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Setting off around the world!

Mark F

Contributing Partner
Blogs Author
Hi Pajo,

Damn that sucks. Good thing it didn't happen in the middle of your Pacific crossing!!! Any progress?
 

p.gazibara

Member III
Hey Mark!
Still waiting for the quotes to come in, but so far Colligio Dux looks like an interesting option. Haven't heard back from Buzz yet.

I'm trying to find out whether the Colligio stemball fitting are the same as our stemball fittings. If so, I'm very tempted to go with dyneema.

Either way, looks like we are flying back to San Fran end of September to apply for long stay visas here. Hopefully we can bring back our parts with us.

You guys racing Catalinas in the bay area still?
 

Mark F

Contributing Partner
Blogs Author
Hi Pajo,

Hopefully Guy will check in at some point (They are currently sailing towards Tahiti). I remember him talking about Dyneema rigging in the past. Do I remember the issue with replacing the rod rigging is that the fittings are no longer manufactured? Let me know if you need me to stop by Bud's shop.

Yes, the " Catalina Tuesday" races are still going on. At this point there are Catalina's, Santa Cruz's, C&C's, Beneteau's, Santana's, I think there was a Swan out a couple of weeks ago. Quite a mixed group.
 

p.gazibara

Member III
Turns out I met Guy on the dingy dock. Small world, even in the South Pacific.

We will be back stateside October 1 and making a trip to Colligo to pick up some new Dyneema rigging.

We are going to do a video on the conversion. Easy to say we are anyway...
 

sgwright67

Member III
Great thread!

Enjoying this thread, as this is the trip we hope to do eventually. Did you make it back to NZ yet? Interesting to read about all the issues with the 35-2 hull - I guess extra thick glass is not a substitute for some well placed reinforcements, or the later TAFG. I wonder how the smaller boats in that generation like the 32, 29, 27 make out in terms of stiffness?

Edit: Never mind, I see that they have updated via FB & Instagram. :)
 
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p.gazibara

Member III
It’s been a long tow months... leaving your boat in the tropics in the rainy season really let’s you find the leaks.

And i thought Seattle was rough...

we we are still in Tahiti, haven’t headed west yet. Looks like we are going to head to the Australs while we wait for new motor batteries. The old lead acid ones are really struggling.

NZ is the plan for October, so much so I got myself a travel let’s work visa.

I imagine all all of the boats of that vintage were built the same way and would this have the same issues. The smaller ones may not be affected as much, but I read a story somewhere about a guy who sailed to Japan and set a record in an E27. Apparently he also had to tab the bulkheads in.

Nice solid glass hulls, but ya stifferenrs added in key places really change things.
 

robjpowell

Member II
When in NZ...

Pajo & Ava,
If you do end up in NZ send me a PM. When we returned to NZ, after 21y in the US, we bought our '76 35-2 with us. At that time the refit wasn't finished so she came on a trailer. We are in Whangarei and also have a mooring in the Bay of Islands that may be available to a fellow Ericson owner...
Rob
 

p.gazibara

Member III
Hey Rob, would love to meet up! That sounds great, I’ll pm you when we get closer to heading south. The next 6 months or so will be dedicated to exploring the SP.

im hoping to pick up some work down there and stay a while, we will see.

Is Bluechip in Whangarei?
 

robjpowell

Member II
Pajo,
Yes, Bluechip splits her time between Parua Bay -off Whangarei Harbor, and Te Uenga -part of Parakeura Bay in the Bay of Islands. Compared to Cinderella she is still essentially a standard 35-2 (engine under stairs not table) although we have added some weight with solid anchoring setup, stainless stern rails, seats and a bimimi. And yes, she does still have the original A4 -part of why I wouldn't sail her here.

Let me know when you are heading this way.

Rob
 

p.gazibara

Member III
After two months of nothing but work on Cinderella, we finally got to get out of Tahiti and do a lap through the Tuamotus.

The list was long, pull the rig, install new Colligo rigging, reinstall mast, fix leaks, fix deck rot, fix fridge, fix windlass, replace aft bulkhead, clean EVERYTHING!

I’m happy to say that we are once again loving the life, and I am no longer spending all of my time working on the boat.

Leaving a vintage boat you just sailed 10k nm in the tropics in the rainy season may not be the best idea. We developed pesky leaks that really showed themselves while we were back in the states for 4 months. It was a lot of work to clean Cinderella back up and make her liveable again.

The new rigging is great, Colligo’s design work is top notch. I wish I could say the same about their attention to detail and timeline. I had to resplice each an every one of the stays I had them make for me, not the worlds most challenging task, but frustrating. In the end we are lucky we went with dyneema, I could resplice the stays myself even on a remote island, the same can not be said for rod or wire.

What made the rigging task more interesting was that the crane was broken and waiting on new parts... Apparently they weren’t due in for 3 months! We improvised and used another boats rig to pull our mast and I was able to do all the work on deck at anchor. We used their mast again to reinstall our rig. Quite a spectacle.

Our lead acid electric drive batteries also went flat while we were gone. Fortunately we were able to bring them back to life, but I have serious doubts in their remaining life. We are waiting on new batteries from India. We ordered them in February, they are arriving in June....

At least Cinderella sails well and we have been able to get in and out of the atoll said under sail without issue.

Cheers from the South Pacific,
p
 

p.gazibara

Member III
I think turns out Tahiti and all of French Polynesia is fantastic. After a year and change we finally checked out and headed west. At the moment we are bound for New Zealand to hopefully find work and replenish the all but diminished cruising kitty.

Our first stop after Tahiti was Palmerston atoll, where an English fellow set up shop with three wives and 26 kids. It was a rather interesting glimpse of behavioral psychology on a small scale. Oddly enough, lots of internal family conflict...

