'Cruising Advice' by Little Ted

The articles below have been written by a good friend under the ‘nomme de plume’ of ‘Little Ted’. He and his wife did their first sailing course with me eight 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 four years ago bought a boat. 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 just over a year 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 are now 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, where they are at the moment (November 2005) in order to avoid the many hurricanes that have hit the Caribbean this year.

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.