This is more like it!!
I guess the question that arises is what has changed from the shakedown cruise before we had the UK trip to this one. Here I think are the key differences and the key learnings:
Differences:
Location!
Learning & Key Success Factors
Patience, patience, patience!! Waiting for the weather before you move makes for a more pleasant experience all around.
Weather means wind and waves. The wave height and direction lag the wind by up to two days. The forecasts tell you about wave height and direction, the learning is that you need to pay attention to it!! After a few days of wind it takes a couple of days for the sea to settle back down again.
Don’t break the rules in respect of you can choose where you go, when you go, how you go (motor or sail) but you cannot choose them all at once. Maximum conditions are as follows:
- Motoring into the wind force 0-2 (10 knots or less with virtually no waves)
- Close Hauled or sailing as close to the wind as the boat will sail, force 3 (10 to 15 knots with waves of a couple of feet)
- Close to a Beam Reach or with the wind between about 75 degrees and 110 degrees off the bow) force 4 (15 to 20 knots with waves in the 3- 5 feet range)
- Broad Reach to Running or with the wind between about 120 degrees and 165 degrees off the bow) force 5 less than 25 knots with seas in the 6 to 8 feet range.
Recognising that this means you may spend a few more days than planned in an anchorage or go somewhere different than the original plan is a big step forward. To be able to wait for weather requires that you are able to entertain yourself with reading, thinking, writing, boat chores, snorkeling or whatever else takes your fancy. Waiting in marinas is expensive and will quickly bust the budget. Six nights in Nassau, as pleasant as they were and as pleasant as the sail was across to the Exumas after the wait cost $560 which is more than we spend in a month on food and is a third of our planed monthly expenditure.
The most important skill to master is anchoring!! Making the boat go is relatively easy, getting it to stay put reliably in wind is more of a challenge. We seem to be getting the hang of this:
- The bottom where the anchor is going to go needs to be capable of holding a properly set anchor. No anchor will hold in smooth rock or very fine sand or very thin silt/mud.
- We have learned to find the sand and drop the anchor into it with the boat slowly going backwards, lay the anchor by hand flukes down.
- Let out some rode so the anchor is pulled along the bottom and not up when you put tension on the rode.
- Apply the tension gradually to dig the anchor in, first by hand, then the weight of the boat, then use the engine (1000rpm, 1200 rpm, 1500 rpm, 1800 rpm in stages with pauses in between) when you have the rode out to the required scope.
- If possible dive on the anchor to check it is set.
- Set the anchor alarm.
Another important skill is interpreting the weather information you get and planning the activity accordingly. Since leaving Miami we have had two basic sources of weather data. The NOAA Offshore Weather Forecast a “GRIB” file (this is a file which contains data on wind speed and direction and sea state across a defined geographical area, not dissimilar to a weather chart but more interactive in that you can put your cursor over a particular spot and get the data displayed. Both are downloaded from Sailmail once a day (see communications). Having got the data the key skill is interpreting it along with “local factors” to produce the forecast of where you are or intend to be. Then you need to plan your movements/activities in light of this. The anchorage we are in at the moment is great for wind with South in it, it is going to be a lot less great with North in it (we would have a large chop and if we drag would be on some rocks or a beach very quickly. We still want to go South. The weather for the next few days is:
- Today. South force 4 (moving today would break a rule)
- Tomorrow: South force 3 (we can move tomorrow assuming we are going to tack and/or motor sail)
- Day After: East Force 2/3 (we can go South in this)
- Day After: South East Force 3 (bit marginal for going South)
- Day After that: There is a cold front coming that will probably give us North West Force 6 (we need to be in a suitable anchorage for that one)
Beyond this we are likely to see a reduction in wind strength and the wind going back to East or South East. This gives us another opportunity to move South. As well as these considerations we are getting ready for some fuel and there is a Marina a few miles south of here where we could get some, so the plan goes like this:
-Today: snorkelling, writing, reading, etc., in the current anchorage
- Tomorrow: sail down to Highborne Key which is only a few miles and the course requires us to go round some obstacles which will mean a leg of South West followed by a leg of South East into a light South wind. Should work fine
- Day After: go into the Marina and get some fuel (much easier to dock and undock in light winds!!). Sail on South to Normans Key to an anchorage that is good for East and South East, but also has a nearby anchorage which would work for the passage of the front as well
- Day After: dependant on the approach or otherwise of the front move around Normans Cay for the passage of the front
- Day After that: Wait out the front
Beyond this we should be able to move South again maybe after waiting one more day to let the seas settle after the front. A few months ago we would not have been capable of understanding the impact of the weather and producing this plan!!
Building skills takes some time and rarely do you master things at the first attempt. The use of sailing books is a good way of doing this, reading these with the benefit of having done what you are reading about really helps for understanding and assimilating the knowledge e.g. anchoring and working with the weather, other examples include manoeuvring under power, docking, trimming sails.
Food is incredibly important; the evening meal is one of the highlights of the day. Katherine has done a fantastic job of having enough of the right stuff on the boat to be able to produce high quality meals with lots of variety, This is an incredible achievement on her part given in our previous lives we cooked really only at the weekends and then only one meal a day. We are now adding fish and shellfish we have caught (more skills to learn and develop) into the mix which really is making a difference.
