Bunbury Cruise

I've just returned from the annual Fremantle Sailing Club "Bunbury cruise" that ran from 2 Feb to 21 Feb. A group of about 12 boats from 3 different clubs sailed to the Mandurah marina (6 hrs sailing), Bunbury (11hrs), Port Geographe Marina near Bussleton (5 hrs), and the Bussleton Yacht Club (1 hr). Of the dozen boats in the group, two had completed a circumnavigation of the world.

From Pachuca's standpoint the good outcomes were:
- The davits worked beautifully
- The two 65-watt solar panels delivered 8 amps in full sun and kept our batteries topped up
- We ran the refrigerator from 0900 until 1700. That was enough for cold beer and perishable food.
- I learned how to use the short wave (HF) radio. I've now stored the weather frequencies out of Wiluna and know how to get up-to-date verbal weather reports every 4 hours. (Weatherfax later)
- The laptop-based C-Map system worked brilliantly
- I also interfaced the Trimble GPS to C-Map
- I programmed important waypoints into the GPS's
- A dragging anchor motivated me to learn how to set up anchor alarms on the GPS's. (The Lowrance plays "Anchors Aweigh" when it detects a movement.)
- The engine performed flawlessly

I came back with a "to do" list. The principal item is the anchor set up. Without going into detail, we dragged anchor at 0520 one morning and it was not pleasant. I figured if I could not hold my ground with a 35-lb plow anchor and 30 meters of 10-mm (3/8-in) chain in Bunbury harbour, with its good mud/sand holding ground, then I've got some serious rethinking to do. The plow anchor should have held - even dug itself deeper and deeper as the 30-knot wind moved the boat around. Our tentative conclusion is that I didn't properly bed down the anchor in the first place. I've gotten good advice on how to bed down the anchor, and the whole process takes about an hour (for the final pull with the engine). Also, the floor of the upper level of the anchor well is paper-thin and about to give way. I'm going to rebuild/reenforce the entire area: access to the presently-unused lower chamber from the foot of the V-berth below, lining the lower section, rebuilding the dividing floor with half-inch ply and fiberglass. Instead of a hawse pipe I'll have a square opening of about 6"x6". I'll then be able allow the anchor winch to feed the chain directly into the lower level rather than flaking it by hand at the upper level.

I'll probably replace the plow anchor with a 16-kg (35-lb) Delta anchor and keep that on the fairlead as my working anchor. I have also ordered a 22.6 kg (50-lb) Swarbrick anchor (improved, dismantle-able Fisherman's anchor). This will be for unknown bottoms or heavy weather. I'll keep this at the upper level with its own chain-nylon rope cable. Deploying and retrieving this anchor from the long, pointy bow of my S&S 39 will be a challenge, but I've got to have an anchor that I can rely on. My sleep and the safety of the boat depend on it. I'd rather spend an extra 10 minutes heaving and grunting to get a reliable anchor down than spend a sleepless night worrying about dragging.

Other recent additions to the "to do" list:

- Book case for large books (e.g. navigation tables)
- Grab rail on the companion way landing to keep the foot from sliding off when heeling to port
- A spice rack
- A shelf on the port side of the companionway to free the starboard side one for binoculars

Robert

GPS Receiver

I've got a 1-year-old Toshiba laptop running XP. It has only USB port connections - no DB9 connections found in the older laptops. This has caused a problem with interfacing the boat's GPS's with the laptop, which is running CMap 4.

On Tuesday I purchased a GPS receiver (No brand, part number BU-353) that is in the shape of a flying saucer about 25mm in diameter. It is heavily magnitised and can also be attached with a suction cup. It has a USB connector.

After two hours of fiddling I got the system to work. The receiver sends NMEA-0183 sentences to the laptop. A driver supplied with the receiver manages the USB port in the laptop. CMap 4 was configured to look for the data at the particular port (com4: in my case).

The receiver performs as advertised. It had no trouble acquiring satellites from inside a house with a tile roof, or on a shelf at the navigation table inside Pachuca. It achieves fixes in amazingly short time.

