includes monitoring our
progress as we sail and providing warnings if any
conditions threatened our safety or answers when
specifically requested.

And so armed with a reasonable forecast for the start
of our long voyage, we left the comfort of a nice
marina with wifi access, shops and restaurants
wondering if we were really ready for this. We again
encountered heavy shipping traffic and fog as we
exited the bay of Tokyo, with a nice northeasterly
pushing us at speeds of 8 and 9 knots. A whale
breached several times and then waved its tail in the
air as we pulled away from the southern tip of Japan.
Birds were everywhere. And the ships started to thin
out as did the gloomly layer of clouds hovering over
the densely populated Tokyo area.

We had wind on the beam and confused seas as we
continued heading south to get away from the coast and
the after effects of the typhoon. Our plan was to
head down to around 30 degrees North, then turn east
when we could ride the ridge between the lows rolling
across Japan and the highs to the south so we'd have
the wind behind us, on the bottom of the low and the
top of the high pressure systems. (In the northern
hemisphere, high pressure systems rotate clockwise and
low pressure systems rotate counter-clockwise,
opposite rotations in the southern hemisphere). A
great theory, anyway, but difficult to execute when
the systems are continually changing speed and
direction, moving north or south, slowing or speeding
up in their general progression eastwards across the
Pacific. Our course took us across the Kuroshio
current back eddy and we had rough waves making for a
very wet and wild ride for a day or two. We just hung
on and eventually the waves mellowed and the weather
became pretty ideal, with beautiful sunny skies and 10
knot winds from behind or abeam which made for days of
great sailing, where we could make progress to the
East.

We settled into our watch system of 4 hours on and 4
hours off, a steady routine on our marathon relay,
pacing our way across the ocean. With light winds and
flat seas, we had comfortable conditions for sleeping,
cooking, eating, washing the dishes, reading, plotting
our position and course, listening to music, watching
the moon, stars and constellations march across the
night sky and always one of us watching for ships and
fishing boats on the desolate horizon, making sail and
rudder adjustments to stay on course and compensate
for changes in the wind direction and speed. Sailing
in light winds can be quite pleasant with flat water,
though we nearly always have some swell or wind waves.

Little broke up the monotony of the dark blue horizon,
though we saw lots of sea life. Storm petrels chirped
at dusk and small albatross gracefully glided over the
boat throughout the day. Dolphins often visited
mornings and evenings, swimming alongside for a short
while. Occasionally in the moonless darkness,
dolphins cut torpedoes of phosphorescence through the
water, making for a great light show. Huge tunas
leaped out of the water, a number keeping pace with us
for a time, though none fell for our lure as we
dragged a hand line. We did snag something later but
couldn't reel it in fast enough before another
predator feasted on our catch. Unfortunately an
albatross fell for our trailing lure while we were
eating dinner and became fatally snagged, to our
horror. We were hesitant to put out the lure again,
though we were desperate for some fresh fish. We did
manage to "catch" several flying fish and squid with
the sheer expanse of our deck (ha!), but they were
always tiny and petrified, stuck to the deck in rigor
mortis by the time we noticed them - Not exactly good
eating. One squid inked all over the deck, leaving
his signature in the throes of his last moments;
Though we missed the drama, we may always remember
him. Whales visited on quite a few occasions, some
coming unnervingly close that were nearly as big as
the boat. One morning I spotted a whale in front of
the bow and altered course to avoid him as he slapped
the water with his tail, passing just a few boat
lengths to windward. Close enough for some great
camera shots, but it was drizzling at the time and I
didn't want to miss the show while I went down and put
the camera in its underwater case. Other whales
surfaced, blowing and breaching nearby. Garth saw a
huge sunfish swimming on the surface. We also saw
lots of our namesake velellas sailing the waves, but
getting a photo of these tiny creatures was nearly
impossible until we caught a few when we had light
winds.Our namesake velellas

For a time the winds were very light and for more than
10 days our progress was quite slow, though sunny
skies made for nice sailing.

A glassy Sea
While we had pleasant
conditions for living, every time the winds got light
we worried about our small water tanks, limited
propane supplies, and scant fuel capacity over the
course of such a long voyage. We were in serious
conservation mode: We cleaned our dishes in saltwater
and reduced our use of fresh water as much as
possible. I avoided making hot and water intensive
meals when I could, boiling the occasional pasta (for
the sake of variety) in one third saltwater, and
eating lunch meats and cheeses with crackers as much
as we could to save propane for colder weather. Our
fruits and vegetables quickly dwindled. (Once
refrigerated in the stores, fresh produce doesn't last
nearly as long as farm fresh produce like I bought
when I provisioned in Mexico for our 3 week crossing
to the Marquesas. After that provisioning, we had
vegetables for months and actually reached New Zealand
with a perfect jicama that we'd carried for over 7
months!) Even power was rationed since sailing at
angles put our solar panels in the shade on even
bright sunny days, limiting our ability to generate
power, so we often had to curtail our computer and
radio use as well. Balancing limited resources while
trying to avoid feeling deprived became a constant
theme of this passage. The distance we were covering
and therefore the sheer length of the voyage was
certainly daunting and we tried to set smaller
milestones to keep our spirits up and avoid focusing
on how much ocean still lay ahead of us.

