Get Lost On Purpose

Category: Repairs

Draggin round Beveridge Reef

This one is for the cruisers out there.

I’m not leaving here till I get at least one calm, hot, sunny day! The wind hasn’t dropped below 20 knots in three days now. Normally that’s not a problem. It’s usually a good thing but with no land and a reef that submerges at high tide in front of us, I have finally found a challenge “old Bruce” (my oversized primary anchor) can’t live up to. The sand must be ultra-fine down there or something. This is the first time I’ve had a problem with my ground tackle dragging on Dosia. Right now, on my third set in three days, I have 150′ of chain out in less than 10′ of water (all sand, no coral). I’ve tried less, I’ve tried more…nothing seems to stick. We don’t suddenly start dragging and fly across the lagoon with the wind and current, anchor trailing out behind us. It’s a gradual thing. After twelve hours or so rocking and howling in the wind, we may move .04 miles backward. Not much I know but I don’t like the idea of moving AT ALL. I get a good set on the anchor every time. I can see it hit the bottom clear as day even at night, which happens to be when we’ve had to reset both times. Speaking of which, Margie and I have evolved in masters of the anchoring process. Marge takes her place at the helm and I’m on the bow. There’s no speaking or yelling back and forth, no radios, and no eye contact. She watches for my hand signals and steers the boat exactly as I need it. At night, I put on a headlamp and light up my hands so she can see my signals. It’s a work of art. Resetting in these conditions with 30 knots of wind in darkness but no other boats or obstacles in the way has been great practice for us. And it’s also reassured me that I did a good job setting up the anchoring system with massive backing plates, offset rollers, an oversized windlass, and substantial cleats for the snubbers. You can see good photos of the process on the “About the Boat” page. Everything is performing exactly as I intended it except, right now, my dependable Bruce anchor is not doing its job. Of course, it’s not the anchor’s fault. It’s mine. I’m asking it to perform in conditions where it does not excel. That’s why today, I’ll be pulling the CQR off my secondary rode and replacing it with my big Fortress anchor. The danforth design should dig in a lot better in this soft sand. It’s something I should have done two days ago. I don’t like the fact I’ll be using it with only 50′ of chain but there isn’t a coral head in sight on this sand bank as big as a football field so no worries about it chafing through. We’ll probably move over closer to Brickhouse, the only other boat out here so we can make new friends and talk to someone other than each other!

The weather has somewhat cleared. At least the rain is no longer constant and I can usually find some area of the sky that is blue. I could probably go for some snorkeling today if I want to battle the wind and waves up to the reef in the dinghy. The forecast shows no break in the wind till Friday when a Low coming from the west sucks up all the breeze. Then, of course, that Low moves over top of us on Saturday, sending the wind counterclockwise meaning we’ll probably have to move to the other side of the lagoon. I’m beginning to wish we took the northern route and stayed away from all these Low pressure systems. No need to rush off to Niue before this Low. If it gains in strength it would make the anchorage there 10x worse than we’d ever get in here. Might as well wait it out and see. We have movies, games, tons of books, wine, and bacon. That’s all I need to survive. Plus, I haven’t touched my wallet in 7 days!

August 4, 2009
Memorial Day in Moorea

Over here in French Polynesia we tend to completely forget about the good old American holidays. We could go diving on a Wednesday, hiking on a Monday, and then end up spending an American holiday like yesterday pulling apart the alternator after discovering the engine compartment filled with grey smoke. For our friends and family who don’t know much about boats, we run the motor (of the little Honda generator) every 2-3 days to charge the batteries that give us lights, refrigeration, etc. When we use the main engine to charge, we have a high output alternator that increases the rate of charge and allows us to refill the large house battery bank in a shorter amount of time. It appears my 150 amp Balmar alternator has finally crapped out.

