Systems – 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

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

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

We’re getting close. I’m tired of living on dirt. Tied to the ground. Tethered to an auto, the roads and traffic. Nai gave us a tentative date for completion. The tanks are in. Fuel has been cleaned and returned to them. The cabinetry has been re-installed and screws bunged. Inside varnish is nearing completion. Lockers painted. This morning the crew was washing the deck getting ready for polishing. The topsides are next and a coat of bottom paint will be the final. Launching is in sight !

We’ve one more medical visit. A complete scan of the skin. One dermatologist said to us in Malaysia “You’re the wrong color to be living in this area of the world.” Funny – not funny. She is correct. However we don’t wish to live in a freezer, we love the freedom of the boat. We find joy meeting new people and sharing in new cultures.

I do miss a few things from our dirt life. A static life it would be easier to have a pet. Oh, and our heated waterbed with a down comforter was so lovely to wiggle into at night. I’m not forgetting family and friends. That’s a given. However all have a life of their own and while there would be sharing more often than now, neither our time nor theirs is infinite. No matter where one is in life; everything is a trade off. Some good, some not so good. And so, I continue to seek experiences out of the ordinary, seek to embrace as many of the delights life has to offer. Soon we will be afloat again embracing new adventures.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

Cruising Dominoes

Long, long ago… months it seems; before we left to Thailand to haul out, we made a shake down around Langkawi. Where wished to check out our systems and ensure there were no issues. We found some issues. Fixed some issues; most of which were discussed in the blog.

While in Singa Besar for a cruiser BBQ another cruiser had noticed the exhaust from our generator as we were making water. He stopped by; as friendly cruisers do, to point out that our exhaust had a lot of white in it. Whiteish exhaust signifies an issue.

Initially I didn’t think much about it. I did however do some snooping. And indeed whitish exhaust may identify an issue with the engine. Our little Kubota generator ran fine. Ran at the recommended rpm’s. Ran the Water Maker and pushed out a goodly supply of amps at the same time. I didn’t think much about it. But; the issue stuck in my brain. Some call these helpful, unhelpful hints; ear worms. I call it a Brain Splinter.

Splinters may fester. After Thailand and back in Langkawi I contacted an excellent local Mechanic (Andrew) to check over the little diesel. At this time avid readers will remember that we also discovered and identified a fuel leak in one of our three tanks. It was the tank I used for the generator. I thought I had already shut that tank down and opened up one of the others. We did drain that tank and it had no fuel left in it. I had not switched tanks. With the mechanic standing by I started the generator. A couple minutes later it roared to a stop. Damn. I thought I had switched the tanks for the generator. I thought I had. There are three valves to switch when switching fuel tanks. Andrew was here; to not waste time and money, I opened up the other two tanks to feed the generator fuel.

He checked things out, we talked about the exhaust. Watched the exhaust and the conclusion is the white smoke is the evaporation of the water in the system. Steam. Our water maker diverts water from the cooling water that enters the Muffler it is heated up from the engine exhaust and evaporates before it reaches the outlet. Ok. Good. Great. Generator – A – Ok.

A week passes. we are ready to head to Thailand to replace all our fuel tanks. When one goes I would worry about the others. We ferry ride; grab ride to Kuah Town and clear out, Harbor Master, Customs, and Immigration.

We return to the boat; start the engine ready to leave. Sweet. Purrs like a kitten. Cast off the lines back out of the slip and head out the channel. See my mistake yet? Halfway out of the channel the engine revs for a second, then dies. OH SHIT! Drop an anchor, raise a sail, yell Help? We are still in the middle of the channel; half way out. What to do?

I look around and we’re slowly traveling down the channel. The winds are from behind. With a bit of time we will blow out the channel. Once out we can drop the hook if needed. W/ is at the helm.

As quickly as possible on a boat, I head to the engine room. There I discover I had neglected to open up the main engines fuel tank. SHIT. I open the valve. W/ turns the key. The starter engages but the iron genny does not fire. My heart is racing. I stick my head up. We’re still ok; still floating slowly out the channel. I grab some tools to bleed the fuel system and return to the engine room. Open up this bolt, turn the engine over. Fuel exits. Open up the next in line, turn the engine over and fuel squirts out. Open up the fuel line to the injector, W/ turns the engine over, fuel shoots out, I tighten the bolt and the engine fires up. Back in control. Back on our way.

