Products – sv Elysium…

What’s UP ?

Everybody wants to charge for advice; for their opinion, or to peek into their life. Join this, upgrade to that, support me, etc. Everyone wants money, money, money. If you need the money; then ok. If not it seems a wee bit “greedy”—to me.

I’ve been working on the website for most of the last month. Cleaning it up, making sure the code is correct, reducing errors: I hope! 🙂 And it is all still “free”. From cruising years ago we adopted the idea that cruisers support each other. On the site are nearly a thousand photos providing a look into a cruising yacht and the crew’s life on aboard. Over 100 product evaluations from our real world sailing experience. And of course there are dozens of picture stories about major projects we’ve worked on making the boat more comfortable. Some even with instructions. Luckily, we don’t need to charge. What would I really do with extra money? I’ve always said you can get more money but you don’t ever get more time. For me; for us, time is more valuable. It has always been.

That said other than the web site what have we been doing with our time? We We had three projects upper most on our list when we returned from our S Thailand sojourn. First: repair the dinghy. We had two leaks. Second: we needed to replace the Tank Tender pickup for measuring how much fuel was in our new port tank, and the third was to stop a smallish leak in the Lavac Head base. These were actually the priority; not the web site.

The dinghy we hauled up to the work shed planning to seal the leaks. We discovered one under the oarlock that had fallen off. It would be a problem to repair. We didn’t like it. The other leak was near a seam. We use 5200 Fast Set on the Hypalon tubes. It works great but I didn’t like using it over seams and the oarlock area was a real conundrum on how to repair it.

So we chose instead to ship it off to the Dinghy Dr. aka AllStar boats. They had it last year and did a great job on the repair. Our dinghy is getting a bit long in the tooth. We plan on getting a new dinghy next year, but one more year out of old reliable would be nice.

While we’re waiting for it to be returned to good nick again we had our new 15 hp Yamaha Enduro delivered. It is now resting gently on our aft deck waiting patiently to be put into service. All the while we still have the other for sale. Any takers? LOL

The Tank Tender needed a small new connection to the sensing tube. Either I did or the workers in Phuket broke the old connection when removing the tanks. I had called Tank Tender to get a new one; ordered 3 to have spares and they were fantastic in their response. When we returned to the Marina the items were there. With those in hand we set about running some new air lines. For a small project it ended up creating a good mess in the boat. We opened up the panel where the display was. Removed 3 drawers, one set of cabinet openings, two finished floor boards, two floor boards inside a locker and emptied a huge locker with our sewing machine, power snorkel and other gear to get to the last floor board and replace the fitting. After connected we tested the fuel level before returning everything to its correct place. With that completed and working on to the last job- for now.

The third issue was the Lavac Head Gasket. It’s weeping, sometimes more sometimes less. I’ve complained about Lavac before. They have a plastic base in which there is a rubber gasket and the ceramic toilet sits on those two. The bolts come up through the plastic and there is a nut on the base. To tighten them one needs to remove the entire assembly and position a socket on the bottom bolt head inside the base while tightening the top nut. In the past I had tightened the assembly too much and cracked the base causing… another leak. It seems over time the rubber gasket hardens a bit and is not really functioning as a gasket. And as I mentioned before Lavac has never responded to me on how much to tighten the assembly.

This time I thought, I’ll use butyl on the gasket. So I did. No leak. After two days a very small weeping occurred. Wendy lifts the toilet assembly and I tighten a wee bit more. One quarter turn on the nut. Cautious not to over do. I don’t want another cracked base. Now; no leak, again. I am thinking we will need one more slight tighten to ensure the effluent stays where it belongs.

Ah ha; we have another bright idea. Get Fredrick; the local welder to make a new base out of SS with studs coming up from the bottom so if and when I need to “snug” the bolts down on the rubber gasket it will not be a job with many four letter words.

On to new and better things. Boat work never stops. In between any play we are re-varnishing. We’re working on varnishing the exterior wood before it gets bad, bad enough that we would need to strip it back to bare wood again. All fun! All Adventures in Paradise! And yet I wouldn’t give it up to be driving down I-95 or the M-1. No life style is perfect; however cruising comes close.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

Up, Up, and Away

It has been a long time since I’d been up the mast. Australia was the last place. Needless to say, I was a wee bit anxious. So I strapped on a Riggers Harness and the boson’s chair. The harness didn’t seem quite right. W/ and I have forgotten the exact procedure. But; in the end, we were sure I couldn’t fall out of it. Just in case the worst happened.

Long time readers will know that a few years back we bought a Milwaukee Angle drill and a Winch bit. We purchased a powered one – not a battery one. Previous cruisers that had the battery drill reported that they always needed to charge it whenever they needed it. With the cord and our inverter, we would have plenty of power; always. With W/ at the base she could send me up the mast like in an elevator. She needed to be aware of not overheating the drill and not squishing me in any of the rigging.

