Narama's Voyage - the Book!

If you have enjoyed following Narama’s Voyage on our blog, we have put together a book! 

Have a look at the Blurb website where you can look at the book and order one if you like.

http://www.blurb.com/b/4070485-narama-s-voyage

This book was not professionally editted, but we did have fun putting it together.  Enjoy!

Our Boat

For those that have not physically joined us on this voyage, here are the nuts and bolts of our boat.

Designed by Peter Joubert and built by Baker yachts in 1971, she is one of about 25 Brolgas built. 10.16m (33’4”) long, 3.1m beam and 2.1m draught. The latter has been a little deep on occasion for cruising but with half the 11,000 lb displacement in the keel, it’s reassuring in heavy weather.  Being built in the early days of GRP, she is solid, with 7 full or partial bulk heads and forward of amidships has ribs every foot.

A windex and VHF aerial top the mast.  We have a slightly shorter single spreader rig compared to the double spreader rig on most Brolgas. Being an old race boat,  the suite of sails is more than necessary for cruising and we could have easily gone without the #1, 3 jib and a spinnaker. However we have used them all so the list is: Mainsail, trysail on its own track, #1 and #2 jib that fit the furler, #3, #4 and storm jib that hank on a removable solent stay that we tie back for enclosed water sailing or we can’t tack the jib without furling.  Otherwise we leave the #4 hanked on and the storm jib can be attached above it if required. Finally, 2 spinnakers and a blooper. With just the two of us sailing we have found the blooper the handiest light wind sail when used like and asymmetrical spinnaker, as it is easy to set and douse with-out a pole.  For stronger down wind sailing we do have 2 poles, with fore and aft preventers and topping lifts on these poles and the sheets, it becomes quite the cats cradle in the cockpit. Both storm sails have their own sheets that remain on the sails. Self tailing winches never made it to the top of the wish list, but the 8 cockpit winches with cleats and jammers have worked perfectly

The main anchor is a 35lb Delta on 80m of 5/16” chain and that runs over a manual windlass. This is great for simplicity, exercise and saves having to start the engine to sail on and off the anchor. The anchor well drains overboard, a nice alteration we made and we have to flake the chain if more than 30m is out.  A sealable dorade over the forward end of the vee berth and small hatch over its aft end provide good ventilation.  The large fore hatch is kept locked down at sea except in calm conditions and two dorades over the main cabin can be left open for ventilation in all but gale conditions. At anchor in hot weather the wind scoop forcing air down the aft facing fore hatch is our best friend.

The dodger and side curtains on the life rails around the cockpit keep the majority of spray out except in heavy weather and also give a little privacy for using the solar shower in the cockpit.

The life-raft sits on deck under the boom which rather blocks some of the view, we opted for this rather than a valise packed raft taking up more room below.  We have a tiller for steering which can also be connected to an Autohelm 2000 tiller pilot when motoring or the manual Flemming self steering gear (our most important crew member). This has been very reliable and easy to use.  It also swings up out of the water very easily when not in use and his name is Earnest because that’s how he works.

Above Earnest, a radar/solar panel framework holds a 62W and 105W panels.  These go through separate regulators to the single start and house battery respectively. In NZ we upgraded from a 42/62W combination which has given us a lot more power freedom as we hate and rarely do run the engine to charge, preferring to be frugal with power consumption. For charging cameras and computers we have a small 150W inverter that plugs in so we have no fixed AC systems to worry about.

Diving below decks the anchor locker can be accessed through a watertight hatch. Aft of that the vee berth with clothe storage racks above is just long and wide enough for the two us. The pile of paraphernalia under that bunk has never been reduced. Next section aft is a sail locker (always crammed) and head. You can’t stand up in the head, but on a boat that’s a good thing as peeing into a small bowl from a distance is a bad idea. Curtains divide all these areas, so our friends and family who join us have to be pretty down to earth people.  The “saloon” area makes use of every nook and cranny for storage with the galley running down the starboard side and a settee that drops to a double bunk on the port. The double seats of the settee face each other with our GPS radar and SSB receiver between and current charts stored under the table top which is also our chart table when underway.

At the forward end of the settee the mast sits on a large girder that wraps up to the chainplates.  There is a hanging locker to port and to starboard is a diesel heater and oil lamp that keeps the chill off cool evenings.