Like a couple of gerbils on a perpetual treadmill
around the clock with little to break up the monotony,
we sailed on. To keep ourselves from going stir
crazy, we entertained ourselves through a variety of
means depending on our conditions: making a new
Japanese flag to replace the shredded rag that we had
to take down a couple of weeks before we left the
country, decanting food stores into easier to reach
locations whenever conditions allowed, decanting water
from jerry jugs into our tanks as we used fresh water
supplies, listening to music or short wave radio
programs (BBC, Radio New Zealand, Radio Australia)
when our power level allowed. Repairing the jib underway

Exercising while
underway can often be a challenge due to the limited
space and the motion of the boat, but stretching and
doing limited yoga kept us from getting stiff from
sitting in the same positions for extended periods.
Besides meals, we spent most of our awake time alone
on watch trying to keep quiet while the other of us
grabbed some sleep. We blew through a huge selection
of books, thankful that we'd been able to trade books
with another boat before our departure so we'd have a
good variety. And we worked on the laptop whenever
conditions and our power situation would allow,
weather taking top priority.

With the laptop we downloaded weather faxes and grib
files, though we had trouble connecting and staying
connected to the nearest Sailmail stations thousands
of miles away. A problem we thought we'd solved was
evidently still an intermittent one, compounded by
poor reception: HF interference made for frustrating
sessions of attempting to connect and being unable to
or getting dumped partway through a transmission
accompanied by a huge drain on our batteries for
nothing. While we've had few mechanical breakdowns on
Velella - probably due to good preventative
maintenance - and have always been impressed at how
well the boat has performed, we haven't been so lucky
in the area of electronics and seemed to have been
plagued by gremlins that have been very exasperating.
Not having Sailmail was a big disappointment, since on
such a long voyage, we were counting on it more than
ever. Without it, our weather resources were limited
and our ability to keep Commanders Weather, friends
and family apprised of our progress was missing. And
it meant the loss of a key form of entertainment.
Occasionally we'd connect to Sailmail without trouble
but more often than not efforts to connect, send and
received messages turned into an exercise in
frustration and I drafted countless emails that became
out of date long before we could send the messages,
and we wasted precious power getting nowhere. We
hoped that our ability to connect would improve once
we got closer to the Hawaii Sailmail station.
Fortunately we could still receive weather faxes
passively through the SSB using a different program so
we could at least anticipate coming weather.

We watched the weather systems closely as they moved
across the Pacific to help us plan our route and avoid
adverse winds. We kept adjusting our course so we'd
be positioned to take best advantage of wind speed and
direction for the various weather patterns as they
moved. Sometimes that meant sailing a bit out of the
way – further south or north than our ideal course to
get on top of a high pressure system or stay below a
low pressure system so we'd get favorable winds from
behind as much as possible. After the initial calms,
we began sailing more northerly to reach areas where
there was more wind. As we found more wind to the
north, our speed picked up dramatically and we made in
a single day what had taken us 3 during the lighter
winds. Plotting along

Plotting our location on the charts became
much more interesting, as we wondered whether we'd
surpassed our longest run of 179 miles in a day. With
the wind and swell behind us we surfed, rocketing
forward at *average* speeds of 7.5 knots, with peaks
of much more. Though we only had so much control at
the relatively slow speeds we were moving.

As we moved north the weather got windier and colder
and blue skies were obscured by clouds. We saw water
temperature drop from 80 degrees to 68 F in about a
week and continued to fall. Arctic blasts swept down
from the north. We pulled out fleece, foulies, and
blankets, then gloves and hats. (We even pulled out
our boots, but discovered that they'd disintegrated
since we last used them.) Our days sailing in little
to no clothing disappeared and soon changing the
inside layer required courage and planning. Clouds
enveloped us for days on end and everything felt moist
and cold. Suiting up for going on watch meant piling
on layers, often still damp from the previous watch.
A pervasive mist seemed to penetrate to chill us to
the marrow, reminding us of Seattle weather and making
us doubt our sanity for proposing to leave the tropics
where we've enjoyed nearly endless summer for years.

And so we continued our marathon relay across the
Pacific, changing watch every 4 hours and doing our
best to stem the boredom, the scenery ever the same
with little apparent progress save for the plots
trickling eastwards across the chart. And still so
much ocean to cover. When conditions were wet and
boisterous, our entertainment was reduced to watching
the sometimes invisible horizon, conditions being too
wet to risk the Ipod or a book, the moon and stars
obscured in the gloom. Food became the highlight of
the day and the best way to keep warm. The cold drove
us to hover in the companionway and then eventually we
took refuge inside as much as we could get safely away
with while keeping a decent watch for ships. That
proved to be important to keep us going.

Making burritos
One day, while trying to do Sailmail in vain yet
again, the power suddenly went out on the SSB;
Exploring for faulty wiring is difficult under the
best of circumstances and the conditions we had at the
time precluded even thinking about it. We'd been
mostly unsuccessful getting Sailmail for weeks, but
hoped reception would improve as we approached Hawaii,
and now we were facing not having it at all for the
rest of the trip? We reconnected our old back up short
wave radio to the antenna but couldn't get a decent
signal to get a weather fax. So no weather
information either? Then we got really depressed.
But we tried again the next day and were able to get a
barely readable weather fax and felt a little better.

And we sailed on: sleep, wake, cook, eat, suit up,
stand another watch . . . Repeat.

