'Cruising Advice' by Little Ted
The articles below have been written by good friends under the ‘nomme de plume’ of ‘Little Ted’. They did their first sailing course with me 11 years ago, despite starting their sailing fairly late in life they showed great aptitude and enthusiasm. They came back for several more practical & theory courses and 8 years ago bought a Bowman 40 which I had managed to find for them. The boat appeared to be in very good condition but with what I already knew to be their usual thoroughness they went through it with great care making improvements wherever necessary including changing the standing rigging themselves. As a result of their insistence in doing everything in their refit themselves, during two years of local cruising prior to their departure 6 years ago, they are now capable of repairing and servicing all the equipment on board and have become almost totally self sufficient.
As will be understood from the articles below they have been in the Caribbean having sailed there from Gibraltar in November and December 2004. Their landfall in the Caribbean was the Island of St Maarten, they have since cruised south visiting most of the islands en-route to Venezuela and up to Guatemala. last summer (2008) they sailed to Cuba and then back in Guatemala for the winter. They are now (May 2009) in Belize.
I wish them both happy and successful cruising, and look forward to more contributions from them for this part of my web site.
Martin.
Taking no Chances
The Admiral is on the helm when we are anchoring and becomes her most decisive and commanding. I stay at the bow and try to make sense of the constant stream of questions and instructions.
“How much chain do we have out? Over.” she demands. “Thirty metres” I reply. (We use cheap handheld walkie-talkies instead of yelling at each other)
“Not enough” she declares. “We are in eight metres of water. Let out at least another twenty metres” she commands. “Chain is no good to us in the locker. Over.” she adds, as if I didn’t already know this.
“But that will put us too close to that French Charter boat” I protest. Charter boats, especially those flying French flags, have a bad reputation here in the Caribbean for sloppy anchoring and dragging while their skippers are ashore.
“Then haul up the chain and I will come around again. Over.” she decides.
I know that all this hauling up and down on the electric windlass will be draining the batteries. But it is no use complaining.
Little Ted watches our antics with amusement. He knows that The Admiral is a stickler for anchoring and that this fellow - Over - had better do what he is told, that we will keep on doing this until we get it right.
Little Ted is the small furry bear who usually sits in the corner of our saloon, a look of mild amazement on his face. When Martin invited us to contribute some thoughts drawn from our own errors and experience to these pages, Little Ted was not impressed. He knows the truth. We have only been cruising for three years. So we asked Little Ted what he thought.
Little Ted’s says: forget about the water maker, the microwave, the forward-looking sonar and all those other fancy gadgets and just be sure to have at least 100 metres of chain on the main anchor (and a windlass that can haul it all back in!). Extra chain lets you anchor in deeper water or further offshore and, even in shallow water, vastly increases the holding power of your ground tackle in a storm.
Little Ted remembers the nights when the wind shifted and the safe anchorage became a dangerous lee shore, nights when plenty of chain was no luxury at all. For him, seamanship means taking no chances.
I remember the stupid remark I made to another cruiser that I liked cruising because I loved the sea. He was, it emerged, an ex-tanker captain and was appalled. He told me of days when the waves broke over his bridge - sixty-five feet in the air. There was only one adjective fit for the sea, he said, and that was ‘treacherous’. You must never lower your guard and certainly never grow to love the sea. These are Little Ted’s sentiments exactly.
Refrigeration
Many of us who buy a modern sailing boat dream of sailing across oceans to remote islands, anchoring on deserted beaches, snorkeling in clear waters and dining on fabulous fresh seafood. All this is possible and at less expense than you might imagine. For example, 25 gallons of diesel fuel delivered to our boat here in Venezuela just cost us 6 Euros. A bottle of excellent wine costs 4 to 5 Euros and a whole fillet of superb beef just 6 Euros.
The most likely source of frustration for the European sailor is not the sailing or adapting to local ways, but is likely to come from equipment failure and the difficulties of finding spares and skills to maintain their boats. This is because most modern yachts are just not well suited for anchoring away from marinas and operating independently from shore power for days and weeks.