Our stove is a Swedish Origo non-pressurized alcohol stove that is simple, safe and effective to use. Obtaining fuel has sometimes led us on interesting searches, but only once have we had to resort to our camping stove when in Mexico.  The price of denatured alcohol has also fluctuated so baking bread in our stove top oven has not always been as economical as we’d have liked.  The gimbled stove is housed in a stainless steel cooking area which keeps spills and heat well contained. We did raise the height of the custom pot holders to hold the pressure cooker more firmly given its regular use.  The sink with its wide draining board is a gem and a hand pump for water helps with water conservation.  We have three water tanks, 2 internal keel tanks and a flexible tank for a total of 240L.  For extended periods away from water sources we have another 60+L capacity in jerry cans. Splitting up water like this is good for quantity control and contamination issues should they arise.

Lockers fill the port side of the settee area and under the galley bench that runs the length of the saloon area. High in the bilge under the table is fresh food storage as we rarely use the fridge at sea (not making the power to run it continuously).

Tankage for diesel is likewise split with the majority in a stainless tank and the remainder in a flexible tank. This gives about 150L useable fuel. Add 30L in jerry cans and we have a range of about 500nm.

Around the bilge are 2 more anchors and chain. That added to our main anchor and stern anchor with chain and rode in the cockpit, gives us more ground tackle than I hope we’ll ever use.  That said, we’ve had up to 3 set out on one occasion. We do carry a 15’ parachute sea anchor as well and have had the dubious pleasure of using it once a 1000nm east of NZ.

The port quarter berth is a long wide berth and is our sea berth that we hot bunk in. The starboard quarterberth is a bit more of a squeeze and is our “spare room” for storing stuff. Between the galley and the stb quarterberth are 3 big drawers that are bolted locked at sea. Great storage and above is a switch panel, VHF and AM/FM radios.

Our dinghy is a 9ft inflatable Avon Redcrest with a soft bottom and no outboard. It rows very well and carries 4 adults easily.  We have accepted a lift a few times over the years to reach a distant objective, but have no intention on changing. It rolls up and stows easily, we have no fuel worries and enjoy the exercise.

So that is our great little ship Narama in a nutshell.

Cruising Expenses

Nearly 3 years have passed since we left on this “voyage” and we are occasionally queried as to where the money comes from.  Especially since are not yet retired and living on a pension.  The reality is that it’s not that expensive….. if you’re careful.

 As we keep a close tally on expenses, here’s a summary as to where the money has gone in terms of cruising. To set the scene though; we have a smaller and simpler than average boat, our raison d’être is wildlife and we don’t mean the bar type and we enjoy exercise (no outboard on the dinghy). In the last 32 months we have cruised from Canada to New Zealand, returned to work for 5 months and spent the last 5 months in New Zealand mostly off the boat. The chart below breaks down the expenses for the cruising time only.

 We have met folks who cruise for much less and many for much more. We have gone over our planned budget, but have considered it all well spent as some places we may not get back too (Galapagos in particular).  There are several ways some can reduce their budget. Insurance, both boat and medical being big items. We always buy medical insurance. We buy boat insurance where required by local law and then we go for comprehensive.  If we could rid ourselves of stuff kept ashore this would save us in storage expenses. The fuel expense also covers stove fuel (denatured alcohol) which has been expensive in the pacific.  Marina time is a splurge for us, but nice to wash things down and handy when friends come to stay. We rarely use our fridge and as such eat few animal products, with beans and lentils being consumed a lot.  That said, we do enjoy a beer and steak once and a while.  Boat costs are unlikely to go down, especially with a 42 year-old boat.  In fact with the new paint job in NZ (well overdue) and some rigging replacement (after 25.000nm) the average expenditure there will likely go up.  As this is a comprehensive total, the miscellaneous section includes a computer and camera that have been replaced on route.

 It will soon be time to return to work to refund the cruising kitty, but we have found it possible to travel and enjoy ourselves for just over $1700 a month all inclusive.  Breaking that down, we have had nearly three years cruising for the price of a reasonably fancy new vehicle or a hefty down payment.  If that sacrifice means living aboard another few years, we’ll accept that.

Shipyard: Heidi’s favourite part of boating!

