atahualpa domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home3/aboarddi/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Time to breath a sigh of relief? Too bloody right it is.
Although we believed the deal to be done there is nothing more definitive than seeing the funds show in [...]]]>
Time to breath a sigh of relief? Too bloody right it is.
Although we believed the deal to be done there is nothing more definitive than seeing the funds show in your own bank account. Settlement took longer than it should have done which was frustrating as the Ozzie dollar has been steadily falling off it’s recent peak against the UK pound. Very frustrating as the tiniest changes in fx have big $$$ impacts. It can go either way of course but the feeling is prevalent that down is the direction it’s going.
So what can I say now that I couldn’t say before? I want to be careful here and simply stick to facts. But we’ve reached survey twice and the two experiences were completely different.
On the whole, this second time has been more mature, more professional and less hostile than the first.
The broker for the actual sale, Jason Chipp from Ensign, worked hard all the way through, brought multiple prospects to the table, handled conflicting interests very professionally and maintained almost constant communication.
The first broker started off with the appearance of being very helpful albeit often hard to contact. To the point where we made recommendations to friends. As the first sale broke down we had learned the broker had used my health battle as emotional coercion which had had a very negative result on the buyers. Then, having given both Helen and I assurances that the boat would be professionally handled during survey and that any issues that transpired would be covered, and then finding the boat had been dinged then badly tied to the dock causing dock scratches, the broker backed off any responsibility at high speed denying any responsibility from the get go. The damage was so minor that their reaction was very hard to understand. When pointed out that the broker was damaging the fine reputation they’d built up to that point and that we would be sharing their emails with the friends we’d made recommendations to (it would after all be disingenuous if all we did was share part of positive side of our experience) the broker threatened to tell all the brokers in the region that Dignity had failed survey and tell the same story to the prime trade magazine in the area. This was a lie of course as there is a colossal difference between a buyer finding reasons to back out of a sale and a boat failing survey. The broker, like an idiot, said all this in an email so I forwarded it to the magazine, the publisher and all the brokers we were in contact with so that they could read the whole thread and make their own minds up. We did get one prospect who mentioned they’d heard that Dignity had ‘failed survey’ and wondered how that could be. They didn’t disclose where they had heard that but for now, that first broker has now lost any shred of the benefit of doubt. There are other reasons, which I won’t go into here, that I would suggest foreign boat sellers to steer away from this broker (if you have any idea who it is). Contact me if you want to hear more.
You’ve perhaps seen my previous rant about the first buyer’s surveyor. I’ve since learned more. It turns out that that surveyor recently lost a court case where they were sued for grossly overstating cost of repairs to a boat (many, many times more than 10x) to drive survey values down to near zero. I had thought he was a blind fool, with reckless survey procedures but it now appears he is known for doing what he does. The second surveyor turned out to be the same surveyor we used to value Dignity for import. The only issue we had with him (and I believe the buyer took issue too) was that he listed a slightly less than trivial item having not discussed it with the buyer and broker on the boat when all the other items were discussed.
And how each buyer handled the process was considerably different too. The second buyer appeared above it all and ignored all the niggly things the surveyor chose to list. This was in contrast to the first buyers who brought to our attention a lot of trivial items from the first survey (including the issues the surveyor fabricated) and even the electrics which the boat was listed as having.
Whatever the reason for all this I know the second buyer is and will continue to be happy the first buyer pulled out. On sea trial, with the help of her new rig and sails, she flew along at 10 knots in 20 knots of wind and did well in all conditions. His critical friends, also aboard, were completely bowled over. She passed survey with only $400 ultimately negotiated off the contract for the item I mentioned earlier.
As you can see, it’s been a long process and it’s the frustrations that stand out more than the highlights.
So it’s done. Dignity is sold. The money is in the bank. Now, bar some small details, the focus is fully on the future. I’ll leave writing about that for the next blog.
]]>However, the challenges of 2012 have resulted [...]]]>
However, the challenges of 2012 have resulted in the blog transforming into an account of the premature end of our sailing/travelling dream and the new journey we’re battling my cancer and, I fully intend, our new life beyond.
There will come a time, perhaps the time she is sold, when our connection with Dignity and life aboard her will come to a complete end. (Please don’t be sad for us – it has been a privilege to have been able to do what we’ve done – we have no regrets at all).
