Bunbury Cruise 2021

Report to FSC Cruising Committee on Bunbury Cruise 2021 This year’s Bunbury Cruise was coordinated by myself and Rob James of HYC, who was indispensible in sharing the planning and execution load of this endeavour and in particular did a superb job in his role as treasurer, which is a surprisingly complex and difficult task. BC2021 almost did not happen due to the sudden covid lockdown during the week of our planned start. We would not countenance a delay of more than one week and alerted the skippers of the likelihood of cancellation of the cruise. However, late on Friday 12 Feb it was announced that the transitional lockdown restrictions were being lifted and as of midnight Sat the 13th we would be allowed to travel outside of the Perth-Peel bubble. This enabled us to reschedule the event by exactly one week and we would sail to MOFSC on Sat/13 and on to KB on Sun/14. Rob James and I were pleased to note that all the skippers were if anything more keen than ever, and the complete fleet of 8 boats participated in the event. The participating boats and crews were: Manta Ray from FSC with Lucinda and Frank Daly Pachuca from FSC with Brenda Newbey, Peter Austin and myself de la mer from HYC with Robert James and Jill Amy Panache from HYC with Geoff and Rita James Sea Gypsy from HYC with Mitchell and Sharon Rogers Libertus from RFBYC with Rick and Kerry Blair Plan Sea from RFBYC with Remi and Miriam Van Baaren Volare from RFBYC with Zac and Anne Armanasco [Note: FSC=Fremantle Sailing Club, HYC=Hillarys Yacht Club, RFBYC=Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club] All boats except Libertus set off for MOFSC on the official starting day Sat/13 and all 8 boats were at Koombana Bay on the target date of Wed/17. The passage to KB had been challenging due to the adverse southerly winds, which necessitated much motor sailing.

On Thu/18 we were at anchor at Koombana Bay and prepared our boats for predicted gale force winds of 35 knots during the night. During the night I noted a wind speed of 36 knots and one skipper reported seeing 40 knots. Three BC boats dragged anchor that night, two of them seriously, requiring use of their engines and several attempts to get their anchors to bite. During the worst of it one of the boats dragged between two other boats, avoiding a collision because of the fortunate timing of the boat’s swings on its rode as it passed by. The third boat dragged about 100 meters and took the matter calmly. (A fourth boat not part of our fleet also dragged anchor. The experience skipper had prepared by repositioning his boat further away from the shore to eliminate the risk either being hit by a dragging boat or hitting another if he dragged.) By dawn all was well with no boats damaged. However, I am sad to report that Lucinda Daly aboard Manta Ray had a fall down a ladder during the night, forcing her to spend one night in the hospital then being unable to re-board the boat. I am very pleased to report that Lucinda is now at home and is recovering well with no permanent damage. On Friday 19 Feb seven boats made the passage from KB to DBYC at Quindalup. Frank took his boat to PGM [Port Geographe Marina in Busselton]where he left it so that he could attend to Lucinda. The stay at DBYC was as good as ever. From there Rick aboard Libertus left the fleet to make his way back to his pen at RFBYC, something not unexpected due to the sudden shift of the cruise by a week due to the covid lockdown. Brenda and I aboard Pachuca exercised the option of visiting Busselton on Day 12 of the cruise and enjoyed the novelty of anchoring off the beach. On Day 13, 25 Feb, five BC boats arrived at PGM. Remi and Miriam aboard Plan Sea had elected to bypass PGM and sail directly to KB. We 11 guests from the five BC boats had a splendid evening at Dennis Gee’s home on the night of our arrival at PGM. On the next night we enjoyed drinks and dinner at the The Deck marina bar and restaurant then on the morning of Sat/27 we set off for KB. We spent the next four days relaxing at KB [Koombana Bay, Bunbury] with sundowners in the evenings, an enjoyable pizza night where we had a lot of fun in front of the club playing the Finnish game Finska introduced to us by Geoff James then ordering the delivery of a stack of pizzas for dinner, and riding our inflatables to lunch at the Parade Hotel. Panache with Geoff and Rita departed from the fleet on 1 March, Day 17 of the cruise, to meet a commitment in Perth. During this time we kept a close watch on the predicted winds and decided that we should leave for MOFSC one day earlier than planned. Accordingly, Rob changed our end-of-cruise restaurant booking at MOFSC from Fri 5 Mar to Thurs 4 Mar. Our reduced fleet of four boats set off for MOFSC early on the morning of Wed 3 Mar, Day 19 of the cruise. The passage was a good one, given the unusual wind conditions, with the winds generally from the east at 9-15 kts. And for once it was the boats further offshore that got significantly better winds than the ones hugging the coast. We had a good end-of-cruise dinner and on the morning of Fri 5 March the fleet departed MOFSC to their respective destinations. I have stated many times that my first and fundamental criterion for a successful cruise is that all boats and crews return safely with no harm. Thus with the injury to Lucinda I cannot consider it a completely successful cruise. But in all other respects it was indeed successful, a judgement made easier by the knowledge that Lucinda will make a full recovery. Robert Morales