After 15 years, the topside paint (sides of the boat above the water) was looking very tired, so we decided to paint her while here in New Zealand.  After a bit of to-and-fro we decided with International’s two-part polyurethane system.  With the condition of our paint before we started we had to sand it right back to gelcoat in most places first and then start with an epoxy primer.  After two coats of the primer, we painted two undercoats and then two final coats; it meant sanding the entire boat 5 times and painting it six times.  With the usual boatyard full of opinions on how to, when to and what to paint with, we think we had the tools sorted by the last coat and the technique of rolling and tipping nearly figured out.  All would have been perfect(or as close to perfect as we managed) had a 20-second shower not speckled our port side on the final coat.  With another week of rain forecast, we have left the dots as a reminder of New Zealand.  From 30 feet away we’ve had lots of admirers and if you discount the odd run and sag even the pro’s were a little surprised with our final result.  In the end it was worth the arm workout and tensions. 

The steering gear also came off and had a complete polish and service, we replaced our rudder bearings and now after nearly 3 weeks, we’re glad to be floating again.  Women are scarce in a shipyard, so I consider myself lucky to have Heidi working beside me, but that’s how we met in the first place!

Life at Sea

25 days at sea without sight of land might seem like an awfully long time, but it depends on your perspective. Our longest passage took 31 days in 2004 from New Zealand to Tahiti and honestly a couple days doesn’t make much difference – we are still really happy to see land! Our isolation on Narama is even more profound as we have very limited communication onboard. Our VHF Radio rarely gets turned on, unless we can actually see another ship or sailboat as its range is limited. We have an SSB receiver which lets us get weather forecasts via either a voice recording or we can plug the audio into the laptop and some lovely software turns a bunch of clicks and beeps into a weather fax image. Our SSB also lets us listen to Radio Australia from Suva and to the “Radio Nets” that other yachties often use to chat and relay weather and positions. Out little unit does not allow us to transmit, so we are really just lurking on the sidelines and not participating in these nets. While listening we learned that nearly everyone has a pet name for their autopilot. Our windvane is “Ernest” and he steers the boat 95% of the time on passage. Our electric autopilot is “Parson Brown” and gets put to work whenever we are motoring.


We found that having a routine helped to make the days go by faster. The first four days or so every moment off watch is spent napping, then it seems our body gets used to the schedule and doesn’t need as much sleep. So what do we do with our time? Well of course there’s the actual sailing of the boat. You have to keep an eye on Ernest since he steers by the direction of the wind, if the wind swings, so do we. But a casual glance at the compass and a quick scan of the horizon for traffic every few minutes is really the required watch activity. Add to that the occasional sail and vane adjustments and there’s still time to read a book or cook a meal. We also keep a rather detailed “logbook” which really reads more like a ship’s journal. We note the weather, our speed and direction in a table every four hours as well as our noon position and a few other important stats. Otherwise we often note all sorts of very “unofficial” details: wildlife: whales and birds and even flying fish (especially if they land on deck), the moon, stars, general mood of the crew and and what we eat, etc. It’s often quite interesting to start a watch and read what the other has written, especially if there’s been serious star-gazing and philosophizing.

Other shipboard routines include our daily happy hour drink. Conditions have to be pretty rough for us to go without it, sometimes it’s just a glass of juice, usually it involves brandy. We also have a daily “bucket bridage” on the foredeck. There’s not enough fresh water storage on Narama for us to have showers, so every morning (usually at the 10 AM watch change) we head to the foredeck with a bottle of shampoo and a bucket. In this hot tropical climate it is very pleasing to tip buckets of sea water on each other’s head. We then get a couple of cups of fresh water to rinse off a bit of the salt and this keeps us from going “feral”.

Aside from all this, reading is probably the most common activity (next to sleeping). Our most common conversation topic is definitely the weather, followed by the boat itself. Life at sea isn’t too bad really, it’s just tedious when the seas are rough and you can’t use two hands to do anything (one is holding on!).

A few quotes from our logbook:

April 14: “We’re now bouncing along under 3 reefs and a little bit of jib. I’m guessing that the large convection cells and wind against tide are keeping the seas rough.”

April 17: “Happy hour and full moon rise as sun set. Seas slowly easing and we’re making just over 4 knots.”

April 26: “Dreary drizzle, dolphins diving with dashing dexterity in the dark depths, drawing dazzling designs with diamonds.”