I intend to carry on blogging as this has become more for me than just my sailing blog. I have a couple of options for how I carry on and I’m interested in my readers’ opinions on this. I could simply carry on as I have and use this blog to continue documenting our journey beyond this sailing adventure. Or I could wrap this blog up and move onto a new blog. What do you think? Use the voting buttons below or comment if you have any other ideas.
[poll id=”2″]
]]>Steve is much more positive and determined since getting the result. Now that he knows what he’s facing, he can’t wait to start treatment and fight this illness.
As for me, well I’ve always hated every storm we’ve encountered out at sea. Often I’ve said to Steve –“Never ever again.” But I did survive each bad weather, got stronger each time and found it easier to face and cope with the next one. This is a big storm of a different kind we’re facing. I know I will survive it. I know I will be stronger. I know I will cope, especially with all the love, help and support I have from my wonderful family and friends. But I absolutely dread it.
There’s a lot of planning to do. I am working out the logistic of having Dignity delivered to Australia, probably Brisbane. I am hoping that Sam will stay on to crew with whoever delivers the boat for us from Fiji. Dignity is our home and we want her safely here and ready for us to move back on to if we can or sell if we have to.
THANK YOU everyone for your comments, good wishes and offers of help. Steve and I really appreciated them. I don’t know what the future holds for us. I guess none of us really do. Given the prognosis we’ve been given, this is probably the end of our wonderful sailing adventure. We have had the most amazing three and half years. We are so lucky and happy to have had this opportunity.
At the end of the our first year sailing, Steve asked me to write a blog summarizing our first years travel which I titled
“One Year On” ( http://aboarddignity.com/blog/?cat=48&paged=2).
The last sentence I wrote was –
“There’s nothing more wonderful than to share the wonders of your adventure with someone you love.”
You know, that is absolutely true.
]]>Motoring
Nothing was cooler than motoring in or out of a public marina/dock silently on battery power. I [...]]]>
Motoring
Nothing was cooler than motoring in or out of a public marina/dock silently on battery power. I still kind of miss that but that was a rare event. More importantly, with the hybrid system it was always nice to know it was on. Ie, if we needed a bit of power to avoid an obstacle, it was always instantly available. The diesel engines have to be started before use which adds a few seconds. This is a minor inconvenience really and simply not putting oneself into situations where a bit of extra power might be needed resolves this. However, it’s a comfort lost.
On the upside, the diesel engines are significantly more powerful than the old electric motors. We can motor into 20-30 knot winds with ease whereas before, this would be a struggle. Our boat, with vertical windows (great for interior space) has a lot of wind resistance when going into wind so we really feel the benefit of the more powerful motors.
Regeneration
Regeneration really only worked when on a long passage where we had good winds and could turn on the regeneration for 6 to 8 hours each day. I was surprised on our recent passage that I had to run the generator for an hour and a half to two hours per day to make up for the power consumed by the boats systems. The down side of regeneration is loss of boat speed. Even when the regen is switched off, the large props produced significant drag on the boat. With regen on we’d lose another knot. So our recent 8 day passage would likely have taken 9 days on the hybrid system.
Was the extra diesel consumption worth the extra day ashore? When we first set off I thought not. We had all the time in the world. An extra day at sea to save fuel seemed a no brainer. Now I have a different opinion. An extra day at sea is one less day on land. We can’t zero value our time aboard. This trip cost something to set up and it costs something each day we carry on. Also, an extra day at sea is an extra day we might run into bad weather. Speed is important.
Factor in the assumed reality that motoring on the hybrid system was less efficient than motoring on straight diesel, it’s hard to be sure that we ever saved any diesel at all on the hybrid system.
So, in hindsight, the regeneration aspect of the hybrid system probably was the biggest disappointment.
Sailing
As mentioned earlier, the boat is now faster. We have smaller props developing less drag. We go faster under sail. It’s hard to tell if motor sailing is any less or more efficient under either system. On the hybrid system we would give a light push under batteries for a few hours before starting the generator and recharging the batteries. Now we give a gentle push with one engine running under low revs. Hard to tell. The hybrid system was certainly quieter even with the generator running.
Resilience / Support
About once per year the hybrid system would experience a breakdown in one of the charging banks. Lagoon would always ship us a replacement but that could not last forever. The replacements were obviously coming from boats that had been converted. In fact, the original premise upon which we’d bought the boat had fallen through. We’d been interested in hybrids for some time but had always been put off by having something that may end being hard to find anyone who could support it. When Lagoon launched the 420 with the promise that all of them would be hybrids, things changed. Lagoon produces hundreds of each model so the prospect was that there would be hundreds of hybrids out there within a few years and all sorts of folks springing up to provide support services. That didn’t happen. About 70 hybrids were built of which there remain about 15 worldwide.