The issue of on-board refrigeration highlights the problems. Even Nigel Calder, author of the acknowledged bible on boat upkeep (The Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual), concedes:
'Our system, with which I am finally satisfied, is our third. I have wasted thousands of dollars in tailoring it to our specific needs, which is not uncommon for tropical cruisers. In fact, we have met numerous cruisers who have invested thousands and still don't have a satisfactory system.'
The right criterion for everything on a cruising boat is Keep It Simple. But installing refrigeration on a sailing boat is not simple. Hardcore cruisers, like Lin and Larry Pardey, do without it altogether. The rest of us want cold beers and the ability to keep food fresh for weeks or months.
The trouble is that yacht salespeople either don't really understand or else minimise the problems. For example, it is really quite easy to install an electric refrigerator (like the one you have at home but running on a twelve volt battery) on a boat. It is only then that your difficulties begin. If you anchor out of the marina for a day or two, the refrigerator will drain your batteries and you may have to run your engines for three or four hours a day to keep them charged. Very soon the typical cruiser will start talking about installing extra batteries and a high-output alternator on their engine to cope with the refrigeration needs. But, if you are in the warm seas of tropical regions, refrigeration has to work even harder. Consequently boats start to sprout wind generators and solar panels to supply the power for their fridges, and a stainless-steel arch to mount all this clutter. While you are going to the expense of adding an arch, you will probably add davits to hoist your dinghy up, thus making your boat even more top heavy and increasing its wind resistance. And still cruisers find their refrigeration power need exceeds their power supplies (especially if they are also running a water maker to keep their tanks topped up in those remote locations) and they then start to think about auxiliary generators. With a diesel generator comes the need to carry another set of spares (brushes, filters, hoses, impellers, etc) and further possibilities for failure are added to the complex mess.
There is another route - a refrigeration system with a compressor mechanically driven from your engine. But there have to be drawbacks to this choice or everyone would take it. The first problem is that the compressor has to be mounted directly on the engine, and this can be difficult or impossible if the access or space around your engine is limited. Next, a mechanical refrigeration system is likely to cost more (initially) than an electrical one, although if you add the costs of extra batteries, beefier alternator, wind generator, solar cells, stainless steel arches, and an auxiliary generator to the cost of an electrical system you would soon find a mechanical refrigerator much cheaper. Third, with a mechanical refrigerator you usually have to run your engine (typically about half an hour per day) to keep your refrigerator working in a marina - although there are some makes of mechanical/electrical compressors that can work off both the engine and shore power. Finally, you will be told that mechanical compressors are inherently less reliable than the hermetically sealed units on electrical refrigerators. This is true. After nine years we have had to replace the shaft seals on our mechanical unit. It cost 150 US dollars in Trinidad (including recharging the system). Not too bad really.
Getting such systems right is essential for safe and happy long-term cruising. Ask lots of people and take the take the advice of experts. It is expensive and discouraging to repeat the mistakes of others.
Beaufort Follies!
Little Ted, as ever, is still sitting in the saloon with more time to think than most of us and he has come up with this incredible idea and the more I think about it, the more I realise that he is right. I am very grateful to him for this and all his other contributions to my site and look forward to receiving more of his wisdom. Martin.
I was curious about the way our excellent Kiss wind generator works. At wind speeds less than 15 knots it generates barely one or two amps, at twenty knots it generates a steady five to ten amps, at twenty three knots it generates fifteen amps or more, and at wind speeds much above that it starts to overload and freewheel. A good friend explained that the wind exerts its pressure on an area, so its power does not increase linearly with wind speed but in proportion to the square of the wind speed.
This set me thinking about how our passion for quantification can lead to terrible over-simplification with catastrophic consequences. The Beaufort wind scale provides an example.
