Steen
07/31/2008, Brisbane

Wife,
Thanks a lot for the blog posting. Here I have been writing for 2-weeks on a posting about what works and what doesn't. And then you beat me to it.

You leave me no other choice than to post what I have got so far.

So hold on folks, here it comes. It is a little rough on the edges.

-Steen


What has worked and what has not worked (for us)
Well, where do I begin. How about here?

The Tayana 37 has worked great for us. I think she is probably about the largest boat an inexperienced short-handed crew like us should take on a passage.

If I was going down to a dock to pick a boat just for passage making, then I think I would pick a 32-34ft generously canvassed cutter. She would have a moderate displacement, maybe 10,000lbs and a long keel. Such a boat could give you a good passage time, 120nm a day, without being too uncomfortable in the sea.

However, we spend most of our time, not counting the 3-years we lived aboard, at anchor in protected waters. Then it is nice to have room aboard, both for humans, and for storage space. Heck, if I were to pick another boat at that same dock to at lay at anchor in, then I would pick something like CT54. It is about compromise.

We do not know of a boat that does everything perfectly, we have seen some that come pretty darn close, and being blatantly biased, the Tayana 37 is one of them.
Her hull is build like a tank, as most '70's Taiwanese boat are. Her construction is really simple, which is both good and bad.

Hi-tech materials and building methods generally makes better boats, no doubt about that. However, such boats tend to be designed and build closer to the limits for better performance and for better profit to the yard. They are often harder to maintain and repair yourself as well.

When Ta-Yang build the Tayana 37's they used 3 things. Polyester resin (lots), Fiberglass (even more) and teak (tons). The mixed the two first and made a hull and a deck. Then they cut up a great big heap of teak and put it inside the hull piece by piece to build one big piece of furniture. That is it.
You can get to all of the bulkhead to hull connections, you can pull the bilge tank out in 20 minutes, the engine lift straight up through the companionway. The bad part of the simple construction is that they did not make it simple because they believed it made a better boat. They made it simple because they did not know enough about boat building to make it complicated. This lack of knowledge lead to some issues here and there on the Tayana 37.

Let me stop this rambling along about something I really do not know much about.

A Tayana 37 is not a perfect boat, and I would not recommend it to anybody. I would not recommend any boat to anybody. Because finding the right boat that fits your needs is half the fun, and if you are looking for the perfect boat then you will never go anywhere, because I will bet you, you will never find it.

So when you have fallen in love, and bought that boat, that you will put all your eggs in, then in my opinion you must have 5 more things. You need a GPS, paper charts and some good sails, a strong vindvane and a shortwave radio.

So let's start with that.

GPS.
We used our, it came with Radiance, old Magellan Nav 5000 GPS all the way from Tacoma to the Koro sea in Fiji. We had a bit of hard weather one night, and the Koro sea made it to the circuit boards in our beloved GPS. (we had a $20 ebay spare GPS) Yes, if you look up the Magellan 5000 online, or if you use to have one, then you will know that this is 15 years old. It is the size of a large brick and the term handheld is a bit of a stretch. We loved this thing because it was simple use. It had a big button for each of the 3 functions, and for each of the numbers 0-9. No multi-function buttons and requirements to hold in any combination of buttons at the same time to setup something.

And maybe the best thing about a handheld GPS- it is really easy to install on the boat. All you need is a bungy cord.

Now we have a Garmin EtreX handheld that we bought in Fiji. It is OK, but it is not a Megellan Nav 5000. And it is to small to install with a bungy cord.

PAPER CHARTS.
I believe that paper charts are superior to electronic charts onboard, because paper charts increase safety. Here is why. With the above mentioned space age technology you can determine your position down to half a boat length, while the hazards on the chart were located using a sextant and a wind-up chronometer 200 years ago. And yes, to the best of my knowledge, and experience, the chart basis for all the electronic charting programs are these sometimes very old paper charts. So here you are, zoomed way in on your electronic chart to a scale that this chart was never even close to be used at, saying "don't worry, we are at least 100 yards of the rocky shoal. Just keep your course and speed". It frightening how we trust whatever comes up on our computer screen. (That is a whole other blog subject, and it is not about sailing)

I think the combination of the paper chart and the GPS is good. Because you know that you are always a little inaccurate when transferring those GPS co-ordinates to the paper. You keep a larger margin of error in your mind and your decision making.

