Category: Technical

We have been back in New Zealand for several weeks now and finally we have a boat that looks a bit different.

Just some of the many jobs we have done since putting the boat on the hard in Marsden Cove Marina in 2021 are:

Replacement Rudder Bearing: These last a long time – ours 21 years but we had a small amount of play so it was time to replace it. Not an easy job since its a custom made bearing and requires dropping the rudder. This one should last another 20 years or more so all good.

Reapplying Coppercoat. We last applied Coppercoat to the hull in 2012, so its lasted 10 years and half way around the world. We have touched it up in places along the way (mainly the keel, since our original primer flaked off the lead), but a fresh coat is now applied which should last another 10 years hopefully! We have also pre-applied epoxy resin to the lead which should mean the primer bonds much better to it.

New Mainsail: Our laminate sails we bought in 2012 were superb, but laminate sails don’t last forever and as we closed in on New Zealand the mainsail finally began to fail, so we bought a new heavy duty main from Calibre sails. We are back to our original Yankee that came with the boat, which is still in excellent condition but has been in a bag on a bunk for the last 10 years since we had bought a laminate yankee as well which finally fell apart in the South Pacific!

New Tru-Design through hulls: Ocean Blue has over 20 through hull fittings. Two are special ones incorporating the fridge and freezer cooling, one we replaced a few years back and the other one we just replaced. The rest are standard fittings that although were not showing signs of failure, had been installed for many years so time to replace them. Now we can rest assured that they won’t fail for many years.

Mast and Boom repaint: This we were not anticipating doing, but since the mast was down (and a friend had just had theirs painted and it looked lovely and shiny), we negotiated a good deal to have ours done too. It looks a million dollars and much of the cost is unstepping it and re stepping it so it made a lot of sense.

Replacement Cockpit Cushions: These get a lot of wear as they are in use every day. The UV had also taken a bit of a toll on them so we took the opportunity to replace them with fancy foam that does not absorb water, so if they do get wet they dry very fast.

Replacement Depth / Speed Transducer: The old one was getting stiff to remove so as a precaution we put a new one in whilst the boat was out of the water.

Repairs to the wrap: Ocean Blue has a vinyl wrap (since its a blue hull and blue hulls require so much polishing over time to stay shiny and not look faded). We had her wrapped in the USA a few years ago and its brilliant – virtually zero maintenance, but over time it can get scuffed by the dinghy or mucky fenders, anchor chain etc. Luckily we knew the exact wrap specification and the local ‘wrap man’ came and put some new pieces on. Amazingly unless you look very closely you can’t even see the patches – the colour match is excellent and now she looks very smart again.

Replacement integrated AIS / VHF: We bought one of the new Vesper (Garmin now) Cortex units which is amazing. It integrates with all the boat navigation equipment, has a fantastic built in anchor alarm, big colour wireless displays and a mobile and remote app allowing you to monitor the boat systems from anywhere in the world!

Spinnaker Pole Cover: Our carbon fibre spinnaker pole lives on the front of the mast but the cover had suffered from UV damage so needed replacing.

New TV / Monitor: Since we do a lot of work still from onboard, we upgraded the TV / Monitor to the latest high resolution internet connected device.

Starlink: What a game changer – this allows us to get fast internet andywhere in the world. If we want to we will be able to stream movies from the middle of the Ocean! More practical though, we can get weather and keep up to date with work wherever we are.

New gas bottles: Most gas bottles are steel and they rust over time. Not too much of a problem in Europe where you generally exchange them, but once you get into the Pacific, you refill your existing ones (often yourself by syphoning liquid gas from one to another!) and ours were getting old, so we took the opportunity to buy two new Aluminium cylinders that will last us many years.

New Dive Compressor Motor: Ours was getting a bit noisy and temperamental to start. We don’t want to miss out on the amazing diving in Tonga and Fiji, so a new motor should ensure we can fill our tanks whenever we want.

New Cutlass Bearings and prop seal: Cutlass bearings support the propellor shaft and the seal keeps the water out where the propellor shaft enters the hull. They were all quite old so again a good opportunity to update them.

The job list is finally complete (or as complete as it ever will be with a boat), we booked the hoist and had Ocean Blue put back in the water. That moment when the boat floats, you step aboard, start up the engine and cast off to the marina berth for the first night back on board is always a tense one. Will the engine start? Will anything leak? Can we remember how to drive the boat? We had briefly started the engine the day before on the hard (at the request of the yard), so knew it should start. Our engine has been amazing, after 18 months sitting idle, it kicked into life immediately on the hard so we were confident it would start.

It did, instantly as expected, but something didn’t sound right. With the loud din of the tractor that put us back in the water overpowering the unexpected rattle we heard it was difficult to pinpoint, then after 30 seconds or so all returned to normal. We motored across to our berth with no issues, started up the fridge and freezer and put the wine in the fridge to cool. No leaks from any through hulls so all seemed good. It wasn’t until the day after, when we went to start the engine for some extended pre-departure testing that we found that nothing happened when we turned the key. It transpires that the rattle we heard on launching was the starter motor not disengaging correctly and promptly destroying itself. I guess 21 years isn’t bad for a starter motor, and the local stockists can get one in within 24 hours, so not too big an issue. Other than that, everything seems to work so all good. When the wind drops a bit we can get the new mainsail on and prepare to leave for Tonga – the next chapter in the adventure.

As this was my first trip across the ocean I did not know what to expect or how easy or difficult it would be to keep us all sustained for the 15-20 days at sea. And of course this was the first issue, just how many days to provision for?