Communications took a while for us to get right. Out here access to the internet and mobile phone networks are pretty patchy. Getting to a serviceable HF Radio even though it cost over $3k was definitely the right thing to do. Through this equipment we can get weather and e-mails that we would not otherwise be able to get. The ability to stay in touch with family is very important.
In respect of the rest of the boat systems. Refrigeration has proven to be great. The guy who did a lot of work on the boat tried to persuade us that we should ditch the engine powered system for an electrical one, we were unconvinced and had a new compressor fitted. It has been brilliant, I don’t think an electrical one would be half as good and even if it were then we would run out of electrical capacity.
On the subject of electrical capacity, this is OK when it is windy (the wind generator can run the electrics by itself in 15 knots or more of wind) or when we are motoring for a few hours a day. If there is no wind and we are not motoring and we are using computers a lot then we do use more than we produce. This we need to watch so we always have enough left to start the engine.
The addition of a chart plotter has made a big difference and I wouldn’t be without one now. It has made getting into and out of anchorages, cuts, marinas, etc., a lot easier than would otherwise have been the case. The autopilot is a great help on longer passages where it can give you a couple of hours rest from having to steer the boat, especially in light conditions or when motoring. The plumbing has settled down, the daily engine run easily produces enough hot water for us both to have showers (we have a deck shower as well which is basically a plastic bag which absorbs the sums rays to heat the water, at the end of the day it is as hot as you can stand it). The heads (toilets) have to date been fault free and the holding tanks easily allow us to go a week between pumping out.
Thinking about next year then I think that we need to continue from where we left off, do the things that worked well again (spending time getting the boat ready), not do the things that haven’t worked so well (breaking the rules) and build on the learning we have had and the skills we have developed to cover more ground than we have this year with less stress!!
- Tomorrow: South force 3 (we can move tomorrow assuming we are going to tack and/or motor sail)
- Day After: East Force 2/3 (we can go South in this)
- Day After: South East Force 3 (bit marginal for going South)
- Day After that: There is a cold front coming that will probably give us North West Force 6 (we need to be in a suitable anchorage for that one)
Beyond this we are likely to see a reduction in wind strength and the wind going back to East or South East. This gives us another opportunity to move South. As well as these considerations we are getting ready for some fuel and there is a Marina a few miles south of here where we could get some, so the plan goes like this:
-Today: snorkelling, writing, reading, etc., in the current anchorage
- Tomorrow: sail down to Highborne Key which is only a few miles and the course requires us to go round some obstacles which will mean a leg of South West followed by a leg of South East into a light South wind. Should work fine
- Day After: go into the Marina and get some fuel (much easier to dock and undock in light winds!!). Sail on South to Normans Key to an anchorage that is good for East and South East, but also has a nearby anchorage which would work for the passage of the front as well
- Day After: dependant on the approach or otherwise of the front move around Normans Cay for the passage of the front
- Day After that: Wait out the front
Beyond this we should be able to move South again maybe after waiting one more day to let the seas settle after the front. A few months ago we would not have been capable of understanding the impact of the weather and producing this plan!!
Building skills takes some time and rarely do you master things at the first attempt. The use of sailing books is a good way of doing this, reading these with the benefit of having done what you are reading about really helps for understanding and assimilating the knowledge e.g. anchoring and working with the weather, other examples include manoeuvring under power, docking, trimming sails.
Food is incredibly important; the evening meal is one of the highlights of the day. Katherine has done a fantastic job of having enough of the right stuff on the boat to be able to produce high quality meals with lots of variety, This is an incredible achievement on her part given in our previous lives we cooked really only at the weekends and then only one meal a day. We are now adding fish and shellfish we have caught (more skills to learn and develop) into the mix which really is making a difference.
Communications took a while for us to get right. Out here access to the internet and mobile phone networks are pretty patchy. Getting to a serviceable HF Radio even though it cost over $3k was definitely the right thing to do. Through this equipment we can get weather and e-mails that we would not otherwise be able to get. The ability to stay in touch with family is very important.
In respect of the rest of the boat systems. Refrigeration has proven to be great. The guy who did a lot of work on the boat tried to persuade us that we should ditch the engine powered system for an electrical one, we were unconvinced and had a new compressor fitted. It has been brilliant, I don’t think an electrical one would be half as good and even if it were then we would run out of electrical capacity.
On the subject of electrical capacity, this is OK when it is windy (the wind generator can run the electrics by itself in 15 knots or more of wind) or when we are motoring for a few hours a day. If there is no wind and we are not motoring and we are using computers a lot then we do use more than we produce. This we need to watch so we always have enough left to start the engine.
The addition of a chart plotter has made a big difference and I wouldn’t be without one now. It has made getting into and out of anchorages, cuts, marinas, etc., a lot easier than would otherwise have been the case. The autopilot is a great help on longer passages where it can give you a couple of hours rest from having to steer the boat, especially in light conditions or when motoring. The plumbing has settled down, the daily engine run easily produces enough hot water for us both to have showers (we have a deck shower as well which is basically a plastic bag which absorbs the sums rays to heat the water, at the end of the day it is as hot as you can stand it). The heads (toilets) have to date been fault free and the holding tanks easily allow us to go a week between pumping out.
Thinking about next year then I think that we need to continue from where we left off, do the things that worked well again (spending time getting the boat ready), not do the things that haven’t worked so well (breaking the rules) and build on the learning we have had and the skills we have developed to cover more ground than we have this year with less stress!!
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