One early morning just 40 minutes into my watch at
4:40am, I nearly had a heart attack. In a pervasive
mist, a ship suddenly appeared from the murk, so close
that I didn't think I had enough time to react. We
hadn't seen a ship for more than 2 weeks and were
nowhere near any shipping routes – or anything at all.
Normally I can spot a ship more than 10 miles away,
and have plenty of time to determine its heading and
speed and plan possible evasive maneuvers and execute
them with plenty of time to spare. But I was
rocketing down waves at speeds of up to 9 knots with
the jib poled out – not exactly in the most
maneuverable of circumstances - and this ship was
suddenly within a quarter of a mile on a collision
course. And at the speeds they go . . . . we were
closing the distance between us pretty fast. The
ship appeared and disappeared in the thick fog while I
was watching it and though I noted its bearing and
knew where it was I often could not see it. My heart
pounded in my chest and my body literally started
shaking as I knocked on the hull to wake Garth. The
simplest evasive action we could take was to call the
ship on the radio and hope he'd hear us and alter
course immediately but we didn't have the VHF on
(trying to save power) and turning it on required
going down below and taking my eyes off the ship which
I wasn't about to do. Garth was awake by then so I
got him to call the ship. Following our call, a
whistle came through the speaker followed by 2 clicks
and the ship changed course to our immense relief.
Shortly after the ship changed course our preventer
broke and we accidentally jibed. The preventer cleat
ripped out of the back of the combing and the line
positioning the preventer on the boom also broke.
What timing! The ship disappeared and reappeared in
the fog several more times while we watched him go
astern of us. Then we reefed and worked on jury
rigging the preventer line to keep the main boom from
wrenching around in the swell causing another
accidental jibe. Yikes, that certainly broke up the
monotony and woke me up!

And we sailed on: four hours on, four hours off . . .
Drizzle, fog, rain . . .

When wave conditions mellowed we found the problem
with the SSB. Cleaning the contact for the power
button did the trick and we were back in business.
(Corrosion and rust never cease in life aboard.) But
in the process of investigating the SSB power problem
we created ones for the VHF and stereo. While working
in an overly cramped compartment that houses a myriad
of other wires, power wires for those got knocked as
we moved about in the waves, requiring a revisit to
the rats nest of wiring. Still no luck with Sailmail,
but at least we could get good weather charts again.
Jeez, this trip was getting long.

And we kept on sailing . . .

Over such a large distance, we passed through many
time zones, which meant that the sun rose and set
earlier each day as we traveled east. Time zones are
spaced every 15 degrees of longitude, and to preserve
a relatively constant meal and sleeping schedule, we
chose to adjust our clocks as we crossed into a new
time zone, splitting the lost hour between us. And
when we crossed the International Date Line at 180
degrees, we finally recovered that day we lost over 6
years ago, by repeating the day twice. The repeated
day seemed just as uninteresting as the day that
preceeded it, and probably wasn't quite as warm as the
one we traded away in the South Pacific 6 years ago!

We were well stocked with treats and set mini
milestones to keep up our spirits on our long journey.
We celebrated my birthday, getting over the fold on
the chart, reaching various waypoints for course
changes to secondary destinations like Midway, Hawaii
and Kodiak, crossing the International Date Line,
passing the halfway point, graduating to a new chart,
etc. We bribed ourselves with various kinds of food:
olives, fancy cheeses, popcorn, pappadoms (cooked
without oil), artichoke hearts, tapioca pudding, crab
cakes with homemade chutney (fruit jelly, butter,
cayenne, jalapenos and ginger), shrimp and homegrown
alfalfa sprout salad (thanks, Sue!) and smoked oysters
and, of course, sweets like coffee and fruit candies,
chocolate, gummy crocodiles, and cookies; And then
there were drinks like kahlua and cream, rum and
juice, tequila and hot chocolate, wine, plus special
books, movies etc. We had a glorious day to celebrate
crossing the International Date Line, but the next few
ugly days more than made up for it, with violent
squalls, intense thunder and lightening, heavy rains
and cloud or fog. The motion on the boat was
unpleasant as the wind went forward of the beam and we
sloshed in the sloppy waves and residual swell. But
then the wind moved aft and conditions mellowed again.
We had a day or two of light sunny conditions, a
welcome respite. And then it clouded over again.

Sending a message in a bottle
Then fog enveloped us, reducing our visibility to less
than 200 yards. Such dense fog continued for over two
weeks and began to feel claustrophobic. One afternoon
we heard a fog horn getting closer and after blowing
our whimpy fog horn that sounds more like a pathetic
party favor, we called on the VHF and a voice replied
that he'd spotted us on his radar. Whew! We never
did see him, but heard his fog horn quickly fade.
Another time we heard a fog horn and had a brief VHF
conversation with a woman officer on a container ship
headed for Long Beach and then her conversation with
another ship in the vicinity. More ships we never
saw. Once we heard the rumbling of an engine in the
fog. We called on the VHF but didn't raise anyone.
Shortly afterward we smelled the ship's exhaust though
we never saw the ship that produced it. Now that was
frightening!

Typically a high pressure system dominates the weather
between Hawaii and the Pacific NW, but after weeks of
steering to go above that stationary Pacific high, it
started moving unpredictably, venturing much further
south than usual. Instead of riding the top of the
high like the textbooks suggest on a typical weather
pattern that we'd been watching for weeks, our weather
faxes revealed that a string of lows, gales and fronts
would cross our path as we were squashed between the
lows and the usually stationary high now way south.
Oh boy! Low after low passed by and we carried on in
a trough that stretched in a long line between us and
our destination. The trough haunted us, producing
gloomy fog and drizzle weather for another two weeks
as we precariously sailed between narrow bands of gale
force winds. While expecting much higher winds at any
moment we encountered only 10-20 knot winds. We were
blessed to escape gale after gale: Each time we
braced ourselves, mentally preparing and sometimes
physically, with course adjustments or sail changes
and advance meal prep. Some gales went north of us;
Some went south; And others dissipated before they
reached us. Whew! We were feeling a little lucky.
But tense.