Let me use an example that we have written about in our blog already. Suva harbour channel. We approached and passed through this channel in the dark because we had that little red boat shape blinking on our computer chart showing us that we were on the right heading. We would never have attempted to enter this channel with a paper chart. We would have stayed way off the reef until daybreak. Nothing happened. But we were lucky. You can read about a less lucky crew on our Suva blog posting.

There is one clear advantage to having a electronic chart program installed on your computer. Say you have something like MaxSea installed, then you have almost every chart for the entire globe. Just don't zoom in too much, and be very careful if you have to use them.

GOOD SAILS.
It is quite amazing what these pieces of woven plastic (called Dacron so they can charge more) can do. Day in and day out they propel you, your boat and all your belongings along across the ocean. It is quite remarkable, and I tell you, it is something to sit in the cockpit, lean your head back watching those taut white sail powering you along. In reality they produce about the same as a large riding mower (20hp). But they feel much more powerfull than a 300hp motor boat, I don't know why that it is.

So how did we go about picking our sails. We were lucky to live in the Pacific NW. Among the many very talented, and dedicated boat professional in that region is a sail maker by the name of Carol Hasse
Carol makes cruising sails the way they should be made. Strong and finished by hand. Only a few sail loft in the world can put out sails equal to Carol Hasse Sails. I never asked for a quote from Carol for a sail, because I know from other people that our main sail would be in excess of US$6,000. And we needed a whole new suit of sails, Main, Staysail and Yankee. We had to ask ourselves if we really needed to have the best sail in the world to go cruising. We did not think so. You can find many articles written by Carol Hasse online and in old sailing magazines. Two websites that I referenced quite a bit was of course Carol Hasse's webpage but also on Cruising World magazine's webiste.

Based on what we learned from Carol's material online, we put together a specification sheet for our mainsail. This included such old fashioned things as, 1-1/2" panel overlaps, hand-sewn rings, hand sewn bolt rope on all 3 sides of the sail, hand sewn hanks and hand sewn leather reinforcements at all wear points. I also specified that the length of all corner and reef patched should be about 15 percent of whatever part of the sail they were reinforcing. (Our main sail luff is 45ft and the foot is 13-1/2ft so the tack patch is 6-1/2ft by 2ft) I send these specifications to a dozen sailmakers in the US asking for quotes. Guess what, the sailmakers that didn't die laughing, wrote back and said, "if you want a sail finished like that, then you should contact Carol Hasse".

I could not afford a Hasse sail I knew that it would cost 4-month of the cruising kitty. Instead I choose to a local sail maker. This guy was also a Trans-Pac and Vic to Maui racer on this own boat, so I had confidence that he at least know how much one depend on the sail performing day after day. The affair of getting the mainsail that I wanted turned out not only to be very frustrating but also very long. I ordered the main sail in June and 3 sails later in February we had the main we have today. It turned out that the local sail maker actually did not make the sails. The sails were made somewhere else, and I think this somewhere else sail loft thought I was nuts in what I was asking for. I also think that the local 'sail maker' had a little trouble controlling what came out of this somewhere else sail loft. Bottom line is I finally got what I wanted. The sail is well build out of 9.5oz bulletproof sailcloth. The corner and reef patches are the size of a sheet of plywood and about as easy to bend. And I have never been afraid that it would not hold up to what we asked of it.
For the Staysail and the Yankee I was hesitant to continue with my previous sailmaker, but I was determined to get the hand finished work I wanted.

I had noticed something on our old, and original, Yankee on Radiance. It was beautifully hand finished and it was from the Fare East. So I contacted a few sail lofts in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan to see what they could offer. I know were little about the Fare East and how business is conducted. But one thing I do know now is that they will compete on price and are very good at it. I don't think any of the Fare East lofts even looked at my specification beyond the 3 measurements they needed to get me a quote. Lee sails had the standard run-of-the-mill sail that was the closest to the hand finished work I wanted. Well all they really had was leather behind all the bang-on sail hanks, but it was better than nothing. I put my faith in them and began an interesting string of emails with Helen at the loft in Hong Kong. She wanted to give me the most inexpensive sail as possible, I wanted her to give me the best quality possible for the money.

