Changes/Additions After Reaching Mexico/Marquesas

·       Shade, fans, and bug screens

·       Whisker pole (very important for trade-wind sailing)

·       Full boat awning and squall proof hatch covers

Back to Top

Changes/Additions During/After Year 1

·       Added running back stay control blocks

·       Removed extra water tank

·       Added forth reef point to main

·       Changed anchor snubber to move stretch outboard the deck chocks

·       Bought some decent fishing supplies

·       Added Email and Ocens for weather for return trip north from NZ, find email to be sufficient.

·       Bought used working jib to test. Excellent size (110%) extends wind range prior to reefing without much loss of performance at lower wind speeds. 

Back to Top

Changes/Additions During/After Year 2

·       Switched reading and cockpit lights to LED from Bebi Electronics (Fiji)

·       Bought a Beer Making Kit

·       Added 160 watts of solar panels and a new mount

·       Replaced our primary chain
Make sure you get a good batch of chain, we got the bottom of the barrel from West Marine and it looked like it had been drug across sandpaper a bunch of times (it started to rust in places do to the dew when I left it out on the dock overnight).

·      Bought more fishing supplies, made snubbers, release clips teasers etc, increased lure size dramatically.

Back to Top

Changes/Additions During/After Year 3

·       Bought an Engel 12 volt Freezer/Fridge (38 Liter volume). It draws hardly anything, is quiet and we still have plenty of extra solar power (even on cloudy days). Our plan is to use it when we have power or need it to store extra fish. There is still an ongoing debate is whether it is for fishing or for iced drinks.

·      Of course we had to buy a blender (240 volt) along with a small inverter, to go with our new ice. It's called a rocket blender and has plastic containers and multiple blades including a juicer attachment. KT loves fresh fruit juice smoothies in the AM.

·      Alvey deep sea reel to mount on the stern rail. This is an attempt to see some serious action compared to the subdued fish we get on the hand lines. We'll report later on if it was worth it.

·      Added see through waterproof side curtains between dodger and bimini. It's amazing how wet you can get during an 1800 mile passage to weather. I designed them to allow easy access to the foredeck, yet protect from side and forward splashes and wave slaps.

·      Added a screen to the hatch rain squall protector to make them more like a dorade vent, most of the water comes from splashes off the deck which are then blown into the hatch.

·      New Surf kayak.. Finally replaced the missing kayak we lost in the 68 knot blow in Tahiti.

Back to Top

·        Added an AIS Receiver system. After the trip across one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world (Singapore), we decided that our one ship a year days were over. We love our AIS system, however I would consider a stand alone unit if you don't always run you navigation computer (like us). I would love a simple alarm that sounds if a new ship enters a configurable zone and its closest point of Approach (CPA) is less than 2 miles. Right now we just use the AIS as a helpful tool along with our full watch schedule. I have talked to a couple of large ship captains that suggest that AIS makes it more dangerous for small ships because the big guys are using it to watch each other. Since yachts don't transmit their AIS data, you are "invisible". The nice thing about AIS, other than all the speed, course etc of the big ships, is the Name of the vessel. It is almost impossible to get a ship to respond to "vessel at approximate location blablabla", but they usually respond immediately when called by Name.

·        Replaced Engine Start battery. This might belong in the didn't work category. If you put two six volt batteries in series for your starting battery, a bad cell means your starting battery is useless (10.6 volts won't start anything). Two 12 volt batteries in parallel would allow you to disconnect the bad battery and have a hope of starting it on the remaining good battery. My battery went from good to bad (unusable) in three days, so you don't get much warning. Luckily I was able to use the "wife bank" to start the engine for the next couple of months.

·        Replaced House Batteries. After we lost our start battery I was a little gun shy about travelling across the Indian Ocean and up the Red Sea with a four year old battery bank (which seemed to be working fine). Thailand has Trojan clones, that even weigh the same, but I paid extra to get the quality of a known brand.

Well after six months, one Trojan T-106 house battery lost a cell in about the same three day window. I have two 6v in series, and then parallel the two bank (through a switch with is usually always on), but I monitor each bank seperately with a link 20 battery monitor. Since the beginning, one bank always used less Amp hours through the night, charged at a higher current, and used less current. Now I've got only half of the house bank, one good six volt battery and one bad.. waiting to hear from Trojan!!

·        Extra fuel Storage (for Indonesia, Mallaca Straight, Indian Ocean and Red Sea). We put half our engine hours on during the trip from Australia to the Med. During our Pacific adventures we rarely had issues with fuel, one season we only used 55 gallons!! During the rally in Indonesia (moving alot to keep up), and travelling up the Red Sea (where calm is good), it was nice to have an extra 30 gallons on Deck. We then filled everything in Egypt (at .25-.70 cents a liter) because the fuel in Turkey is $3 a liter.

·        Replaced front engine seal for Perkins 4-108. Everything I've ever heard about Perkins is they leak a little oil. When I had the engine removed and overhauled prior to leaving, the mechanic rolled the front oil pan seal and it leaked like a sieve!! It was finally fixed and ever since then I've had a fine mist of oil that comes out the seal, from behind the crankcase pulley. Well of course, this gets picked up by the belt and flung ever so nicely all over the front of the engine, and on the side of the engine compartment.

Right before we arrived in Hurghada, it REALLY started to drip.. I mean a puddle, but it always stopped after 3-4 minutes and seem to go away once I changed the oil. Then it really went south crossing from Suez to Turkey, the engine compartment looked like an oil field war zone.

The best money I every spent was replacing that seal. I thought of doing it myself but I had no idea how to get the pulley off, without tweaking the engine. Turns out they have special tools that bolt on the front, lock against the engine mount bed and then they needed two people with a 4 foot pipe extension (and a hammer) just to free the nut. It took a little over an hour, but the results were amazing. The mechanic layed down a paper towel that was completely clean after an hour of run time. I couldn't believe it; for four years I've been putting up with the mess but now I'll finally have a clean engine room. He also gave the engine a once over and she got a thumbs up.

Prior to leaving on an extended remote trip, consider taking a full blown diesel mechanics class. I feel like I could fix/jury rig almost anything on the boat, but that bloody engine is a big unknown to me. We've never had a problem I couldn't fix, but it's always hanging over my head especially when people around you have start having problems.

Back to Top