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.

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