I can’t really complain. I’ve asked a lot of that little piece of machinery. It’s worked flawlessly for 4 years on a single belt setup that I ruthlessly tension every couple of weeks. The reputation of Balmar alternators out here is dismal to say the least but I don’t really know whether Balmar itself is the problem or cruisers expecting way too much of their products. Regardless, two things make me very happy. One, I have a rebuild kit on board. I don’t actually have the correct tools to complete the rebuild myself (who carries a E-5 Torx socket and a Hi-Temp Soldering Iron) but at least I won’t have to order in the parts. Two, I’m happy I carry a spare alternator. It’s the original one that came with the boat. I had it rebuilt in the states before I left, wrapped it in bubble wrap, plastic bags, and duct tape, and stuck it in a deep, dark storage hole where it’s sat for 5000+ miles. It only puts out 40 amps and doesn’t have a dedicated negative but with the wacky winds we’ve been having over here, I think we’ll like having the engine to get back to Papeete. Plus, with a spare on board, we didn’t have to rush back to town for a repair and miss the potluck party on board Zen last night. They invited the whole anchorage over so there musta been 15 people on board. Margie’s salmon cakes were a hit. She was especially happy about that since it was her first cruiser potluck and the first time she’s made her new specialty for an audience other than myself. It was great meeting everyone and marveling over the engineering feat that is Zen, a brand new Atlantic 48 catamaran. Tom, Monique, Cammi, and Cole were gracious hosts and we hope to meet up with them again farther on down the road. As for the rest of today, we’re taking the dinghy down to the western corner of Moorea to feed the stingrays and sharks. I do believe Margie is in for quite a shock!

May 25, 2009
Papeete, Roulottes, and the Quay

Back in Tahiti now, I spent last night at the Quay (the main dock area in downtown). I don’t mind being down here all that much. A lot of other sailors hate it. It does get hot and you can’t swim but at least stores and repairs facilities are in walking distance. And the roulottes at night are a big plus. A roulotte is a mobile food van. Every evening at dusk, a bunch of these things converge on the main square at the head of the cruise ship docks.   Maybe 15-20 different vans set up open air restaurants with plastic tables and stools and the place gets packed with locals and tourists. They serve all kinds of different cuisine from pizza to Chinese to salted crepes. Roulottes are the only places to grab quality food in these islands on a budget. I’m putting together a little youtube thing about them. I hope to have it up soon.

The reason I came down here was to work on the outboard engine for the dinghy in a place with a hose and access to some parts. Also, the port captains don’t really care about charging you if you’re only staying a night. I came here believing that the carb on the outboard needed cleaning (which it did). I’ve been cleaning all day and the thing still won’t start. I think I might have water in the gas I got on Raiatea. If it turns out to be that simple, gas quality could also explain why I can’t get my little honda generator running.   One can only hope.   Looks like I
have to send the Katadyn Powersurvivor Watermaker back to Minnesota or somewhere for repair. I’m positive the problem will end up being something stupid that I either messed up or missed in all my repair attempts. I’ll pay a ton in shipping. No, it’s not the best attitude to have but sometimes, living on a boat, I feel like buying one of these stickers and slapping it right on the transom.

This afternoon, I’m getting out of here regardless of what’s fixed. It’ll be the weekend and most of the stores close anyways so the appeal of being “in the middle of it all” disappears. I want to be somewhere I can swim and that certainly isn’t here in the middle of Papeete harbor. I also think it’d be best to save some cash before Margie gets here.   I’ll head to the westside for the next few days.

April 18, 2009
Ecuador, Crossing the Pacific, and Polynesia

I got a few emails from people who read the old blog asking how I ended up in French Polynesia so here’s a brief summary of last years events and the Pacific crossing.

Dosia was stored in Ecuador at Puerto Lucia Yacht Club for a total of 20 months from December 2006 to August 2008. I was really happy with that boatyard for the long term storage. Their weather has the perfect elements for boat storage: little rain, overcast skies, and dry air. They also have tremendous security set up there and they seem to keep running logs of each boat in the yard. I left Ecuador in April 2007 and I returned last July. A thick layer of dirt and airborne dust covered every inch of her but the paint job beneath was still in good shape. No bugs, mold, or mildew and the only thing missing was small fender that fell off the back of the boat. There’s some pics below. I painted the bottom and did all the normal boatyard stuff while I waited for my crew to arrive in early August. Thankfully, the managers of the yard and some of the marina residents warned me to start the paperwork early.   That process turned into a whole debacle and took something like 37 days to complete.   It took every bit of patience I had to get through it and I vented on the message boards around the web as it was happening. You can read all about it here.