And on we sailed, getting more anxious to get there
with each passing day and drop in temperature. The
fog dense continued, the moist cool air chilling us to
the bone, making our journey seem endless. (Gummi
bears get quite hard to chew at those temperatures!)
We continued to worry about our propane and water
supplies. Carefully monitoring our water supplies we
determined that we were doing well on our fresh water
usage, but we had no reliable way to measure our
propane levels accurately and hoped we wouldn't run
out while we needed hot meals so desperately. Our
craving for hot chocolate grew dramatically (to about
every 5 minutes!) as the temperature fell but we had
to restrain ourselves. The water temperature was
down to 57 degrees F and we could feel the cold
through the hull. The bedding and pillows, trapped
between our (relatively) warm bodies and the cold hull
became damp with condensation. We rarely wore less
than a full set of fleece and the damp gear stayed
mostly damp. Oh for a little sun to warm us and dry
things out! Yeah I know I'm blowing the romantic
image of life at sea.

Our power dwindled without sun to charge the solar
panels and though we are usually loathe to run the
engine, we actually got excited about running the
engine to charge the batteries because the engine
warmed the interior. Even though we still had to
watch our fuel usage, we could justify running the
engine for an hour or so to bring the batteries back
up to charge. But when we first turned on the engine,
I immediately noticed that water wasn't jetting out
the transom like normal and quickly turned off the
engine since that meant our engine cooling water
wasn't circulating right. Garth opened up the engine
and discovered that the engine water intake was
completely fouled with barnacles allowing little to no
water in to cool the engine. With an old batten he
chiseled out the opening through the open thru hull
and we eventually got enough flow that we felt
confident running the engine again. Working on the engine
Our boat speed was
agonizingly slow for the conditions we faced and
looking over the side, it was easy to see why. Since
scrubbing the bottom the day before leaving Japan, a
sizeable crop of barnacles had attached to the hull.
We found it telling that the varnished wind vane
paddle had far less growth than the 8 month old
anti-fouling paint! Growth in only 49 days

Already flirting with
hypothermia, we shuddered at the thought of going over
the side to clean barnacles off the hull to address
the fouled thru hull (had our efforts failed) or to
improve our speed. We worried the saltwater intake
for the sink and head would have similar problems, but
I guess significant use made that less of a problem –
or so we hoped. But we had little choice but to
tolerate the slow speeds and hope for the best.

"Will we ever reach our destination?" we wondered,
feeling like kids in the back of the car on a road
trip. A lengthy trip like this proved a definite test
of our mettle. They say that what doesn't kill you
makes you stronger. Yeah, well . . . We had to work
to keep our spirits up, finding ways to lure each
other out of our alternating days of funk. Sailmail
remained elusive as a diversion, remaining merely a
power intensive exercise in frustration and many of
our best forms of entertainment were severely limited
by our low power levels. I kept finding treats that I
had squirreled away over a year before as our food
compartments emptied – Almond Roca, dark mint
chocolate, ganache . . . But, one can only eat so
much chocolate. Oh for a long hot bath, a steak
dinner, a full night's sleep . . . Or even a day of
warm sunshine and a view of a distant horizon.

Finally our prayers were answered and we had several
warm sunny days with good winds, which markedly
improved our spirits. Clear sunrise

We were ticking away the miles,
reaching three quarters of the way and then less than
1000 miles from our destination - major milestones.
At 250 miles, I encountered two ships at once, on a
course indicating they'd originated in Puget Sound.
One ship was on a collision course which never
wavered. Though I called him on VHF repeatedly, no one
ever answered and I finally had to alter course to
avoid a collision: evidently no one was keeping a
watch, listening to the radio or familiar with Coll
Regs. When I first saw Pacific Northwest kelp again,
I started getting excited for our arrival because then
we seemed really close. After 43 days, our families
must have been getting worried with no news from us
for some time.

We'd mused about stopping in Midway, Kodiak and
Hawaii, but hadn't left ourselves a lot of time to
enjoy these locations and still make Seattle this
season. (Ultimately weather conditions dictated: As
we neared points where we'd need to alter our course
if we were bound to each of these places, adverse
winds made these options unappealing.) As we finally
neared the North American continent, where to make
landfall became more than distant fantasy and
something we could actually talk about. We considered
clearing in to Ucluelet, Canada, the nearest port of
entry only a hundred some miles away. Nearby was a
favorite spot from our shakedown cruise – Hot Springs
Cove - which offered a long soak in a hot spring in a
beautiful setting full of fond memories. And after
such a long journey what a great way to finish! We
were running out of supplies and more than ready to
get there. So we refined our course and began
imagining our happy arrival.

You're probably as ready to finish reading about this
epic voyage as we were to finish living it . . . but
wait, there's more! (Like the never ending Ginsu
knife commercial . . . ) Mother Nature wasn't going to
let us off that easy. The next weather fax showed a
high followed by two lows and a gale – not a pretty
picture. We'd been lucky so far and hoped that
subsequent faxes would see these patterns shift as
they often had. A little north or a little south
might mean a world of difference in 24 hours.
Besides, we might be in by then anyway. But the high
rolled over us, sucking away the wind like a deflated
balloon. We started motoring, but worried that we had
too far to go for motoring to save us. Finally the
wind picked up. And then "Land Ho!" Yippee!

But the next weather fax still didn't look good. As
we closed in on the coast, we started listening to
vessel traffic control to monitor shipping traffic and
the weather reports they offered. They issued a gale
warning, but we continued to make progress, crossing
our fingers. The gale was a predicted to be a south
easterly and we were headed northeast – still doable.
Then they upgraded the gale warning to a storm
warning. Oh, shit! So we cracked off to head for Hot
Spring's Cove, the nearest safe harbor for those
conditions. We'd have a great excuse for not checking
in first. The southeasterly winds along the southern
part of the coast became easterly in the middle part
of the Vancouver Island coast and northeasterly
further north but we were near the middle. The winds
began building and were noted to be highest at Estevan
Point. Unfortunately, that's where we were. We
reduced sail area but kept on fighting to make it in
before the worst of it hit.

