Some passage notes - California to Hawaii (part 2)

goldenstate

Sustaining Member
Blogs Author
Food
I quickly came to appreciate the fresh food I had brought. My boat has a built-in cooler that I stocked with ice before departing. I brought bell peppers and cucumbers and carrots that I kept cold as long as possible. I brought a couple of bags of salad and ate those before they went bad. The best performing vegetables were the cucumbers, which lasted the entire trip without turning too mushy.

Oranges! I brought oranges and they held up well. Aerated bags, never became moldy. Sticky fingers, sweet with sugary juice. Delicious pulp.

Canned food has a ridiculous amount of sodium! In my often-dehydrated state, I became increasingly disgusted by the salty quality of the soups and products that I had along. Blech.

Were I to do it again, I would buy a small electric fridge/cooler and wire and lash it in somewhere. The fresh vegetables were key and missed when they dwindled.

Power Supply

I installed a lithium battery system before departing, supported by a fancy upgraded alternator that could produce plenty of amps, and a simple two-panel solar system. My electrical needs were limited and on days where the sails did not block the solar panels, I could run the boat without alternator charging. By the end of the afternoon my primary 50amp hour battery would be 93% charged. Then overnight running radio, electronics and lights @ 2.5 amps 10 hours, I would be down to 25% charged. Flip off the lights at dawn and by 10am or so get to flat energy draw (solar panels push offsetting radio and instrument pull) and by noon, gaining 3-4 positive amps. So a few days where

Engine

To the degree I had any problems with my Yanmar 3 cylinder, they all related to air getting into the fuel lines. I had to bleed some air a couple of times early in the trip, and then once (traumatically) right at the end, within sight of Diamond Head. I encountered big waves (2.5 meters) and fresh winds (25-30 knots) simultaneously and I believe this jostling carbonated the fuel in my tank, which caused the engine to gasp and sputter out as I was turning the corner at Diamond Head, with big breakers and coral reefs and tourist boats in sight. “Go get on the deal team, Vilhauer. No one else is here to solve your problems for you….”

With my solar panels, I only used about 11 gallons of diesel of the 35 gallons I had along. The vast majority of the consumption was for morning battery-charging sessions. I use about 0.7 gallons per hour at 2500rpm and I could normally achieve 85% state of charge in my lithium primary battery within 40 minutes.

User Error

The potentially worst situation in which I found myself was (surprise!) something I could have easily avoided. At some point past midnight on the morning of June 24th, the wind shifted from an Easterly direction to the South. I awoke and took stock of my bearing and intended destination and knew I needed to address the sail trim and course. The swell made a sea-dog’s sails-alone turn inconvenient, and after all I am not a sea dog. I am a modern gentleman, so I decided to take the easy way out of firing up my engine, putting some horses into her, and turning the boat like a Buick.

It was still dark. I let the engine warm up at slow RPM for a couple of minutes and then shifted into forward gear. In about a second, the engine froze. It did not sputter or cough. It froze. I tried to start it again and no dice. I tried to shift back into neutral, but the transmission was frozen. I surmised that there may have been something wrapped around the prop shaft. Sure enough, after reviewing the contents of my cockpit, I realized that my jib furling line was missing. I clipped into my safety gear and walked up the side deck seeing the absence of the line in every spot where it was supposed to be. Sure enough, when I reached the furler on the bow of the boat, I found the line pulled taut directly under the boat.

I had neglected to cleat off the furling line, and to tie a stopper knot in the end of it, so the rope probably was slackened enough to dip into the water near the front end of the boat, at which point the rest of the line was pulled forward and into the water and trailed underneath the centerline of the boat, perfectly placed to seize in the propeller.

What does one do, 500 miles from land, in 16,000 feet of water with a rope-wrapped propeller shaft? I lead cub scouts and the principle we teach the kids is that, when lost one should S.T.O.P, or stop, think, observe, plan. I waited until daylight. I contrived a sea anchor to slow the boat down. I dropped all of the sails. I threw on my goggles I set some backup rescue lines to trail behind the boat. I set a couple of entry points to allow me to get back on the boat. Then I jumped in the ocean.

It was exactly as I had anticipated - the furling line was wrapped around the prop shaft. The boat itself was still jacking around in the waves, and it would have been bad if I had gotten hit with the prop or the strut, but it all worked out just fine. I unwrapped the line and got back on board with a minor amount of effort.

Then commenced another 1-2 hours of work lowering the jib, resetting the furler, and re-hoisting. It all worked out, but was the most pointed example of a small user error spiraling into getting-off-the-boat-alone-in-the-middle-of-the-ocean, something I had no intention of doing at the start of the trip. Yet, with singlehanding, there is no one coming to solve the problem for you.

Weather
I was dealt a good hand with weather. Days 3 and 4 getting off the coast of California were a bit challenging, but for the most part, I had wind between 10 and 20 knots, blowing approximately in the right direction. One could not ask for much more. I was becalmed for a 36-48 hour period, but that bifurcated the trip nicely. After two weeks my impression was that the ocean was relentless. After blowing for weeks, the prospect of an indifferent barometer and still air was even more striking. The calm air was, fortunately, a relatively short chapter, and I still closed out the passage in 20 days.
 

southofvictor

Member III
Blogs Author
Thanks for the great notes Tom.