April 27: “One of those nights when staying awake seems impossible. Walk from the cockpit to the galley and back again, over and over. Eat a piece of chocolate and still my head wants to lie on any surface available. Meanwhile Stevo snores like a trooper and makes me insanely jealous!”


We caught a Tuna!

Victualling

“The Victualling Board was responsible for the purchase, preservation and distribution to ships of all naval victuals………This wide responsibility opened the way, …….to wide spread peculation and dishonesty,……..Complaints from the captains of ships to the victualling commissioners were frequent and virulent, but rarely produced any improvement. ‘In the case of pork,’ ran a typical complaint, ‘the cheeks, ears feet and other offal of the hog were thrown in as part of the men’s allowance….’”(exert from Oxford Companion to Ships and The Sea).

With improved food preservation today, it is easy to victual for several months. But why that long? Well, we are not sure of price and availability in the Galapagos and French Polynesia is expensive. Add to our time in remote islands a couple of months at sea and it becomes apparent why we just lost another inch of our waterline. We decided to purchase our non perishable stores in La Cruz (Banderas Bay nr Puerto Vallarta) after hearing the dinghy dock in Manzanillo might like to charge us $10/day. So we spent the money on a couple of nights at the Marina in La Cruz to load up. A nice change to what has been a rolly anchorage. Have also loaded on fuel as hearsay says the fuel dock in Barra de Navidad was ripped off (rumour control is that a larger vessel forgot to untie) and that the diesel in Manzanillo is bad. Finally we took advantage of being alongside and had the lady from the local tienda bring down 8 garafones of potable water (19L each) that we poured into the tanks. So with all our jerry cans full we have 300L aboard along with the 100plus cans, 20kg flour, 10kg oats etc…. she feels a little heavy. It took us the better part of a day to fill every little corner of the boat and we have yet to start on fresh stores! If the full list fascinates you we’d be happy to send it.

Preparations

When you think you are almost there, something always pops up.  Like all of us who are ageing, we need a little more TLC as time goes by.  Narama soon to hit the big 40 years is no exception.  In fact it was during that TLC we were giving her that I found the hairline crack in the baby stay fitting.  Until the stainless steel was nicely polished the crack was invisible. In the photo I have widened it with a little leverage, not something I should have been able to do by hand.  So what would have happened had I not seen it and it broke at sea?  Well at best we would see it go and re-secure it in some fashion after reducing sail quickly.  At worst I guess we could lose the mast if we were really pounding or sailing hard.  Moral of the story is there is more to brasso than vanity! Any way, I am off to the welders.

Water Works



Baja is dry! In fact in 7 months we've only seen a few drops of rain! We ponder how the austere looking big horn sheep copes and have marvelled at the myriad of cactii that thrive here. But what about us? As we don't have a water maker, we liken the boat to a camel, some friends term it "camping", we call it home. On the longer 2- 3 week jumps away from the supply of liquid gold, we have to be careful. Especially when there is more than two of us aboard, but we can live quite happily on 50L/person/week. So what do you get for that? ...... you get: a daily fresh water rinse under the solar shower; to do dishes in a bucket of salt water (mexican dish soap handles this well) and rinse with some fresh; exercise from using the hand pump as we don't have a pressurized system (that can be vulnerable to leaks and requires electricity); as much drinking and cooking water as you need and finally to wash clothes in salt water with a little rinse in fresh, but then, we aren't wearing to many layers these days and most washing waits till we are closer to a supply. For sea passages we cut the showers to a sponge down and cook with a little more seawater. This then lasts about 5 weeks for the two of us at 5L/person/day. Keep in mind the head (toilet) uses salt water and we get to swim at least once a day when anchoring.

Where do we get water? In La Paz the highly chlorinated water available at the marina must have cleaned us and our tanks nicely, in San Everisto there was a desalination plant for the village where we had our jerry cans fillled, in Puerto Escondido they had sweet spring water from the mountain range that rises abruptly behind it, and then on three occasions we have been genourously given a jerry can or two from cruisers with watermakers that enabled us to stay out a few extra days. All small towns will have a purifacador, "the local government subsidised watering hole" who will fill your jerry cans with reverse osmosis treated water and whose facilities are always spotless. 10 – 15 pesos gets you 20L. (about $1CAD). Or as in Guaymas and San Felipe, you call a water truck and lug the 20L containers up and down the dock to fill 300 odd L if we are empty.