I snug down all the bolts. With my heart keeping time with the engine rpms, tight isn’t quite good enough. I over tighten the screw on the high pressure pump. I feel something begin to let go. If you have muscled a bolt too much you know the feeling. I immediately stop. Not soon enough. There is a small leak. Really small. A leak still. We figure in Phuket we’ll address the issue. We continue up the coast and anchor for the night. We called the mechanic about the leak and he too suggested we head to Phuket. There are more Perkins parts there and easier to get. Nice night. Beautiful sky, good sleep. In the am we wake for an early start.

W/ turns the engine over and it does not start. DAMN. Again I go below with some tools. I bleed, W/ hits the start button. Fuel to the pump, good. Fuel to the injectors, no. BAD! We try several times. We call Andrew (the mechanic) and discuss with him. Best to head back to Rebak. We sail back and anchor in 50’ of water near the entrance. Call Derek; the marina manager, for a tow in.

We could launch our little dinghy and maybe tow with the 15 hp but it would have been dicey. No need to take any risks. The winds were up and the water choppy. A crap shoot till we enter the channel. Best to let the marina / yard staff do it.

Five hours later they show up. The yard boat too actually had a fuel issue. With Derek’s help they acquired the Harbor Store supply boat. The marina assigned us a slip (in Australia it is called a pen) A07. The crew tows us to the end of D dock. The marina office is not happy but we are. We’re back tied to shore. I connect with Andrew and he hops on board 15 minutes later.

First thing he checks after hearing the story is the stop lever. I had this issue years ago in a remote anchorage in New Caledonia. Dirk; on Lison Life, had suggested I check the stop lever. I had forgotten about that incident. Andrew flicked the spring, the lever retracted and the engine started. Yeah, we’ll be out of here tomorrow. No need for any of the bureaucratic formalities. An extra day no one worries about in this area of the world. The sailing life is not like flying, not as timely.

But; let’s check that little, little leak. Andrew looks at the schematic. The outer bolt is separate from the inner and has a squash washer. Without touching the outer he thinks we ought to be able to tighten the inner with the squash washer and ideally; stop the leak. A spanner goes on the nut and off the bolt falls. No turn, no pressure, just a few extra grams. Damn, we’re not leaving tomorrow. It is a double bolt system. The bleed screw is inside the bolt with the squash washer. I don’t know why but if I would have read more in the manual, not been in a frenzy and used two wrenches instead of one; maybe, maybe, then it would not have leaked and it would have been tightened without a hitch. Again Dirk has a great acrynm he always loved telling me: RTFM (Read the F—— Manual)!

Sadly; Andrew doesn’t have this part set. He checks with his contacts on Langkawi. No one has it. He finds one in Malaysia on the Malaysian ebay. Orders it. Another is in Alor Star at a large Chinese engine warehouse. An interpreter he uses says they have that part. It is ordered and shipped. Further to ensure we have one that fits, I order another from Trans Atlantic Diesel in the States. That and a new spring for the Solenoid. Of course, the spring comes with the Solenoid. I expect one of them will fit. With the arrival of the first that fits we will be on our way.

The following day we asked Derek if we need to recheck back in. Yep, highly recommended. Again we ferry and Grab to Kuah. There the port Captain said “no problem” and removed our Port Clearance, we went to Customs and returned our clearance form. Immigration wanted a note as to why we returned. More stamps went in our Passports and we were good to remain for our initial visa time and repair the diesel.

Three identical parts ordered and now we wait. We had no idea how long. But we waited. And waited. On Friday one of the items ordered arrived. Andrew came by the boat the following am and within minutes we had Elysium’s engine again purring like a kitten. Everything checked out. We were good to go. That afternoon we headed to town to resupply. The following a.m. we again did the bureaucracy dance; visited the Port Captain, Customs and Immigration. Back at the boat we started the engine. I paid our restaurant tab at the office, wished them well and said we would see them in a couple of months. Right now; Rebak is our home base. At the boat we collected our lines, W/ pointed Elysium South out of the channel. This time… no drama. Around the islands we head North to Thailand.

