With 16,000 miles now on Wind Horse we’ve zeroed in on a couple of things that we want to fine tune. One of these is the level of engine noise and/or vibration. Mind you, at our cruising speed of 1900 RPM/11.3 knots this is just 57 dB in the saloon/bridge area, so the noise level is already very low. But when you are passaging for thousands of miles, what would be considered almost silent on most boats can become bothersome.

As we are in Ventura, California, we called our old friends Dale and Steve who own and run Ventura Harbor Boat Yard. Steve came down with his yard foreman, Tom, and they gave the exhaust system a quick look.

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A few months ago, with a bunch of friends over for dinner and Linda busy in the galley, we ran out of propane. Timing is everything in life.

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BGAN is a relatively new INMARSAT service with much higher speeds and smaller antenna needs than what has been available in the past. The service is new, but from what we hear it is working well so far.

The rub for cruising sailors is the lack of an antenna system to track the satellite, and – when these become available – the cost.

We were wondering if the FollowMeTV single axis tracker, like we use for our Direct TV reception, would work. We talked to the guys at BGAN about this and it sounded propitious, so we got Ray Barnard at FollowMeTV to chat with BGAN – tech-to-tech, so to speak.

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Over the years we’ve accumulated an assortment of specialty tools. Most of these are rarely used, but when required, they have been essential for getting maintenance projects completed expeditiously. Whether you carry these or not depends on your fetish for tools, how much space you have for storage of rarely used gear, and where you’ll be cruising.

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Our last category of specialty tools deals with with electrical systems on board. These seem to get more use than the general tools – that probably tells you something about where most maintenance occurs on boats.

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For many years we’ve been students of the concept of using drogues in heavy weather, or for holding station when disabled. We did extensive research on this subject – interviewing dozens of users – when writing Surviving the Storm. But in our own cruising experience we never had conditions where we thought the use of such devices was a better option than keeping the boat up to speed.

With Wind Horse, the situation is potentially different. So, we’ve carried a Fiorentino parachute anchor, Galerider, and Jordan Series Drogue. We’ve looked at the rigging of these, discussed how to use them, but until recently have not found the time to actually get this gear into the water (our strong suggestion to you, if you carry any of this equipment, is to become familiar with it before heading offshore). Read the rest »

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If you’ve messed around with boats for very long you will know there are all sorts of grades and qualities of “stainless” steel. Sometimes good vendors will supply you with poor quality materials, resulting in a continuing battle with rust stains. Read the rest »

A few months ago we did a short report on the three types of binoculars we have aboard Wind Horse. Having 5000 miles more experience with them since that report, we thought we’d update you on our feelings.

First, the image stabilized Canon 15 x 50s. These are excellent in good light and smooth water. We can use them in light chop, but anything that is at all bouncy makes it very difficult to find and then hold an image centered.

(Wind Horse’s compliment of binoculars. Fujinon 7x50s on the right, Cannon 15×50 image-stabilized glasses in the center, and Bausch & Lomb night vision glasses on the left.)

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Aluminum boats are wonderful. The only problem area is with painting. It is not an easy material to get paint to stay on without problems. On the other hand, it is the only material which can be left bare, and that is a huge plus. We like the look, and the lack of maintenance. And if someone messes up a docking maneuver, we ignore the scratches – or if we’re feeling ambitious, polish them out with ScotchBrite pads.

Of course you still have to do something with the part of the boat that is in the water. What is done below the waterline is quite different than above. The system used needs to tie to the bottom paint being used. In the past we’ve always used TBTF bottom paint, but this is no longer available. Read the rest »

For the past 18 years we have had 30HP Yamaha outboards on our dinghies. The 30 was chosen for several reasons. First, we like to water ski and this is the smallest engine with which we can drag start on a slalom ski (tricky, but it can be done). The second reason is that this is plenty of power to push the big boat around should we need it in a tight harbor with lots of wind blowing. In effect, this serves as our “thruster”.

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Powerful DC engine-mounted alternators require large doses of horsepower to produce their electricity. This is normally transmitted via V-belts, from the power take off (PTO) pulley on the front of the engine crankshaft to a pulley on the alternator. Traditional V-belts have a hard time dealing with really big alternators, and require careful alignment, heavy duty tensioning hardware, and early replacement (for a lot more on this subject, see Offshore Cruising Encyclopedia).

The John Deere diesels which are aboard Wind Horse use a new (to us) type of drive belt off their PTOs. These are called Poly-V belts, and are ribbon-like in appearance. They are reported to be more forgiving than traditional V-belt designs, but we took a wait-and-see attitude.

