Not in the Brochure!

We have been away for a couple of months now and I have yet to pick up a book and relax. I am yet to experience the "Cruising Lifestyle" which I thought would consist of long relaxing days sipping cocktails (well mocktails in my case), feeling bored, reading books, planning my 3 meals a day, building sand castles etc... I am afraid to admit that I am partly to blame for not having achieved any of the above, I just might be incapable of doing so (OK James I am finally agreeing with you, well just this once anyway).


Having said that there have been a few boat maintenance issues which have kept us busy.  We seem to either be waiting for parts or repairing something!  This was not in the brochure and yet some of the more experienced cruisers seem to laugh at us when we tell them about our delayed plans and express our frustration.   They all seem to respond the same way "Welcome to first year of cruising"!!  I guess this is the first time the boat has really been tested so it shouldn't come as a surprise that we have needed to repair a few things and I guess there are are worse places to be stuck waiting/repairing things than a picturesque island watching our kids experience a kind of freedom they would never get back home...well certainly not so close to Kings Cross.

The ongoing repair list since arriving in Fiji has been:

• fresh water pressure pump
• house bank alternator
• repair of burnt out windlass
• replacement of windlass after repair didn't work
• replacement of water pump impeller on dinghy motor
• servicing of winches
• repair of hatches
• replacement of water maker pressure gauge
• fixing and realigning of cupboard hatches that after frequent use go out of alignment
• failure of the BBQ (Much to Williams disappointment we are still waiting on getting this one fixed)

James says this is not out of the ordinary but I guess that I was never aware of the repairs that went on behind the scene when the boat and we were in Sydney. Now I am very much in the hands on position when assisting James.

Windlass repair

Windlass repair

The old windlass solenoid before replacement

Solar Bimini

After a year of having the solar panels mounted on the cabin top we have taken the plunge and moved them onto a custom bimini frame. A much better position with less shade from above as well as they now provide shade to the seating behind the helm. The frame consists of 2 by 1.25" stainless tube bent so as to accommodate the current 2 solar panels as well as 2 new ones. In total we will have 800w of solar to keep the batteries charged up and avoid having to run the diesel.

Based on the solar output of these panels we can expect about  240 amps per day output. For us to generate the equivalent power using the Diesel engine we would need to run it for 2 hours. That's about 10 litres of fuel or $20 a day. The added bonus is that when the boat is at anchor or on a mooring ball we can leave the fridge and freezer running. There's nothing like a cold beer when returning to the boat. 

The system also helps to prolong the life of our batteries as they need to be charged to full capacity every couple of weeks to ensure they are kept in good condition. This is nearly impossible to do with the alternators on the primary diesel. Alternators are good to about 80% battery capacity but are really not suitable for topping off the last 20%.  The solar system will do this topping off. 

The next big project is the the watermaker. 

Onboard Navigation PC design and install.

It's been a long time since our last post. We've been sailing every weekend and enjoying the boat as a family. There is a lot to catch up on and I'll endeavour to get more posts done in the near future.

Our existing navigation systems on the boat are in reasonable condition but the cost of obtaining charts for our intended cruising area and spares for them is prohibitive. Our current installed equipment is:

• Raymarine pathfinder 70C with radar
• B&G network chart plotter, autopilot and instruments

That means 2 sets of charts in order to be able to use the two systems properly and of course they are not compatible. The unfortunate part is that they dont communicate with each other and have propietry communications protocol this makes getting information out of them a little more complicated but doable.

Knowing that the expected lifespan of the above components is well past due. I can either upgrade them to their modern day equivalents or alternatively convert the Boat to a PC based Navigation solution and slowly convert the systems to nmea 2000 compliant sensors. In the long run this will be more cost effective and actually give a more user friendly system. I'll even be able to replicate what is on the nav pc screen on an iPad or similar tablet.

It's a bit of challenge to design my own system for the boat. I have done this many times for my own personal pc over the years but have decided that it would be most effective to use one of the commercially available low power pc's in the market. If i want to modify it at a later date I can.

Through research and past experience I am leaning towards the Asus Eeebox pc. The chosen model is the EB1007p and runs off a miserly 15 watts in low power mode. It could be lowered even further by replacing the hard disk with a solid state drive, but this will be done at a later date if required. The pc requires 19v dc power but the boat system is a nominal 12v system, so a method of increasing the voltage is required one solution is a dc to dc converter like the one in this link.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/390634246780?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

One of the above units has been installed behind the nav panel and provides 19v dc for the pc. The pc works well as a nav computer but the refresh of maps and swapping between program windows is a little slower than your average desktop. I'm happy with the slower performance given the miserly power consumption. All up and including the 22" led monitor the power consumption in 3.1 amps. We are running opencpn as our navigation software.

The Project List

There is always something to be done on a boat. Currently we are at the stage of getting the boat sealed up properly to keep the water out and adding the necessary items to allow us to be self sufficient.

1. Replace the hatch just in front of the mast as the Perspex is broken along the support hinge. Unfortunately this was not picked up in the survey as it had been covered by grip tape. It was a rude surprise to find the bedding soaked the first time we left the boat without the bow cover on.

2. Re-bed the stanchions. There are signs of leaks from these and we have confirmed at least one to be dripping when it rains.

3. Convert our walker bay dinghy to be a sailing dinghy. There is a sailing kit available for about $1000 but I have decided to rig it with optimist gear so that the kids are familiar with the optimist rig, when and if they choose to race. It will also stow more neatly.

4. Purchase and install a solar system. I'm thinking 800 to 1000 watts should be enough. This should equate to about 180 amps per day based on 40% production for 4 hrs and then 80% for the remaining 4 hrs per day. Using a worse case scenario of 8 hr long days.

5. Repair or replace the hatch for the sail locker in the bow. It is leaking in the rain so I can only imagine how bad it would be in the ocean with waves crashing over it. The frame seems to be bowed so the seal is poor. Maybe I can use the parts from item 1 to repair the bow locker hatch. Mmmmm?

It would also be nice to do the following

- Increase the battery capacity.
- purchase a dodger
- buy an outboard for the dinghy
- New rod rigging


I'll be posting on the blog as each of these are completed.