On the home stretch with a bad case of barn fever,
after 46 days of sailing, we were crushed when within
18 miles of making it into a rather straightforward
port entrance, we could no longer make any progress to
the east – now to directly windward. So close but yet
so far . . . A cruel joke, really. I think swimming
would have been faster. (It surely would have put me
out of my misery sooner!) Our tacking angles were 180
degrees at best, and we slipped sideways (our keel
more closely resembling a double sided hairbrush with
all the gooseneck barnacles than an effective
hydrofoil). Land disappeared behind heavy rain sodden
clouds; The sound of the wind howling in the rigging
became intense; The rain blew sideways; And the seas
became mountainous. And watching for shipping traffic
became hopeless in those furious heaving seas; We
reported our position to VTS so that ships would be
aware of our presence in the area.

But there was nothing we could really do but hunker
down and wait. We were basically hove to: We sailed
back and forth, with minimal sail area, making no
progress and enduring an unpleasant motion and
torrential rain while we waited for the worst of it to
pass. We worked hard to preserve our hard won miles
as the boat hobby horsed in the choppy waves, but we
were 35 miles away by the time the wind eased. The
wind eased but remained easterly. Finally after 2
days the wind shifted and we could again sail east. As
we unreefed the mainsail the stitching came undone
just below the 3rd reef. So under a triple reefed
main and large 150% genoa, we worked our way back into
the coast. We encountered big clumps of kelp and the
water turned from a dark blue to a dark green as we
neared land. We picked our way through the rocky
entrance to Ucluelet and barely made our way into the
channel to tie alongside just minutes before dark
after 49 days at sea. What a relief at last.Velella at whiskey dock: time for some whiskey!

We used 52 gallons of water, leaving us with about 18
gallons of water remaining as well as surprisingly,
1/2 tank of propane that could have kept us going for
another week at least. Thank God we didn't have to go
another week. Arriving in port, we felt like we'd won
the lottery rather than merely finished a rather long
and arduous journey. At this point we could finally
declare our circumnavigation of the Pacific complete,
though we were not yet back where we began. Before we
continue on to the US, we'll repair the mainsail as
best as we can by hand so we can use more than 80
square feet of sail area, refill our propane tanks,
scrape all the barnacles off the bottom and indulge
ourselves at a couple restaurants. Sewing the main

We plan to check
into the US in Port Angeles, about 100 miles
southeast, then head for Port Townsend and Port Ludlow
before carrying on back to Seattle in the next few
weeks.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Exploring Honshu, Japan

Wendy and Garth

Wakayama
We headed for Wakayama Marina City in the Inland Sea,
knowing that here was a decent marina where we could
leave the boat for an overnight visit to Kyoto by
train, while avoiding the additional roundtrip sailing
required to go all the way into Osaka or Kobe. Our
detailed charts are older and when I plotted the
location of the marina and the coordinates placed the
marina deep into the bay south of Wakayama city, I
concluded that either the GPS coordinates were
inaccurate or that significant building had occured
since our charts were printed. With the help of a
brochure of the marinas of Japan we cross checked the
GPS coordinates, and an aerial photograph helped us
locate the entrance outside a newly created island.
We made our way in and tied alongside.Wakayama Marina City

Our first day there was gorgeous and sunny. We had
great facilities there, so were easily able to do our
laundry, enjoy long hot showers and fill our water
tanks. And we contacted people in the area that we
knew. Japanese cruisers who we first met in New
Zealand had settled here after they finished their
circumnavigation of the Pacific, and we thought it
would be fun to see them again if we could arrange it.
We were able to reach Yuki immediately on the weekend
and she visited the boat, bringing fresh vegetables
from her garden. We spent some time aboard catching
up with what we'd been doing since we last saw each
other. Then she took us to see the Wakayama Castle,
which I'd really been wanting to see. The castle
towered over the city behind a fortress of stone
walls, yet inside, the building seemed far less
imposing. Wakayama Castle

I had been completely enthralled with James Clavell's
book Shogun and subsequent miniseries as a child, and
I really loved being able to see various types of
traditional warrior dress on display inside. Ancient warrior dress
The view
from the castle peak overlooking the city and marina
was excellent and the weather was clear. After
touring the castle and gardens, we headed for a
grocery store where Yuki helped us to provision for
our upcoming passage. Yuki's help was invaluable: We
appreciated having her tell us what things were and to
suggest ingredients that could last for months without
refridgeration for easy to cook meals while underway.
We got so absorbed in provision shopping, we nearly
forgot to buy the octopus for the evening's meal!
Then we headed for her house, where we met up with her
husband, Tomi, a talented artist and musician. We
were amazed by Tomi's watercolors and sketches of so
many places we've cruised and loved thumbing through
his sketchbook and their book of cruising friends,
many of whom we had met while crossing the Pacific.
We had a great time with them, reminiscing about
boats, people and places we knew in common. Yuki and
Tomi told us that a Japanese singlehander that we met
in Saipan last April failed to arrive in Japan: About
a month after we saw him depart, his boat was found
adrift off the coast of Japan with no one on board and
we realize that we might have been the last people who
saw him. A circumnavigator friend of theirs also
joined us and we were amazed to hear of his passages
around cape horn and across the Atlantic and Pacific. Feasting with Yuki, Tomi and friends

For dinner we had takoyaki, a specialty of the area,
which are tiny round balls of soft doughy like mixture
of octopus, flour and a mild cheese, which were
absolutely delicious! We also had a great salad and
pot stickers to round out a fantastic evening.