On Pachuca CMap 4 displayed the location of the boat at the 11th double-boat bay of the NE side of D jetty. We checked and sure enough Pachuca is in the 11th bay from the end.

The unit cost me $129 AUD (i.e. Aussie dollars).

I've also ordered a USB-DB9 conversion cable to attempt to connect the Trimble NT200D GPS to the laptop. I figure that redundancy is worth the $49 AUD cost of the cable.

The next task is to visit the PC shop and get a transformer to allow me to run the PC off the boat's 12V system.

List of things to do or get

This is a list of things to do or get given the current state of the boat, equipment on hand, and gaps in my knowledge. Some of the items are trivial (e.g. steering wheel cover), and some are major (e.g. wind generator) - Robert

Circumnavigation "To Do" Check List - V1.0
TASK	COMPLETED	COMMENT
Install sound system
Book case for large books
Lee cloth for port cabin bunk
Lee rails for quarter berths
Tool storage and work area
Water maker
Wind Generator
Replace cushion in stbd quarter berth
Lightning protection for boat
Get oven to work
Laptop with C-Map 4 and GPS input
Modern EPIRB for boat
Personal EPIRBs
Survival suits
4-man life raft
Select cruising anchor
Mainsail roller slides and track lubrication
New jib sheets
Storm trysail
Drogue
Install stb Whale Gusher bilge pump
Radar?
Rail spray dodgers
Outboard motor cover
Steering wheel cover
Replace companionway spray dodger
First aid course		Robert and Arnold
Medical Kit		Advice from Arnold
Learn to use Pachuca's spinnakers
Conversational Spanish and French		Robert - and Arnold?
Courtesy flags of likely host countries[1]
Learn about Diesel engines
Diesel spares
Steering: How it works, spares
Emergency steering lever
Visas and visiting protocols
Communications: e-mail
Communications: Weather fax
Fishing Gear
Lifeline down centre line of boat
Robust radar reflector (or transponder)

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[1]

Robert Morales:
NZ, French, US, Panama, Peru?, Chile?, British, South Africa

Circumnavigation Plan V2.5

Note: I have been forced to change the template of this blog to get enough log display width to accommodate the entire circumnavigation plan - Robert

Pachuca's Circumnavigation Plan V2.5
From	To	Dist Nm	Sailing Days[1]	Stop Over Days	Total Travel Days[2]	Depart Date	Arrival Date	Core Storm Season	Avg Speed in Knots[3]
Fremantle	Adelaide	1360	20	3	23	01-Mar-08	21-Mar-08		2.78
Adelaide	Port Phillip[4]	540	8	3	11	24-Mar-08	01-Apr-08		2.78
Port Phillip	Whangarei NZ	1600	24	7	31	04-Apr-08	28-Apr-08	Jan-Mar (Nov-May)[5]	2.78
Whangarei [6]	Tahiti	2600	39	7	46	05-May-08	13-Jun-08		2.78
Tahiti	Honolulu	2600	39	7	46	20-Jun-08	29-Jul-08	Jul-Sep (May-Nov)[7]	2.78
Honolulu	Juan De Fuca[8]	2290	34	58	92	05-Aug-08	08-Sep-08	Jul-Sep (May-Nov)	2.78
Juan de Fuca	San Diego	1100	17	3	20	05-Nov-08[9]	22-Nov-08	Jul-Sep (May-Nov)	2.78
San Diego	Galapagos	2513	38	3	41	25-Nov-08	02-Jan-09		2.78
Galapagos	Valparaiso[10]	2229	33	3	36	05-Jan-09	07-Feb-09		2.78
Valparaiso	Cape Horn[11]	1800	27	0	27	10-Feb-09	09-Mar-09		2.78
Cape Horn	Falklands	435	7	3	10	09-Mar-09	16-Mar-09		2.78
Falklands	Cape Town	4320	43	7	50	19-Mar-09	01-May-09		4.17
Cape Town	Fremantle	4870	49	0	49	08-May-09	25-Jun-09		4.17
Avg Speed Knots	3.1
Distance Sailed Nm		28257
Days Under Sail			378
Lay Days				104
Days Away					482

---

[1]