Up mast in Bosun's chair — Yeah, I was a little nervous again.

She would raise me 5 m or so and I would check rigging. Let the drill cool off a bit. Next floor on the elevator and repeat. The first task was to remove the bail for the Drifter / Reacher / Spinnaker. I had the impact driver with me and a few different sizes of Phillips bits. There were 4 bolts screwed into the mast head. Remove that with the block and line, and return everything safely to land. We were looking for a soft landing; for me and the hardware.

With the fitting in hand I began to contemplate the attachment of the wind instrument. The bail at the masthead had 4 holes and the instrument had 3. None of the holes meshed. I didn’t relish the idea trying to drilling and tapping more holes in the masthead. Truly I would need to be hanging in space above the masthead to drill them properly. The bosons chair supports me to the mast head, not above it! Thus drilling more holes in the mast head was a non starter.

I came up with the idea of adding a starboard piece to the fitting. A reverse shim. I could mount it on top of the bail and then I would have a place to attach the new wind instrument. Bolts through the shim would hold the bail in place and I would then attach the anemometer to the starboard. I just hope it works.

We had purchased the anemometer almost a year ago anticipating an easy add on. LOL. I know: projects do not happen fast on Elysium. But; eventually they do happen.

This is a wireless instrument for the Raymarine MicroNet system. One of the best systems in my experience for a sailboat. The original info is here. Wireless. No holes in the boat, minimal wire runs; none to the anemometer and none to the display. The display being moveable; we can ensure no matter where we sit we can easily see the results.

We checked the anemometer before I even pulled the bail from the masthead. Connected it to the Micronet base unit. Whew, I was worried about that connection. The system setup design while functional is not user friendly. But; somehow we did get it connected. Next I mounted the unit on a block of wood and set it out in the Sun to continue to charge. It is solar. All was working good. Finally, I cut a piece of starboard the right size and fitted it to the bracket. There I discovered that if I attached the bracket I could NOT screw the starboard and fitting back on the masthead. I countersunk three of the holes and recut some of the bolts so they wouldn’t extend into the masthead and foul or chafe a halyard. Nothing is easy with any boat project.

I needed to do a couple of things, counter sink the screws in the starboard and attach the wind mount lightly so I could rotate it and reinstall the bail.

With the halyard tied to the bosuns chair, screw drivers, bracket, starboard shim, base, anemometer, and arm to the anemometer, W/ again sent me up in the elevator.

The bosuns chair has pockets but I didn’t want to break the cups that spin with the wind so I gingerly held on to it while ascending. I used my feet and free arm to avoid getting stuck in the shrouds and halyards that were attached to the mast. At the top I carefully laid out the cups on the anemometer with the wind cups so it couldn’t fall. I needed two hands to secure the bracket and shim. Carefully I put the bracket with shim on the masthead and installed one screw. Whew! All good now, it cannot fall. And W/ was as usual expected to stay away from being directly under me. Dropping any tool from that height could be deadly. A screw driver traveling at 50 km/ hour would make a mark. Bruce and Brig on Wanda loaned us a two way head set to communicate. I would have preferred to yell but W/ liked the idea of talking normal back and forth.

With one screw in I set about adding the others. All fit; Whoopee! After I snugged those four down I rotated the base of the anemometer. I had already predrilled the holes so I needed now to add the last two screws. Once they were in and set I added the extension and the anemometer. Bingo. Only a year and some later, after purchase we now have windspeed on the boat. Really, we’ve been without this for close to twenty years now anyway. But with the Indian ocean ahead and variable weather all around we felt it would be a good addition.

Wendy belayed me down the mast and we cleaned up. There is always cleanup to do. Putting tools and gear way.

The final check awaited, turn on the wind / depth base; turn on the Micronet display.

OMG… everything works. Oh happy day.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

We’re back

Yep, back at our temporary home, Rebak Island, Malaysia. It feels good and yet rather… ok. Oh… we do have some projects. However; for us, it feels like much of the world has stopped. Fuel prices up, more conflicts in the seat of civilization, disease outbreaks. So here we wait. Here it is calm. Yes, we are effected by what is happening in the outside world but the effects in Malaysia and Thailand seem minimal.

