Slight detour

Kupang. 17/9/2017

Leaving the lock at Bayview Marina. Photo courtesy of Monique off "Dream Catcher"

It felt great to be heading to sea, leaving the land behind, with no pressure to get anywhere before dark.  I wasn’t sure how I’d go with sleep management, but soon found a comfortable rhythm, waking every 30 minutes, then back down.

I knew from the Gribs to expect light winds until well away from Australia.  The first day out was glorious sailing, doing an easy 6 knots across smooth seas.  By 1800, that had dropped to only 1.5 knots; time to turn the key, being very conscious of my scarce fuel supplies and the many miles ahead.  Still, I was prepared to sacrifice half a tank if necessary to get clear of the calms. 

I took advantage of the lull to change the dynema lines and pulley arrangement on “Min”, the Fleming self steering; because I had noticed the rear lines were over-riding the front ones and getting jammed.

On day 3, the wind was up to 25 knots and we were flying along. Halelujah, we must have reached the trades, I thought.  Wrong!  By midnight there was nothing, not a breath of wind to shake the velvety carpet of sea to even a ripple.

The next day was more of the same, though with a large ocean swell rolling Shanti from ear to ear.  And it was so hot!  Around 45 degrees in the cabin.  Even harder to handle than in Darwin because there, at least I could run a fan.  Here, it couldn’t stay on its feet with the rocking and rolling. I decided to stabilize the base by screwing it to the breadboard.

How long was this going to last?  A sat phone text to the outside world confirmed my fears – no wind below 11 deg S, 123 E.  Almost as far north as Indonesia, which was 200 miles away.  After much deliberation and calculation, I decided that the best option was to burn off the rest of my diesel and head for somewhere it could be replenished. 

Also I was having issues with power.  It seemed as if my batteries weren’t charging or holding a charge.  This was confirmed when after 16 hours of motoring, within a short time, "Tilly" the autopilot was squawking, the voltage down to 10.7V.

So fuel and new batteries were top priority.

 

Motoring over a glassy sea to Kupang. 

Indonesia was not a planned stop, so Australian Border Force had to be advised of change of destination. Thank goodness for satphone!  They were great about it.

Entering a foreign country with no idea how was interesting.  I found an old cruising guide that said to report to the Harbourmaster at the port, so I motored up and down in strong head winds, calling constantly on VHF Ch 16, but got no reply.

I gave up and returned to an anchorage, where luckily a couple of Australian cruisers were able to direct me to an honest and reliable yacht agent here, Michael, ($US250), who became dedicated to the cause.

After several trees worth of paperwork and many hours of practising patience in some interesting government offices where no one seemed to be working, I was finally checked in and out. At least the taxi and offices were air conditioned and the locals friendly.  I got some kudos as a solo female sailor and many wanted their photo taken with me.

Getting the diesel was easy – a longboat and Michael's boys to deliver it to Shanti.

The batteries were a bit harder – no deep cycle batteries are to be had here, so I have had to make do with wet cell car batteries. Not ideal, but a temporary measure which hopefully will get me to S Africa.  I spent the last two nights after the wind died off and the boat stopped pitching, fitting them in.

It was great to have Michael to run me around to get battery cables and a suitable length of wood for the job. Carrying all this on the back of a moped amongst hundreds of others in heavy traffic was an exhilarating experience.  You see many a family zooming about on these motorcycles, always with youngest perched up front as the sacrificial lamb. The women pillion riders often sit side saddle, and never a helmet to be seen.

Kupang is a fascinating blend of old and new world. Going from the grubby outdoor market to the huge shopping mall, all shiny and immaculate with military precision in the rows of stock on shelves and checkout chicks in smart uniforms like airline hostesses, was something of a culture shock.

Friends off  “Dream catcher” arrived a couple of days after me and we enjoyed eating out at the traditional night market. So I did get to see a few sights in my short stay here.
Also divested of almost my entire stash of US$.
 

