I had four days for a refit in a slip at Nawiliwili before the family arrived for our vacation here on Kaua'i.
Overall the boat performed well on the outward leg. The sails took the worst of it, and my first priority was repair. There are no marine facilities or chandler here, and no sailmaker, but I found a local fellow to sew back the entire foot tape of my 135 genoa. My mainsail had a wear-through where a reef rubbed a shroud, and a damaged slug fastener. However, I was most anxious to add a third reef--my two "bay" reefs only reducing sail to about 60 percent, which is not enough for Trade winds sailing. This i accomplished by cutting off the first-reef dogbone, and assigning its two stainless rings as the new reef cringles. These I ordered attached to the sail using several feet of jackline webbing in such a way as to reinforce against the strain vectors of the reef lines. I gave up the first reef, and now rig only #2 and #3. Looks OK, we'll see if it works.
Singlehanding is very hard on sails. In a night squall one sail may luff violently for 20 minutes as you handle the other, and despite a good deal of attention to it, chafe is a constant factor. Downwind in the trades I was winged out for many days with a 14-foot pole, for which adjustments required elaborate (and slow) adjustments, during which luffing was inevitable. It was rare that the trades fell below 20 knots, and during the passage of a front we had 35 G40 for a morning, requiring hand steering. The occasional broach being inevitable, violent flapping ensues.
I could have repaired all this, and made a stab at the additional reef, with my sewing awl; but the fellow with the machine did quite a better job.
In the days before departure form MDL, I replaced a Racor filter housing that was old and admitting air into the fuel system. My usual primary filter is the R20P, 30 microns. But the new housing cam ewith a 3-micron filter, so I left it on. It clogged and the engine stopped one week out. I changed to a 30-micron and had no subsequent issues. I have four spares for the return sail, and doubt I will use any.
The unremitting and very active motion of the yacht, 24 hours a day, has various interesting effects on systems. My holding tank got filled by having the Y-valve turned wrong, and the sea action on the contents overwhelmed my joker valve. I cannot pump the tank, and had to wait till harbor to flush it with a hose. (Nawiliwili has no pump-out facility; it is the opposite of a landlocked environment). My deck fuel jugs worked well, once I snugged the caps down with a wrench. The shallow bilge of the 32-3 sloshed constantly and I was convinced for a week I had a leak in the hull, since otherwise the boat is quite dry and snug, with no evidence at all of water incursion from deck or cabin house. But in the end it was just a bucket or two of water, sent forward by our downwind course and the bow-down attitude caused by full water tanks and a dinghy on the foredeck, and therefore beyond the reach of the 1500gpm Rule bilge pump resting on keel bolts. But rolling 60 degrees sent this bilge splashing and coursing, and me cursing and fuming, especially during the early days of fast beam reaching under gray skies and cool temperatures. A dinghy bilge pump is all I needed to pump the elusive bilge, and I have one for the trip back.
The self-steering vane, a new Sailomat, performed superbly. It can steer dead downwind better than I can, although there are some tricks to setting it up to deal with cross seas and large swells, which tend to turn the speeding hull, and for which a vane cannot anticipate. The only time it was unable to control the boat was during 35 knots dead stern, with 10-foot seas occasionally breaking onto the transom, during which hand steering is necessary unless you like broaching. tThe issue is big seas--the boat surfs beyond hull speed, and even a human helmsman must pay good attention. Such steering is hard work, and is likely necessary for the course of any gale. Although if I run into one going back, I will first try my parachute sea anchor, which I heartily hope may work, because then you can go below and enjoy the rubber-band effect of 300 feet on nylon rode, which in the past has been, if not comfortable, a good deal more comforting than having to actually look at the ocean, insofar as you can hide belowdecks pretending everything will be all right, and look at pictures of farms in Iowa.
I dove on the boat yesterday with a mask and the keel appears still very soundly still attached to the hull. What a pleasant sight. This small report may suggest the idea-o-grams the imagination delivers to the solo sailor 1,000 miles from land when he cannot find an obvious source of what appears to be a continuing leak. Not that I ever worried my keel was falling off, you understand.
Two weeks of downwind really works the steering gear, and I began to hear the cables making new sounds. I hove to once and did a thorough inspection, but all seemed well with the cables and quadrant. The issue was the slow loosening of the cockpit deck plate machine screws--the upper bearing of the rudder post. I had tightened them and installed new, larger lock washers. But as the top of the screw is only a phillips-head, and the nut is difficult to access and likely well greased, these are hard to snug down very securely. I monitored the progress of the loosening, and at Nawiliwili returned them to tight again.
We have had a grand family week here at the Hanalei Colony on Kaua'i, which is the most beautiful place I have been, uncrowded and unspoiled and everything it ought to be.
I depart dawn Sunday. I am advised to allow 30 days for the passage . I will head north a week, get out of the trades, and work my way through the center of the ever-shifting High, then dodge the occasional gales off central California. Am I looking forward to it ? Yes.