The dinghy engine. Wow! I’ve rebuilt the carburetor several times and finally I have it working. Well, close; it is about 90% correct. I’ve replaced all the old fuel with fresh, I’ve cleaned out the fuel tank, I cleaned everything with Carburetor Cleaner and boiled the jets. Not in that order but the heart of the engine is looking damn good. After we arrived here I went to connect the fuel line to the fuel tank; damn! The round brass fitting on the tank was bent. How that happened? I’ve no idea. So off to town we went. There are two Yamaha outboard dealers and we knew of one. I went and asked for a new fill connection. Nope. No one in town has them. I checked another place and nope, none, nada, zip. Ok, buy a new tank. Which we did and now I have a new fitting. While getting a new tank I asked about cleaning the carburetor. 15 RM. About 4 USD. The following day I brought the carburetor into the shop. After lunch it would be ready. I hate to say it; we had comfort food for lunch. Pizza Hut. Yes, in most countries we’ve visited there have been Pizza Huts. No need to ever worry about US culture being usurped. After lunch we returned and they located an issue; the fuel pump. It needs new gaskets and they only had one. The other would be in next week.

As for us, we need to get the dinghy engine working properly so we can sell it, we have an wind speed indicator to install at the top of the mast, and I need to replace a galley water pump.

Well… I thought I had the correct one on the boat. Yep. Another trip to town and I handed them the needed gasket. Waiting I headed off to the market for some needed food supplies. Peanut M&M’s count as food don’t they? 🙂 After the load of food I picked up the completed carburetor and headed back to the boat. With new fuel, a new tank and a rebuilt carburetor the engine started right up. Oh… it did take a couple of pulls to get the petrol up to the cylinders. But; she now purred like a kitten. Off I went for a test run. I putted out of the marina to the entrance channel and throttled up. Whew ! Instantaneously I was up on plane and flying. Just like it ought to be. I motored back to the boat and picked up W/ with a camera. A video or two and it will listed for sale. Hopefully we can sell it and pick up our newly ordered one.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

On a Treadmill

It has been awhile. We’ve made progress. Yet the progress has been one step back, one step forward. Odd that we consider running in place; progress. And yet running in place can be progress. Just a different sort. Getting fit, staying fit. Not everything we do cruising will show huge results. Cruising is like that.

As we were refurbishing the boat everything we did was big and new. We removed the old formica, WOW! Added the new… Wow WOW! We painted lockers that had never had paint and they looked amazing. It is nothing like painting a wall in the house with a new color. More like painting it with the same color. Our old locker was white and the new paint is white. Not a lot of – wow. Varnishing a bulkhead, beautiful. New hand rails. Ahhhh…. Now however when we repaint a locker it is simply; repainted.

We’ve identified the leaking tank. finished the base coats of revarnishing the cap rails and the forward hatch. Set up the Aircon differently to be more effective, had the mechanic check out our generator, visited the dentist. Basically doing much the same as anyone simply living on the dirt.

Varnish Removal — Varnish removal with Heat Gun

Sanding Teak — Varnish removal with Heat Gun

Yacht Raw Water Filter — PITA Perko Raw Water Filter

We stripped off the varnish / epoxy coating of the forward hatch and revarnished it. All told about 20 hours of labor and we are back to a nice looking hatch with the teak protected. But, for years it has looked that way. We updated the rest of the Alpenglow lights to LEDs. Replaced the valve on the Water Maker, rebuilt the TipToe pump, replaced the Raw Water Filter. We could not however find the older TipToe pump that we kept. Searching for that one had us emptying out two huge lockers of all their gear, then repacking them. Inventory error! On the boat it will show up. Replaced a water filter. Fixed a floor cleat that was falling apart. And finally, replaced all the bolts on the tranmission coupling. All really… heaps of work, with very little to show.

AlpenGlow Light Upgrade — Not easy, not exceedingly difficult

No big adventures, no drama, just living. How is cruising any different than living on the dirt. Really not a whole lot. Our bed gently rocks, we can move if we want a new view, or if the neighbors party more than we can take and the music is not to our liking. We have less to mess with, fewer things that own us. We feel freer. But still, we all are bound to the earth, all wrapped up with the grind of daily living.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

KO’ed

For you non boxing, non hockey fans. KO stands for Knocked Out. That was me.

Capsule at KBL — Minimalist Accommodation

We hauled the boat in Krabi Boat Lagoon, Krabi, Thailand. All was well, we moved off the boat into what they call a Capsule. The following day it started to rain. Then again the next day and the next day etc. Around the 4th day I got antsy. Frustrated. We had lubricated all the seacocks and I changed the shaft seal. Other little things were getting accomplished. But, we had to do’’s more on our list. Seems that when we haul Elysium out of the water I never accomplishe what I envision.

Tides Shaft Seal Replacement — Replacing the Seal

Old Worn Tides Shaft Seal Removed — Tides Shaft Seal Removed

After a few days of this we were taking it easy in the am. We ate breakfast, W/ was browsing the internet and I got up walked over to the sliding glass door. The next thing I knew W/ was beside me asking if I was alright. I said I needed to sit up!

