Good news! The port automatic bilge pump works! Saturday 29 Aug 20

Yes, it’s Saturday but feels like Monday. I popped out like a piece of toast around 0600 to hear a noise that’s rarely heard on JollyDogs. Bilge pump running, switching on then off then on. What’s that other noise? Why gosh darn, it’s the house water pump constantly kicking on and off. Why is that? Obviously there’s a leak somewhere. Quick, fill the electric kettle then turn off the house water pump, get caffeinated and then go hunting for the problem with a clear head.

 

I don’t do much of anything before my first cup of coffee.

 

Turns out it’s one of those plumbing fittings that attaches a standard tapered thread plumbing fitting to 15mm plastic flexible pipe used on boats. It’s the output from the hot water line to the master head shower valve. Yesterday was exceptionally sunny so I let the inverter power the hot water heater until we had a full tank. Took about 2 ½ hours, and would have lasted a couple days at least, but now most of that is “down the drain” so to speak. Nuts.

 

Doesn’t cheer me up that hot water has been spraying around the port engine compartment and dripping on the alternator regulators and associated switches, but they’ll get over it and so will I. The good news is we’ve spare parts on board and within an hour it’s all fixed up and cleaned up and dried up and life is good. That’s when I spy evidence of a leak from the heat exchanger on the port diesel engine. Well isn’t that just special?

 

I’ve been looking at the cost and complexity of long endurance electric propulsion the last few days. It isn’t mainstream yet but lots of progress is being made and we have encountered hybrid boats out here. Need a generator for those long run times or cloudy days – otherwise electric seems to be coming of age. Thank you Elon Musk. Maybe someday I’ll do a conversion for a fun project, but production hybrid propulsion catamarans are still in short supply. However, they are beginning to make a lot of sense for the self-launching sailplane market

 

We’ve been here at Maupiti for nearly 2 weeks now, and it’s a great place to hang. Some really strenuous and scenic hikes, plus a nice amble on the paved road around the island, a bit over 5 miles. Decent groceries in terms off fruit and veg and eggs, and we’ve got everything else on board already. Nice friendly people. Free public WIFI at the post office on weekdays! The local cell tower provides a nice LTE data connection. Killer sand bar to kite board from when the wind is strong enough. Giant manta rays come into the lagoon daily to feed and visit a “cleaning station” where little dinky fish chew parasites from around their faces – interesting to watch.

 

We better like Maupiti, because everywhere we want to go is East of here. Pretty much due East, and the winds tend to be strong out of the East or Southeast this time of year, so it’s a bit of a commitment coming here. It does look like a break in that weather pattern will materialize in about a week and we’ll look to motor back towards Bora Bora or even farther whenever that happens. Places to go, people to see, things to do!

 

Coronavirus has kicked back in here after being essentially eradicated. Partly brought by tourists, partly by new French government employees arriving for their rotation, but the spread has really been caused by big parties at bars and restaurants or private residences where people hugged and kissed (French hospitality style) and didn’t wear masks and generally acted like Covid-19 doesn’t exist. Well now they’ve got it. The hospitals haven’t run out of ventilators or rooms yet, but apparently the medical staff have reached a noticeable level of physical and mental exhaustion, so the French government is sending in a few reinforcements.

 

So far no lockdowns so we’re free to move around, but we wear masks when ashore if we’re around any people, unless we’re sitting at a restaurant table with friends. There’s a great restaurant near the dinghy dock. Great food, reasonable prices, and they do the dishes!

Maupiti JollyDogs is upon you! 17 Aug 20

Well the passage was just a little slower than we’d hoped as we had to jibe downwind in lighter airs than forecast. As dawn I relieved Isabel who was just about to make herself a cup of coffee to try and stay awake, and she instead elected to crash and saw wood. About 0800 I was looking at the pass and marveling at the big surf breaking on either side of the rather narrow channel. Wow. To extend my viewing pleasure the jib got furled and engines started, then aligned JollyDogs with the first set of range markers. The pass has a dog let in it so one has to hang a left after getting past the sportier part. That first leg looked pretty turbulent at the moment but no big standing waves.

