Commemoration Plaque and Stanchion

Yesterday I mounted a plaque made by Trophy Choice in O'Connor.  It commemorates Pachuca's circumnavigation and rounding of the Horn, and I placed it in the "plaque" section of the bulkhead.  (You can enlarge the photo by right clicking over the photo the selecting "View Image".)

Pachuca's Latest Plaque

I also replace the stanchion bent in that knockover off the Brazilian coast.  I had two choices: a genuine one for $106 or an lighter imitation one at around $43, which Trevor of Yacht Grot did not recommend.  Trevor did not need to tell me that because I've learned the hard way that with boating only the best will do.  Trevor charged me only $90 for the stanchion, which I took to be a "Welcome Back" gift from Yacht Grot.

Bent Stanchion Next To Its Replacement

I managed to drill the required two holes into the base of the stanchion using my cordless drill because fortunately I had a good centre punch and sharp bits.  Soon I had the port rails back up nice and tight.

After this I dropped into Yacht Grot and purchased two fire extinguishers and a pack of flares. (On Monday I'll purchase a recreational fishing license, something new since my departure on the circumnavigation, but a modest $30 per year and allegedly going to a good cause.)

As of of yesterday (Friday) evening at least two boats had made it to Mandurah on their start for Bunbury.  More boats will leave this weekend and several others, including Pachuca, plan to sail on Tuesday when the winds are expected to be favourable.  Most boats stage their passage, making Mandurah on the first day then waiting for favourable winds to make the long leg to Bunbury before nightfall.  Pachuca is burdened with a skipper who feels more comfortable at sea than near land, so we'll set off early in the morning and stay out until we drop anchor in Bunbury.  If the predicted winds come to pass we'll sail well on Tuesday, dawdle along in light winds under the bright stars of the clear summer sky throughout the night, and make landfall in Bunbury on Wednsday.

Rigging is Ready

I was on board yesterday morning when Edgar showed up with the new lower shrouds.  When he was finished with the installation I felt the tension and commented that the shrouds seemed very tight.  He replied that they needed to be tight because they are shorter than the other stays, a fact that I filed away in my head.

He then went up the mast to begin an assessment of the rest of the rigging and to my relief he pronounced it all OK.  I told him that I was worried about the rust that was appearing where the wires meet the swages, which opened up a good explanation of why it isn't rust but rather staining from all of the airborne material that works its way down the wires over time.  I asked him about the American practice of putting silicone sealant at the swages, which is not recommended by the big companies probably to avoid liability issues.  He suggested that a lanolin grease would be safe to use, so I plan to treat all of the boundaries between wire and lower swages with "Lanocote" lanolin grease.

Section of Dyform wire

I am including a photo of a section of the Dyform wire of the new lower shrouds.  Note the smaller wires between the larger wires. The outer surfaces have been flattened slightly.  The effect is a stiffness half way between ordinary wire and rod, with the interior so tightly compressed that it is unlikely that any moisture or material will pass through it.

Inflatable and Outboard Motor

A couple of days I dragged the Bombard inflatable dinghy out of the garage and set it up on the verandah for inflation.  The inflatable came with the purchase of Pachuca and I had stored her in the garage during the circumnavigation.  I also transported the outboard motor to Darlington so that I could try to get it started in a water tank.

Bombard Inflatable Dinghy

I got the outboard motor running on Saturday with little trouble.  This was of great relief because I had not used it since the major maintenance that it had received when I first arrived in Brazil.  Ricardo had done his work well because the engine had plenty of kick and idled beautifully.

On Sunday Brenda and Stephen drove up to have a look at the new kitchen counter and after lunch we inflated the Bombard.  It came up well and held its pressure.  We prefer the Bombard with its inflatable floor to the Zodiac, which went downhill fast after its floor slats broke.  The Zodiac now holds its air pretty well but the floor leaks badly around the seams, and I have placed it in storage as a backup. 

Radar and Rigging

Lower Port Shroud

The guys form Maritime Electronics fitted the new radar cable on Friday morning and got the radar working again. 