Hammering the floor with my head — A Crack on the Back of my Head

I have no memory of going down and hitting my head. Considering the pull of gravity and my huge (not) height it would have taken about 0.2 of a second for my head to be 6’ above ground one moment and banging on the tile floor the next.

W/ had summoned some of the staff and they were assisting. It took me a few minutes to realize where I was, where the boat was and the why. I didn’t want to get an ambulance to the hospital. I could speak, see, and knowledge was returning. Also, a good hospital here is a ways away. We do not hang in the most populated areas cruising.

We have heaps of medical resources at our fingertips. A huge part of W/s family, cruising friends and other close friends for years are medically trained. From an ER physician to ER nursing staff to an EMT. And yes, like most people in their profession they suggested it would be wise to get checked out

Another cruising friend got smacked in the head while out and about. He did go to the Physician when they returned a day later. The Dr said “Yep, you have a concussion”.

Using Dr. Google and our medical contact resources by all accounts I now have a concussion. Two symptoms, when I cough my entire head speaks to me and if I move too quickly, turn funny, look up, look down, sometimes too fast, the world shifts dimensions. Yep; vertigo. So I’m moving slowly, and then even slower. The shifting world is odd for me. The brain too big for my head is odd for me. I do not believe, with all the crazy stuff I’ve done in my life I have ever had a concussion before.

Near as we can figure. I slipped. When I went to the sliding door I reached out to open it and check how bad it was raining. W/ wasn’t paying any attention to me…. at that moment. The next thing W/ heard was my head hammer the floor and she saw me laid out like a cadaver. Not too nice for her to experience. I had no idea! She and the staff said there was water on the floor where I was standing. One of our medical consults indicated that if people faint they tend to crumble in place. Good or bad, I don’t know. For me; better that I slipped than fainted. Fainting means I would be wise to get a scan. I just need to get to the right place and have it done. Where we’re at it is a full day away- if we hurry and “hurry” is not now in my vocabulary.

Can you see the broken bolt — One diver broke the zinc away leaving the botl.

Boat Yoga — One is never upright on a yacht.

For the next couple days W/ wouldn’t let me climb the ladder to get on the boat. She was able to continue some of the projects. Luckily all the Seacocks have been taken care of. The broken plastic bolt for the zinc in prop was removed. It is the first time in 30 years I have had to use the Easy Out tool again. We cleaned the raw water filter for the forward head. And I was able to get the shaft seal replaced prior to my head hammering adventure. There is a lot of twisting and turning, laying down and looking up in keeping the boat functional.

We hired Jack; the manager at Krabi and his crew to prep and paint the bottom as well as polish the hull. W/ and I have done that enough in our lives we don’t wish to anymore. If we’re lucky, the boat and I will be ready in another 10 days.

Our medical resources tell me it takes a full month to heal. One even got cheered me up saying as you get older it takes longer! 🙂 We’ll see… till then….

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

What Have We Done?

A few readers have figured out we’re still in a marina. Yeah, I know. Not the best option for a “cruiser.” I hear it daily from our “real” sailing friends; Paul and Caroline. Mostly Paul. After 3 years away from any quality yacht services, after 18 years of cruising, after 2 years in Indonesia where one is lucky to find knowledgeable and experienced workers for yachts, we’ve had serious work to do.

Some jobs are cosmetic while others are for comfort. Then there is always a list for safety. And there is not a better place to accomplish these tasks in this area than at Rebak Island Resort and Marina. First; there are quality services here. An excellent marine chandlery in Kuah Town at the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club (RLYC), Marine Supplies Asia. Another large hardware store with heaps of marine supplies; called Gans. And then a smaller one (Multiquip Trading sdn.Bhd) which deals more with fishing vessels vs “yachts”. On top of that, the yard here is very good, very clean and has a small chandlery. While not as complete as those on the Gold Coast or in Scarborough, they have maintenance items, tape, paint, brushes, rollers, hose clamps, etc. But, the frosting on the cake here is: Langkawi is a duty free port. Anything we need from the US, Europe, Australia arrives with only with the cost of international shipping. Sweet. In addition, we are Amazon Prime members (yeah I know – not a Bezos fan) but; with $50 or more we receive free shipping… to Malaysia! All the while we visit the gym 3 times per week improving our fitness. They have weight machines which makes recording our data and seeing growth motivated. Much better than the alternative; free weights. 🙂

So; what have we accomplished in 3+months? First on the list was ordering items we needed. We ordered a new stove from GN Espace. We discovered a new teak varnish that has been working well, AWLWOOD; and it looks good. We sent our dinghy in for repairs. I found a welder to fix the broken bail on the bow pulpit. We ordered a new Isotherm freezer unit. Bought a new raw water strainer, and purchased some new Hayn rigging screws / hardware. While in Thailand on a visa run we picked up a piece of Teak and Starboard planning to shim out the Sailomat wind vane a wee bit.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

A Shitty Job

On a yacht, being able to maintain as many systems as possible is a real advantage for cruising. We have a sewage system on the boat. It has been functioning on the edge for years. This year, when we left Elysium on the hard I figured it was time to clean and correct the LectraSan’s ills. Before we left I had flushed several times with fresh water. After which; I pulled all the plumbing apart. The pieces have been drying for 8 months. The hoses were cleaned by banging them on a solid object, a boat stand, cement, tree, etc. removing 99% of the dried sludge. The more difficult task would be cleaning and upgrading the portable sewage system. We have; a LectraSan. The new products name is ElectroSan.