 

Maupiti is known for breaking waves in the pass if there’s a southerly swell exceeding 2 meters. Locals say 2.5 meters max swell, but certainly we’d prefer none at all. There are Youtube videos showing catamarans in Australia standing off in rowdy conditions, preparing to cross bars at river entrances. They seem to time the wave sets then gun the engines and surf on in to delight of shore bound onlookers. Occasionally, to the horror or those onlookers they get it wrong and broach, losing their vessel and making rescue necessary. Aussies are known for stretching the envelope at times, and while JollyDogs was born in Oz and we’ve lots of friends who were spawned there, our Youtube video better be yawn inspiring.

 

Anyway, Isabel hears the motors start and her natural and somewhat justified suspicions about her husband’s questionable judgement force her from her slumber and she emerges to make sure we’re not about to do something regrettable. No no no, I assure her, just making sure I get the lay of the land and does she have a preference regarding hoving-to or tacking back and forth and fishing for a bit? She doesn’t offer any druthers, so I review the hove to procedure with her and give it a go. Main sail appropriate for existing wind conditions, track to one side at the limit and sheet hard on, jib furled, rudders on opposite tack to the main position. Apparently, we should drift downwind at about 1 knot with the boat in a cycle of heading up then falling off to about 60 degrees. We drift at more like 1.8 knots, so I bring the wheel full over to the opposite side to see how that would work. Still a higher drift rate and a different behavior. I radio our pals on SV Sugar Shack and Matt advises that they don’t really ever hove-to, so we’re on our own. Plotting our course reveals that the boat is behaving as expected, just drifting at a higher rate than advertised in the “operator’s manual”.

 

We get bored with that and decide to fish for a bit, and soon we’re clipping along at 6-8 knots hoping the fish are interested in wind sprints before death. No joy, and about 1015 Matt radios us from his dinghy and pronounces the pass “just fine for an entry, very little current and no standing waves”. Heck, while wait another couple of hours until the noon slack tidal flow, we’ll just boogaloo on in and get settled. As a further incentive he notes that a free mooring is available in the anchorage near them, just hang a left after clearing the pass. Right! Jib away, main sail down, engines on, and we line up on the range markers for the entry. Isabel has a good look around, brings me my life jacket and asks me to clip on, shuts the saloon door and then goes below to, in her own words, “cower in fear”.

 

It’s a pretty interesting ride, and it turns out the current is running out at around 3.5 knots at the strongest, but with both engines blazing at a comfortable rpm (leaves plenty of excess power in reserve) I maneuver us on in and soon we’re lined up on the second set of range markers, the exciting part just a memory. Actually, the crazy part is looking around at the big breaking surf on either side as we motor through the narrow entrance. Bit of a head game there.

 

Now where’s that darn mooring?

Huahine recap and onwards! Saturday 15 August 20

Avea Bay down at the southwest end was quiet, calm, friendly, and we even found a mooring to use. Nice to leave the anchor on deck and repair the bridle. Stout mooring – so when the squalls came, no worries mate. Friendly local residents, a nice resort with fufu drinks, and some good snorkeling. Had the wind been right, a beach a short dinghy ride around the corner offered a setup and launch point for kite boarding. We went over there with our pals from Agape, but the weather didn’t cooperate.

 

Fare is the big village up towards the northwest end. There’s a seriously well stocked Super U grocery store, electric bike rentals, post office, hardware store, fuel station, and open-air markets. The shell museum is world class and also sells pearls. Ask Isabel how we know. One of the jewels of the village is Izzy’s Burgers, a place where a punter can get a killer good cheeseburger (Angus beef) and fries for around $11. Izzy is a lady who found her way to Huahine from Southern California, and she brought the great burger and fries culture that In ‘n Out is so well known for. We found ourselves in there on two separate occasions, and eventually our full up loyalty card will earn us a free cheeseburger. Not complaining.

