Stew's Random Rantings
26 December 2013 | Cap Cana Marina, D.R.
Stew
Well cruising season is upon us one again and once again we find ourselves on weather hold! Gorgeous weather all summer; we could have motor-sailed to Europe and back. However, hurricane season is hurricane season and we saw it prudent to mind the will of the Gods and not tempt the wrath of Neptune or Poseidon.
As Diana previously explained, we have managed to make it as far as Punta Cana. Thanks again to Alan for making it an easy and fun overnight-er Also, we are not completely on weather hold. We are actually waiting for a 'rocker arm adjusting screw' for Ruby or beloved 38 year old Westerbeke 4-107. As of this moment, the part is somewhere between Santo Domingo and here.
I've been procrastinating all summer about writing a few memoirs regarding last season and preparation for this season. However since they fit in with recent events...here goes.
Weather:
Diana and I have learned more about marine weather over the past year than anything else. After spending countless hours researching weather sources for VHF, SSB, Internet and Sat Comm, we have narrowed down our sources to a few very dependable ones.
#1 - Chris Parker at Marine Weather Center. http://www.caribwx.com/ . Chris takes all of the information from the rest of the sources that I have listed, and interprets them for your location.
#2 - Passage Weather: http://passageweather.com/ . It provides wind, wave and weather data overlay-ed on a base map of your choice.
#3 - NOAA offshore forecasts: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/zone/wrdoffmz.htm#gulf They can be obtained via VHF (in the states or Puerto Rico in our case), SSB and internet: The text reports are clear and easy to follow. The only drawback is that they often lack detail for a specific area.
#4 - ZyGrib: http://www.zygrib.org/ . It is a PC program that provides even more detail than Passage Weather and allows you to download the weather data in small bursts (or .grb files).
#5 - Our daughter Sarah ( not sure that she's a good option for the rest of you). Diana sends WX request texts to Sarah (who lives in New Zealand) and Sarah cross references our position with live doppler info and reply's with weather updates including squall locations. Brilliant! All you need is a cell phone and an InReach satellite communicator ($250 + $10-50/mo). Oh, and someone willing to be your onshore weather guy.
Spares:
You need to take a few spares along especially if you have an older boat like our 37 year old Pearson 365. However, you don't need as many as you might think. It is however, very difficult to decide on which spares to bring. The size (storage capability) and age (probability of failure) of your boat are big factors. Also is your budget. We all cannot afford to keep an excessive inventory of expensive parts on hand. Another thing to consider is availability. Some parts are easy to obtain or order. For the most part, just about anything (providing you have a source) can be either purchased through a local or ordered from wherever. For example, the very small marine store here at Cap Cana Marina, the owner has a Lewis Marine catalog and can get you anything in it within four days. You have to pay list price, but you can get the stuff.
Also, regardless of all the rumors out there, we have yet to pay a large duty to customs for importing boat parts. In the Bahamas and here in the D.R., you simply mark the package 'Vessel in Transit' and your parts will arrive duty free. One problem in the D.R., is that if your parts cost more than $200 US, you will have to hire a customs agent to coordinate their routing through customs and subsequent delivery. That will cost you an additional of $200.
Anyway, after one year of cruising, the only spares that I have used are an automatic bilge switch and a pump for our pressurized water system. These do not count consumables such as oil, filters and basic hardware (screws, bolts, clamps, zip-ties, cordage, shackles..etc.)
Spares that I am still glad to have on hand include all of my engine parts: injectors, heat exchanger, starter, alternator, fresh and raw water pumps, belts, lifter pump and a few other odds and ends. Oh, also a spares kit for our Lavac marine head.
Spares that I wish that I had brought include: a spare VHF antenna (they fill with water and quit at a moments notice), another bilge switch (because they are really expensive outside the states), a spare hand-held VHF radio (they are available but also really expensive). Also, a complete replacement pump for our head. You don't want to be stranded without a working head for very long.