The electrode had been giving us problems for years. And years ago I had ordered a replacement. The electrode in the treatment “box”, had parallel fins. The new set had fins separated much more and it looks like a wing. The most difficult part was finding where we had stored the replacement. It was in our boat, moved several times and now lost. We checked our inventory and somehow we had not entered it. We spent a good part of a day scratching our heads and searching various lockers. My description of the item was off. Oh well. Worst case, we’ll clean up the old and it will be back to a clean working system.

The following day I came down with a huge head cold. I don’t remember ever having one like this. My energy level was below half. My nose mimicked Niagraa Falls. (Sorry if TMI). My breathing at times sounded like an old smoker struggling. I was coughing enough that ground stations would show tremors in the earth. Boat work slowed. Mostly W/ clean,ed arranged and moved “stuff”. But as in some circumstances there can is a silver lining here was ours. While she was getting an item out of one locker she came across the replacement we needed for the LectroSan. I couldn’t yell and scream joy, I didn’t have the energy, but inside I was ecstatic. Still suffering, but much happier.

Daily I was working on getting my head cold under control. Antihistamines, nasal sprays, cough drops, salted snacks, and fluids. Those combined with rest kept me alive, not happy, but alive. I was hungry, never starving, I could read, play chess and watch movies. I just couldn’t make more than a trip or two to the boat. I’d do a little work and that was it. Fortunately, we’re not on any time constraints. We had figured 2-3 weeks to get the boat ready and splash. It is now looking more like 3-4 weeks. We had planned on hiring some of the tedious work. And this was a good time to hire a crew to clean and polish the hull and polish the stainless steel. So, while I was not 100% we were still making progress.

We cleaned the hoses and LectraSan to the 90-10 rule. We rebuilt the LectroSan to a “Good Used” level. Instructions tell us to use silicone on each screw hole with the gasket. Then insert and tighten 16 sets of bolts. We had already replaced the etectrode and reattached the electrical. Working with the box and silicone was worse than cleaning the sludge from the system. Once you get a dab of silicon on you it seems to grow and migrate to every thing near by. Tools, clothing, body. Nothing is immune. Clean the tools and body, throw clothes away.

With the box together we now wait for the silicon to kick off. The following day we test for leaks. And the following day we tested. We found one leak. A painful discovery. I’m still not over this damn virus. I’ve read that it might last 10 days. Yuck. I will say; thanks to modern drugs I’m getting on top of it. The waterfall that was my nose is slowing, my sleep is better, my coughing less. I had one bout where I was struggling to breathe, feeling like my air passage was collapsing. I had had a couple others where I was borderline with the passage wanting to close up. Those have passed. Having more energy now gave me time to feel the frustration. We would need to take it apart, clean the parts and reassemble it.

At least this time there would be no sludge to clean. With the help of the silicone, the gasket had slipped over and hung over the lip of the unit. Neither I nor W/ had noticed it, just happy that we had it together. Now reviewing our work we could see where it had slipped and caught leaving the bolt gasketless. The only place water could sneak through. And it did. A small seep, nonetheless, we didn’t relish the idea of sewage water dripping in the boat.

Again another day passed. W/ had her family call and I; feeling better now (but not 100%) went to the boat. I removed the bolts and nuts from the LectraSan. I was worried that the silicone would adhere to top and bottom prodigiously and I would need to use screw drivers and a putty knife to help them part ways. Luckily the engineers designed this with material, that while the box would seal it wouldn’t become permanent. I was able to part the pieces. And later that am W/ and I put it back together ensuring the gasket was in the correct position.

No more leak. Next task. Install it in the boat.

One of the biggest issues in cruising in developing countries concerns the spares you carry. We have heaps of spares. Yet it never, I mean never fails that something important is missing. I look for our pipe joint compound. Well, actually W/ looks for and finds it. What little is left of it. It is mostly dried up with very little left. Maybe in the city I can find some. There are a couple of hardware stores in walking distance that may have it. I take a chance and burn some shoe leather. Nope, Nope, and Nope. Never heard of it. It is not boding well. I can either pay a taxi to the big city and hope or be creative. I choose creative.