So the only support comes from Lagoon which, while being faultless so far, can’t be trusted to run forever. This lead us to the decision to convert to diesel. Now that we have we feel a lot more comfortable having propulsion systems that can be maintained almost anywhere in the world should an issue occur.
Other aspects
While down in New Zealand we really appreciated the availability of hot water when motoring on the port engine. With hot water also available when running the generator, it was relatively easy to ensure that we had hot water each day regardless of what we were doing. Here in the tropics it’s not so important but we certainly appreciated it there.
With Sam aboard, we are running the inverter a lot more than normal. However, it is noticeable that we have to run the generator more than we used to. Before we had two additional banks of chargers to charge the drive banks which we could tap for house energy while at anchor. We just don’t have that charging capacity anymore which translates into more hours on the generator. Certainly with less load on the generator and hence less fuel consumption per hour but the extra time is noticeable.
Summary
We enjoyed our time being a hybrid boat but definitely prefer the diesels. Mainly it’s a case of less worry. The hybrid system was over complex and had one connection anywhere broken it would have been a nightmare to troubleshoot. Now we have a simpler boat with components folks widely understand. We feel more secure.
Compared to other hybrid implementations I’ve seen the Lagoon hybrid system was over engineered. It was way more complicated than it needed to be. Some features, like the automatic starting and shutdown of the generator while motoring, we never used.
Future thoughts
I don’t think our experience would suggest the idea of an electric boat is dead. If anything, I believe we have learned enough to suggest a different future for electric boats. There are plenty of exciting developments which would make future electric boats more desirable.
Battery development. The auto industry is driving huge advances in battery development. Already, lithium ion batteries are becoming more economical for boats than standard batteries. In time this will only get better. When power can be stored for many hours of motoring we’ll be in a good spot.
Passive charging. A cruising boat spends a lot of time at anchor. There are developments in the solar charging world which could result in whole boat surfaces being solar power collectors. Coupled with greater energy storage, being able to passively top up propulsion batteries over a period of days would be ideal.
Motor power. The motors need to be as powerful as diesels.
Power Management. A better way needs to be found to share the power in the drive banks with the house systems. The 72V/12V cross chargers on our old hybrid system were inadequate. A generic system that can take power from solar, wind and generator and feed it to the drive and house banks would be ideal.
Regeneration. An option only for those who are prepared to sacrifice speed for power. Perhaps a tow generator feeding into a generic power management system.
All these things will need to come together to make a different kind of boat. Given how the marine industry lags everything else I don’t see anything really happening for 5-10 years.
]]>If you want to look at what I’m looking at when I’m viewing GRIBs derived from GFS data then :
1. Send an email to query@saildocs.com with any Subject and the body of the email being: send GFS:18S,51S,140E,160W|2,2|0,6..168|PRMSL,WIND,WAVES,RAIN
2. You will soon receive an email contain the GRIB data. Use ViewFax to view this [...]]]>
If you want to look at what I’m looking at when I’m viewing GRIBs derived from GFS data then :
1. Send an email to query@saildocs.com with any Subject and the body of the email being:
send GFS:18S,51S,140E,160W|2,2|0,6..168|PRMSL,WIND,WAVES,RAIN
2. You will soon receive an email contain the GRIB data. Use ViewFax to view this data using drag/drop and/or File Open as you prefer.
3. ViewFax can be downloaded from http://www.siriuscyber.net/wxfax/ (see beta version at bottom of page)
NOTE: Another popular GRIB file viewer, ugrib, is unable to display GRIB files that contain data spanning 180 longitude.
Have fun
]]>Its also a life style that has tested me in many ways. I have always been adventurous but hadn’t realised how set in my ways I had become over the past few years. How reluctant I had become to face changes and new challenges. Clinging onto the the security of familiarity even though knowingly slipping into mediocrity and dullness. I was cocooned and softened by the conveniences and comfort of our American life.
