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