 

We spent a beautiful day riding electric bikes 61 kilometers around Huahine Nui and Huahine Iti (north and south islands). Somewhere down on Huahine Iti we found a great spot for lunch, and consumed the best poisson cru (raw tuna in coconut milk and lots of salady bits) we’d perhaps ever had, as well as some good barbequed chicken and fries. We were sustained! With about 30 kilometers to go on the ride, it was the right thing to do.

 

We joined the crew from SV Newam 2, SV Taipan and SV Capall Mara for fancy cocktails at the little resort by Avea Bay one evening, paying too much for fruity rum drinks that didn’t even have little umbrellas in them. It was fun, but not a habit to get into.

 

Today we joined 6 other dinghies with their crews to observe a Polynesian celebration of life for a young friend of ours, tragically killed just a few days ago by a speed boat as he was snorkeling. He was only 14 and leaves behind grieving parents and his little sister. More about Eddie another time, it’s still a difficult topic for me.

 

At 1700 local time this afternoon we weighed anchor and sailed for Maupiti. It’s about 2300 now and I’m about to maneuver around Bora Bora so we can lay the last 30 something miles of the passage. It’s a quick overnighter and the sailing conditions are good. Plenty of stars out to enjoy, and perhaps now that it’s finally cleared up, I’ll get to see a few remnants of the annual Perseid meteor shower which peaked on Wednesday night. Naturally it was raining and cloudy then.

 

Maupiti has a single pass for entry and exit, and if the southern swell is greater than 2 meters the pass features breaking waves, something not to be trifled with. We timed our passage to try and have a shot at the morning (0600) and noon slack tide periods, but right now we’re running a little late for the 0600 show time. Looks like we may have to hove to outside the pass and wait for noon, but the seas aren’t demonstrating any southern swell so at least we should get in OK. There’s a maramu coming next week and we want to be well tucked in before the wind and seas pick up.

 

Maupiti is known for a “cleaning station” where giant manta rays gather daily to let the small cleaner shrimp and fish nibble the parasites from them. Cool opportunity to swim with a crowd of manta rays, so we’re in! We’ve got several friends there already, so we’re bringing fresh vegetables for our pals on SV Sugar Shack and we’re looking forward to some time with our pals on SV Le Pukeko before they sail over the horizon to New Zealand in a few weeks.

 

It was time to move on – we were gettin’ “itchy”.

Of light pollution and solar power. Monday 10 August 20

Getting the energy equation right is not only important, it’s also extremely satisfying to a wanna-be geek like me. At the end of the day we want to have enough electricity onboard to be a bit profligate with our power use. Leave the VHF radio on for inter-anchorage communications, run the SSB for the net morning and evening, charge phones, kindles, laptops, enjoy good lighting, have plenty of fresh cold and hot water, and use various small appliances in the galley. In addition, we may have our mast top WIFI extender and attached router energized, we generally leave our AIS transponder on so various friends might find us as they’re approaching an anchorage, and often we’ll leave the NMEA 2000 bus powered so we can monitor wind and depth under the boat as we swing about. We’ve been known to anchor in “kinda shallow” water and it does get breezy out here at times. Enquiring minds want to know!

 

If we’re underway more power-hungry devices come one, including the B&G Zeus3 12” chart plotter, radar, and electrically actuated hydraulic autopilot. Whether at anchor or underway the stereo might be playing. At anchor we’ve got the anchor light burning all night, if underway we’ll run the tri-color light at the top of the mast and various red lights inside the boat so we can see to move about and make a cup of tea.

 

The good news is that LED lighting has pretty much made lighting loads insignificant. While WIFI repeaters and phones don’t use a lot of power, all the communications and computing devices together do begin to add up to a bit of power use. Stereos use a bit of power, as do fans that keep us cooler in the galley or while sleeping. Radios use some power, a little in standby, a lot more when transmitting. The big whammy users are the AC powered hot water heater and the water maker, and the autopilot when underway but its power draw pales in comparison to the other two biggies. Autopilot power demands have a bit to do with the sailing conditions, as the harder the autopilot has to work to keep us on course, the more juice it uses. Keeping the sail plan balanced helps, but some points of sail and sea conditions as well as autopilot operational modes use more power than others.