After 2-weeks or so we had come to a mutual understanding of what I wanted her to make me. And I had a long email string documenting the cloth I wanted all the hand-sewn details, and my absurdly large corner patches. She said you will have the sail in 3-week. And by gully, on the 21st day there it was. And it was perfect, just what I had asked for.

2 month later I asked her to begin my Staysail. I was erroneously assuming that she knew who I was and that I was a little nuts when it came to the details. 21 days later I got a run-of-the-mill sail. Oh what a different sail that is. I guess that the very low price quote should have been a indicator that I should have gotten a little involved in the design process again.

I am not sure where to fit this little piece of information in so I will just let sit here all be itself.
All sail lofts, all over the world uses that same cloth from one of these 3 mills, Bainbridge, contender or challenge. The difference is how they put it together. The sun could not care less who put it together of course, it will send it evil UV rays and eat your sail up.

When it come to choice of rig as in gutter, sloop, or ketch which is the three most common rig types. Then I would pick a cutter rig, which is what Radiance has got. For a Pacific passage, the only change I would make from the traditional gutter with her small foresails, would be to rig a (I know it is a bad word) roller furler with a 110% genoa that could be polled out. I would rig a heavy weather hank-on staysail on the inner forestay. 75% of the time you will be running almost dead downwind, and a poled out genoa would work well, maybe with a little bit of main and storm tri-sail up.

Any of the three common rigs will perform just about the same, and each has got its strong side and its weak sides. It is about compromise. I would not, based on my experience, try a more exotic rig such as a gaff or anything with topsails. It seems to me that these would be hard to handle in heavy weather.
One comments on roller furling and hank-on sails. We have hank one sails, and I have never used a roller furling. But I have heard many stories about roller furling fail under heavy load or unfurl in high winds. For a rig with large sails I think roller furling makes sense, but I would get the largest and beefiest furler available.

We have a traditional cutter rig with two small headsails, they are about 65% each. A sail that small you would probably never furl partially. So it will either be up or down, in that case the hank on sail is perfect. There are very few things that can go wrong with a piton hank, and if it breaks, you just sew on another one. The only thing that I have to be careful about when pulling a headsail down, especially in big seas, is to avoid the halyard getting entangled in something like dorade or a cleat on the mast. When that happens the sail will not come all the way down, and you have to let go of it and untangle the halyard. It is a real pain in the, when that happens.

One more thing, if you ever loose you mast overboard, and have to jury rig, a furling sail is no good, because it has no hanks.

A STRONG WINDVANE.
I do not have much to say about the choice of windvanes. I think they are more or less all equal. Some have been around for years. You see a lot of Monitor, Aries and Sailomat, so I guess they work or people would have thrown them overboard. We have a 30-year old Aries No 3. Her name is Wanda. And if it wasn't for the fact that Wanda is bolted to the stern of Radiance, and that it would awkward to get back there in the dark, I would kiss her good night too, when we are on a passage.

One thing I do know for certain about windvanes. You would have to be crazy to leave without one.

SHORT WAVE RADIO.
Onboard Radiance we have an Icom 802 with a Pactor IIIex modem. We bought the radio while in San Diego after realising that it is really nice to have weather info readily available while at sea, no matter when and how far from shore you are. Most of such weather info we receive via our email and not voice, with the exception of talking to Don Anderson down the coast of Mexico and across the South Pacific out to Palmerston. The email capability is what we use the most.

The equipment package is rather expensive, it will set you back with as much as $3,300 before it is all up and running. The up and running part in it self is a fairly straightforward. The running cables and mounting of the equipment is like any other electrical installation on a boat, you wish you had along thin arms with 3 elbow joints, sort of like those space creatures. The only really big decision that you will have to make is how to get a good counter poise. (I have been told that is what bounces the radio wave out into airways, and you need as much as you can get) How to get this is the question. But be careful, there is a fair amount of differences in opinion on how this counter poise is obtained. These discussions can get a little heated.

To get lots of this counter poise on Radiance I tapped a bolt into our encapsulated cast iron keel and it works great. Lots of radio waves bouncing out.

It is certainty possible to venture out to sea without a SSB radio. But it is a great help to us beginners and it is comforting to check into the daily radio net and hear all the other cruisers.