My intentions are to continue on as per plan, just as soon as possible, heading to Cocos Keeling, Mauritius then South Africa, hopefully before Christmas - this year.

Sunday, September 17, exactly 10 days after leaving Darwin, I’m ready to go again.  Unfortunately, after it blowing the crabs off the rocks for the past few days, we are lolling listlessly in a breathless, mist-enshrouded morning.

I shall row ashore with my rubbish and see what develops ......



 

 

Shanti resuming transmission.

5/9/2017, Darwin

Well I made the leap, out of the frying pan and into the fire! 

Leaving Shanti safely locked up in Bayview marina in Darwin, I flew to the Seychelles.  As the last crewmember to arrive,  it was expected that we would depart within a day or two, for the long beat to windward home.  Everyone who knows anything of the proposed route back to Brisbane, against the prevailing SE trade winds and counter currents, said it was not a sensible idea.  Well they were right.

Ex charter Cats everywhere.

The Seychelles are quite beautiful, but after interminable waiting on bureaucracy's buckled wheels to grind, we were all keen to get going.  Finally, on Monday 21st August, two weeks after my arrival, we were let loose.

The following Monday, we were back where we started.

Things didn't go at all according to plan.  Here is a report written by the delivery skipper to the owners:

"First and for most: if we didn’t have these safety issues we still would be well on our way to the Maldives or Indonesia!

 

The major reasons for me to return are, firstly that the crew started losing confidence in the boat.

Within the first three days we had 3 major safety issues and 3 impending ones:

It started when the main halyard was in the water and rapped itself around the saildrive. This may have been a human error, but these errors do happen. At night it is impossible to see (without a light) if all lines and halyards are in their proper place secured on the mast. So, after a rough night, at daylight I discovered the main halyard to be in the water. We managed to get it out by heaving to, which was not easy because we could neither hoist or lower the mainsail. Getting in the water when the ship is still moving slowly in a rough sea is highly dangerous. I wouldn’t recommend it. However, it had to be done or we could lose or damage our port saildrive and/or rudder!

Then the port line of the lazy bag broke. This implicated that the foot of the mainsail is hanging loose over the port side of the boom when one or two reefs are in, thus obstructing your view, blocking the solar panels, and a potential danger when in rough weather. Besides it is chafing slightly. Setting a reef or shaking one was getting also very challenging with a large part of the very heavy main sail not properly secured.

To our disbelief we discovered that the second reefing line was almost broken. Totally chafed down to the core of this 12 mm double braided line. I managed to replace it with the spare line I bought.

The next things we observed were that the first reefing line was also about to get bad. You could move the outer braided sleeve loosely over the inner core over a large section. Further inspection of the other lines revealed that the main sheet also had some chafing damage. These two items were not imminently dangerous, but because we don’t have any more spare lines it is getting to be a serious challenge for a long passage as this. Lastly in this section, we discovered the topping lift to be in a similar shape as the second reefing line.

 

Given all above our main impression was: if this is already broken during the first three days, what will happen next? Bear in mind that on our first sea trial, a few days ago, the genoa sheet also chafed badly, almost broke and had to be replaced. And a mindset like that is not building confidence.

 

The second main reason to turn around is the way the boat behaves in an upwind course.

At first, we set on an easterly course with southeasterly to east-southeasterly winds, which was very uncomfortable due to the fact we also had a strong current against us. The sea state was moderate and the swell was between 3-5 meters with an interval of 6-8 seconds. (The three weeks delay we had in the Seychelles certainly lost us a better weather window and was one of the reasons why I was unhappy then with the situation.)

We were really banging into the waves at a speed of 3-5 knots and the current was setting us more to a northerly drift. This wasn’t expected and anticipated. All of this didn’t feel good at all for the boat. We were not making any real good progress until we decided to go on a more northerly heading and possibly enter one of the Maldives. To set a course for Cocos (Keeling) was out of the question already. Indonesia looked like a good alternative option. The distance from the Seychelles was almost similar to Cocos and we would have had a more comfortable and safe sailing, more closely to the equator. However, the winds in this part of the Indian Ocean around the ICTZ would have been variable and light thus making us to maneuver more and perhaps motor (sail) more. All of which was and is no problem (or challenge). But beating against the sea is not good for this boat, certainly not if you have to do it for more than 3 weeks continuously!