Winches Serviced

Until last year I had been servicing Pachuca's winches with Lanox lanolin grease but last year I accepted with some reluctance "Lanotec" grease, after being assured that it was the same as Lanox. In fact I have not been able to Lanox anywhwere. I opened the Lanotec and saw immidiately that it had a much lower viscosity than Lanox but I nevertheless decided to give it a go. That turned out to be a bit mistake because as soon as the weather became hot the Lanotec grease began to seep out of the winches as though it was oil. This year I wanted to avoid the standard winch greases because you get very little for a lot of money, and I like to grease not just the wearing surfaces but any internal surfaces prone to corrosion. This year I settled on "Nulon L80 Lithium Grease with PTFE", which ticks all of the boxes for marine use. If this grease works out well I will not expect to have to service the winches for at least 3 years, given the light sailing that I've been doing.

Day Sail to Woodman Point

Peter and I met at 8 AM on Sunday 16 January for a short sail to Woodman Point not far from the club with the purpose of seeing how the new anchor windlass would handle the recently installed chain-rope rode. We motored out of the marina at about 9.30 AM and set sail in a brisk easterly wind with one reef in the mainsail and no jib. The boat moved well as we sailed south next to the shipping channel on a port beam reach, comfortable reaching speeds of more than 6 knots.

Peter at the Helm

Approaching Woodman Point

 

We dropped anchor in 4 meters of water off the beach and the anchor easily bit into the sandy bottom. We then successfully paid out the 30 meters of chain but when we attempted to continue by paying out the 20 meters of rope the windlass jammed, instantly throwing the electrical breaker. Even though the splice of the rope onto the bitter and of the chain appeared to have been professionally done there was enough lump in the splice to cause the jam. It was a disappointing result but we were satisfied that we had achieved our mission and were pleased that we had identified the problem in home waters rather than during the Bunbury Cruise. I had no patience for an attempt to make the chain-rode system work, possibly with a new splice of a new rope, particularly since we had not been able to perform the second test of whether a wet rope would have sufficient weight to fall into the anchor well fast enough to prevent a jam, as the dry rope had done.

After some relaxation on the boat we set sail in the early afternoon for our return to the club marina. By then the wind had shifted to a variable SE so we sailed more or less downwind with a partial headsail. After clearing the Parmelia bank we rolled in the headsail and motored directly for the club. When we switched off the engine in the pen at about 3 PM it had 600.3 hours on the clock, amazingly few hours for a engine that is now 10.5 years old (commissioned in La Paz Mexico on 16 Aug 2010). Peter and I plan to meet at the boat shortly before the start of the Bunbury Cruise on 6 Feb to replace the failed rode of 30m of chain and 20m of rope with the all-chain rode of 38m that had safely taken me around the world.

Chart Plotter Replaced

 During last year's Bunbury Cruise the Raymarine C120 chart plotter started the pattern of rebooting itself every 3 minutes or so.  Despite the annoyance I was able to use it for my return to Fremantle. 

During the winter I described the problem go Greg Hansen, a semi retired and extremely experienced marine electronics specialist.  After an inspection he deemed the unit irreparable due to its age in this era of fast turnover of models and to responsibility to long-term support.