Beaufort Force Knots Description
1 .................. 1 – 3 knots Light Air
2 ................. 4 – 6 knots Light Breeze
3 ..................7 – 10 knots Gentle Breeze
4 ................11 – 16 knots Moderate Breeze
5 ................17 – 21 knots Fresh Breeze
6 ................22 – 27 knots Strong Breeze
7 ................28 – 33 knots Near Gale
8 ................34 – 40 knots Gale
9 ................41 – 47 knots Strong Gale
10 ..............48 – 55 knots Storm
11 ..............56 – 63 knots Violent Storm
12 ..............64 or more kts Hurricane
This classification system, though it is in use throughout the nautical world, suggests that the strength of the weather increases more or less linearly with wind speed. But wind presses on an area and its strength increase with the square of its speed. Thus a twenty knot wind is not twice as powerful as a ten knot wind but four times as strong, forty knot winds are not four but sixteen times as strong, and eighty knot winds not eight but sixty-four times more powerful than ten knot winds. Such misperceptions caught out some of the experienced sailors in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart race. Five yachts were lost, fifty-five people were rescued and six people died. The inquest (according to the book “Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney-Hobart Race” by Rob Mundle) found that underestimating the difference in severity of a gale and a storm was a significant factor in the tragedy. Judging by Beaufort numbers alone, the forecast storm (Force 10) would seem to be only 25 per cent more powerful than a gale (Force 8). If judged by wind speed in knots, the storm (48 to 55 knots) would be only 40 per cent more powerful than a gale (34 to 40 knots). But by the correct measure – the square of the wind speed – the storm was twice as violent as a gale.
November 2nd 2008 - Crunch time for Cruisers?
We have been living aboard our boat now for 8 years. It doesn't seem that long!
We have changed a great deal during those years. Aged, learned, forgotten, grown (both physically, not so good, and intellectually, much better!). Becoming both more and less tolerant, strange but true.
As we move in to a new stage of our lives, a closer relationship back to the world of business for a while, it has set me to thinking about the changes we have seen in just the short years that we have been aboard our boat.
I grew up in a family that loved boats and the ideas of adventure. My sister, a qualified RYA dinghy instructor, kept my parents busy ferrying her back and forth with her various boats as she competed in competitions all over the place. At that stage in our lives I was just as demanding with my interest in horses...
I read everything that came my way about cruising and great voyages and haunted marinas and harbours imaging the challenges that could come my way... one day.
Of course the reality is never quite what we dreamed of and my first voyages had me pretty much paralyzed with fear a lot of the time. Fear of my own ignorance, the weather, pretty much everything. But rescue was at hand in the form of Martin Northey, a knowledgeable and gifted instructor who we chanced upon via a small ad at the back of one of the yachting comics. His gentle coaching and encouragement led both TBH and I through a sharp learning curve to the acquisition, finally of our Yachtmaster qualification. This was a vital component in my own confidence building.
And yet on reflection it is nothing. A piece of paper, an intellectual endorsement. And on our early long passages I realised just how meaningless it was.
I had wanted to test myself physically and mentally to the limit, probably not realising that I actually did have a limit to test!
I recall watching Ellen MacArthur as she cried into the video camera on one of her world girdling record attempts. How crass I thought! Fancy collapsing like that... until I faced, in a small way my own nemesis.
Halfway across the Atlantic we were hit by a squall, a big one. It knocked the boat down and blew out our reefing line, snapped the sacrificial tube to the Monitor and had us in a state of shock. We were 1,500 miles from anywhere. I suddenly realised there was no rescue helicopter, no "I'm a celebrity get me out of here" option!
Working together, we started to restore order, then TBH trapped his hand in the steering gear, crushing his fingers. He was in agony. That was a real 'oh shit' moment!
It was then that the training Martin had so painstakingly given us kicked in. Restoring order we got the boat comfortable, TBH sheltered, and dealt with the situation calmly, well reasonably so!
We came through it because we spoke to each other throughout the whole thing. Asking questions, making decisions, acting together. It was a defining point in both our sailing careers and our personal relationship.
And then I collapsed. Pointing nervously to starboard I announced there was a big wave coming and TBH calmly answered, "Yes and there's another one behind that, and another and another!"
One of the big changes we have seen is in the type of new cruiser that we are meeting on our travels. Often these are type-A individuals. Determined to prove something to themselves and others by circumnavigating the world, often with family in tow, in just three years. Because they don't have the luxury of a steadily graduated learning curve, they spend generously on a new boat expecting to turn the key and drive it away with no great mishaps.
