Saturday 11 June 2016

One Year Since Fremantle Departure

Hi everyone,
Today is the first anniversary of our departure from Fremantle.  It has been a foggy day here in Horta, perfect for boat work.

Zen Again at anchor in Horta harbour
We spent the last two days doing more post-arrival boat work including:
  • Filled diesel jerry cans (@1euro/litre)
  • Filled water jerry cans (free)
  • On deck s/s cleaning
  • Food stocktake and visit to the local supermarket
  • Emptied, cleaned and repacked cockpit lockers
  • Laundry
  • Changed engine impeller (still looking perfect after 300 hours so kept as spare)
  • Cleaned gas hob burner assemblies and nozzles (apres le deluge)
  • Emptied, cleaned and repacked the quarterberth

It's hard to believe we've been cruising for a year already.  In some ways it seems like we left only yesterday but home does seems a very long way away.  It has been a busy but amazing year full of wonderful experiences.

Fremantle to Horta
In the 365 days we:
  • logged 16,260nm (44nm/day)
  • were at sea for 2924 hours (122 days or 33% or 133nm/day) 
  • slept ashore for 14 days (all while touring in South Africa)
  • ran the engine for 435 hours (18 days or 15% of sea time)
  • consumed 800 litres of diesel
  • consumed about 30 kg of propane gas
  • consumed about 7 litres of fresh water daily while at sea
  • cleared in/out of 14 jurisdictions

Good kit included:
  • Ken Hayashi designed / Yamazaki Yachts built ST10.4 (ie the boat)
  • Manson Supreme anchor
  • Aries vane gear (30 years old and still going strong)
  • Extreme Sails mainsail (those deep reefs are fantastic)
  • Raymarine SPX5 autopilot (except ram/actuator)
  • Iridium GO!
  • Vesper XB8000 AIS transceiver with WiFi
  • Icom IC-M802 HF/SSB
  • Macbook Air computers (in general and apps OpenCPN, PW Offshore, DX Toolbox)
  • iPads (in general and apps SEAiq, iNavX, WeatherTrack, GoSkyWatch)
  • GoogleEarth imagery on OpenCPN and SEAiq
  • SodaStream carbonator
  • Force10 stove

Failures and notable wear included:
  • Two Raymarine SPX5-GP autopilot rams/actuators
  • Raymarine SeaTalk/NMEA0183 Interface Box (lightning near miss)
  • Anchor chain replaced due to poor refurbishment job in Fremantle
  • Lost two fenders (literally ripped away while in windy Simon's Town)
  • Two gas detector sensors
  • Masthead tricolour/anchor light
  • Compass backlight
  • Several lifejacket/danbuoy CO2 canisters
  • Mainsail headboard carriage fractured
  • Significant wear on the "yankee" headsail
  • Chafing of the staysail foot (by lazy headsail sheet)
  • Chafing of headsail halyard
  • Significant wear on headsail sheet and boom brake lines
  • Chafing of boom-bag where it rubs against the aft lower shrouds
  • Hull topsides "fender rub" (while in Simon's Town)
  • Sheath on Icom HF/SSB and Garmin VHF microphone cables disintegrated
  • Wore out several ensigns - last one now looking very tatty

Engine parts and consumables included:
  • 20 litres of engine oil, 1 litre of gearbox oil, 4 litres of engine coolant
  • 6 oil filters, 5 fuel primary filters and 4 fuel secondary filters
  • 2 V-belts
  • 2 raw water pump impellers
We only have a few more weeks of cruising to go.  Once we reach the UK we'll be seeking jobs to pay for it all! ;)  We are looking forward to cruising around Europe when circumstances allow.  We expect to continue to live aboard.

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