This blog began in late 2006 with the planning and preparation for a circumnavigation of the world in my 39-foot sail boat Pachuca. It then covered a successful 5-year circumnavigation that ended in April 2013. The blog now covers life with Pachuca back home in Australia.

Pachuca

Pachuca
Pachuca in Port Angeles, WA USA

Monday, June 25, 2007

Progress Notes

The latest visit included two days of pretty harsh weather. On Friday all operations at the hard stand were canceled. On Saturday my anemometer reported one gust of 46 knots. The sideways rain caused a few drops of rain to drop onto the vee berth, and we've got water dripping from the window over the galley and a ceiling panel on the port side. I'll try to track these leaks down when things calm down on other fronts.

Yesterday I swapped out the two-tube neon light in the main cabin. That went well so I've ordered three more lights: two to replace the ones over the galley and navigation table, and one to replace the small dome light in the dark head area. The old neons looked dingy with their opaque plastic covers.

Yesterday we were one week out from Pachuca's lift-out so I did some notifications.

I got a visit from Greg Hansen, the man who runs Maritime Electronics. We will put the radar dome nice and high just above the inner forestay. The radar cable will pass in conduit to the base of the mast where it will be connected to an extension that will run to the navigation station. The old radar cable passed diagonally under the cabin ceiling. It would have been a major effort to replicate that path. Fortunately because the new radar display will be at the nav station and not overhead on the ceiling like the old radar was, we can run the cabling from the base of the mast to either below or behind the port seat - all nicely hidden away but accessible. We agreed that I would do the hack work of cabling - Greg prefers that because he thinks that cruisers should know as much about their boats as possible.

Greg thinks that a lightening "rod" at the top of the mast is a good idea. He recommends that the shrouds as well as the mast be earthed to the keel.

He also thinks that a strobe light will be a good idea, so I have asked for that.

We discussed radar detectors with the aid of a good article that I had in hand. I wasn't that sold on radar detectors but the better ones were better than nothing. Greg got me interested in AIS, "Automatic Ship Identification". This is something that has been mandatory on larger ships but is being extended down to pleasure boats. I'll need a dedicated VHF antenna (that can act as a spare if my main one goes down), a dedicated GPS antenna, and the AIS electronics. Pachuca will continuously transmit its name, type of vessel, location, course, speed, etc to all vessels within VHF (line of sight) range. Thus all ships equipped AIS can see what all other ships in their area are doing. This appears to be far, far superior to either radar reflectors or transponders since everyone can get details about everyone else (e.g. name, registration number, size, cargo type), and can detect course and speed changes instantly. See http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/enav/ais/default.htm and other sites.

Greg went away with a list of things to order, e.g. cables, radome mast support bracket and guard, GPS antenna and cabling, lightning protection. I also left a note in his office reminding him that I would need the ball bearings in the anemometer changed.

I visited De Groot Engineering about the cockpit valves. He mumbled that they were busy did say that he had showed the photos of the job to his man who said that he could do it. They will visit the boat this week to see what parts they must order and will target the job for next Tuesday.

I visited Scotty and notified him that I would need three more GPS antenna stands (one for the chart plotter, two for AIS). He'll do it next week when the boat is on the hard stand.

Debbie is supposed to have made the templates for the canvas work early this week and should be well into cutting and sewing. I will phone her next week and remind her about Pachuca's hard standing.

I spoke with Steve Hartley. They are set to fit the track for the storm trysail next week while the mast is down.

Before I left Pachuca I disconnected the electrics running down from the mast (after drawing the wiring diagrams and taking photographs). On Saturday or Sunday Brenda will help me to get the mainsail stack pack off the boom and I might even remove the boom. I discussed this with Edgar, who was up a mast on D jetty as I walked to the car. He says that any pre-work that I can do will save time and money.

One of my jobs next week will be to drill new drain holes for the anchor well and plug up the old ones, which were too low to start with. This is on connection to that anchor well work that I did a few months ago. I would rather have the sea water brought up by the anchor chain to be drain outside rather than into the bilge.

So next week will be a big one for Pachuca and myself.

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Progress Notes


Progress during this week's visit:

1. Installed a new s/s cleat on the outside of each coaming. As you can see from the photo, previously I had to rely on the gray jam cleat to hold tension on the blue running back stay. This seemed a bit iffy to me. I would rather rely on a proper cleat. This was more urgent on the starboard side because in addition to the running back stay line there is the roller furler rewind line. If we had the jib rolled up in heavy weather and the winding line were to jump out of the jam cleat the jib would quickly unroll and we would be in deep doo doo trying to get the flogging sail under control. I've included a photo of the heavy duty jarrah plate backing one of the cleats.