I found a card at the companionway when I arrived at the boat and it was from Edgar Vitte, Pachuca's rigger here in Australia.  He gave the the surprising news that I had broken wires in both of my lower shrouds.  As luck would have it Edgar was working at a nearby boat so I asked him to drop by when he was finished at that boat.

I started off by complaining that the rigging was only about 20 months old, installed by what was reputed to be the best rigging team in S America, and using top quality materials.  I then told Edgar that the riggers in Argentina had told me that I could expect 14 years of service from that rig and I recalled telling myself that I would be happy with half of that expected time. 

To my untrained eye the shrouds looked OK at the swage, though on closer inspection I could see that the pattern of the wire was not quite right at the wage.  Edgar leaned over and picked the broken wires out with a small screwdriver. 

Edgar told me that there was nothing wrong with the rigging: the materials were good and the proper tools had been used.  Given what he knew of the history of my rigging problems he had to concluded that there is a design problem.  First of all, the boat is very stiff with her heavy keel and tumblehome hull.  This means that she resists heeling which results in a lot of load on the rigging.  This exacerbates the fundamental problem, which is that the deck fittings of the lower shrouds are not far enough from the mast (1.1 meters in fact).  He told me that having the shrouds so close in results in enormous loading and that moving them even 200mm out from the mast would have huge reduction in this loading.  

Lower Starboard Shroud

I told him that I had blamed my earlier problems on running the rigging too loose, but since Argentina I had kept everything tight with a carefully maintained log of the number of half turns at what date.  Edgar shook the rigging and told me that it was just right - tight, but not too tight, and certainly not too loose.

Edgar presented me with 2 options. The first option was to replace the 10mm (3/8") wire of the lower shrouds with heavier wire.  However, this would require larger toggle pins and turnbuckles, which would cost serious money.  The second option is to use 10mm "Dyform" wire (see http://www.s3i.co.uk/1x19-Dyform-stainless-steel-wire-rope.php) which is a guaranteed 30% stronger than conventional wire.  This is achieved by filling in the gaps between the wire strands with smaller wire strand, resulting in a more solid wire. 

Edgar will replace the lower shrouds with Dyform wire in the coming week and will also check the rest of the rigging for me.

I consider myself lucky because I felt so confident in my nearly new rigging that I had not bothered to check it closely, either personally or through a professional.  It was by my good fortune that Edgar had enough interest in Pachuca to have a quick look at her rigging.

Instruments Now Working

Sunday was also Australia Day (Think USA 4th of July) so I took the day off from the renovation work.

I spent an hour at the boat trying to mount the wind and depth instruments on the teak panel that I had sanded and varnished over the previous few weeks but one of the 3 wires to the depth instrument broke at the connector.  I returned to the boat with Brenda and Stephen late in the afternoon to see the fireworks display over the Fremantle Harbour area and I had a quick stab at crimping on a new connector but managed to hash it up, so I put the work away and enjoyed the evening.  And a pleasant evening it was, in the comfort of the cockpit of the boat in the clear summer night, chatting with the people in the next boat, glass of white wine in hand, nibbling on light snacks, with the boat well positioned for a great view of the fireworks. 

Lowrance and Trimble GPS's Working OK

But all was not lost with the boat preparation.  During the evening we checked out all of Pachuca's navigation lights and found them to all be OK, including the deck light.  We also ran the refrigerator to chill the drinks and verified that it is OK.

This morning I returned to the boat and located a set of 20 of those precious hard-to-get tiny connectors for the Raymarine equipment.  Peter of Maritime Electronics had replaced all of the 4 connectors on the wind display and I decided to replace all of the 3 connectors on the depth display.  That all went well and within an hour I was getting wind and depth data both on the display and on the chart plotter.  I then turned on the venerable Trimble and Lowrance GPS's and found them to be working OK.  They had been on Pachuca when I purchased her and somehow had survived the 5 year circumnavigation.  Before leaving the boat I flushed the marine head and found it to be squeaky but working OK.  Flushing the system with a few drop of olive oil in the toilet water stopped the squeaking and gave a smooth action on the pump.

The last repair job that I am aware of is the radar, and I will telephone Maritime Electronics this week to see if the new cable has arrived.