I believe Tracy will continue to update the track of noon position reports, if the Satphone and UUplus and all that electronic junk continues to work, here:
http://olmsteadwilliams.com/christian.html
Best to all,
Christian
Overall the boat performed well on the outward leg. The sails took the worst of it, and my first priority was repair. There are no marine facilities or chandler here, and no sailmaker, but I found a local fellow to sew back the entire foot tape of my 135 genoa. My mainsail had a wear-through where a reef rubbed a shroud, and a damaged slug fastener. However, I was most anxious to add a third reef--my two "bay" reefs only reducing sail to about 60 percent, which is not enough for Trade winds sailing. This i accomplished by cutting off the first-reef dogbone, and assigning its two stainless rings as the new reef cringles. These I ordered attached to the sail using several feet of jackline webbing in such a way as to reinforce against the strain vectors of the reef lines. I gave up the first reef, and now rig only #2 and #3. Looks OK, we'll see if it works.
Singlehanding is very hard on sails. In a night squall one sail may luff violently for 20 minutes as you handle the other, and despite a good deal of attention to it, chafe is a constant factor. Downwind in the trades I was winged out for many days with a 14-foot pole, for which adjustments required elaborate (and slow) adjustments, during which luffing was inevitable. It was rare that the trades fell below 20 knots, and during the passage of a front we had 35 G40 for a morning, requiring hand steering. The occasional broach being inevitable, violent flapping ensues.
I could have repaired all this, and made a stab at the additional reef, with my sewing awl; but the fellow with the machine did quite a better job.
In the days before departure form MDL, I replaced a Racor filter housing that was old and admitting air into the fuel system. My usual primary filter is the R20P, 30 microns. But the new housing cam ewith a 3-micron filter, so I left it on. It clogged and the engine stopped one week out. I changed to a 30-micron and had no subsequent issues. I have four spares for the return sail, and doubt I will use any.
The unremitting and very active motion of the yacht, 24 hours a day, has various interesting effects on systems. My holding tank got filled by having the Y-valve turned wrong, and the sea action on the contents overwhelmed my joker valve. I cannot pump the tank, and had to wait till harbor to flush it with a hose. (Nawiliwili has no pump-out facility; it is the opposite of a landlocked environment). My deck fuel jugs worked well, once I snugged the caps down with a wrench. The shallow bilge of the 32-3 sloshed constantly and I was convinced for a week I had a leak in the hull, since otherwise the boat is quite dry and snug, with no evidence at all of water incursion from deck or cabin house. But in the end it was just a bucket or two of water, sent forward by our downwind course and the bow-down attitude caused by full water tanks and a dinghy on the foredeck, and therefore beyond the reach of the 1500gpm Rule bilge pump resting on keel bolts. But rolling 60 degrees sent this bilge splashing and coursing, and me cursing and fuming, especially during the early days of fast beam reaching under gray skies and cool temperatures. A dinghy bilge pump is all I needed to pump the elusive bilge, and I have one for the trip back.
The self-steering vane, a new Sailomat, performed superbly. It can steer dead downwind better than I can, although there are some tricks to setting it up to deal with cross seas and large swells, which tend to turn the speeding hull, and for which a vane cannot anticipate. The only time it was unable to control the boat was during 35 knots dead stern, with 10-foot seas occasionally breaking onto the transom, during which hand steering is necessary unless you like broaching. tThe issue is big seas--the boat surfs beyond hull speed, and even a human helmsman must pay good attention. Such steering is hard work, and is likely necessary for the course of any gale. Although if I run into one going back, I will first try my parachute sea anchor, which I heartily hope may work, because then you can go below and enjoy the rubber-band effect of 300 feet on nylon rode, which in the past has been, if not comfortable, a good deal more comforting than having to actually look at the ocean, insofar as you can hide belowdecks pretending everything will be all right, and look at pictures of farms in Iowa.
I dove on the boat yesterday with a mask and the keel appears still very soundly still attached to the hull. What a pleasant sight. This small report may suggest the idea-o-grams the imagination delivers to the solo sailor 1,000 miles from land when he cannot find an obvious source of what appears to be a continuing leak. Not that I ever worried my keel was falling off, you understand.
Two weeks of downwind really works the steering gear, and I began to hear the cables making new sounds. I hove to once and did a thorough inspection, but all seemed well with the cables and quadrant. The issue was the slow loosening of the cockpit deck plate machine screws--the upper bearing of the rudder post. I had tightened them and installed new, larger lock washers. But as the top of the screw is only a phillips-head, and the nut is difficult to access and likely well greased, these are hard to snug down very securely. I monitored the progress of the loosening, and at Nawiliwili returned them to tight again.
We have had a grand family week here at the Hanalei Colony on Kaua'i, which is the most beautiful place I have been, uncrowded and unspoiled and everything it ought to be.
I depart dawn Sunday. I am advised to allow 30 days for the passage . I will head north a week, get out of the trades, and work my way through the center of the ever-shifting High, then dodge the occasional gales off central California. Am I looking forward to it ? Yes.
I believe Tracy will continue to update the track of noon position reports, if the Satphone and UUplus and all that electronic junk continues to work, here:
http://olmsteadwilliams.com/christian.html
Best to all,
Christian
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