A couple of handy things that we have brought include an electric fuel pump that I use to transfer fuel from jugs to the main tank through a filter. It can also be used to prime, back flush, and polish the main fuel supply. The other is an old electric water pump that I use to transfer water from the 6 gal jugs to the boat supply. It's nice not to have to haul the jugs up out of the dinghy a bunch of times to fill the water tanks. Another thing that we picked up at Ocean World was a WiFi booster. We acquired a 'NanoStation2' which can be bought on eBay for around $50. It can pick up a weak signal from over a mile away! I just run it up a flag halyard when we're docked or at anchor. Finally AIS, we love it! I call it 'poor man's radar'. Commercial vessels are all required to have a transmitter. I have a Horizon GX2100 VHF w/AIS receiver. It was the same price as a medium priced unit with free AIS. It was simple to network it with the chart plotter as well. It really makes it simple to keep track of large vessels at night.
Lastly, the leg here to Cap Cana Marina from Ocean World:
I was really disappointed when Ruby started 'acting up' on our initial departure. I had been running her up to operating temperature (in gear), then up to 2500rpm for about 10 minutes every two or three weeks. She seemed really solid. But as soon as we started climbing 3-5 footers past the break wall, she started surging. I thought it was a fuel problem at first and switched to the alternate supply that I installed over the summer. No joy. I then concluded that since the rpm would surge for a few seconds and then drop, it might be the transmission. So we returned to the marina and started troubleshooting the transmission. It seemed fine however, so we thought (Alan and I) that it might just need a little adjustment. Meanwhile Eddy, the assistant dock master called in a mechanic friend of his to help us out. He said that he could remove adjust and reinstall the transmission for about $400-600...what! Not so fast, let's adjust the linkage and make another run. So we did and it started surging again (same problem) however, having Monkey along (the mechanics nickname) made all the difference. He pointed out that it looked more like a fuel problem. So we returned again and he went through the fuel system (to include disconnecting my spare supply that I was so proud of). He couldn't find any trouble so we took it out for another run. 'Ruby' quit while we were still motoring through the Marina. Since I had no idea whether I could get a re-start , I told Alan to go forward and prep the anchor. Then I got the idea to try and make it to one of the commercial slips that we were passing, so I brought her around 90 degrees until it looked like we could make the next slip and turned her in. What-a-ya-know, we made it! A perfect 'engine out landing'! I still got it! I of course acted like it was no big deal and we proceed to tie the boat off. About 20 minutes later, the boat was trashed with tools, fuel and oil everywhere...what oil? Why the @^&k is my valve cover lying on the galley floor! I jumped down to have a look and Monkey was now going over the valve adjustments while simultaneously bleeding the injectors...again why the @^#& is my valve cover off. I called Eddy on the radio to come over (Monkey didn't speak any English and my Spanish is still only good enough to order beer, find a bathroom and tell senoritas that they are pretty). Anyway, after one mediation and ' show-n-tell', Monkey was absolutely right. One of my valves was way out of adjustment (like 3/16" vice 0.012"). Monkey showed me the adjuster and how it was badly won. He did manage to get it back in adjustment at the very upper limit of its' thread range. somewhere during this process, I had decided to abort for the day. If you had seen the mess, you probably would have too. Since Diana had been waiting at the pool all day (she couldn't stand to watch...don't blame her), I had Alan go and check on her and tell her that she might want to rent a room for the night...good call. So after all of the drama and a quick valve adjustment, we were ready for another run. Halleluiah Ruby sounded wonderful and she didn't miss a beat! A trip back to the slip and three or four hours of clean-up...we were good to go!
So Diana, Alan, and I ended up having a gourmet meal of 'souped up' canned ravioli and a few Cuba Libre's in the air conditioned comfort of our suite. Not a bad end to a crazy day! Finally, I have to give a ton of credit to Diana. She never lost hope/faith that we would get Ruby going...I personally wasn't so optimistic.
We left the next morning and had the wonderful trip that Diana has already described with one exception. She didn't mention in detail all off the s%$# that we almost hit! If you have read very many blogs about the northern D.R. and the Mona Passage, you probably read about fish nets and floating debris. Believe every word of it. We passed drift nets attached to one, two, or even four floats. We passed many trees, large and small. And just after dawn (literally minutes), we had to turn quickly to avoid what looked like a WWI or WWII floating mine! It was either that or a fallen satellite...we couldn't be sure...makes me wonder how much stuff we passed during the night? And that pretty much sums it up :)