 

All in all, it’s a bit difficult to predict what the real-world power use will be, so it’s a little hard to decide how much solar power and battery storage will be necessary to achieve a “carbon neutral” footprint. We do our best to reserve fossil fuel use to the dinghy outboard or the diesel propulsion. Our first guess at all this was in 2014 when we originally equipped JollyDogs with 800 amp hour of LiFeP04 cells and 920 watts of solar panels operated with a single solar controller. In the sunny Mexican climate that worked out pretty well, but our plans were to head for cloudier climes and a wider range of latitudes. During our 2018 refit we upgraded to 1440 watts solar, each hard panel with its own controller, and installed 720 amp hours of new LiFeP04 cells. We’ve now lived with this system for about 18 months and it seems to be working out pretty well. There have been a couple of extended rainy spells when I’ve dug out the Honda 2 kilowatt generator so we could run the water maker or the hot water heater, but otherwise the solar has gotten the job done. If we are motoring somewhere we always exploit the alternator output to top up the fresh water and the port engine also heats the water.

 

Here in the anchorage most boats run a generator several hours a day, especially the monohulls as they really don’t have the real estate for lots of solar. Being freed from the tyranny of using fossil fuel for power generation is a wonderful thing and it’s great being a quiet boat.

 

If we could only do something about the light pollution out here! Anchor lights aren’t too bad and often there’s no manmade lights on shore, but that darn moon! I really want to enjoy the Perseid meteor shower this week, but Mr. Moon ain’t helping!

The end of an era! Sunday 9 August 2020

When we discovered the Seawind 1160 at the 2006 Annapolis Sailboat Show, I was already what one medical specialist described as an “orthopedic museum”. Matter of fact, that diagnosis was provided during my first preventative medicine checkup after joining the giant aerospace company and being introduced to what then was called “managed health care”. At the time the concept was that spending a little bit to keep folks healthy was cheaper than fixing them after they got sick. My how times have changed in that business. Anyway, the orthopod told me that if I got the urge to go for a run, “lay down until it goes away”. Heck, I was only 28 then, and it would be another 7 years of SCUBA diving, skydiving, hiking, flying upside down, white water rafting and generally cavorting around until I managed to crash a sailplane during a local soaring club racing event. That mishap certainly did turn me into an orthopedic wonder, with crushed heels, broken ankles, cracked #1 lumber vertebrae, collapsed left lung, and plenty of lacerations. A free helicopter ride to a trauma center, 8 days in intensive care, and about 3 months in a hospital bed with my feet in the air, lots of wheelchair time, then 4 months of physical therapy later I was cripping around slowly with the help of a cane. I finally threw that thing away and got back to my former life but knew I would always have certain limitations to observe and that they might amplify as time went on.

 

So when I met the lovely Isabel and we decided to sail the world together, I knew it would have to be on a platform that wouldn’t become the limiting factor in how long we might be able to enjoy this lifestyle. As we say now, we’ll do this until it’s not fun anymore, or until we think of something else that’s even more fun to do. In the meantime, sailing a “leaner” as I like to refer to monohulls is something we’ve both done quite a bit of. I’ve been fortunate enough to work as passage crew for Captain Ian on various superyachts, sailing well over 11,000 blue water miles in the Atlantic and Mediterranean in a variety of sea conditions. Big sailboats in big seas leave you with big bruises. I managed to convince Isabel that a catamaran would allow us both, but especially me, to enjoy this lifestyle a whole lot longer as we tottered slowly into antiquity.