Is it common to get air in the fuel lines in rough conditions? Makes sense but I haven’t heard much discussion of it in the past. Interestingly though, we had air in the fuel system on a friends boat after a couple rough days last fall. We had just repowered his boat and rearranged the primary filters so we chalked it up to something we had done or not done. I guess it might have just been the conditions.

Your note about the prop wrap is a great example of the potential for small things out of order to domino into more serious situations. Such a common theme yet still not always given due attention. Thanks for sharing!

I went back to look at your routing options from an early post but couldn’t tell which line was the Friday departure. How did your track end up correlating to the routing option?
 

goldenstate

Sustaining Member
Blogs Author
More thoughts:

Fuel and Water Jugs

I set off carrying 15 gallons of diesel and 5 gallons of extra water lashed to a rail made from Trex u-bolted to two stanchions. This did not turn out to be a good solution as the Trex, while rot-proof and UV resistant, was way too flexible, and the (15gallons *7lbs per gallon of diesel, 5 gallons * 8lbs per gallon of water) 145 lbs of liquid slid back and forth on the deck over every undulation of swell. The general lashed-to-rail approach seems fine, given how many people use it, I just needed a less flexible material for the rail.

After a week of sliding around on deck, I brought the jugs down into the cabin and lashed them to the base of the mast.

Route

When I was about 100 miles north of Maui, I gave serious consideration to re-routing and trying to add a stop there. Lanai, Molokai, and Kahoolawe form a subset archipelago around the south and west sides of Maui. On recent family trips we have stayed on the west side of Maui and at sunset one can look out at all three of the smaller islands and see what I have read is called the “Lahaina Road” path up between the islands. It’s a magical setting.

The problem was that I hadn’t done quite enough research to feel good about what to expect upon arrival. I probably could have stopped at the big harbor on the south side of Maui called Maalea, and that would have worked fine.. But that wasn’t part of my original itinerary and I would have been disappointed if something had happened to prevent my meeting my family, delivery team, etc.. I took the better part of valor and headed straight to Oahu. If I were to do it again, I would try to work in a couple of more stops before Honolulu.
 

goldenstate

Sustaining Member
Blogs Author
Thanks for the great notes Tom.

Is it common to get air in the fuel lines in rough conditions? Makes sense but I haven’t heard much discussion of it in the past. Interestingly though, we had air in the fuel system on a friends boat after a couple rough days last fall. We had just repowered his boat and rearranged the primary filters so we chalked it up to something we had done or not done. I guess it might have just been the conditions.
I think the answer is that it should not be common to get air in fuel lines, but it seems to happen anyway. The previous owner who sold me my boat said specifically on a starboard tack in rough conditions, he had problems with air getting in. It had not been a problem for me until this trip. The previous owner's suggestion was to keep the tank at least half full (Uhh, but doesn't that mean I only have functionally a 10 gallon tank instead of a 20 gallon tank?) so I tried refilling it right away.. I got one of my spare jugs and my rattle siphon and filled the tank up with another 5 gallons. I bled the fuel line and got the engine going again. It ran fine after that.

There is a pick-up pipe in the tank that sucks in fuel when the engine is operating. I don't know how one could avoid getting air in if there are enough small bubbles sloshing around in the fuel.

I went back to look at your routing options from an early post but couldn’t tell which line was the Friday departure. How did your track end up correlating to the routing option?
The PredictWind data is excellent for offshore conditions. On my second or third day I got wind directly from the West, which drove my course more south than I wanted, but was generally in the right direction. With that exception I was able to follow a direct rhumb line path more or less.

The biggest benefit of the departure planning tool was not defining the path of travel per se, but rather answering, "When can I leave such that I will not get my butt kicked by excessive wind as I follow the most direct path?"
 

Joliba

1988 E38-200 Contributing Member
Excellent notes, Tom. I really enjoyed reading your debrief. Your observations concerning the drawbacks of a servopendulum windvane got me thinking. Though I have sailed with various windvanes, I recall that running downwind in light winds with our vertical axis vane steering an auxiliary rudder via a trim tab worked well even in light air. As much as servopendulum vanes are generally favored, the simple auxiliary rudder setup seems to have an advantage in those conditions.
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Tom, what are your plans on the island? And anything you can tell us about the delivery home--how many crew, how'd you pick the skipper, what does the crew require of you, basic contract and so on. Or maybe it's a friend?
 

goldenstate

Sustaining Member
Blogs Author
Tom, what are your plans on the island? And anything you can tell us about the delivery home--how many crew, how'd you pick the skipper, what does the crew require of you, basic contract and so on. Or maybe it's a friend?
Hi Christian - My family is arriving shortly. The slightly earlier-than-expected departure from San Francisco left me with a few days at large on my own in Waikiki. I have tried to take some advantage with boat prep and by hammering out notes etc. while I have uninterrupted time. My boat is presently at the Ala Wai harbor on the east side of Honolulu. With my family I am staying on the west side of town, so the plan is for all of us to sail down together from Ala Wai to Ko Olina harbor (21 miles +/-) once they arrive. After that we'll have a traditional family vacation. Some blustery days in San Francisco put my family off of sailing at home, so I hope that warm tropical waters will make it a fun day sail for them to Ko Olina.

I will gladly weigh in on the delivery team hiring process but I think reasonable caution suggests I should wait until the story concludes with Sure Shot tied up safely back in Sausalito in late July and I have the full story to share.
 
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