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

Ohh…It’s Cold in Here

Compressor Locker — Making Room for the new compressor

We ordered the Isotherm freezer from Sarah at the RLYC chandlery (actually called Marine Supplies Asia) . Another two weeks wait that turned out to be closer to four. While waiting we pulled out the old Engel making room for the new. Upon arrival I measured half a dozen times to ensure the evaporator plate fit. The plate came flat; one meter long. No side in our freezer is 1 meter long. We needed to bend the plate. This was the first plate we’ve needed to bend. It is bendable. Read the instructions. My cruising bro Dirk likes to chide me always: RTFM. First word: Read and last is Manual. You can figure out the rest! The plate has several places that indicated “NO BEND”. Shit! I did not know about the no bend zones. I made a pattern; lined up the bends and everything looked like it would work. But; it would be close. We have one shot at this or we spend a few hundred more bucks on another plate. If I could cut a corner, trim a bit off the end, it would be easier to fit. I emailed my shore team and the manufacturer. The manufacturer said I could trim, just make sure I don’t open up a channel. Bingo. We trimmed, and I adjusted the pattern. Everything looked and fit much better. With the Engel we had the tubing runs already in place. There was no way, no way I was going to redo the tubing run. With the plate trimmed everything would work with the already installed tubing run. Mark where the bends are and bend. I made the patterned piece exactly like the plate was to be. I could, with luck even get it into the box. With luck.

Evaporator Plate-No bend zones — Mock up of Evaporator Plate

Isotherm sent a wood piece to bend the plate around. Secure it, and push gently bending the plate. That is what the manual said. I had marked where to bend and after the first bends I discovered that I made an error ! One bend was in the right spot, the other not. When I rotated the plate the bend didn’t rotate and now it was off a couple of centimeters. When I marked the bends I marked from the same end. When I rotated the plate I was from the opposite end making the bend off. W/ and I gently bent it back… slowly. We re-secured it and bent the plate in the place that it needed to be to fit. Now we hope that we didn’t do any damage. All channels seemed good. There was no bend (even the error bend) where it was NOT to be bent. That side is not perfect (close) but the real key is: will it work?

Back to the boat. We uncoiled the tubing and fed it through the channel to the compressor compartment. Slowly we worked the plate into the box. The opening would not change size. The plate was…. barely made it through. With a few choice vocabulary words we coaxed the plate into position in the box and secured it to the side walls. Installation of the compressor was relatively easy. We had all the wiring runs and fuses to the now removed Engel. We secured the mounting bracket Isotherm sent, locked the compressor into place, connected the thermostat and the power. We’re ready to fire it up! Everything finished. Well, almost. I had not yet insulated the tubing run. Once it works we’ll do that. W/ turns it on.

My GoVee temperature transmitter in the freezer box would let us know what was happening. That and touching the plate. What do you know. It is working ! Yippee. The following am the box was below 0ºC. We moved the frozen goods from the drawer unit to the freezer. Nw we have all units working again.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

LOST and FOUND

It has been an adventure restarting our cruising life this time. We were away from the boat for 8 months. Too long.

Before leaving in ’23 we had lost the remote for the TV, the smart television we had added in Australia. Our boat is NOT huge. And yet somehow we lost it. Searched everywhere. Searched for months. Thus, in the states I order two replacements. They worked but they were third party replacements. We also lost some ice trays. We were using one now but wanted two. Easier to rotate them and keep up on the “American” ice demands. 🙂 We searched. We tore lockers apart then repacked them. Hopefully better, and we still did not find the tray, nor the remote.

Today I wanted to charge the batteries on the our first drone. The one we had purchased in Ambon from another cruiser. Where is it? Damn, we cannot find it. I know we didn’t return to the US with it. I had planned on purchasing another in the US; which I did there. I figured sometime I will take one more risk with my first one and destroy it. After all we are over and around water all the time. But the Mini 2 we cannot find. Again we removed everything from the lockers where we thought we may have stored it.

Bad News !

Good News ! We found the original remote for the TV. I had put it in a locker preparing to sail and it was hidden around the corner very neatly snuggled in. The batteries still good, not leaking. I replaced them anyway. We’ve already lost a couple items from batteries installed too long. Also, while looking in other locker for the Drone we found a second ice tray. Whoopee! A silver lining.

We still need to locate where we put the drone before we left to the states.

Lessons learned. Take notes when shutting the boat down on what is where and what to do when returning. There is no need to make the adventure more difficult than it already is. List the items that have batteries and remove every single one of them. We did that for some of the critical items; the Iridium Go for example. The Go is back up functioning at 100%. But as I may have already said, we’ve lost three other battery operated items: a VOM meter, a hand held depth sounder and a blood pressure cuff (part of our medical kit). When we get to a big city, some will be replaced. When we get to Malaysia orders will be entered and made for importing. Indonesia is not friendly for yacht imports. As I’ve previously reported, it takes a great deal of time getting items through all the rigamarole. Plus when dealing with bureaucracy that also means extra money.