 

Our Seawind 1160 has been a great solution, but not long after we bought her our broker Kurt Jerman introduced us to a couple who could answer lots of my engineering questions about the boat design. Hello Ralph and Helen Marx, fellow Arizonians and longtime sailing enthusiasts. Turns out they ordered their Seawind 1160 when Ralph had just turned 77 years old. Moondrifter was commissioned just a few months before JollyDogs. They took delivery in 2008 and have sailed Pacific mainland Mexico and the Sea of Cortez about 7 months out of every year since. Along the way they’ve demonstrated that the Seawind 1160 is a design that can be managed shorthanded, is easy and safe to sail, and truly allows folks to enjoy this lifestyle into their later years.

 

Coronavirus forced them to put Moondrifter on the hard in Guaymas, Mexico back in March and retreat to their home in Arizona. Given the unknowns about when this pandemic might finally end and their own personal situation, they’ve elected to sell her to some lucky new owner. Ralph is around 90 now so I reckon that’s pretty good going. Ralph and Helen are living proof that we could be enjoying this lifestyle for many more years ourselves.

 

We’ll be putting JollyDogs up for sale in less than 2 years, but not because we’re giving up. Seawind is going to build us a brand spankin’ new 1370 and we’re planning to take delivery at the factory right there in Vietnam, do some of our own outfitting in Lankawi and Phuket, then enjoy sailing in Asia and beyond. Shucks, I’ll only be 63.

 

Thank you, Ralph and Helen, for enriching our lives so much, for your mentoring and inspiration. You are legends in our minds.

Fast Boats and Influencers Tuesday 4 August 2020

The new Seawind 1370 has made its marketing debut using social media. Facebook and Youtube and Instagram and such. No expensive ad spends on magazines or boat shows or other conventional marketing approaches of days gone by. Imagine the money they’re saving, and how the boat selling world has changed in the last few years. A lovely couple on the sailing vessel Ruby Rose has done a lot market research into all the currently available catamarans and produced a video series about them (apparently) then approached Seawind to collaborate on the new 1370 and produce a series of videos to help market the new model. The lovely couple is part of a group of people known as “influencers”, and in return for their marketing efforts they get compensation in the form of discounted merchandise. In the cruising world those folks generally get free stuff for their boats. Inverters, solar controllers, watermakers, you name it. Maybe even free boats!

 

We’re friends with a young sailing couple who are influencers. They’ve got a large group of followers on Instagram and create marketing videos to post on Youtube and other platforms. In truth what they do is a lot of work. Recently they got new LiFeP04 batteries for “free”, but that was after a couple years of lobbying the provider, and once the batteries finally arrived they’ve worked their butts off on the installation, then produced a series of videos beginning with opening the packaging all the way through the installation to finally extolling the virtues of their new lithium batteries in comparison to the lead acid batteries they removed and chucked out.

 

The dream for many is to live where they want, how they want, and still to make a living. Our influencer pals are out here sailing in a virtual paradise, supporting their habit with their efforts and doing just fine. In contrast, I put up with a daily commute for over 30 years, working in a factory environment with a ton of company procedures and rules to abide by, getting older and progressively out of shape and developing elevated blood pressure. Who do you think is smarter?

 

I’m not bitter or twisted about how I led my life, just noting there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and it seems to me that our influencer pals are skinning that cat pretty cleverly.

 

One silly thing the initial Ruby Rose marketing video focused on was the projected sailing performance. The lovely couple extolled the virtues of the 1370 at 15 tons weight, sailing along with 25 knots apparent wind at 110 degrees. Blasting along at 19 knots! Who cares? Wind conditions like that lead to big choppy wind waves and an extremely rough, noisy ride. Virtually impossible to sleep, cook, or even move around the boat without hanging on. At speeds like that a mistake in handling can lead to a lot of damage or injury. As Richard Ward told us in 2005, you can make a Seawind 1160 go really fast, but you’re not going to like doing it for very long. It’s hard on the boat and the crew. We spend a lot of effort to slow JollyDogs down to improve safety and ride comfort. Our pals on SV Taipan, a 20 ton, 50’ long monohull made a passage a while back, departing with a Craig Schoening design catamaran capable of blistering speed. After 4000 miles their passage time only differed by 6 hours. Why? Because sailing a performance cat at blistering speed is only something one does in a race or perhaps when trying to outrun some sort of nasty weather. Forget cooking or sleeping.