Now we regularly face the unfamiliar. A new country, another language, different culture, strange food, unknown places and unexpected situations. I have learned to adjust quickly, enjoy the changes , accept the differences with more patience and tolerance. After much avoidance and reluctance, I am facing the challenges of improving my sailing skills, learning the mechanics of the boat, learning new languages and slowly succeeding. Since moving aboard our life has never been dull or humdrum. I am unsetting!
A few people have asked what are the highlights of the first year. It would take a novelette to describe them but these are the images that immediately comes to mind. Scenes of crystal clear turquoise sea, golden beaches, swaying palm trees, multi-coloured reefs, rugged coast line and crashing waves. Swimming with turtles, manta rays, barracudas and numerous variety of beautiful reef fish. Hiking through dense green rain forest, colourful parrots flying over us. Dipping into cool emerald pools, waterfalls and milky hot springs. Walking through a valley of bubbling sulfur springs then up to an amazing boiling crater lake. Climbing to the highest point of many islands, taking in the stunning views, marveling at the beauty. Lying on our deck and staring up at the night sky full of the most brilliant stars. Strolling through crowded, busy port towns, bustling markets with colourfully dressed women manning stalls full of local tropical fruit, vegetable and spices. Bartering for goods and both sides being pleased with a good deal. Visiting numerous forts being fascinated by their constructions, reminding us of the islands past and history. Old plantations, rum refineries still using methods of two hundred years ago. Meeting other cruisers, enjoying sun-downers together, sharing experiences and advice. Encountering genuinely friendly and helpful people, time and time again. The exhilaration of sailing, enjoying the thrill of controlling and using just the wind power to take us from place to place. Scores and scores of flying fish flying past us, providing surprise and delight. A passing whale spouting out fountains of spray. Pods of dolphin playing round our boat, jumping and flipping as if trying to attract your attention. Mothers dolphins with their little babies joining in with the frolicking, sooooo special. The list could go on. So many wonderful images and experiences.
So how about the low-lights. Surprisingly I’m finding this difficult to list. I know that it was really hard right at the very beginning for us. During the first month or two, while setting up in St Maarten, we had many doubts and regrets about our decision do this trip. We worried about our sons we left behind, especially our youngest who was only eighteen and just starting college. We had quit our jobs, sold up home and belongings and in effect burnt our bridges. We worried about our financial position with our investments and the stock market at its lowest. We were overwhelmed with the complexity of the boat and our lack of experience. I guess it was our lowest moments. However we managed to dig up some inner strength, accepted the choice we had made and just forged ahead with our plan. We are both so very glad we didn’t give up then. So back to the low-lights. I guess we have been disappointed to see so many islands being over developed and commercialized. Many other places just left to ruin, abandoned and derelict. Real poverty amidst the very wealthy. Garbage and rubbish left around and dropped without care. We have often landed on a gorgeous isolated island, walked over to the windward side and find the beach awash with plastic bottles, plastic bags, and other broken plastic items. It is so ugly and real sore point with me. Saying goodbye to to good cruising friends, knowing we may never see them again.
I am reluctant to list some of our mistakes and disasters as low-lights. They have been serious learning lessons and the source of some of our real highs after surviving the events!! And although I dislike doing the regular chores, continuous maintenance and checks on the boat, it is satisfying and reassuring to know everything is ship shape. Even so, parts break down and things stop working and we spend a lot of time fixing our boat in exotic places.
Lastly, what is it like to live in the confines of a boat and with someone 24 hours 7 days a week. First lets deal with living in the confines of a boat. I must admit I have never found our boat confining at all. We are very fortunate to have such a modern, well equipped, comfortable and well laid out catamaran. We often call it our floating condo. Our cabins are bright, comfy and cozy. Our main saloon has a panoramic view of our surroundings and so it is light and feels like we have all the space of the outside. With the added bonus that our view changes every time we move to a new place. I love the fact that we take our home with us where ever we go. I am a bit of a home body so its lovely to feel at home all the time. If we don’t like a place, we just up our anchor and move home. I also loved the fact that our boat is a hybrid and set up to be almost self sufficient energy wise. That our lights, electronics, fridge and freezer are mainly powered by our solar panels. That any deficient will soon be topped up by our newly ordered wind generator. That our hybrid design boat also makes energy while we’re actually sailing. That we could survive for long time with out running our generator as long as we have wind and sunshine.