The cost of a replacement was from memory about $2500.  It took me a few months to get over the sticker shock and bow to the inevitable so I contacted Greg to arrange a replacement.  Fortunately toward the end of our discussion I casually asked if my radar would work with the new chart plotter.  The answer was No because the new "Quantum" radar supersedes the old analogue technology. From memory a new radar would cost just over $2,000.  My choice were (1) new chart plotter and radar at probably more than $5,000 if labor was included, (2) new chart plotter only and trash the current working radar at a cost of more than $2,500, (3) get creative and find another solution.

I purchased a appropriately sized computer monitor which I would mount in place of the chart plotter to project the screen of either one of my excellent laptop software packages. I got far into this plan before realizing that there would be problems in interfacing the output from  the AIS transponder to the monitor, with a solution costing hundreds of dollars.   This failed effort cost me only $20 for the monitor and a few hours of time at the computer and in the garage.

Then I got the bright idea of searching for a used C120.  To my delight I found one on eBay out of the Sydney area for $650.  I placed the order, paid, received confirmation, and a day later the order was cancelled by the vendor, who reported that when he went to the boat to fetch the unit he learned that the owner had sold it to somebody else.

So I looked again and found one out of the U.S.A. for about $450 USD.  I ordered it knowing that I would take a hit from the currency exchange, shipment, and import duty of 10%.  All up the unit cost me about $900 AUD.  However, the unit was in excellent condition, was fully functional, and once again I had a chart plotter with radar.

I mentioned this to Greg as a courtesy and he replied that had he known he could get his hands on two used C120's for me.  (Grrrr!)  I replied that I would be very interested in the units as spares, but given that they were out of town I told him to take time to get them at his convenience because I was in no hurry.

The months passed and just before sending a query to Greg I had a look in eBay and found another C120 for sale out of Airlie Beach, Qld for $350.  I snapped it up and it arrived a week later.  The next day I mounted the unit and tested it to find that it could not see my radar, no matter what I tried.  I contacted Greg who came to the  conclusion that some sort of radar interface component in the C120 was faulty.  OK, I asked, is it feasible to get a replacement radar interface from my original and faulty C120?  Greg replied that it was worth a try.  I then contacted the vendor, explained the problem, and told him that I was happy to keep the unit with no claim from him given the modest price of $350 and at the very worst I would wind up with a backup chart plotter which is much more important to me than the radar.  I also noted that the cabling that had arrived with his unit did not include a radar cable, so who knows, the C120 had perhaps been originally supplied without a radar option.

Raymarine C120 Chart Plotter Hospital

So the matter stands, and here is a photo of my C120 "hospital", the original faulty one at the left, the Airlie Beach one that cannot see the radar in the middle, and the fully functional USA one at the right.

New Anchor

 On 28 November I attended a monthly "Topics Night" presentation by Kim Klaka and Richard Macfarlane into recent advances in anchors and anchoring.  I was so impressed with the performance of the new generation of anchors (e.g. much quicker to bed down, significantly more holding power) that after some investigation I settled on a Sarca Excel No. 5, one of the new generation of anchors at a cost of .  I chose the Sarca to replace my 16kg Delta at a price of $749 because it is Australian designed and built and has an extremely good reputation, particularly in Tasmania with it demanding conditions. One message from the presentation was the advice to purchase an anchor two sizes heavier than that recommended by the various vendors, so I purchased the No. 5 at 22kg (48.5 lb) rather than the recommended No. 4 at 16kg (37 lb) which listed 12m as the maximum suitable boat length. The extra weight of the anchor should not be a problem for me because from now on it will be the electric windlass that will raise and lower it.  The extra 6kg of weight on the bow from the heavier anchor will be more than compensated by the fact that we have replaced the previous 38m of all chain rode with 30m of chain and 20m of rope.  That shorter chain represents a reduction of 19kg in weight.

Peter helped me make the anchor change on 28 November.  

Peter tidying up extracted rode, foot on last of new rode

 I fed the Delta anchor and its all chain rode from the bow of Pachuca directly to Peter who was on the jetty and placed the tackle onto one of the club carts.  Peter then fed me the 20m of rope attached to 30m of chain (10mm or 3/8" dia) which I passed around the windlass and directly into the chain locker.  Last came the Sarca anchor, which from memory had already been shackled to the chain by Peter. The entire operation went as planned and very well. 