Kyoto
Early the next morning, Yuki and Tomi generously took
us to the train station and helped us get our tickets
for Kyoto. It was raining pretty steadily so we were
suited up in our rain gear along with umbrellas hoping
the trip wouldn't be a total washout. The train took
about an hour and a half and after we arrived we
immediately headed for the tourist office to find a
place to stay for the night. We identified a Japanese
traditional inn, a Ryukan, that suited our needs in
the area of Gion, where the old teahouses and geisha
are concentrated. Then we found a restaurant in the
impressively huge modern Kyoto station that looked
appealing and affordable and joined the queue outside
on the bench. An engaging waiter/host took everyone's
order while we waited. As the only Gaijin, we went
through the pantomime, trundled over to the window
display and pointed at the meals we wanted. And
shortly after we were seated our meals arrived, a
combination of noodle soup, rice, tempura, salad and
pickled vegetables and seaweed, served along with
plenty of hot green tea. After lunch we wandered
amidst the steady drizzle over to a temple near the
station then made our way to the Ryukan to check into
our (hotel) room. Ryukan room
Our room featured traditional
features of a Japanese home: the step up from the
entryway into the main living area, with tatami mats
covering the floors. The room was sparsely decorated
with just a low table in the center of the room and
low flat cushions placed around it, and a television
an alcove in the far corner. We snacked for dinner
while hotel staff came in to make up our bed: They
slid the shoju screen doors open and pulled four
single futons out of the closet and laid them out in 2
layers side by side. Then they covered the top two
futons with flat sheets tucked between the futon
layers and on top they laid a covered duvet and
pillows. We found the futons to be very comfortable
after we wandered the streets of Gion a bit during a
break in the heavy rain.

In the morning with better weather, we again wandered
the cobblestone streets of Gion, lined with charming
wooden tea houses and weeping willows. Tea house in the Gion area of Kyoto
As we stopped
to buy a drink from a vending machine, a woman asked
us where we were from and how long we were staying.
When we indicated we were heading towards a temple,
she indicated she'd show us the way. Soon she was
pointing out famous tea houses in her limited English
and patiently waiting while we took photos of the
kimono clad women and interesting scenes we
encountered along the way. When we arrived at the
temple she hurried up the steps and bought 3 tickets
and ushered us inside refusing to hear our
protestations as we tried to pay our own way. We
looked around the temple briefly then she invited us
to sit with her in a peaceful spot overlooking the
gardens. We were impressed with the beauty and
peacefulness of the temple and talked for a short
while as best we could given our language challenges. Kenninji temple

She began pulling items out of her bag and handing
them to us, saying "gift for you": first a book
showing her company that supplies very high quality
miso to fine restaurants, a temple book, a cell phone
charm, a special temple cloth, then beautiful photos
of geisha in training, called maiko, and full fledged
geisha, (called geiko in Kyoto). In her limited
English, she explained a little about the geisha
training using the photos to point out what she meant.
I was keenly interested in learning more about this
uniquely Japanese tradition that I read about in the
book "Memoirs of a Geisha". She promised she'd take
us to see the geishas after the temple. Then we
continued to explore the temple and its lovely
gardens. The presence and manner of our self
appointed host made us stop and really immerse
ourselves in the serene beauty of the temple in a way
that we might not have otherwise. Peaceful Temple Gardens
And when we
finished, we all made our way back through the cobbled
streets. Geisha house and geisha in the tiny streets of Gion

As we rounded one corner, we saw a large group of
photographers hovering outside a doorway, clearly
waiting for something. Our host greeted friends in the
crowd and then asked if we liked noodles, whisked us
into a noodle shop and promptly ordered. When the
shopowner placed in front of each of us a bowl of cold
noodles, a bowl with small bits of raw seaweed, a bowl
of brown sauce, and a bowl with a white gruel topped
with a raw egg. We watched her mix everything else
together and then pour the mixture over the cold soba
(buckwheat) noodles and start eating. So we both took
a big breath and followed suit, trying to forget that
we were eating raw eggs and we weren't sure what else.
Surprisingly enough we found the combintation quite
filling and not revolting. (We've noticed that eggs
are a common feature in Japanese meals, though usually
cooked.) We were able to treat our host to lunch and
then we joined the crowd of paparazzi outside. The paparazzi awaiting a Geisha's debut

As we awaited the debut of a newly graduated geisha we
learned from an American gal with a good understanding
of Japanese a bit more about geisha traditions: A
maiko begins her training at 15, mostly running
errands and observing in plain dress, then at 16 the
maiko begins to dress in elaborate kimono and
hairstyles and ornaments, studying the traditional
arts - singing, dancing, shamisen playing, flower
arranging, etc. Maiko
When a maiko reaches the age of 20,
she becomes a full fledged Geisha, assuming the full
duties of a geisha, keeping the lion's share of the
income that she generates and usually moving out of
the shared geisha house and into her own quarters.
The geisha, being more skilled in the fine arts than
the maiko, tend to dress more plainly once they make
the transition, with less brightly colored kimono and
less flashy hairstyles (usually wigs) and ornaments.
She is considered an artist and not a prostitute. On
this lucky day, we saw the debut of a new geisha as
she emerged from her geisha house to begin her career
as a full fledged geisha. Geiko Debut
When she came out in her
formal black kimono, white face and elaborate
hairstyle, the photographers went wild, taking
photographs of her from every angle. They paid
special attention to the 3 (makeup-less) stripes of
bare skin on the back of her neck, considered very
sexy as they suggestively disappear into her kimono.Notice the 3 makeup-less stripes on her neck

On this day, the geisha makes her rounds to all the
tea houses for the first time as a full fledge geisha.
As she began her tour, the photographers followed in
a pack. We took this opportunity to say goodbyes to
our host and thank her for her incredible generosity.