 

Experienced cruisers are looking for safety, comfort, and taking care of our HOUSE, not abusing our investment or ourselves. We can make JollyDogs go really fast but unless the seas are flat that doesn’t matter. Big winds mean big wind waves and associated banging and thumping and jerky ride and hanging on for dear life.

 

The lovely couple on Ruby Rose should emphasize light air performance. That’s what differentiates the typical condomaran pigs from the performance cruisers Seawind is known for.

Plan D from Outer Space! Tuesday 4 August 2020

Well, if we get a new boat, which we’ve signed up to do, we’ll have to sell JollyDogs. Obviously we want to “monetize our asset”, so we need to end up with her somewhere where she’ll sell quickly and or a price that’s to our advantage. There’s at least a chance we could sell her without the help of a broker, which means that we might split the broker’s commission with the buyer. The legal paperwork that transfers ownership is actually pretty simple, though it’s best to hire an expert who does these things every day. That costs around $400, so no big deal. A selling broker is going to want 10% of the selling price, and the seller pays. Yuk. Over the years we lived on dirt we bought and sold a house without the aid of a real estate agent, and in truth the title company does all the legal stuff anyway. Real estate agents and boat brokers get that fat check to do the marketing and showing the boat. Who knows how this will all play out?

 

Anyway, thinking about all that leads us to “Plan D”. Currently the catamaran sailboat market is on fire at least in the US and excellent condition used boats are fetching very good prices. Plan D has a good bit to do with the Seawind 1370 production ramp up and delivery schedule. We just learned that their initial plan was to produce 6 boats in 2021, then ramp up to 12 boats per year in 2022. The customer enthusiasm for this new model has resulted in something near 40 firm orders, which motivates the factory to develop a plan to ramp up production much faster. Get them built and sold while the market is hot, certainly before the next world-wide recession. Given that Covid-19 has helped create one right now and that this sort of economic event is cyclical anyway, Seawind might rightly expect that the 1370 demand might actually increase over the next couple of years. That thought probably has their investors drooling to accelerate the 1370 production schedule to improve market penetration. Considering the challenges of acquiring additional factory space for increasing production, perhaps they’ll even have to consider deleting one of the current production models and “encouraging” any remaining customers in the order book to accept a different model boat. Altogether it’s a high-class problem, one may businesses would love to have.

 

Sooooooo, Plan D involves examining the used Seawind 1160 “fully equipped to go cruising now” market and making sure that within a few months of us taking delivery of our 1370 we’ve got JollyDogs positioned where she’ll sell quickly and for a good price. Where’s that you ask? Probably the west coast of the USA. So if we don’t identify a better alternative AND we’re sufficiently motivated by the financial or logistical incentives, AND the 1370 production schedule does accelerate, AND Covid-19 is gotten under control, Plan D would likely involve departing French Polynesia in 2021 and sailing towards Hawaii for a visit, then continuing along around the old clipper ship routes using the Pacific High and finally ending up somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, perhaps as far North as Alaska. We put a furnace on JollyDogs because we had dreamed of a season between Alaska and Seattle but we never got there. Could still happen. It’s all about incentives, dreams, trade-offs, and priorities.

 

Plan A would still be the preferred alternative, but we’ll have to figure out whether bringing JollyDogs back to the USA would create sufficient incentives, financial and otherwise, to execute Plan D. Truthfully, the passage isn’t one that really excites us. Maybe we’ll find someone who wants to begin their cruising adventure in Australia or Thailand, on a boat that’s ready to go now! Or not.

 

Phooey, we’ll think about that later. Time for a SUP paddle, a yoga workout, maybe a snorkeling or kite boarding session.