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We’ve carried a variation of the Catalina Wherry, a 14-foot (4.3m) rowing dinghy, on all our cruising boats going back 30 years. Even Wind Horse had a used version which we picked up in New Zealand prior to leaving. However, we’ve been hankering for something a little more sophisticated, and have been looking at rowing dinghies with sliding seats. A sliding seat allows the rower to use both arms and legs when working the oars.

After arriving in the Northwest we started seeing a lot of sliding seat dinghies built by Gig Harbor Yachts, of Gig Harbor, Washington. There were a number of things about their 14-foot model which appealed to us. Its sloop would fill the need to daysail. And it allows the sliding seat to be fixed in an aft position, and then rowed double. We contacted the factory in June and were told four months for delivery. That was too long as we’d be a 1000 miles south by then.

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Exploring in cold country with the dinghy introduces an additional set of risks which call for extra emergency preparation. We’re usually off by ourselves, and it is doubtful that anyone would miss us or hear a call for help. So we need to be prepared for a wider range of risk factors than in warmer climes.

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Electronic charting systems are a step up from the olden days of pencil, dividers, and paper. Used correctly, they reduce workload and offer a higher factor of safety, especially in difficult conditions. However, there are numerous risk factors associated with using electronic charts, so we feel it is wise to maintain a healthy dose of skepticism and double-check the results.

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Over the years we’ve worked with Martec folding props, Max Prop feathering wheels, Hundested controllable pitch props, and Gori folders. None of these unconventional (in power boat terms) props have good engineering data. Specifying the correct prop of this type is very much a black art based on experience (for a more detailed look at this subject see Offshore Cruising Encyclopedia).

When we began work on Wind Horse propeller design was high on our agenda. We talked to lots of experts, consulted our various suites of software, and interviewed propeller manufacturers around the world.

Our goals were simple: quiet and efficient operation.

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We’ve just finished updating the inverters on Wind Horse so we thought it might be timely to discuss the logic of how to chose an inverter.

There are a number of choices available. The question is, which is the right unit with the best features for your intended application.

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One of the cool things about our Furuno 2117 black box radar is that the hardware is secondary to the software. The hardware is basic, robust, and powerful. It is the software, that controls the various functions like signal processing and scanner, which gets out of date. The fact that the software can be easily upgraded is one of the reasons we decided to go with the 2117 in the first place.

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As we’re still dialing in the props on Wind Horse, we’ve just had the need to remove our new Hall and Stavaert props for some fine tuning. As the water is very cold, not to mention dark, we asked Dwayne Montgomery at Emerald City Diving in Seattle to handle the job for us.

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When diesel engines operate, there is a small amount of pressure which slips by the piston rings. This pressure gets into the block and rocker arm cover of the engine and has to be relieved in some form. Typically a vent hose is attached to the rocker cover, and maybe one from the crank case. The pressurized air which is expelled carries with it a fine mist of oil. After a while everything in the engine room is covered with oil.

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Oil leaks and engines seem to have a symbiotic relationship. The oil leaks provide the engine a chance to vent its frustration at being abused, while the engine allows the oil to escape and spread itself out in the world at large (or at least in your bilge).

Most of the time these leaks are tiny, and difficult to stop. Some years ago we had such a situation on Beowulf. It wasn’t until we ran into a diesel mechanic in Maine that we learned how to deal with these small leaks.

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To do laundry in the Banks Islands, just south of the Solomons, all you need are some rocks, a source of water, and plenty of time.

I have to admit that I’m a laundry junky. I find it very satisfying to wash, dry and iron. It’s one task that has a beginning, middle and finished product in a relatively short period of time.

What a difference 30 years makes! Looking back to cruising on Intermezzo in 1976, we didn’t even consider what it was going to be like cruising with two small children without any laundry facilities. We had enough on our plate converting a racing boat to a cruising boat for a family of four. We took out the second head and made a pantry, took the forepeak bunks and made an athwartship double bunk for the master stateroom, but didn’t think much about how we would handle laundry. When we went cruising, I paid to store our relatively new home washing machine and dryer for seven years – which was silly, as it would have been much smarter to sell them and buy new ones later on.

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When we first put Wind Horse in the water, we did not fit hull zincs. We were relying on the prop zincs, and zincs hung from the rail at anchor for galvanic protection. The zincs were being eaten too fast so we decided to pay the drag penalty (small) and weld plates with threaded holes to which we could bolt large zincs to the keel and near the props (four in total).

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We’ve been using the same detail for hatch storm covers for years. This includes a tight-fitting cover, some form of lip for the cover to fit over or around, and on Wind Horse, a new feature. In the photo below you will see a series of lashings over the cover itself. These are to help hold the cover in place in truly awful conditions.

Although we’ve never had problems with covers coming off in the past, this detail is more suited to the type of weather we may encounter with the new boat.

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