So that was the equipment that you in my opinion need.

What else.
The next piece of equipment almost made to the above list. Our Old-fashioned hand cranked Coffee grinder. You can get the grinds just perfect and uniformly grinned. Unlike the electrical grinder that leaves you with mix of powder and large chunks of beans cut in halves and everything in-between. And there is something therapeutic about hand grinding your coffee in the morning. No matter how bad the weather is.

Tow generator.
This is a very close contender to the coffee grinder when it comes to making this list of the 5 must have items.

We have an Amp-Air tow generator. It is simple to install. It is build to outlast just about any boat or owner. It is quite. While under way we get between 75-100 amp-hours per day (24 hours). Which is more power than we need.

The 3 instruments in the cockpit.
Our old 3 Autohelm ST4000 has been all we needed, even though they never really worked. Our wind gauge did not work when we left Tacoma, and still doesn't. Our knot meter has always been way off, but we always go as fast as we comfortably can. Our depth sounder works great in 5-300ft of water. If the water is any less than 5ft then you can clearly see the bottom which keeps you alert. And when the water is deeper than 300ft then I would rather not know. I don't know what it is but there something creepy about floating on top of 1000's of feet of water.

So when it comes to the cockpit instruments, I would say that the 3 basic, wind, speed and depth, is all you need. And it is nice if they also work, at least the depth sounder.

Fishing.
The fishing rig that has work best for us is made with surgical tubing. We have 4ft of ½" rubber surgical tubing with a 60lbs fishing line coiled up inside. It is simple and cheap to make, and needs almost no maintenance.

You take the tubing and push the fishing line through the hollow center. Pull out about 3ft of line in the other end and tie a hitch around the tubing. Then stretch the tubing as far as it will go while feeding the line into the tubing. Now comes the slightly tricky part, you tie a hitch with the line around the tubing. Now the line will coil up inside the tubing.

Secure the three foot piece of line to the boat and your favourite lure to the other end. Allow maybe 150ft of line for the lure end. Fasten the tubing with a clothe pin to a lifeline.

Now when fish hit, the cloth pin goes flying and the tube stretch out and take the impact of the hit. Just pull the fish in hand over hand. I know what you are thinking- you can't pull in a open ocean game fish in with your bare hands you need a proper reel. Well chance are that you are not going to have a giant 200lbs tuna like fish hit your little lure, and most of the giant full grown fish has been taken by the tune fleet anyway, and you just ate it out of a small can. Secondly, if you are so 'lucky' to actually hook one of those giants, then you better hope your luck continues and the fish escapes. Because you do not want it on deck of your little boat or try to get the hook out while hanging over the railing.

Bottom paint.
We use Petite Trinidad, black. It has a bunch of cuprousoxide, which is the workhorse of bottom paint. It works great for us.

Cordage.
Get good brand name cordage. I bought some cheap online stuff and it kinks like crazy. Even after being used for almost 10,000 miles.

All chain anchor rode.
If you going to the South Pacific, then get as much chain as you can carry. You cannot anchor with rope in coral. We often anchor in 50ft of more. At a 5:1 scope you need at least 250ft of chain. You can cheat a bit by letting the last bit of anchor rode be rope. The rope should be no longer than the depth you are anchoring in. We have to cheat even more since we mistakenly only carry 100ft of chain and 300ft of 1-1/2" rope. What ever rope we have to let out to have sufficient scope we have to keep of the bottom by tying our fenders to the rope every as we let it out. It works but is not a good solution.

Ground tackle.
We have a 45lbs CQR for our main anchor. It has worked great so far. I wish we had a 100lbs fisherman's anchor like a 3-piece Luke. That would be a good anchor if the weather gets really bad and the bottom is questionable.

4-stoke outboard.
Don't get me started on 4-stroke outboards, or outboards in general. We have just bought a 2-stroke 2.3 horse outboard. So far it seems like the perfect outboard. You can lift it without mechanical assistants, and you can, or at least should be able to fix it yourself. We have never had a use for all the 8 horses that our `big' outboard has got.

Dinghy.
Get a good dinghy. We didn't. Inflatables are great because they are stable and easy to swim from. A hard bottom dinghy is much easier to row though.