I open up the tube that is nearly empty. Scrap the semidried material out and mix it with the much more viscous material. W/ stirs and I get the pieces ready. I smear it well on the threads and attach the pieces tightening to an angle that aligns with the tubing. With the LectraSan installed the next step is to connect the hoses and anti siphon.

The anti siphon has a gizmo flap that lets air in and keeps water from squirting out. I’ve replaced several of these. Note: replaced. I have tried to clean and replace and never has that been successful. The O ring never fits again once cleaned. This time the same thing, the O ring does not fit; somehow the plastic ring grows. Creative me thinks I’ll just nip a bit off the O ring and then put it in place. Looks good. Looks right. It now fits. I install it. After coaxing the hose on each fitting with some colorful language I next add the hose clamps. There are 14 of them. Each connection receives a double clamp. Should one clamp fail the other will hold keeping sea water out of the boat and keeping us afloat. We too often find a hose clamp that has failed. We carry heaps of hose clamp spares.

With the clamps on. I check each one to ensure they’re adequately tightened. Ready to leak test. Whenever we leak test any of our sewage / head / toilet systems we use fresh water. No one, not even the crew of Elysium wishes to clean up saltwater or sludge in the boat. There ought not be any sludge; everything is clean and inspected. But saltwater too is not fun.

We pour fresh water into the toilet and flush. Everything looks good. It all looks good. W/ and I inspect it. Oh-Oh. I spot a trickle running down a hose. I Trace it back and it appears to be coming from the Anti-siphon. I pump and still don’t see where it originates from. The anti-siphon or the hose fittings. We pour more water into the toilet, pump and after a couple more pumps I see a small squirt out of the anti-siphon.

Again, that little piece I’ve never been able to clean and reuse failed. Time to dig out a new one. I have 2. After today I’ll have one spare. We’ll need to add more to our list. When we get to Malaysia where boat parts are plentiful, I’ll replace them. Again, I pump and all is good. No leaks means a working head; a toilet. On to the next project…. Bottom paint, dinghy repair, diesel, petrol, clean and organize the boat. There is always something… always something in paradise.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

Cats are Dangerous

Some cats are more dangerous than others. And really, I’m not talking about domestic cats. Although Cat scratch Fever is a thing! I’m talking about Cats people sail the oceans on. A week or so ago a Lagoon 40 ish left Indonesia traveling to Oz. About 4 days later they returned to Medana Bay Marina. What the Hell !

The Plexi is ment to be broken out in emergency. Just not on it’ own!

Turns out; while in rough seas (the boat was doing well) a life threatening event occurred. Today many Catamarans have escape hatches under the bridge on the inside of each hull. I believe the EU demanded they be there “In case the Catamaran flips over”; people can get out of each hull. They are not trapped. You see, when a cat gets overpowered by wind and seas they can flip and will not right themselves. Mono’s on the other hand will pop back up. Not that I wish to try it. Both situations are dangerous. Mono’s can be and have been knocked down, their mast hits the water and because they have a huge amount of weight in the keel they stand back up. Some Cat owner will just say, naw – they’ll simply sink. We know two cruisers in monos’ that have been knocked down. Both boats survived and are sailing today. But; that is not what I”m talking about.

Anyway they were sailing along in some bouncy seas. At 4 am (ish) one of the escape windows came off. It didn’t just open up where you could reclose it. The window disappeared in a few 1,000 feet of water. The window is about 56 cm square. Every time a wave reached the window hundreds of liters of water poured in. The window was less than 50 cm above the static waterline. As luck would have it; one of the crew was off watch and in the berth with the escape hatch. Sea water dousing him was not how he wished to wake up . Imagine several buckets of ocean water being thrown at you every few seconds.

They were fortunate he was there. Otherwise there would have been several tons of water in the boat before anyone noticed. Each cubic meter of water is a metric ton. The crew never mentioned if they had a bilge alarm. And more luck, there were 4 guys aboard. All awake now they worked to stop the water. So much water was entering the boat that the bilge pump couldn’t keep up. While bilge pumps are often rated 2,000 gallons / hour given the lift height to the exhaust outlet they pump much less. Plus as long as the batteries are good the pump is good. So assume it pumps half that rate you only get about 15 gallons / minute or about 100 lbs of water out of the boat every minute. Remember; about every 10 seconds a hundred or more lbs of sea water was cascading in. As they slowed the water ingress with cushions and cabinetry they started a bucket brigade removing the water. Changing the boat course helped to reduce water ingress and gain some control. Once they had won the water war they turned around.