And FOUND. W/ said I am such a good packer. I can often reduce the area items take up by careful arrangement and by using the Russian Doll method. This time her good memory and my Russian Doll method yielded results. We found the spare drone, packed away in our yellow, waterproof, Pelican case! Yeah!

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

I Can Learn

I, like many people learn best through mistakes. In the end we made it to Karimunjawa. It wasn’t easy.

d a solar arch to Elysium. W/ too wanted davits. Davits carry a dinghy upright and fully inflated off the stern of the boat. In theory they make cruising easier. In theory. Many boats have them. Some cruisers use them exclusively. We don’t.

Davits have issues. Some cruisers would say compromises. When you pull the dinghy up, it is carried upright. Any tropical rain squall can overload them. Remember One cubic meter of water is one metiric ton! For you third world people (tongue in check) that is over an American ton. Actually 2,200 lbs. No inflatable will hold that much water. Only a few rigid dinghies might. Next add that weight to the end of the boat. Remembering your physics, roughly 2,000 lbs times the distance from the center of the boat 20’ equals 40’000 foot -lbs of effort on the boats end. Of course that is a worse case senecio. I don’t know any davit that could handle that load. Worse case scenario, the davit and the dinghy collapses.

Now on this trip…. it is the dry season. We expected no rain. None in the forecast. Meteorologists are often wrong once you look beyond a few days. Yet, they are pretty accurate for 24 hours. Our trip is a little longer than a day.

It takes an hour for W/ and I to store the dinghy on the aft deck for passage. It takes about 15 minutes to store it on the davits.

If we use the davits we must forgo the use of the windvane. I LOVE our windvane. It steers the boat like magic and uses no electricity. After adding the arch with solar panels in NZ; after switching over to Lithium Batteries, we have plenty of electricity . If we haul it up we must use the electronic autopilot (EP). That gizmo connects to the wind vane which actually powers the steering. On this passage; one night, we check the weather info. All down wind, moderate seas. Our EP idea was an addition that we planned to use when the wind died out. Times when the windvane would not be able to work. The windvane requires wind. However, with the dinghy up we could hand steer all the way or use the EP. And for any that know us, hand steering is not in our cards. In the end, we choose the “easier” path, put the dinghy up and use the EP.

Not the worse mistake we have made. In the end it was a mistake. Predicted winds were to be mild on the passage and the seas less than 2 meters. For the first couple hours we had an ok time. Some crankiness on my part…. not enough wind. But the wind filled in and the EP did its job. We hauled up the mainsail and we were making good progress. Winds and seas were kindly. Everything was perfect… again, for a couple of hours. As the day wore on the wind increased. The wave train changed and the EP was struggling. So much so, that often we needed to crawl aft to the stern of the boat and either reattach it or make a course adjustment. We would be trucking along nicely and an errant wave train would roll through, two or three waves, larger than the others and from a different direction. They would twist the boat off its course and the dinky EP couldn’t bring us back fast enough. It gave up, started the alarm and then waited for us to do something. Head back to the stern to reset. An hour or two later, same thing. Reset. All night- harness’ on; a wave train from the wrong direction, back to reset. In the middle the night the winds had increased enough that we pulled the mainsail down. I couldn’t reef, I’ve still not run the reef lines from when we had the boat decommissioned and on the hard for 8 months. Running now only on the headsail. (After a rest W/ and I talked and here too we ought to have furled the headsail and run just on the staysail. )

Tiller Pilot controling SailoMat Windvane — EP Powers Windvane

By now the winds had increased steadily to 20 kts gusting to 30. Hell, we were heading off the wind anyway. No biggie. But now we were often touching 8 kts and the EP couldn’t hold the course long. Again we’d hear the constant alarm indicating that there is an issue. Back to reset. By morning we were nearing our destination. Approximately two hours out I discovered that while putting the dinghy on the davits we had moved the base of the windvane. The arm that powers the steering was now chafing on the backstay chainplate. That may have caused some of the issues with the EP keeping course. No matter what, I wasn’t going to lean outboard of the boat with lumpy seas and adjust it.

