Reflections to Date
Enough of this talk, let me feed you some visual images of the last section of the trip.
Greg in pensive mode before heading back to Australia and wondering if he will see Valdolese again.
The last time out from Simpson Bay Lagoon passing the St. Maartens Yacht Club on the left – home of the Heineken Regatta.
In every good story there has to be a wedding and this is no exception. Having befriended Willem and Lucy during my forced exile to the 12 Metre Yacht Club bar while Valdolese was on the hard, I had the good fortune to be invited to their wedding and as it turned out it was also our last day in this part of the world.
A wonderful couple who will always remain deep in my heart for their friendship, good fun and Lucy’s haircutting prowess. PS, I now need another one.
Hope the honeymoon in Cuba went well and all is now on the bright side of life. See you all on the Gold Coast in the near future.
Greater friends you will never meet, Surf, Shell and family – ex manager of 12 mtr bar.
The girls' first fish or at least the part that the shark didn't get. It was quickly chopped up and seared and didn't take long to eat. This was to become a daily ritual as the Tuna seemed to have a death wish and graced us with their presence on the plate at regular intervals.
A walk through the streets of St Croix in the US Virgin Islands. We were only allowed in on humanitarian grounds and were under probation due to the fact that we entered via sea on a yacht. A very expensive place and I was glad to get out of there.
The local rat catchers. Although it did put up a fight and bit the nose of the dog who's mouth its in. A few minutes entertainment for the locals and passing traffic.
Smooth seas and another 1100 to go.
If you look closely, you will see our night visitor sitting on the inflatable. It landed and spent a few hours with us.
A breaking wave from behind can give you a very wet feeling. Thankfully, it was very warm out here.
At this stage, we had no motor to recharge our batteries and the fridge was turned off to conserve power. Luckily we have an LED nav light on the mast head which drew little current, and all other instruments for navigation functioned efficiently. Radar was turned on for a cycle at end of each watch and the few ships out there passed us safely by.
As the Auto Helm drew so much power it was left to the crew to steer by hand and the girls did an excellent job. Top marks for their seamanship and sail trim and their conservative night sailing.
A question was posed as to why yachts don’t have driving lights to see the floating debris (logs) at night, but that’s just a hazard of sailing. Perhaps one day, forward looking sonar will be perfected and inexpensive but until then, we will keep on sailing in the dark and enjoy that rare moment of sailing for the pure pleasure of sailing and meeting the unexpected.
The days turned into drifters with little or no wind and the sun obscured by cloud. Just think what this does for the wind generator and the solar panels??? No wonder that I was deserted in Colon but another crew and another adventure. A bit of night sailing and a storm ahead. Very good shots from the camera of Katie.
Landfall at last – Colon and the waiting ships and Valdolese at rest for a while at the Panama Canal Yacht Club.
Panama Canal Yacht Club (PCYC).
Colon
Well, since my last entry to the web site, a lot has happened and it has taken a while for me to sit down and put fingers to keys (2 fingers).
Since putting Valdolese in the water we have recorded 1681.3 NM and of that 1357.2 were for the trip from St. Maarten to Colon at the gateway to the Panama Canal, where I will be sitting for at least the next 3 weeks while a new motor is delivered from the US. We were hoping the it would last until Australia due to duties and other costs but that was not to be.
After much consideration it was decided to get to Colon for repairs as costs and facilities were more readily available. There were no other options as our last port of call – St. Croix – did not have the facilities and costs were beyond a joke. We had become accustomed to low cost drinks and food and now in Colon; prices are very very inexpensive ($US1.00 for a beer, $US1.75 for a rum, and approx $US5.00 for a meal and that is in the club, and therefore expensive).
Outside is a lot cheaper. It’s just that you can’t go anywhere on foot and still be around to talk about it. Taxies are a must as one Aussie found out after disregarding all advice – he was knifed within 100 mtr of the Panama Canal Yacht Club. This rule applies to the whole of Colon: DO NOT WALK ANYWHERE – TAKE A TAXI. Luckily, only 2 taxi drivers have been murdered this year compared to 12 last year.
The average taxi fare is $1.00 and a 1.5 hour bus ride to Panama is $2.50. Panama was like a breath of fresh air compared to Colon and I will be glad when I finally get Valdolese there.
Engine Replacement
It took a while to get the new engine (just a little over 2 months). The installation took the best part of 10 days, with new mounting brackets that had to be fabricated, and extensive modifications to the front power take offs for the compressor, alternator and water maker.
The new engine is vastly different to the original in more ways than that. Torque is almost 80% higher at lower RPMs, which means lower gearbox ratios to spin the propellor faster, and trimming the blades to achieve maximum thrust. Sea trials were held on the way the San Blas islands (more about that when Ian sends through his diaries). Clear blue waters, sandy beaches and great fresh seafood delivered to the boat daily, and at minimum cost.
A continuing issue has been electrical connections and the charging circuit. The main alternator had failed (for the second time) on the way over from Sint Maarten. The new engine came with a standard internally regulated 80 amp unit, but we wanted to use the 120 amp unit with the external regulator. We had it rebuilt, but it ran hot. On dismantling, we discovered the rebuilder had used a 55 amp stator. That was changed out, but it still wouldn't put out the rated current. The second rewire fixed that. The original Xantrex regulator had also failed and was replaced with a Balmar unit. Crimped connections were reworked with soldered joints, making a significant difference to wind and solar charging performance. Ammeters were fitted to monitor current into the batteries.
It's not unusual for the datum of electronic charts to be out by up to a mile in some areas of the Pacific. The radar has a facility to overlay charts, but being a different chip format to the Navman plotter, new C-Map charts were acquired. Radar bounces from the surrounding land features will now compared against the charts to gauge the offset. NMEA interfacing was successful for all except the GPS data sentences, so the unit was wired to a separate, dedicated antenna.
On the first attempt to leave Panama for the Galapagos, it was discovered that the auto pilot failed (it was working for several days beforehand). On returning to the yacht club and checking, they found that the computer (CPU) had failed, possibly during a lightning strike several days before. Fortunately, there was a spare on board.