Travelling almost the equivalent of 10% of the way around the fattest part of the world at a speed of roughly 5 miles per hour can take quite a long time. To be exact, it took us 26 days to cross from Galapagos (San Cristobal) to the Marquesas (Fatu Hiva). At one point we were 1500 nautical miles from the closest (dry) land.
When we left San Cristobal, we were intending on going to Isabella for a day just to see our friends on Dolphin and Waka Irie (who we had not seen for well over a month). As we bobbed our way there, we got fed up with the lack of wind and just decided to head south to pick up the trade winds and get to French Polynesia (we had already cleared out of Galapagos).
Having read a number of articles about crossing an ocean or two, the one that stuck in my mind was an article / survey of yachts that did the "puddle jump" to the Marquesas in 2008. There were 3 major issues that many of the yachts encountered / identified:
1. Chafe
2. Autohelm failures
3. Problems with watermakers
I think the 4th one was generator issues…
Looking at the list, it was clear that of the top 3/4 we could only suffer one of those (having no auto helm, water maker or generator). In preparation to our departure, we were listening in on the SSB radio nets in the morning to hear what conditions the fleet who had already left were encountering, where they were picking up steady and consistent trade winds (from the South East), current and what breakages served to annoy them along the way.
One vessel believed to have had a relationship with a fishing net bent / broke their rudder. Fortunately they were a catamaran and had a spare. On the subject of cats, these guys with wind, swell and current behind them were doing phenomenal daily runs. I may have to change my opinion of catamarans!
A few vessels we heard from had issues with auto helms. Although a few had wind vanes as backups (why they were using an auto helm as a primary over a wind vane is beyond me).
Our friends on Toodles with no wind vane had auto helm issues (I believe they broke the hydraulic ram) and had about 1000 miles to go. As I write this I have no knowledge of how they got on. I hope they did not have to hand steer for 1000 miles.
The vessels that suffered from chafe (the ones that commented about it on the net) included stories of frayed halyards and sail repairs as being the two main ones.
So with this in mind and us being in San Cristobal (not exactly the yachting / chandlery capital of Ecuador) it was a bit tricky to do any last minute stocking up on spare halyards or other anti chafe materials.
Many authors had recommended daily (or twice daily) deck walks to check for chafe. On our passage we encountered the following issues:
1) Our main issue was the spinnaker pole. We had a "piece of string" through a small eye on the beak that we used to clip the downhaul to. When we were wing / wing (our preferred method of downwind sailing) we used to chafe through this little bastard approx once a day. Changing / repairing this in the middle of the night grew a little tiresome. As most people know the saying, the epitome of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. So eventually I went and sourced a suitable shackle to take the place of the "bit of string". So far so good.
I actually had to replace the existing shackle for the up haul, as the vibration had worked the pin loose and the shackle decided to join a few tin cans and some mahi mahi skeletons on the sea floor.
2) Halyards suffered a bit. The jib halyard was fine, main too, but after flying the spinnaker for a day, there was some good chafe through the outer sheath. Yet another reason why I prefer to use a bowline to connect the halyard to the shackle rather than a splice (oh yeah, also I can't splice).
3) Wind generator bracket nut / bolt vibrated out. Even though it was a nylon threaded nut! Made for an interesting time balancing precariously on the transom with a spanner in one hand and a socket wrench in the other, Sally hugging my waist all the while Orion behaved like an unimpressed wild bronco with a circus midget on its back.
4) Control lines for the monitor wind vane were getting very worn. I had to end for end them in order to increase their lives. By the end of the trip the outer sheaths on both were frayed and only the core remained. I wish i had bought more non stretch control lines.
Lube up! I recall running around like a 5 year old with water pistol wielding a grease gun to smear all things with (grease) nipples with lube. Unfortunately the jib was already up and I was too lazy to take it down and lube up the top part of the furler. Boy do I regret. A few days into the sail, there was an unfamiliar creaking noise from the mast. I concern myself when I hear unfamiliar noises as I am adamant that Orion is trying to tell me something. This was a noise of metal on metal, which most certainly was not a good thing.
One day when the wind dropped to a mere 10 knots, we dropped the headsail and Sally winched me up the mast at a pace similar to that which my grandmother finishes a plate of peas using a fork. All the while mother nature was intent on demonstrating to me first hand the forces associated with acceleration from pivot point 40 feet below me. While up the mast I gave it a thorough inspection and a stamp of approval. No wear to be seen. Jib went back up and no sooner were we under way than the noise returned. Drat! Back up the mast I went, this time with the jib up and with me went good ol' WD40. Everything got lubed up with a good coat of WD40, including the source of the squeak, the roller furler. Once again I returned to the deck feeling like a piñata and spent the next half hour coaxing my testicles out of my stomach where my climbing harness seemed to have placed them during my mast climb.
We met Carolyn and Fatty Goodlander in Grenada and they gave me a piece of advice which I am glad I took - get a dinghy cover. Not only as it is a good protector for your dinghy from old mr sun, but acts as a chafe guard when it sits upside down on your deck for a month. With the exception of maybe a steel boat, most vessels will flex as the various stresses are applied to it when sailing.
I also used quick release cargo tie downs to keep the dinghy secured to the deck. These also started to chafe a little, so I placed rags between the dinghy and the cargo straps.
Haul the boat and clean your bottom. I wanted to, but could not find the time or a cost effective place to do so. I probably should have done the job in Colombia and given my bottom a new coat or two at the same time. One could do it in Shelter Bay (Panama) but it is quite pricey to haul there. Moving from Caribbean waters to Pacific waters, there are different brands of paint that apparently work better due to the different water temperatures and organisms that inhabit it (don't ask me which is best as I never got around to it).
What I can say is that my 18 month old paint job did not dissuade goose barnacles and these funky jellylike creatures from taking up residence on casa de Orion and enjoying a 3000 mile trip across the ocean. This would certainly have affected our hull speed. Where we were averaging 120 mile days, a half a knot of resistance (might have been even more) meant that for every 10 days we travelled, we should have realistically covered 11. Thus adds on at least 2 / 3 extra days to your passage. If we had been becalmed, we could have hopped in and given the hull a clean, but once the trades start, they did not stop!
Summary of the lessons learnt are as follows:
- Have plenty of sticky back sail repair tape / canvas
- Check halyards regularily and "end for end" them if they are getting worn
- Use seizing wire on all shackles / stuff that can wiggle
- Identify before hand what lines will be used regularly / for long periods and have contingencies (i.e. I should have bought more control lines for our monitor)
- Grease up EVERYTHING that needs lube before you set off.
- Anything that can move needs an anti chafe guard (a rag will do in most instances)
- Have a good coat of new anti fouling on before you set off
Great to see you made it!
ReplyDeleteCheers, RickG