Wind Instrumentation Working, Radar on Way

I met Peter, the principal of Maritime Electronics at the boat on Thursday.  He had brought a spare masthead unit but started by looking at the electrical connections at the panel.  I had missed something.  I had connected 3 wires to the wind display but had not noticed a 4th wire, which had sheared off at the insulation so was showing no wire or connector.  Peter replaced all of the connectors and voila! I had wind speed and direction.

He then climbed up the mast to look at the radar with me managing his safety line at a winch and his assistant managing the chart plotter and passing up tools.  Peter found the repair work on one wire that had been done in Argentina, which had parted.  He joined up the wire, climbed above the radome so that he would not be cooked, then asked his assistant to begin transmitting.  The radar came up OK and worked fine.  Peter has ordered a new cable and will contact me when he is ready to make the swap.  Fortunately I routed the radar cable with practicality rather than appearance in mind, and from my recollection of the cable swap in Honolulu I figure that we can do the task in about an hour, particularly since I will be doing the pre work of loosening all of the cable ties.

We discussed the fact that this was the second cable failure since the radar unit was installed in 2007 and his analysis confirmed what I had already figured out.  I had gone to the trouble and expense of having the mast removed so that a conduit could be installed for the radar cable, the idea being to eliminate points of chafe and ensuring a long life for the cable.  So far so good.  However, after the radome was installed with the cable passing directly across from the opening at the mast to the dome, Edgar the rigger complained, and I'm not sure if the problem was interference with the inner forestay or the effects of pumping of the mast with the radome that high.  (The mast is so heavy that I have never seen it pump.)  So the radome was moved down the mast which necessitated the removal of the baby stay and worse, resulted in a U-bend in the cable as it passed up the mast, out through the opening, then down to the radome.  Peter could feel the entire weight of the cable as it passed through that opening. He will do what he should have done when he first installed the radar: put a heavy sheath around the cable to protect it as it passes through the mast.

When the radar is repaired the boat will be 100% ready for sea as far as I can tell.  All major systems are ready, e.g. sails, rigging, electronics, engine, refrigerator, stove.  In the past few months I have visited the boat at every opportunity and have removed all superfluous equipment so that it has plenty of room and is ready for provisioning.  The gas cylinders and diesel tanks are full.

Bunbury Cruise here we come!

Progress with Electronics Problems

Maritime Electronics was able to repair the Raymarine ST60+ depth and wind displays whose connectors had been heavily damage from corrosion.  The charge was $120 which I thought to be reasonable, considering the alternative of purchasing new heads. 

New connectors for ST60+ displays

I managed to spend some time on the boat yesterday (Saturday) morning had taken one step back with the Seatalk network: whereas on the previous visit the C120 chart plotter had begun to report the position of the boat, during this visit it knew nothing beyond where the cursor was on the chart. 

We are in the middle of an early heat wave and the temperature today is expected to go above 41C (106F) so I was up shortly after 5 AM and was at the boat just after 6 AM to get as much work as possible before the heat set in.  Conditions were very good and I managed the delicate work of fitting 7 new connectors for the instruments with no problem.  I then tested the units and was pleased to see that I was getting depth readings but wasn't surprised to find that I still had no wind data.  Worse, the autopilot head was still reporting "Seatalk Failure" and the the C120 was getting to data from the various instruments.

With my new confidence with those tiny Seatalk connectors I decided to have on last look at the connections into the Autopilot head at the binnacle, and just as well I did because the middle connector had not been properly inserted.  When I repositioned that connector the Seatalk network came alive and the C120 was reporting boat position, speed, heading, and depth.

At this point I think that I have gone as far as practicable with the electronics.  The radar is not working, and my strong suspicion is that the problem is in the upper part of the cable which was repaired in situ up the mast in Argentina.  The wind system is not working and I suspect that the problem is also up the mast at the masthead unit.  I commented during my passage around the Horn that the wind masthead unit has the toughest life of any component on the boat.  It had to endure day after day of gales and heavy rolling with heaven knows the strength of wind surges.

I then 90 minutes going through the boat's spares and materials and removed 7 plastic containers and buckets of material for storage in Darlington.

I will contact Maritime Electronics this week and arrange a visit to the boat in the new year.