Okay, so now lets cover living with Steve 24/7. Well, we have never shouted at and argued with each other so much in our lives. Usually in relation to anchoring or some minor crisis. Both of us have changed quite a lot since we first met more than twenty five years ago. So we’ve had to get to know each other again, relearning our likes and dislikes, what our strength and weaknesses are and how we feel about things. We’ve had to get use to each others annoying ways and bad habits which were not so obvious when we had different jobs and only saw each other during evenings and weekends. At times I’ve felt like pushing Steve overboard and I’m sure he’s had similar feelings toward me too. Fortunately for us it has not led to divorce nor one of moving into the other hull! Instead we have never been closer or more in tune with each other. That we can have a good shouting match without lingering resentment and forgotten quickly afterwords. Its tremendous that we love and enjoy each others company and can work so well together. There’s nothing more wonderful than to share the wonders of your adventure with someone you love.
]]>How does the reality of your adventure so far live up to the perception of your dream now that you’ve been living aboard for a while?
Answer
I think what you’re asking here is how does the reality of our cruising life compare to our expectations before we left. To answer [...]]]>
How does the reality of your adventure so far live up to the perception of your dream now that you’ve been living aboard for a while?
Answer
I think what you’re asking here is how does the reality of our cruising life compare to our expectations before we left. To answer that I first have to elaborate on why we chose to do this and what did we expect out of it in the first six months.
Having discussed this with Helen we both agree on the why. We left to go cruising to travel, to see new places, to have a bit of adventure, to do something different for a while. To be clear, there was no real sense of escape. While the prospect of doing something different has an element of escape we both feel tremendously fortunate to have been born at a time and place where our position in the global ‘rat race’ allowed us to eventually do what we are now doing. The ‘rat race’ got us here and maybe one day we’ll go back.
This then led to some expectations. The first six months was always meant to be our break in. We chose to sail the length of the eastern Caribbean because it was not too demanding, had good access to support in the form of maritime commerce and other sailors yet at the same time offered us some of the adventure we were looking for. We had some expectations of commercialism down the islands, perhaps high cost, and certainly not the full ‘out there’ we perhaps expect in the coming years.
We also expected some emotional highs and lows. Because of our human nature it is not possible to find a state of mind where you have constant highs. At a broad level our choice in life boils down to a life where our experiences are narrow living in a ‘safe’ band of mediocrity or a life of extremes where one swings between extreme highs and lows. Or somewhere in between. We’ve always chosen the life of highs and lows and believed up front the cruising life has this in spades.
Finally, despite all that one can read about the cruising life we really had a lot of ‘no ideas’ of what it would be like. An absence of expectation to be filled in later.
So how does it compare? We certainly have had our highs and lows. The months leading up to our departure were full of them. Making the mental commitment that we would leave in 2008 was a big high and led to a lot of excitement (and trepidation). Leaving work for both of us was both exciting and rewarding in terms of the reflections from soon to be ex-colleagues. Taking that trip around Manhattan on our new friends motor boat the day after I ‘retired’ was surreal. The despair associated with our plunging finances. The investment home that took too long to close, that turned out so filthy, seemed too much to fix, that delayed the start of our dream and sucked away the dwindling dollars to get going, brought little joy and much anguish.
The first two months of living aboard were a real emotional roller coaster. Being at the stressful end of so many learning curves, the delays to our shipment clearing in St Martin, having to get the boat ready while family visited, again while wondering if we could really afford to do this brought some dark moments. The help and companionship we had from cruisers we had never known before, having our family aboard, moments alone in realization we’d actually done this brought immense highs. The highs and the lows really exceeded what we expected and we regret none of it.
The islands themselves I think exceeded our expectations. Yes they were commercial in places but then you could also get out of this fairly easily in most places and if we didn’t like where we were we could always move on. The friendliness of the locals, the beauty of the rainforests all were a surprise. Dominica especially being strong on both of these.
I guess the biggest difference between experience and expectation (or lack thereof) comes when looking at some of the little things (in no particular order and certainly not complete):
Finally, we always expected this trip to change us. It is changing us but it’s only just begun. Where this will take us we really don’t know. We know this won’t be forever but we do expect to keep going for a few years and are more and more certain we’ll stick to our original goal of circumnavigating. What comes after the trip we have no idea and bothers us little.
We are pretty certain we’ll be heading west in October and it’s highly likely we’ll be off to the Pacific next year. Sitting here at the end of our break in session down the eastern Caribbean this seems as big an adventure as setting out in the first place. So the future remains exciting, scary, full of unknowns.
Just what we want.
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