So thats how water works here, we do enjoy the odd day at a marina to rinse the layers of salt that accumulates after spray dries and sticks over the weeks of sailing. Recently we arrived in Santa Rosalia on the day the water came back after a 3 day drought for the entire city.... apparantly due to internal politics, the city had not paid the water bill.....where did the money go is the question...??
So next time you turn on that tap..... be thankful :).

Summer Heat

 What did we learn from leaving a boat baking in 40̊ plus temperatures?  In short - it gets hot; “dammed hot”, hot enough to fry a 12V battery by drying it out (we left one solar panel on each battery which was too much even though I overfilled them); to turn sun drenched plastics brown even though they were stored inside; to crack melamine and wood due to expansion contraction differences(we left 3 large buckets of bleached water  in the boat and they were all dry); to fade uncovered teak remarkably compared to covered teak and rubber bands to disintegrate. While living aboard in the yard the 35 plus temperatures inside the boat in the evenings as the heat radiated upward from the hull was a little “uncomfortable”.  The weevils however seemed to thrive on the heat munching through our bulk chick peas and pinto beans. We had eaten most of the rest of the food and left no tins aboard.  Otherwise the boat was as we left her, just with a few extra layers of dust.  The water pressure in the yard being non existent, we left the big clean up until our one day in a marina and used some of the precious town water to give her a proper rinsing.  The dusty yard and helpful crew at Marina Seca Guaymas were great and we’d go back.  The water truck comes around regularly as do other bootlegging services.  It was a 5 peso ride into town on a regular collectivo (the local public transport) and a good variety of supplies and services at hand except alcohol for our stove……we might be breaking out the camping stove shortly. The only warnings for the marina are depth. We draw 6’8” and touched on a 0.6m tide and 0.9m tide on the way out so we now sport some nice scratches in the new antifoul.  You may want to ask or find some carpet or plastic to protect the hull from the slings, they have not quite got that figured out yet. So we also have a few topside scratches which they did offer to polish.  Otherwise it is a place to easily come and go from with some liveaboards who can take the summer heat

Notes on Fuel Consumption (and Our Whale Watching Habits)

We are not total purists, but we do try to sail from anchorage to anchorage where possible. However we sometimes enjoy those flat calm days as it makes for excellent marine mammal spotting. Sometimes this wildlife spotting has a tendency to bite us. Take the day near Coronados we spotted pilot, fin, humpback, and blue whales, plus bottlenose and common dolphins. It was flat calm and so the engine was on and we were meant to be jumping 20 miles north before a forecast strong norther. It was handy to use the engine to find them, but also handy later in the day to motor sail with 2 reefs into what became an exciting 6 foot chop before we bore off to our destination late in the afternoon.


We have a Yanmar 3GM30 27 Horsepower. I think we could have got away with the 2GM as we replaced a Volvo MD2 16HP when we bought the boat 7 years ago. But in times like we've had it's been nice to have the extra push. On the other hand, maybe we would be less pig headed and turn to run with the wind to seek shelter.

At 5 knots our range is about 450nm with all tanks filled. That’s one large stainless tank of 135L, a flexible tank of 45L and a couple of jerry cans. If it is flat water we could eke out another 50nm but as we have learnt, a good heel on starboard tack puts a nice airlock in the system making the last 35L in the tank fairly useless due to poor tank design. When we learnt this lesson after a great day of tacking up Johnstone Strait, we fortunately only needed the one minute it took to run the fuel pipes dry and coasted the remainder of the way into the anchorage.

To get fuel from the flexible tank to the main tank is done by a hand pump. In a rough sea, this is a rather nauseating process as the diesel fumes fill the cabin. Fortunately this is a rare need and has only twice been required on long passages.

Since leaving Alert Bay in July 2009 and arriving in Guaymas, we've put 472 hours on the engine. We don't use it to charge batteries or make water and sail as much as we can, with < 2kns of speed in a rolly sea being our usual patience level for starting the engine. The shocking truth is that the engine has been on for close to half of our distance travelled, nearly 4000nm. Much of this would be motor sailing but it still surprised us.