While  I was at it I replaced the "spare" 16 kg Swarbrick "fisherman" anchor with the heavier 20kg Swarbrick. The Swarbrick is more than a spare.  It is my "go to" anchor for unknown or difficult holding ground, and also my last-resort survival anchor.

New Sarca Excel No. 5 Anchor

The next step, to take the boat out and test the new anchor setup, particularly how the windlass handles the change from chain to rope and vice versa.  This was delayed because the anchor foot switch at the bow was not working, which surprised me because the switch was fairly new and had worked well the last time that I had used it.

Later I removed the switch and found that the electrical cabling was badly corroded at the end.  In fact, one wire broke off completely as I lifted out the switch.  This was result of my inexperience many years earlier, either I had used ordinary house wiring for the cable run between the windlass below and the foot switch which had to operate in extremely wet conditions.  It did not take me long to establish a firm policy of using only tinned marine grade wiring on the boat.

White sheath of corroded wiring replaced with marine grade

For various reasons it was 3 January before I was able to complete the replacement of the cable run.  Fortunately I had taken photographs and made a good sketch of the wiring, so the foot switch worked on the first try.

Back to Normal

After the hatch installation was completed my boating life settled down to the normal equipment and maintenance work associated with owning a boat.

In mid-September Peter Austin, a work colleague from my early years at Murdoch University who had helped me get my start in sailing in the mid 1980's, helped me with a task that involved an unpleasant climb to the top of the mast.  

The project was to reinstate the cord barrier between the mast steps and the shrouds to stop the main halyard from wrapping around the mast steps, something that could be dangerous when raising or reefing the mainsail in rough conditions. 

It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and sail

The rigger had recommended a solution using very light building cord that didn't make sense to me so I used the same system that had gotten me around the world with no problem.  In 2008 in preparation for the circumnavigation and in Mexico before departing for the Horn I had made this climb alone, but being older and wiser I now had the precaution of a harness with Peter down on the deck working the safety line.

I passed 3mm polyester cord between the mast steps and the shrouds and after about one hour of slow and methodical work the job was done.  We celebrated with lunch at the club.

Peter and I did what was my first JAM ("Jib and Main") afternoon sail on Sunday 18 October, accompanied by John, a very experienced sailor who usually crews with Jim MacBeth, a fellow sailor from my Murdoch University days. We also did a short "shakedown" sail to Rockingham and back.

Hatch Replacement Finally Completed

Fitting the section of ceiling and associated wood trimming that we had dropped in order to replace the  hatch took a lot more time and effort than we had expected. 

No matter how hard we tried we could not screw the ceiling panel firmly in position.  We finally figured out that it was the Megapoxy glue that was causing the problem.  We then  dropped the ceiling and I returned to the boat the following week armed with a Dremel tool and a light drill for fitting screws.  Bruce used a chisel to remove the excess glue and finished off by using the Dremel tool fitted with rough sandpaper. 

Ceiling, looking forward

Ceiling, looking aft

The ceiling went up OK but we then had trouble fitting the wood trip  around the hatch.  It should have been a quick and easy job because I had carefully written the position of each piece.  Things got so bad that we began to wonder if I had confused port with starboard and forward with aft, juggling the pieces around made things worse.  We gave up at the point where the trim was fitted to three sides but the  piece for the fourth side was more than 5mm too long.

On Monday morning I was back at the boat with the plan to work patiently alone and use my head rather than hurling in trying this and that.  The approach worked and after two hours the job was completed.  I am convinced that the problems were caused by the use by Zelko of an impact drill  to self tap the screws into position, rendering everything too tight and inflexible.  I did thinks like enlarging the holes through the trip so that the screws could pass easily through them and elongating some of the holes.

But the time Bruce visited the boat in the late afternoon the rest of the trim was up.  The next day I put up four circular pieces of trim spent a couple of hours cleaning the boat.  I  left the boat satisfied but ru-ing the fact that there is no such thing as a quick job on a boat.