They were only 150 nm or so from Medana and 50 miles or so from a port they could seek shelter and temporary repairs. Again lucky they weren’t two or three days further on. And the stars were closely aligned. The starting battery was in the dry hull and they were able to start the engines. They passed a ship and let off a flare to no effect. No response from the ship! One crew member was able to use the Iridium Go and contact his partner in Australia. She then called the Oz authorities who then called the Indonesian authorities in a worse case scenario. The crew had enough experience to know that by now they were not in danger of sinking. But, they were fighting the seas and wind while attempting to return to port. Their speed was now close to one nautical miles / hour; plus or minus a bit. Fifty hours later they made safe harbor . More paperwork completed – they had recently checked out of Indonesia. Indonesia loves paperwork! They jury rigged an Aluminum plate for the window opening and used 3 tubes of Sikaflex. The harbor master inspected the boat ensuring there was no more safety issues. They now had both openings sealed. Two days later they returned to Medana Bay Marina where they could get hauled out and effect repairs.

A proper hatch but rather small in diameter!

Catamarans are lovely boats. They have enormous elbow room and a place to hide from kids or crew when the need arises. Yet, from my perspective; when offshore Catamarans too often are dangerous. A tragic story here.

It is events like this that make me leery of owning one. However; never say never! Instead I will say “not now”. When I was in the tech industry we had a saying “you bleed living on the cutting edge”. In ocean cruising; Cats are the cutting edge.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

Dinghy Parking

This is how we store our dinghy when anchored. We haul it up on Elysium’s hip. Years ago we tied it to a cleat and let it drag astern. Then one night in the Bahamas it went missing. I detailed that adventure here. Since then we find it more secure this way. W/ cranks it up on the halyard while I hold it off the side. Once in position she secures the halyard and I finish. I tie a stern line to the ladder chock, pull the plug on the drain (in case it rains) and then snug up the bow line. We secure the dinghy in three places. Nothing is “perfect”. Since we’ve been using this method we’ve not had any further issues with anything missing or with the dinghy. While not impossible for someone to “borrow” (steal) the engine it wouldn’t be the easiest. So far so good.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

Unstuck – Banda Pt 2

Yep, we were stuck. Elysium wasn’t going anywhere. Mike on Natsumi stopped by and we connected an extra line to a winch. With him cranking and me using the windlass all we did was pull the bow down. We wouldn’t pull the bow under but we would at some point break the chain. Time for more help.

I hopped in the dinghy and headed to shore. There I found Nellow (A dive master and guide in Banda) and hired him to dive the anchor and free us. I was thinking tomorrow, he was thinking right now. Not to put off what needed. I said… OK.

Nellow slipped into his wet suit, grabbed his BC, tank, regulator, weights, and his dive computer. We hopped into the dinghy and off we went. On the way over he said he wouldn’t dive below 35 meters. Our anchor is close to that limit. . There is no Nitrox on Banda and no decompression chambers. We arrived at the boat and he was the show. Like a fish returning to the water he was in and heading down before I even tied the dinghy up. Like ghosts, the bubble from his regulator floated to the surface. Undulating and creating etherial shapes. He was down for a bit and we could see the chain being pushed and shoved. Five minutes and he came to the surface, said we could pull in some and he needed a hammer. We had snagged and globbed onto a sunken steel ship. Working back and forth the chain cut into part of it and that is what now lies free. We pulled in a bit more. He told me that we had also wrapped the chain around the wreck’s bow a few times. He would need to use the hammer to knock it off and free it. He went back down and we could hear the pounding on the chain. We were not free yet. We could see him rising to the surface following the bubble trail. He made a safety stop and we waited. At the surface he told us his computer was beeping at him and time to head up. He needed another tank. Back in the dinghy, back to the dive shop, he grabbed another tank and we sped back to the boat. There he rested.

At 30 meters or so one can’t work without decompressing. Luckily we were less than the 35 meters, not much and he was an excellent diver. Thirty minutes later he was heading down again. He asked us to ease the chain out so he would have more to work with. Banging away seemed to work. A few minutes later he was again at his safety stop and when he popped to the surface he said we were free. We hauled the chain and anchor in. Whew!

We wanted to pull it up so we could move to the Maulana Hotel. We still planned to do that as the wx seems to have moderated in expectation of the SE trades beginning. We headed across the harbor, dropped the hook and passed lines ashore. Nellow again dove to check the anchor. He made sure it was clear and sat point down on the bottom. You’re good; he said. Lines tied ashore we adjusted Elysium’s stern and settled in.

I loved being here. We could enjoy the waterfront activity, have easy access to the hotel restaurant, and not worry about swinging around on the anchor and snagging on other trash on the bottom. I marked in Zulu Waterways exactly where the sunk boat was. No need for other cruisers to snag the same thing. If someone wants to attach a chain mooring line to it; well, it will be solid and better than the concrete moorings that are used throughout Indonesia.