If we call ourselves eco friendly, then buying 1000L of diesel a year had better be worth it. For all the hours simply spent looking at wildlife, we can only hope that the sighting reports we send in to Whaleforce (www.ceinst.org) , or photos and sound recordings to scientist friends helps to offset some of that karma. Saying that, we hope to be off in search of the endangered Vaquita later this year purely for selfish curiosity.
We are now in the boatyard in Guaymas where it was 35C inside the boat yesterday. Heidi spends her day with sheets, sarongs and clothes pins, trying to provide every square inch of shade possible. There’s an eccentric collection of characters living on their boats despite the heat. It makes us feel soft as we are about to get on a plane to Canada and run from the desert (and work for the summer and boost that hungry cruising kitty). We’ll try to keep in touch while on home territory, especially if we can organize some adventures!

Learning Curves and Leaving

A day you don’t learn something is a slow day. Today I learnt “datum” (the start point for all depths on a chart) was the singular for “data”. That aside, we have had other learning processes on the boat. The weekend before leaving, the anti-siphon valve on our engine failed, which meant the engine back flooded from the wet box and started filling the bilge via the air intake. So I learnt how to remove all the injectors and so on to clear salt water from where it should not be. I was thankful for having 4 spare oil filters on hand as we live far from a metropolitan area. Lesson 1- we will always shut off our water intake now instead of “usually” shutting it off, even for short periods. Lesson 2 – lots of spares is a good thing.
With the engine running again we did manage to get out for a bit of the weekend and found a humpback and orcas for Lorraine and Tara who’d travelled west and north to come and see us. They brought all sorts of food plus a care package full of edibles and drinkables from Lorraine’s Mum that we all enjoyed and are still finding after they were stowed for space and sailing.
At Sea-fest in Alert Bay, we didn’t win a prize in the around the island kayak race but we did win a hamper of native food in the Artfest raffle. What a treat; smoked, canned and dried salmon, oolichan smoked and 2 jars of grease, dried seaweed and some new potatoes to go with it. We were fortunate to be able to share some with those who appreciated it before we left and still have a good supply. George and Susan from “Top Brass” also gave us some home canned salmon and Dave and Maureen the day before we left, brought a case of home canned salmon down to the boat along with a box of veggies from their garden. Dave’s comment was to make sure we came back. How could we not after such kindness. Ten days later we have just eaten the last of the garden veg and are savoring the salmon. Our final learning curve was a lesson on simple but nourishing food. We met Yoshi, a Japanese sailor who we had for dinner and he gifted us a special type of nori and other seaweed and told us how to cook and eat it with rice (and celery with every meal).
On leaving we tried to say our goodbyes to as many people as possible, but as we learnt on our first departure from Oz 6 years ago, sometimes just slipping away quietly is a good thing too.

Fun and Games

For those who don't understand all the joys of boating, I will let these pictures talk. We decided to take a few layers off this year to really smooth out the bottom. I was warned at the beginning of the weekend that if we were still in the yard on someones birthday there would be little amusement. For two and a bit solid days we sanded until the arms were more than a tad tender. A big pasta meal a friend brought down and cooked on board as we finished up was a savior on day two (thanks Trudy) and in the hot weather.....sooo looking forward to Baja, the paint went on and polishing started. The threats had eased over the weekend and polishing was OK on Heidi's birthday(I married the right girl), though we still did not hit the water untill a day later. The good news is we gained nearly 1/4 of a knot. That's about 1hrs less sailing each day on the long passages we are now one step closer to making.

Using different coloured anti fouling each year we sometimes end up with two colours on the hull using the last years left over. The also gives us a quality comparison and we are sure the black works best. Why.........you tell me??

Winter

Narama Sailing Out of Knight Inlet
As spring starts to awaken the coast, the last of the winter job lists are making there way to summer and pre-departure to do's. Winter has been kind to us in our care-taking role at Knight Inlet Lodge, our remote hermitage in a beautiful mountainous fjord on the BC Coast. We have had lot's of opportunity to tiddle Narama in preparation for our planned voyage which we plan to embark on later this year. We sailed away from a winter spent in the company of two lovely dogs (Casey and Finnegan) in an estuary where we watched grizzly bears fattening up on salmon before denning for the season. The notorious outflow winds carried us to the Broughton archipelago with record sailing speed (8.7 knots!) where we had a week of cruising among the islands with every anchorage to ourselves.