Robert Morales:
Assumptions:
1. Multiply sailing distance by 1.2
2. 80 nm per day travel
Except for Falklands-Cape Town-Fremantle legs where I assume 120 nm per day due to favourable current and winds

[2]

Robert Morales:
Includes port stay

[3]

Robert Morales:
This is speed over 1.2 x distance in col C

[4]

Robert Morales:
Near Melbourne

[5]

Robert Morales:
Parenthesis includes periods affected by early or late seasons.
The affected area includes: Fiji, Samoa, North island of NZ

[6]

Robert Morales:
NE coast of North island of New Zealand

[7]

Robert Morales:
"North East Pacific" but principally the west coasts of Mexico and California

[8]

Robert Morales:
Puget Sound/Seattle

[9]

Robert Morales:
That's 2 months in Seattle.
The 5th because it is the day after our birthday.

[10]

Robert Morales:
Callao, Peru (near Lima)? It is supposed to be the best anchorage on the Westen side of South Amierica

[11]

Robert Morales:
Best to round the Horn in Dec or Jan

Description of Pachuca

Pachuca currently has the following specifications and inventory:

• S&S 39
• Designed for ocean racing to IOR specifications
  
• Launched Nov 1983
• Built in Bassendean, WA by Prestige yachts
• Round bilge, GRP construction
• Bolted on lead keel
• LOA: 11.89 m
• Max beam: 3.50 m
• Draft: 2.3m (7.5 ft)
• Weight: 8.5 tons
  
• Mast clearance: 16 m
  
• WA Registration No. 33990
• Australia Registry of Ships number AUTWA033063CJ5
• Call sign VNW5280
• 6 x Maxwell winches (4 in cockpit, 2 on cabin)
• All halyards to cockpit
  
• Plastimo “Olympic 135” or “Horizon 135” binnacle compass
• Trimble NT200D GPS with repeater at binnacle
  
• Lowrance “Globalnav” GPS
• Navman depth sounder
  
• Brooks and Gatehouse “Hornet 4” instrumentation:
• Boat speed
• Log
• Wind speed
• Wind direction
• Reset log (whatever that is)
• Timer
• Battery voltage
• Alarms
• Kenwood HF (SSB) marine transceiver
• Kenwood “MAT-100” antenna tuner
• GME 16Mhz marine transceiver
• GME EPIRB
• 4-burner gas stove with oven (Italian, no more details)
• Danfoss refrigeration system
  
• Sentinel GM23 gas sniffer (solenoid gas cutoff)
• 5 batteries in two banks:
• 2 for engine starting (Bank 1)
  
• 1 for electric anchor winch (Bank 1)
• 2 for the house (Bank 2)
  
• SABB “2G” marine diesel auxiliary engine
• 2 cylinders
• 22 HP
• Salt water cooling
• 2 x alternators (one for starting batteries, one for house & winch batteries)
• Bosch starter and fuel injection system
• Autohelm “ST6000” self-steering (installed 1999)
• PAR marine toilet (manual)
• Jabsco “31750/31755”drain pump
• JABSCO 37202-2 drain pump (for shower)
• RULE 1500/2000 electric bilge pump
• 2 x WhaleGusher manual bilge pumps
  
• BOMBARD inflatable tender (French)
• Mercury 3.3 HP outboard
• 3 anchors: 1 x plow (35 lb), 1 x Fisherman's/Admiralty (about 35lb), 1 x Danforth
  
• 40 meters of 3/8” (10mm) chain: 205.6lb/93.5Kg, 131.23ft/21.87fathoms
• Spare rode has 7 meters of 3/8” (10mm) chain: 16.3 Kg.
  
• 1 x electric anchor winch
  
• 2 x S/S diesel tanks, each D=350mm H=740mm; 71 litres per tank, 142 litres total
• 2 x S/S water tanks, each h=300mm, w=450mm, l=1070mm minus 70mm x 150mm wedge along outboard length. Yields 139 litres per tank, 278 litres total.
• Full-batten mainsail in stack pack
  
• Roller-furler jib (Hood roller)
  

The installation of a wind generator is planned. Radar is being considered.