The atoll was beautiful, and on arrival two whales swam under Cinderella as we were picking up the mooring. I just wish it had been a minute later so I could have jumped in with them!

From Palmerston we headed to Nuie, what a spectacular place! The caves, pools and limestone features really brings out the inner child. We were lucky enough to break out the climbing gear and teach one of the cruising kids how to rock climb.

We would have loved to stay longer, but the costs of everything made the stay short.

We set off from Nuie for Vavau Tonga and arrived two days later. What a beautiful sail! 1.5m seas, 12kts and Cindy was loving it. Probably one of our best passages on the trip.

Tonga looks like the San Juan Islands but in the tropics. At least the northern group. Rocky islands hitting up from the sea floor letting you sail right up to them and not worry about water depth. Lots of sea caves, and lots of cruisers.

For the first time in a while everyone is speaking English. The customs officer fell asleep at his desk while asking us questions. The culture here is very different than French Polynesia. But I should expect that as it is a Kingdom.

The church has an oddly strong hold here don’t make too much noise on Sunday, and don’t let anyone see you in a swimsuit near Town!

There are giant bats playing in the trees in front of the anchorage, truely wild.

There must be over 400 boats in this bay, the energy is very anxious as everyone is prepping to either head west or south in the coming months.

I can’t wait to get away from it and park it in some remote anchorages for our remaining time here.

Oh, I also found the best beer I have had since leaving the US here, it’s called Tiki and made in Tonga... that brewery will certainly demand a visit.

Tomorrow we will be changing our forestay, it’s the last piece of the rig that we haven’t changed yet, and I’m hoping it’s going to be a quick job.

-P
 

nquigley

Sustaining Member
Great report - thank you very much. Will you get to the Southern Lau group before heading for God'sOwn (NZ)? - apparently the Lau's are an awesome experience culturally. (See most recent vblog by Cruising Kiwis)
Bula!
 

p.gazibara

Member III
I think we are gonna save Fiji for the return from NZ. Why rush? Tonga seems like it has a lot to offer.

-P
 

Mark F

Contributing Partner
Blogs Author
Hi Pajo,

Are you using synthetic for the forestay? I forget, do you have a headsail furler?
 

p.gazibara

Member III
Hi Pajo,

Are you using synthetic for the forestay? I forget, do you have a headsail furler?

Ya, we have a furler up front. It’s the only piece that isn’t synthetic, and it’s the only piece of rod we have left on the boat.

We we have some wire and a couple of Hi-mod fittings that will make up the new forestay.we are just looking for a dock we can pull up to to do the work.

We were hoping to do it yesterday, but too many ferries arrived, gonna try again for dock space in an hour. Hope it goes well!

-P
 
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Mark F

Contributing Partner
Blogs Author
I was curious about synthetic under the furler foil. Wire under all the spinning furler stuff sounds like a good idea! Good luck with the replacement!
 

p.gazibara

Member III
Cinderella and crew have arrived in Opua, New Zealand! Safe and sound.

We we had an 8 day stopover at North Minerva reef waiting for a low to blow by. What a unique place.

Tonga - Minerva
2 days 14hrs
282nm sailed
4.53 average
Not bad considering we spent the night hove-to waiting for light to enter the pass

Minerva - Opua
7 days 20 hrs
4.73 average

Most importantly, no heavy weather was encountered. Our crew unfortunately spent the first three days on a water diet, but after the third day he came around.

We we were really happy to split up the shifts later in the trip when the wind dropped and we had to hand steer. Glad these E boats are so good in light wind!

time to drink the last of our Tongan beer reserves...
-p
 

p.gazibara

Member III
Kia ora!

Enjoy Aotearoa!

Thanks! ItÂ’s unbelieveable to be here. The first world, I forgot what that entails.

I forgot to include the the list of failures we had during the last crossing.

While we were in Minerva Reef I decided to take our backstay off and thread a 14awg tinned wire into it to participate in the SSB net during the crossing. Adding the wire shrunk the backstay (which I expected it to do) enough to get proper rig tension for the upwind sail to NZ. The downside, I noticed oil leaking from the hydraulic cylinder about a day out and had to wrap the whole mess with dyneema to help it maintain tension. The fix worked, now to find somewhere to have it rebuilt.

The shackle holding the jib clew to the roller fueled lost its pin a day or two our from NZ and I use some small diameter line to whip the clew to the roller. That is still holding until o find a suitable replacement.

just as we entered the Bay of islands we heard a “tink” on deck and realized that the boom was free from the gooseneck and only held on by the main sail. Fortunately the wind was down and the bay protected us from the swell so we were able to get the pin (which miraculously didn’t go overboard) back in after dropping the sail.

After leaving Tonga our force 10 stove/oven started acting up. It has been working flawlessly for 20 something years and finally corrosion got between the gas valve and the thermocouple causing the valve to remain shut unless you held the flame adjuster down. A real bummer since we could no longer make bread or cake. Staples on Cinderella during passage to keep moral high. Fortunately we had time and a flat sea while anchored in Minerva reef to take the oven out, disassemble it and find the problem. The fix was straightforward but getting to the valve was nearly impossible. In the end I had to cut a wrench in half with an angle grinder to get to the valve (with extreme fingertip dexterity). But we were able to clean the corrosion and reinstall the oven. It worked perfectly the reminder of the trip.

Ava and I have spent the morning planning our wedding here in NZ. We think the Bay of Islands is the perfect place to rent a large house on the water for the festivities which should make it easy on the aging relatives and allow our cruising friends to raft up and dingy right in.

Any Ericson owners who happen to be in the area are more than welcome to come and join us on 4/20/20

Cheers from NZ,
-P
 
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