Though we only had a couple of hours until our train
returned to Wakayama, we wanted to fit in a quick tour
of Naji-ji, the castle of the first Tokugawa
Shogunate. Its ostentatious style signalled the
decline of the power of the emperor and the rise in
that of the shogun. To protect the shogun against
treachery, the castle featured hidden compartments for
bodyguards to keep watch and nightingale floors that
sang pleasantly when someone approached. Nijo-jo Castle moat
The castle
was surrounded by a moat and high stone walls and
beautiful gardens filled with ponds and waterfalls
amidst lush flowers and trees. The castle interior,
while filled with finely carved shoji screen doors and
paintings is surprisingly sparse and plain: similar in
appearance to typical tatami rooms, yet made with much
higher quality materials. The elaborate entrance
gates and gardens were the most impressive features,
as well as the clever chirping floors. I could have
definitely been comfortable living there, just with a
bit more furniture!Castle grounds

With so much still to see in Kyoto, the rapidly
approaching typhoon season forced us to press on with
our sailing journey, and we returned to the boat in
Wakayama.

Nachi:
The day after we returned from Kyoto, we carried on
with our sailing. We've been moving at a pretty quick
pace, rarely stopping to do more than sleep and
sightsee. We headed out in foggy light wind
conditions amidst busy shipping traffic yet again.
With so much practice, we're quite adept at
recognizing all the various lighting combinations from
every angle for all types of ships - vessel on port or
starboard, LPG carrier, vessel restricted in its
ability to maneuver, vessel not under command,
submarine, etc. and determining the location of a ship
based on its engine noise or fog horn when visibility
is poor. Our next intended port was Japan's largest
tuna fishing port and whaling center on the southern
coast of Honshu, where natural hot springs or onsen
are common due to the volcanic activity in the area.

We pulled into this shipping port and tied alongside a
fishing pier, just behind a brand new local sailboat.
We were looking forward to spending time with them but
they were gone within a couple of hours. We ate a
quick lunch and took a nap, then in the evening we
wandered about, spotting an onsen for bathing our
feet, where a small group of Japanese were gathered.
To our delight, we noticed foot baths sprinkled around
town and made a point of soaking our feet as often as
practical.

In the morning we went to see the tallest waterfall in
Japan, nestled up in the mountains nearby. We caught
a train and bus up the winding mountain roads to the
spectacular shrine complex and waterfall. Shrine and waterfall
We had a
delightful day hiking along the ancient moss covered
stone trails through the deep woods to the waterfall
and back down again. Forest path
In the late afternoon, hot and
sweaty, we headed for an onsen in the nearby Ryukyan.
After a thorough scrub, we each soaked in the hot tub
outside in the garden - Garth with a couple of
Japanese guys in the men's Onsen while Wendy enjoyed
the solitude of an empty ladies Onsen. We finished
our brief visit with a fine sushi dinner at the local
sushi hangout, with plenty of maguro (tuna) from the
local catch. We would have loved to have paid a visit
to the whaling center and museum, but again the coming
typhoon season urged us on. We noted with interest
all the important Japanese whaling research that we've
witnessed: the parts of the whale depicted in several
butcher's shops. We would have loved to have seen a
nearby whale museum and whaling ship, as well as
sample a few more onsen, one of which was outside
overlooking a gorgeous view and closed when we wanted
to go. But the seasons forced us to press on.

So we sailed eastward towards Tokyo, more drifting in
fog and heavy shipping traffic. We'd planned to stop
one more place along the southern Japanese coast, but
for several hours we had ideal winds that were
starting to build and we though that with this
favorable wind we could easily make good progress and
that we ought to take this rare opportunity. But the
wind was just a tease. Within an hour of double
reefing the main, we instantly had not a breath of
air, too late of course to change our course for the
anchorage we had mistakenly passed up, where we could
have relaxed for the night and done a little more
sightseeing. Instead, the next 18 hours were
painfully slow until we finally motored our way out of
the busy shipping area in poor visibility. Again our
brochures with the marina overviews came in handy to
navigate into another brand new marina in Yokohama,
just south of Tokyo. By the time we arrived our
Japanese flags was in tatters, though I can hardly
remember wind that might have caused that!

Tokyo:
We again splurged to stay in a fancy marina, though we
paid a small fraction of what Japanese boaters might
pay. We wouldn't be able to afford to visit Japan
otherwise, as we typically don't stay in marinas but
often must here. In Tokyo, free anchorages are
nonexistent and we wanted to be able to top up our
water tanks, wash the boat, and have a place where we
could leave the boat and take advantage of easy
transportation to sightsee and meet up with friends in
the area. During our first couple of days in the
marina we'd worked hard to complete the projects on
our list so that we could then enjoy the company of
friends. For years we've stayed in touch with Tomoko,
a freelancer with a Japanese glossy sailing magazine
after she interviewed us in New Zealand, did a 6 page
piece on us years ago and generously enabled us to
participate more fully in the America's Cup by hosting
us aboard the press boat several times, as well as
gave us the opportunity to watch races and press
conferences anytime in the media center. We were
looking forward to seeing her and her husband,
Yuichiro, again and the magazine (Kazi) wanted to do
another interview with us so we arranged a time to
meet just before we planned to depart. In the
interim, we contacted a couple of other folks and made
arrangements to meet up. We misunderstood an
invitation for the weekend to be just an invitation
for dinner and accidentally double booked ourselves.
Unfortunately this misunderstanding messed up our only
opportunity to see Tanaka-san again before he headed
to the Pacific NW to cruise the Queen Charlotte
Islands and we were disappointed to miss him. We hope
we'll have the opportunity to host him in the Pacific
NW sometime.