 

Conclusions and recommendations:

You could say this was an extended sea trial of about 600 nautical miles.

It certainly shows the boat has been used for the charter business. Generally, the ‘guests’ who hire these boats have little or none sailing experience and don’t know how to handle the boat properly. The general maintenance was done by the Moorings. I have to examine the maintenance log to see if any of the lines have been replaced earlier, however I expect that they didn’t do that, given the obvious state of these lines. The chafing should have been noticed during the survey of the boat and subsequently the rigging check specifically.

 

As almost any catamaran, the boat handles very well in winds from a reach to a more broad reach. Upwind is another story. I found that the limit is 30 degrees. 35 degrees is just at the edge and at 40 degrees she starts to handle better. At 50 degrees or more, she really starts to act like a catamaran.

A Leopard 39 is not a heavy weight sailing cat, but build for lighter conditions. I would certainly not sail her in the ‘roaring forties’ or similar circumstances! If the sea state is getting rough, she doesn’t handle the waves very well. Banging into them, you can see the shrouds trembling, the mast shaking and you can hear he forestay taking a beating on the big aluminium bar which is between both hull’s.

Another item which is not implemented on this boat is a preventer. The boom moves sideways a lot in any wind and cannot be fixated by mere use of the mainsheet. Again, in heavy weather this is cause of concern, because there is too much stress on the rigging.

The big plus of this Leopard 39 is he downwind sailing, the comfort and space on board and complete layout. I would take the boat on a world circum navigation any time! But sailing ‘the right way’ of course.

 

So, my intention of sailing to Australia more or less directly via Cocos (Keeling) Islands may have been a bit too opportunistic. The alternative route, more north via the Maldives and then to Indonesia is a better option. In my opinion, the best sailing option would be to go ‘the long way around’".

They really cram these big cats in tight.

So, back in port again, awaiting spares and repairs, not sure which way to go ........


The potential for further delays seemed highly likely and I was reluctant to go the long way round on someone else's boat when that had been my own original plan.  I had seen a few of the big Indian Ocean rollers and they didn't look that scary.


A few of those motivational mantras were playing in  my head, rekindling my doused dreams, making me question my decision to give up on my quest, right at the start line, as it were.


This little video clip summed it up nicely.

The idea that dreams choose us, rather than we choose our dreams, especially resonated with me.


And the aphorism, "it is one thing to try and fail, but to fail to try is true failure."


I feel that I failed to try.  Got to the start line in Darwin, was assailed by doubt and fear, and was too afraid to step off into the great unknown.


So on Thursday 31st August, I flew back from the Seychelles to Darwin, ready to give it a go.
Today, Sept 5th is my birthday.  I don't want to leave it another year.

This is how much weed was on the paddle of my Fleming self steering when I arrived in Darwin.

Everyone here in Bayview marina has been incredibly friendly and supportive.  Many of them have done this route before.


Yesterday, the couple on the boat next door helped me clean and apply fresh antifoul paint to the Fleming.

One woman, Chrissie, even lent me her ute to go out for diesel and provisions.

Food for Africa

Today seemed an auspicious date to call Customs and arrange clearance.  Tomorrow, I will go and clear out, buy a courtesy flag of Mauritius, and stock up on fresh fruit and veg. Then at first opening of the lock gates on Thursday morning, Shanti will resume her voyage.


The route will take me across the Indian ocean (the right way), to Cocos Keeling, then Mauritius, then South Africa.  All going well I should be there by mid December, ready to fly back to Melbourne for Christmas.


The next report will be from Cocos Keeling, in about a month from now.