By Tom – We learned a lot from last year. Things we can do without and things that we need as well as
items we need to replace. Before we took off on our trip our Ontario sailing consisted of mainly racing
and weekends out with friends. Totally different types of sailing than cruising, so it’s been a
learning curve. We thought we were prepared, which we pretty much were, but the luxury things
you take for granted we didn’t have. When racing you always say, “Can’t put that on the boat, too much weight”. Now we have to remind ourselves that we aren’t racing anymore weight is okay is little luxuries are better than okay.
Most items we want to get will make cruising life more like being at home. A water maker so we
don’t have to ration water. The the thought of taking a shower without only being able to get slightly “damp: before having to turn the water off so that you can shampoo then turn the
water back on again briefly so that you can do a quick rinse off will be a joy. I forgot to mention filling that in order to get warm water for the shower we have to fill up the coffee pot and the dish washing bowl with the water until it becomes hot enough for your shower. Good times. We also want a TV so we can watch on a bigger screen other than my iPad or a 7 inch DVD player. We wanted to get more anchor chain. The last time we even thought about anchoring in the Great Lakes was on a race and the wind died and the current was pushing us further from the finish line. Anchoring in the Bahamas is definitely different than anchoring in the Great Lakes. We dragged once last year in the middle of the night and it’s not a pleasant
feeling. We decided that our anchor was sufficient in size being a 30kg Lewmar. Plus it’s stainless steel and looks great. Jackie calls it “Boat Jewellery”. The decision was made to up grade to 200 feet of 5/16 HT
chain. The 50 feet that we presently have will be used for our secondary Danforth anchor. I checked all over the place and Defender was by far the cheapest, but I would have to pay for shipping. I decided to check Westmarine and see if they actually did price match. To my surprise they not only priced matched but also price matched the boat show special that
Defender had the chain listed at. That saved a few bucks and the Westmarine in Florida is only a couple miles from where we are storing our boat for the summer so it’s easy logistically.
We also wanted a pure sine wave inverter to replace our older inverter that last year fried the Admirals MacBook Air, now mine. That was an expensive mistake on my part as I had to replace the computer for her. Her Mac started doing some weird things such as only “speaking” in Greek characters so that’s why it needed to be replaced. From then on we spent a lot of time in bars and restaurants charging the admirals new computer. Not a bad thing but probably more expensive than the inverter we bought, so now I don’t have to start drinking early unless I want to. We looked at several inverters and settled on the True wave promariner 2000 watt. Again Westmarine price matched and the Inverter is sitting in their store waiting for pick up
along with the chain. On a cheerful note, after not using the old Mac book for a period of time and plugging it in when we got home it started to work normally again. So I now have a computer and the Admiral is happy with her new one.
If anyone followed our blogs from last year you will know we had holding tank issues and we had to replace all of the hoses etc. Even after all of this we could still smell the odour from the tank. We flushed with fresh water so it’s not the head it’s the holding tank. I verified that after tearing the aft starboard cabin apart and discovered a tiny crack in the air vent. Well the tank is 28 years old so a new one probably is in order. Admiral says “get it fixed” so I have ordered another tank from Catalina and we will be picking that up when we return to the boat in November plus we get to see the Catalina factory. Replacing the old one should not be as shitty of a job as replacing all the hoses, I hope.
In 2017 while we were doing the LOHRS 300 nautical mile race on Lake Ontario something happened to our Balmar alternator and by the time I noticed that our batteries where not getting charged we ran them down to dead. When we got back to the dock I took them back to Crown battery and they brought them back to life. I should have replaced them at that point but they where only a couple years old and I thought I could milk them for a couple more years. When we were in the Bahamas the batteries where working but the 435 amp hours we had when they were new just weren’t there so we spent a lot of time charging so the batteries and amp hours needed to be up graded significantly. I spent a lot of time researching and asking questions on the Catalina 42 web forum and after gathering information from a lot of full time cruisers decided on doubling my amp hours to just shy of 840, which will give us 400 usable amps. ( I have to find a different location to place the batteries and will up date that later) I was going to go with the Trojan 6 volt L16s but when I contacted the dealer he told me he thought that the US battery was as good if not better and they where cheaper. Saving a few bucks is something that I like so I figured I would give them a shot.
Now we presently have 400 watts of semi flexible solar panels on the Bimini but they just don’t seem to be giving me what I was hoping for in amps but I’m going to try and reposition and next year put more panels on and possibly due away with the flexible. More research and design needs to happen first.
We have a lot of work to do on the boat once we get there. Get her in the water then we want to start heading south to Key Biscayne so we can cross. Of course we will be provisioning first before we cast off, and picking up chain, inverter, wire and batteries first. A lot of work ahead of me but it some how doesn’t feel like work in the heat.