So we headed downtown Tokyo on the train to meet up
with our friend Mitch, and he generously offered us
the chance to enjoy a few days away from the worries
of the boat, enjoy his huge house in downtown Tokyo,
relax and sightsee with his family for the weekend.
We began our evening in a busy, stand up style food
bar, where we could sample a wide variety of Japanese
delicacies, in the tapas style. In the company of
Mitch, another American and a South African who were
also longtime residents of Japan, we chatted about all
kinds of things while we tried a number of interesting
dishes. We started out snacking on soy beans fresh
out of the pod while we drank beers. Then we moved
inside to the bar and sampled a couple platters of
maguro sashimi (raw tuna) rolled in black sesame seeds
and chicken skewers with a delicious spicy pepper
relish. Then we were served a large bowl of ice, on
which sat juicy slices of fresh beefsteak tomatoes and
the largest asapargus speers that I've seen,
accompanied by a soy bean mixture and mayonnaise which
made for a surprisingly delicious compliment. Then we
tried horse sashimi (yes raw horse!), unusual to try
but not especially interesting. After we polished off
a few beers, Mitch opened up a bottle of shojyu (a
smooth sake like drink of much higher proof) that the
restaurant had given him to congratulate him on his
new promotion. Mitch opening a bottle of Shochu
We poured the shojyu over a carefully
hand carved large round ice cube. (Garth really
enjoyed the the shojyu, perhaps a little too much, as
the next morning he was a hurting pup.) Following our
food sampling, we toured a couple bars housing an
incredible collection of LP record albums of old
favorites and rarities. Soon it was four in the
morning and we took a taxi home to Mitch's nice house
for some sleep.

In the morning when we finally got moving, after a
long hot bath, we headed out for a bit of sightseeing
around Tokyo. Weddings
Mitch, his wife Yoshiko and his two
boys, Cody and Kinan, took us to a beautiful garden
where we saw numerous weddings in process - lots of
formal black kimonos - and to a tea ceremony where we
sampled bitter thick green tea and several sweets
designed to complement the tea, one a chalky pink, one
translucent gelatinous pale blue-green and a white
cake filled with a bean paste, all served by a
graceful, kimono-clad older woman. Tea ceremony
We marvelled at
numerous carefully cultivated bonsai trees that were
only a few feet tall despite being hundreds of years
old. Ah, the history they must have witnessed. We
carried on to see the Tokyo tower, where countless
people wore kimonos or the more casual, thinner cotton
version - yukata, since those wearing kimono get in
free, but the hazy weather discouraged us from going
to the top. We walked a short distance to Zojo-ji,
the former family temple of the Tokugawas. There we
watched the monks conduct a service in the temple. In
a larger temple opera music was audible and we went
over to watch and listen as performers practiced for
an evening performance. We wrote our wishes on a
bright green tag to post on a weeping willow tree, in
keeping with temple tradition. In the evening we went
to an all you can eat restaurant where we cooked our
own meat, seafood and vegetables in a deep fryer.
After dinner we walked around the busiest intersection
in the world, where nearly 400,000 people a day cross
the street - that's about 1000 people each light cycle
and about how many people we crossed the street with.
There lies a famous statue of Hachiko, in honor of a
famous dog who loyally awaited his masters return
every day at the railway station for 10 years after
his master died in his office. The next day we had a
full day of exploring Enoshima island, shrine and
gardens, a great beach town and day trip from Tokyo,
where we had the opportunity to shop for souvenirs and
sample more Japanese delicacies. (My favorite was a
deep fried bread with a light cheese and fish filling,
slightly similar to takoyaki, but not quite the same.
I can't remember what it was called, though.) Mitch, Yoshiko, Cody and Kinan
We
finished the day touring Velella and the marina.

After interviewing with Kazi magazine, Tomoko and
Yuichiro took us sightseeing. We drove down to
Kamakura, once the Japanese capital and a charming
town of notable Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines,
and picturesque gardens. We visited an ancient giant
Buddha, built in 1252. The statue sits over 36 feet
tall out in a courtyard after the huge hall that once
housed it was washed away in a typhoon in 1495. We
ventured inside the bronze Buddha and immediately
understood the need for the ventilation provided by
the amusingly large doors cut into his back. A short
distance away, we visited a temple and gardens filled
with blue and pink hydrangea blossoms. We toured
through a cave that resembled an ancient Christian
grotto, with carved statues of gods and goddesses. We
stopped for afternoon tea and Tomoko and Yuichi
treated us to some new Japanese snacks, which Yuichi
ordered and paid for through a vending machine before
handing the receipts to a waiter. Our first snack was
skewers of small white rice balls coated with a mildly
sweet and sticky brown sauce with a vaguely soy flavor
- chewey but delicious. Our second snack was a bowl
of watery gelatin with wide translucent noodles made
of a root vegetable that tested our ability to use
chopsticks as we tried to fish them out of the bowl to
dip into a bowl of molasses sauce. Another one of the
interesting but unusual snacks we've tried here in
Japan. Yuichi then took us to his parents home, where
we got to meet his parents and see their finely
sculpted garden and collection of antiques. They
showed us these amazing cloth figurines that his
mother makes by hand with incredibly fine skill. They
generously sent us away with some impressive gifts
that we will treasure for years. The generosity of
the Japanese people has truly amazed us. I can't
think of a country in our travels where we have been
better welcomed and hosted. The tradition of gift
giving is a natural part of life in Japan and has so
enriched our cruising experience, enabling us to meet
people, sample many things and return with more
souvenirs than we might otherwise be able to. We
finished the day with a sushi feast, tasting a variety
of new types. Japan has truly been a favorite
cruising spot for us and we wish that the season
wasn't such a short one. But typhoon season is here
and it's time to find get out of their path.