On the Spice Island town side there was a constant parade of Indonesian ferries. Additionally two cruise ships came through. Thus the tourist board in Banda put on a show. Kora-koras went out with their 20 odd crew dressed in full regalia from the time of Dutch colonialism. They sang and created quite a show. We watched as the tourists were brought ashore next to us and were herded like cattle towards various tours. A quick trip to the forts (there are two here), the church, the museum, and maybe some went across to the plantations. It was like watching Disney at work, keeping them hydrated, fed and entertained.

The week went by without incident, the wx benign. The greatest effect was from tidal current. One night the winds blew from the N; not strong but pushing us back into the little wood dock. I checked the anchor and made sure we had some tension thus keeping our stern away from the dock. All looked good. Until it wasn’t. Around 4 am I woke up. I went up on deck and saw that we were about 1 foot from the dock. We ought to have been about 10’. The boat was bouncing from the small chop off our starboard beam and we kept inching closer and closer. I started the engine which got W/ up immediately.

The hotel night security came out and helped to push / keep Elysium off the dock. W/ put the boat in gear but the lines ashore were holding us. Unfortunately we had coiled the lines on the boat and that created an issue casting them off. It took me a minute to free our port line and in that time we “tapped” the dock. Just tapped it, Once free I cast off the starboard line and we motored away from the dock. Next step pull in the anchor. Once up it was decision time. Stubborn me, I wanted to stay. W/ wanted to return to the other side. I didn’t want to get anywhere near that underwater wreck. We tried once to drop the anchor off the hotel and once the wx abated we would again connect to the shore. We dropped it in 90’ of water and all it did was slide around. We weren’t holding. We picked it up again and headed across the bay. With navigation lights on, our deck light on and the AIS on we idled across the bay. We were waiting for enough light, waiting to choose a better spot.

A couple days earlier True Blue V had left. I was hoping to get close to their spot. They didn’t wrap any coral nor a wreck. As the sky lightened up we dropped the hook in 25 m of water. If we needed Nellow again at least he could dive that. Anchor down and we’re secure. I had charted where the wreck was and we were closer than I wished. Mike on Natsumi told us TrueBlue V was over a bit farther and N some. We discussed it (W/ and I), she wanted to stay and I was afraid of swinging around and connecting with the wreck again. The safest thing was to move. We did. The anchor came up fine and we dropped it where we thought True Blue V was. There we sat for a couple of weeks.

It wasn’t perfect. We had more wx events. Nothing huge, just uncomfortable. I had our AIS on anchor watch, had our chart plotter map the paths we took as we swung back and forth on the anchor. At night it would look like we were close to one of the local fishing boats or close to shore. I watched the depth sounder and we were never in less than 50’. Although 50’ from shore it was still 35’ deep.

The winds in Banda harbor are often fluky to say the least. We were on the lee side of the volcano. One day / evening the winds were blowing strong out of the W. But, on the lee side of the volcano the winds reversed. As they blew over the volcano they came down to the water and back filled.

After a couple of days in a better spot but not exactly where I wanted to be we moved the boat. Farther away from the wreck but closer to shore and the fishing boats. On anchor we swung up and down the shore and stayed away from the local boats. We also varnished.

For the last 9 months we’d been sick of our epoxy / varnish job. It was smooth but the epoxy which we had been told would last 5 years and look beautiful didn’t. There were places where the bare wood was showing through. That and seeing that the white epoxy (people call it blush), we weren’t happy. Actually, we were really, really upset by it. As an experiment we tried the Signature Finish top clear coat. W/ was leery. As a test we only coated one item. A dorade box. We first washed with soapy water, rinsed and dried. Then we used denatured Alcohol to prepare the surface. Tape the areas we didn’t want varnish on and used the Signature Finish top coat. It looks fantastic! We watched for a few days and everything still looked great. Even after rain, it still looked great. That gave us a new lease on our teak coatings. We began to coat the rest of the boat with what we had left of the Signature Finish.

In the midst of this I had volunteered to read at Mita and Alisa’s home school. I was reading aloud children’s books in English. The four children from 3- 6 years old were already bi-lingual. Unfortunately, my 3rd time I had to cancel. Somehow, I came down with a cold, flu, or allergy. In the am I had a fever. Not a high but enough to know I did not wish to risk others getting sick. I hit the meds we have on board. Hit them hard. When I was feeling like doing something; anything, it was varnishing or prepping to varnish. I could tape and apply. W/ could wash, rinse and clean with Alcohol. It worked, while I recovered we were able to varnish the rest of the teak on the deck. And finally, FINALLY, Elysium looked good again!

It is amazing how when the boat looks good we feel good. My temporary respite from being healthy was over. However for my mom it was just beginning. She; at 97 years old went to the hospital. In Critical Care. Things weren’t looking good. There are times when cruising isn’t anywhere near to what the magazines tell you. This looked to be one of those times.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

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