Oh yes I forgot to mention that we are going to attempt to do some you tube videos so our kids and grand kids can see what we are doing. Perhaps they will watch those because they didn’t read the blogs. Our Grand daughter would check in on our progress after school on the Garmen InReach app but that was it.
Installation of Aquired Items
The chain was a good 250lbs. Had to use a fork lift to get it into the back of the rented van. Once at the marina I was able to back it in very close to the boat. I rolled the chain to the bow of the boat and opened the barrel. Up onto the bow I go and throw a rope down and start hauling up the chain. Once it was in the chain locker I figured I better hook the anchor to it and secure the bitter end so I don’t forget.
So, as with everything in life you plan and execute and hope that everything works. The part of planning when you are 2000 miles away from your boat makes it difficult. I had gotten measurements for the batteries when I was at home and decided that I would make plywood cases for them. I gathered and cut wood and put the pieces in my suitcase with the intention of assembling the boxes when I got to Florida. First problem was that only 2 of the batteries would fit into the bilge area not the 4 I had hoped for. Short space by about 2 inches. Plan again. Oh did I forget to mention it was 90 degrees and humid in Florida and more sweat was pouring from my pours than I had liquid in my body and we don’t have air conditioning on the boat. This made the work harder and not very fun. Put the new batteries into the old battery area under the port bunk but now the bunk wouldn’t work because the batteries sat way too high. We left the marina and headed south in the hope of finding a break from the humidity so that we could figure this out. We really needed to have that bed usable. Travelled a day south from Fort Pierce down the Intracoastal waterway to Loggerhead Marina. No break from the humidity but the admiral
was much happier here and the showers and lounge are beautiful and air conditioned. So back to the planning. Well I can fit 2 batteries into the bilge and I have room to put 2 in the starboard rear lazerette. Planned now let’s execute. Okay put the plywood battery boxes together. Perfect. Ready the bilge, place two battery boxes in the bilge, secure them, now the
batteries. Almost a perfect fit with 1/4 inch air space all around. The batteries had yellow rope tied onto them for lifting and this changed the top measurements slightly but they went in. The rear batteries I had to build a platform for them to sit on. Not a big deal just time consuming and cramped working space but the humidity helped because I was almost slippery. Okay batteries in now time to run the battery cables. Back to West Marine for 2/0 battery cables since the rear lazzertte wasn’t in the first plan. Again they price matched.
Back to the boat run the cables, secure the batteries, fingers crossed it works and I don’t have to deal with that anymore. The inverter I will leave until we hit the Bahamas. Time to get moving again. Leave the marina and travel another 5 miles
south and we arrive at Lakeworth and drop anchor. Double check that I connected the new chain – yup we are good to go. Set the anchor and looks like tomorrow is perfect for crossing. Decided against going to Key Biscayne because we wanted to avoid as much humidity as possible and our weather window was looking good for the next couple days.
5 am let’s grab a little more sleep. 630am let’s go. We lift anchor and head out the inlet. I noticed the chart plotter had the little boat icon head north so something isn’t right. Into a 4 foot swell now so no turning back. Perhaps the auto pilot will correct itself. Hand steer for now, wind in the correct position, sails up, and hand steer for awhile longer. Okay let’s try the autopilot. My heading is 115, the course on the autopilot is holding steady at 15 degrees so I thought perhaps it will just hold this. Nope an immediate turn to 15 degrees. Hand steer again. After another hour the autopilot looks perfect. Has it corrected itself? Turn it on set the course it’s holding perfect. Wind now has clocked around to about 10 degrees off the nose. Motoring now so can’t correct for the wind because we are almost in the Gulf Stream and turning south for the wind means no speed over the ground, turning north pushes us to far north. Suck it up and listen to the sails flop. Two hours to West End and the wind has switched again making for a nice last 15 miles and hitting 7 knots now and quit for the first time this trip. Engine shut off making for a nice finish. Drop the sails, engine on for the motor into the West End marina. Look the auto pilot has decided to go on holidays again. In and dock and Bahamian customs closes at 5 but they agreed to stay to clear us. Looks like our luck is changing.
Okay so it’s time for the new inverter. Move everything out of the lazerette so I could climb in and get to work. The old inverter came out with no problems and the installation of the new one was easy and I changed its location higher up inside the lazerette so it wouldn’t get splashed. What to do with the old one now. Okay I will take it to Georgetown and see if a cruiser there wants it’s and I was right. Mentioned it the first day on the cruisers net and had a new home for it.