These are the people you find littering the remote marinas waiting for parts and shaking their heads because the third replacement generator didn't work either, and they are now trapped in a pissing match between the boat builder and the generator manufacturer about whose fault it was and who foots the bill.
TBH says that all good skills take 7 years to master. You might learn a language in 3 or 4 but it will be 7 before you are writing poetry in it. It's the same with cruising. You might even surmount the technical challenges (if you have practical flair) in 3-4 years but the deep knowledge of yourself and your partner that only comes from facing and overcoming life-threatening situations takes longer to acquire.
My heroes in this respect are the Roths, who not only handled a terminally leaky boat whilst they circumnavigated the Pacific but also coped with shipwreck in the remotest part of Chile. Rebuilding their shattered boat and restarting their cruise. The strength they developed as a couple and the self-sufficiency of their lifestyle enabled them to overcome the never ending tests that cruising throws at you.
Increasingly the cruisers we are seeing are seeking 'the perfect anchorage', a 'better party', another cocktail hour. They cruise in packs abdicating a personal responsibility, becoming part of a group-think mentality. It's themselves that they are cheating.
They employ 'experts' at every destination to fix the sails, the engine, the a/c, the refrigerator, the bureaucracy. Complain about the lack of first-world facilities in third-world settings. Moan about lack of safety in foreign ports.
Seeing themselves as adventurous non-conformists they flout the laws of their host nations, overstaying visas, evading charges for checking in/out. Refusing to attempt to speak the local language and maintaining a cultural imperialism, oblivious to their surroundings.
Not all cruisers are like this but we seem to have seen rather too many in this mould recently. Hopefully the financial crunch will weed them out and we can once again be proud to be cruisers as we travel the world.
TOMATOES - THE BOOK - SEXTANT - LAUNDRY & A GOOD FRIEND
Saturday, November 15, 2008. Passing time, position and power. It's been another busy week here... Update from 'The Admiral'.
Tomato harvest is in full swing. As the weather has warmed up the starboard side (sunny) plant has started to look a little weary. Browning leaves, droopy branches. As the fruit starts to colour some of the skins have been splitting. So as soon as the slightest touch of yellowing appears I am picking these fruit to finish ripening below decks. That seems to be working fine. The port side(shade) is still growing well and the tomatoes there are far superior, must have a natural left tendency!
TBH's book has finally arrived, well the first consignment, in the UK. This week sees the review copies being dispatched all over the world. Amazing.
Mike(Dragonheart) gave TBH his old celesticomp calculator last week. It had stopped working and he said he didn't use it anyway, so TBH was welcome to see if he could get it going again... This is the wonderful electronic gizmo that works out the figures taken by sextant so you can find your position. Well to his delight he managed to find the right batteries in Puerto Barrios and it is up and running. Now all we need is a horizon to check the thing on....might be a week or so till we are in that position.
We seem to be a pretty rare boat these days with such a lack of electronic aids on the boat. We still use papercharts, no chart plotter. Although we do have electronic charts on the computer. Most of our navigation is done with paper charts and the GPS but we feel we ought to brush up our sextant skills, you never know!
We have no generator so power usage is always an issue. No freezer, no microwave, no TV. We even still have functioning paraffin lights! Our refrigerator is engine driven which does mean we run the main engine for 30 minutes EVERY day. It can seem a pain but on the positive side that means we also get sufficient hot water for 24 hours and early warning when there is an engine problem!
No solar panels just a wind generator.
I was asked recently what I most missed about no longer living on the land. You know it was a tough question! Maybe a washing machine? But when I thought about it there is a certain sense of satisfaction in a bucket and washing dolly! Then when things get too bad its usually possible to get the laundry done ashore! Now that is a luxury.
Do I miss a dishwasher? Nope.
Freezer? Nope.
I have a massive galley, two heads(one more than we had on land!), comfortable bed and a great friend to share the adventure with.
That's enough ...
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