Once that was done, the crew and I set off for the Galapagos. Aaron is the cousin of a friend I had been doing deliveries with back in the states. He didn’t have a lot of experience but it wasn’t needed since I can pretty much sail Dosia by myself and downwind sailing in the Pacific doesn’t get any easier. At the time, I had semi-budgeted out all my money for the rest of the year so I needed someone who could basically pay their own way. Aaron had the added benefit still being in school and used the trip as a “semester abroad” where he’d sail with me and then continue on to the Cook Islands and New Zealand after we arrived in Tahiti. It worked out well and I think Aaron would still be in New Zealand right now if it weren’t for school.

After a short stop at the Galapagos, we started the Pacific crossing on August 31, picked up the tradewinds on day 3, and averaged 145 miles a day for the three-thousand mile crossing. That’s fast for this size and type of boat and I couldn’t believe it when we pulled into the harbor at Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas after only twenty-one days. The crossing itself went smooth but wasn’t without problems. Somehow a rocker arm broke on the engine 750 miles from the Marquesas. We could use the motor but it sounded like a freight train was driving through the cockpit so we didn’t turn it back on till we were a mile from the anchorage where we could get it repaired. With the engine, we would have done it in twenty days cause I know of at least two instances I would have turned that sucker on!

After twenty-four hours of flying and a two-hour mountain drive with Jean-Pierre, the French throat-talker, Margie arrived in Taiohae Bay on her first ever excursion out of the U.S. We were stoked to keep moving so after touring Nuku Hiva by car and hiking the waterfall we headed back east to catch a glimpse of the Bay of Virgins on Fatu Hiva before heading to the Tuamotus. We intended to stop at the island of Ua Pou for the day to grab some fresh bread and use the ATM but when the engine died a mile outside the entrance to the main harbor, we found ourselves stuck. And we almost found ourselves on the rocks after the wind died behind the mountains! Two weeks later with a new fuel injection pump but still no functioning engine we left the island much wealthier than when we arrived. We had made our first friends in French Polynesia. Fara, Youri, and the family helped us with the engine, showed us around the island, partied with us, and loaded us down with more fresh fruit than three people could possibly consume. Aaron went goat hunting with some of their friends from town. They took us deep sea fishing. We helped them sand the bottom of one of their fishing boats. We even had a Marquesian slumber party at their house one night.   I don’t hesitate to call them lifelong friends and I’m excited at the prospect of seeing them again this year.

After the 700 mile engineless sail to Tahiti, I pulled Dosia into the harbor with the dinghy and started looking for help.   Aaron left on October 25th. I remember this because it’s Margie’s birthday and we ate the most expensive meal I’ve ever had in the company of Vince Vaughn, John Favreau, and Jason Bateman at the Intercontinental Hotel.   A week later, we found ourselves boarding the boat…not our boat…a cruise ship. For 10 days, we lived in the lap of luxury aboard the Tahitian Princess while Pascal, my godly mechanic, replaced the entire lower end of the motor in Papeete. It was less expensive to grab a cruise for $700 a piece and eat for free than it was to stay in or around Papeete plus we got to visit many of the islands we were missing due to the mechanical problems. After the cruise, we spent a few more nights in a hostel before the motor was complete. From there, it was a quick sail over to Raiatea to haul the boat out and store her at CNI for cyclone season. We made our way back to the states, bummed a room off my parents for a few months, worked odd jobs, and traveled up and down the eastern seabord. Now here I am again. Twelve more long days till Margie gets here. Kinda wish I wasn’t on island time…

April 11, 2009