2. I picked up the two new jack lines (one on each side) and three life lines on Friday. The life lines enable one to clip on while still in the cockpit and have a access to the deck all of the way to the pulpit. This is made up of the standard purpose-made webbing and clips. The jack lines in this case are shackled fore and aft to the toe rail with Ronstan s/s shackles. However, I've two 1.5m lengths of spectra line on board so that I can get the jack lines nice and tight using the spectra to connect the rear webbing loop to the rear shackle.

3. I secured the book case with four bolts through its base. I have also set up a piece of shock cord with a plastic hook on the end so that we can keep the books from falling out in rough weather. Normally the cord will be out of the way.

4. Brenda and I did our "2-day" seniors 1st aid course, which was actually 10 hours of solitary pre-work and one day of live instruction. I got one question wrong. Brenda got no questions wrong. To add salt to the wound Brenda noticed me going back over some of my answers so she decided to do the same. I reviewed a doubtful answer on head injuries and decided to leave it alone. Brenda had doubts about the same question and she changed hers. Grrrr!

During next week's visit I will visit Maritime Electronics do discuss the possibility of putting a strobe light at the top of the mast to use when hove to or in low-visibility weather. They can also do a lightning rod which may not do any good but hopefully won't do any harm. Also, I'll ask them to change the bearings on the anemometer. ... All of this while the mast is down.

Also, my physical is on Tuesday. I'll discuss with Dr. Broun the cruising issues of innoculations, medical kits, etc. It's likely that he will point me to a travel doctor in Fremantle. (I've gone into training for this physical: since 12 April I have lost 5.5 kg (12 lb) in weight and 6 cm (2.4 in.) from my waist.)

Robert

Circumnavigation Plan V3.1

Pachuca's Circumnavigation Plan

V3.1

From

To

Distance Nm

Sailing Days

Stopover

Travel Days

Departure Date

Arrival date

Core Storm Season

Knots

"From" Coords

Fremantle

Adelaide

1360

20

7

27

01-Mar-08

21-Mar-08

2.78

32S04, 115E44

Adelaide

Port Phillip

540

8

7

15

28-Mar-08

05-Apr-08

2.78

34S55, 115E36

Port Phillip

Whangarei NZ

1600

19

14

33

12-Apr-08

01-May-08

Jan-Mar (Nov-May)

3.47

38S03, `144W54

Whangarei

Tahiti

2200

26

28

54

15-May-08

11-Jun-08

3.47

35S45, 174E20

Tahiti

Palmyra

1587

19

7

26

09-Jul-08

28-Jul-08

3.47

17S52, 149W56

Palmyra

Honolulu

958

11

10

21

04-Aug-08

15-Aug-08

Jul-Sep (May-Nov)

3.47

05N53, 162W05

Honolulu

Juan De Fuca

2300

28

160

188

25-Aug-08

22-Sep-08

Jul-Sep (May-Nov)

3.47

21N19, 157W50

Juan de Fuca

San Diego

950

14

3

17

01-Mar-09

15-Mar-09

Jul-Sep (May-Nov)

2.78

47N34, 122W23

San Diego

Golfito Costa R

2400

36

100

136

18-Mar-09

23-Apr-09

2.78

32N43, 117W03

Golfito Costa R

Galapagos

750

9

3

12

01-Aug-09

10-Aug-09

3.47

08N38, 083W11

Galapagos

Callao,Peru

1058

13

30

43

13-Aug-09

26-Aug-09

3.47

00N00, 090W00

Callao

Valparaiso, Ch

1292

19

30

49

25-Sep-09

14-Oct-09

2.78

12S05, 077W08

Valparaiso

Cape Horn

1453

22

0

22

13-Nov-09

05-Dec-09

2.78

33S02, 071W08

Cape Horn

Falklands

435

5

3

8

05-Dec-09

10-Dec-09

3.47

56S58, 067W17

Falklands

Cape Town

4320

43

7

50

13-Dec-09

25-Jan-10

4.17

51S45, 059W00

Cape Town

St Paul Is

2840

28

3

31

01-Feb-10

02-Mar-10

4.17

33S55, 018E27

St Paul Is

Fremantle

1894

19

0

19

05-Mar-10

24-Mar-10

4.17

37S50, 077E035

Avg Speed Knots

3.4

Dist Sailed Nm

27937

Days Under Sail

341

Lay Days

412

Days Away

753

Assumed Miles

80

100

120

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