The galley on Ocean Blue is compact compared to most houses but for a yacht it is a good size with a front opening fridge and a top opening freezer.

It is good that you are able to open the fridge easily on either tack and that the contents don’t come out to greet you as you open the door. I invested in some clear plastic drawers to make storage and selection easier e.g. One contains cheese another cold meats etc so for lunch you could just grab one and some wraps or pitta bread and put it on the table for everyone to help themselves.

The ARC had a list of supermarkets and many of them delivered your shopping to the dockside. They also provide contacts and ordering forms for a butcher and fruit/vegetable shops. If I was doing the passage again I would not order the fruit and veg from the recommended supplier. We had anywhere from one and a quarter to three times the quantities (and cost) we ordered of every item and it was of poor quality compared to the supermarkets. We did negotiate a discount but they were not interested in taking the produce back. Consequently we had to throw overboard a lot of the fruit as it was already ripe before we left.

We did a reconnaissance visit to the Court Anglais to see what was on offer. This had a very good selection but I didn’t find anyone to discuss the delivery options with. The market had a a great selection of fresh fruit, veg, cheeses, eggs and meats. I took the opportunity to get some meat at this stage as I wanted to test the quality and start some preparation. It was a very good quality and I would recommend J P Rosper butchers in the market. I personally liked the Hiperdino supermarket which was very well organised for deliveries to the boat and had a good selection.

I started on food prep for the Atlantic whilst we were in the marina in Las Palmas. Definitely a good option to pre cook and freeze meals ready for the journey. All the mince dishes were pre prepared. E.g. lasagne, chilli and cottage pie.

Bags of flour and dried ingredients for bread were weighed out ready for the bread maker.

Different flavoured butters in anticipation of Derek catching fish enroute.

I was starting to feel like a domestic goddess in the kitchen, however it could go horribly wrong in a Bridget Jones sort of way! My children and friends can attest to my usual lack of skill and flair in the kitchen due mostly to a lack of time it now seems.

I planned the menus to alternate between beef, chicken, pork and pasta dishes and then calculated the quantities of the ingredients needed. The ARC information book and seminars were helpful and suggested 125g of meat per person and this was about right. We also found we ate less as the temperature increased.

When we were able to, we prepared fresh meals as this also helped to fill our time on board and provided more variety.

Pre cooking definitely meant I didn’t feel like my life was spent in the galley and everyone could get a meal ready even if they couldn’t cook.

With hindsight the richer casserole meals were great but not what we fancied in hot weather. We only caught a Wahoo, and that was cooked and eaten straight away. You can’t rely on fish as we were fishing most days and only caught the one fish. You also need to consider what you would do if the fridge and freezer decided to stop working and the contents are no longer edible. We bought a Serrano ham and stand to store it on.

This was a high initial expense but we continued to use it well after the ocean passage had finished and considered it a fantastic and fun investment. Together with pasta and tinned veg we would not have starved.

When we got to Antigua our fridge did stop working and needed re gassing. This was over the Christmas period when it was fully loaded and no one was working. We were lucky and could transfer the contents to a fridge in a villa that we had access to.

We were also able to get lots of ice and prioritise the produce that we needed to use regularly!

Since we have owned the boat, the autohelm has given us a few headaches. Not because of any deficiency in the autohelm itself, but more to do with the installation of it.

The first issue we had with it was in 2013. The hydraulic pump failed when we were on route to Brittany. The positioning of the pump meant that stray salt water that got into the lazarette corroded the pump and eventually it took its toll. A new pump, shipped out to Benodet fixed the issue.

The ends of the hydraulic pipes connecting the pump to the ram are mild steel, and that again does not mix well with salt water, so after several years of soaking in salt water, as we tested the new pump and deliberately loaded up the system to check for leaks, we blew a pipe! Luckily we found a hydraulic pipe supplier just half an hour’s cycle ride from Benodet and we were back in business.

However as we tested it we discovered the unsettling fact that as the autohelm steered the boat, the entire lazarette floor moved from side to side! On investigation it transpired that although the boat was built with webs moulded into the hull for the ram, whoever had installed the ram had bolted it to the plywood floor rather than the mounts! Whilst the ram was mounted very securely to the plywood floor, the plywood floor was only held in place by a few lightweight screws. We fixed this by manufacturing a stainless bracket and mounting this directly to the webs on the hull. A permanent rigid solution with the added bonus that the floor can now be lifted to examine the autohelm without disturbing it.

In 2015 as we headed out across the channel the actuator on a solenoid valve failed on the ram. A quick easy fix once we obtained the parts, but of course obtaining parts when cruising is not always easy or quick. Luckily we had visitors flying out and they were able to bring a replacement with them. We started what has become a trend for us at that time – we bought two activators so we now have a spare!

Which leads us to the failure in Biscay. The ram is attached via a rose joint to a pin on the quadrant. When new the pin is no doubt a tight fit in the hole and remains perpendicular (well almost) to the thrust of the ram, so there is little if no tendency for the rose joint to work its way up the pin. Despite this, why the manufacturers decided to prevent the rose joint being able to come off the pin with a split pin less than 1.5mm diameter I cannot understand, but what we do know, is that after many thousand miles the pin had worked its way a little loose in the hole, so it could tilt over a little and the repeated forces on the ram had pushed the rose joint up the pin shearing the split pin allowing the rose joint to work its way off the top of the pin.

We decided to take a belt an braces approach to fixing this which basically involved a new pin that fitted the hole, with a plate on top bolted down so it couldn’t be lifted and a much more beefy split pin for good measure. It may be overkill but it certainly shouldn’t fail again!