We decided to hand steer. We shut down the EP and neutralized the vane. Neither of us love to take the helm for any length of time. We’re now 15-20 nm away; we can handle it. W/ took 10 min on and I took 15 min. That’s only fair as whenever we’re in a harbor she’s at the helm. At about 5 nm out we furled the head sail. It was very difficult rolling it up. That told me we had kept it up longer than we should have. I was fighting the wind in the sail. W/ eased the sheet and I rolled. After getting a 3rd of it rolled in we were able to completely furl it.

Even coming through the cut to Karimunjawa was daunting. W/ at the helm; I was looking for the reef, markers, and the channel. This was not “fun”. Neither of us like to approach an anchorage or harbor from the up wind side. That puts Elysium on a lee shore. A dangerous shore. We spotted the channel, made the channel and as we rounded the town we were still moving at 7 kts. That’s fast in our boat. We wanted to slow down but the current and wind kept encouraging us. Finally rounding the town we could work our way up to the anchorage we had chosen. The wind never stopped.

Here behind the mtn, it was gusting into the 30 kt range. The anchor was down, the boat stopped, I paid out more chain and there is no swell. We are not rolling, not bouncing, we’ll sleep well tonight.

Next time we’ll take the time to carry the dinghy offshore where it is smartest, not easiest. That provides us with two self steering options. The windvane and if Mariah (the wind) decides to test us with little to no wind, the Electronic Pilot.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

In and Out: Never stop No. 7 pt 1

Yeah, that is a reference to an old Woody Allen movie. The characters are learning about bedroom exercises by reading a book. Well, that reference too is relatable to cruising. We’ve been hanging here a Banyuwedang, on the N end of Bali. We stopped here wanting a calm anchorage. We found the calm anchorage… with heaps of wind.

We can live with the wind, the boat rolling is no fun and getting anything done on a rolling boat is next to impossible. If an emergency existed in a rolling anchorage we would deal with it. Luckily there is no emergency.

While traveling the N coast with our dinghy on the davits (not where Dave likes to carry it) Elysium squats as she motors. Checking the bilge I noticed a very slow trickle of water. On boats, water is best left outside. Having lived this experience before I knew it was the rudder post stuffing box. It has not been snugged down in a few years. Time for a smallish turn of the bolts on the box.

To open up the locker for larger projects we needed to move the mattress’ and two full berth toppers out to the salon. Then I can make the adjustment. When I opened up the compartment I also checked the steering system. Oh -oh! One cable glide is not turning at all. It was stuck. The cable was dragging over the glide (roller) as we moved the rudder. There was a tell tale sign. Fine metal dust was directly underneath the glide gathering on the hull. Added to the list as unplanned.

I tightened the stuffing box and continued to inspect our steering system. The starboard side was fine. I used T-9 silicon spray on the guides. Five out of six guides were in good nick (as the Australians like to say) . The sixth; after spraying lubricant, still stuck. I removed the cable from the steering quadrant, and tried to move the guide by hand. Definitely stuck, I sprayed, moved, sprayed, moved, and eventually I was able to get loosen it up. Nothing like it ought to be.

The question was: ought we live with a sticky guide till we’re at a Marina in Malaysia and hope everything continues to work, or fix it now? We choose to fix it. The following problem was do I need to remove the plate holding the 4 guides to remove the one guide? Oops, my stomach is talking to me now. We’re into early afternoon.

To keep the rudder from moving on it’s own

We hauled the mattress’ back and began getting ready for the evening. We wanted our aft cabin back. The following morning we deconstructed the berth again. I believed I needed to remove the entire quadrant panel. I open the compartment; again, and begin to check what and how many bolts I would need to remove. First however, I remove the cables from the rudder quadrant. I tie the rudder off so it will not swing and bang against the stops. While looking at the other guide I am able to suss out that the guide’s are bolted to the plate. Yippee! I don’t need to remove the plate, I can remove the guides individually. An hour later the guide is out and cleaning begins. Not finished but we are making progress. We put the aft cabin back together for another evening.

This item is used to adjust the Steering Wheel and how tight the cable is to the helm.

The following am we take the aft cabin apart and I install the guide. Lubricate it with T-9 and attach the steering cables. The guide now turns freely. With cables reconnected W/ turns the helm as far as it will go and leans on it. We tighten the cables just enough so if there is heavy weather and we are steering the cable will not fall out of the guides. She leans on port, then on starboard. I adjust the cable tension and we’re back in business. We put the aft cabin back together.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31