Diesel heater.
We have a Dickinson Newport. Very nice when just slightly out of the tropics in the winter half of the year.

Coastie suits.
What we call coastie suits are what the US Coast Guard wears when the go to sea. Big insulated orange cover-alls. They will actually float and are considered a life jacket Our coastie suits are made be Mustang and are like a little pilot house that you wear. It is always nice and toastie inside. If you were to ask Angela to choose between her coastie or me. Well, I will just leave it with that.

Plastic containers for food.
Get good quality. If you are lucky enough that you live near a speciality container store then arm yourself with measurements of all you lockers and go spend a fortune. It was worth it for us. Space is always in short supply on a cruising boat. The more efficiently you can pack a locker the better.

LaVac head.
Honestly, a head never works as well as you want it to. If it plugs or breaks once a year, then that is once to often. The LaVac does not use a lot of water when flushing so it will not fill your holding tank as quickly. And if you ever need a spare bilge pump fast, then all your have to do is cut one hose and you are moving water out of the boat.

Submergible 12V bilge pumps.
We had our 12V bilge pump leak just a little bit of current into the bilge water. That ate the bottom of our full tank. We were loosing 5 Gallons an hour in the middle of the Pacific. I am now through with 12V submergible bilge pumps. In New Zealand I installed a vacuum switch in the bilge and a 12V heavy-duty diaphragm pump far away from the bilge water. So far it works great.

Wind generators.
We used to have one. In average they do not give you many AH in the battery as one would think. Most need 20 knts to produce anything near 15 amps. Even if you get 20 knts every 5 days for 5 hours making 15 amps you still only made 75 amp-hours. That is an average of 15 amp-hours per day. You would much better of with a couple of 60W solar panels. You can make 15 amp-hours in 3 hours on a cloudy day with those. Maybe I am just mad because I lost our rotor blades in 200ft of water at Palmerston.

Real plates and silver ware.
It is enough like camping already, you got to have some standards.

Keel cooled refrigerator.
I guess they work as well as can be expected. If you install a refrigerator on board, don't think you will have fresh cold food forever. Because it will break. Most likely when you get to that remote tropical island. Then you will end up with a big black plastic bag on deck full of all the food you used to have in that nice cold icebox. We lived without an icebox between Bora Bora and Fiji. Really it is not such a huge deal not to have refrigeration. Most of the food you buy in the majority of the world is not refrigerated anyway. As for the bronze keel cooler on the bottom of Radiance. It seems to work great, and it certainly an advantage to dissipate the heat into the water instead of into the boat.

Watermaker.
If you size it small enough, you can run it every day or every other day. No need to pickle between use. A small unit uses a small amount of watts. If you can run it in the middle of the day when voltage is high from the solar panel output, then it become fairly cheap amp-hour wise. We have a PUR-35 and it uses 3 amps at 12.8 volts to make 1-1/2 gallon per hour. (5.5 liters).

Cruiser or Cruising.
Something that never worked for us, and I have used several times in this posting, is the term "cruiser" or "cruising". It gives people an idea that we lay around in lounge chairs on deck with cocktails and land our dinghies on perfect white sand beaches to play our pre-arranged beach games. Which, at least for us, is not an accurate description. In Danish we are called "langturs sejlere" which translates to "long-trip sailors". I think that is a good description, though it sounds a little clumsy in English. We could call it "Trans-ocean sailors" or "small boat voyagers". I wonder what other languages call us. Any ideas?

That is all I can think of now.

All this 'stuff' may seem confusing and complex. It really isn't. It is just like being a one-man maintenance department in a small self-sufficient city. Except at much smaller scale.

Before we bought Radiance, a friend of mine, Joe, told me "everything I know, I have learned on my boat". It is very true.

Comments [3]

Angela
07/30/2008, Joplin, Missouri, USA

As Steen said, the crew of Radiance is temporarily split up. Malou and I are in Joplin, Missouri visiting my family and friends. Malou is almost four and hasn't seen her grandparents here since October of 2006. Even though the crew is not together, it is great to see Malou spending time with my Mom and my aging Dad.

I will probably start a separate blog about what it's like coming back to the Midwest after living on the West Coast and after traveling across the Pacific Ocean, meeting people from other cultures with different lifestyles and viewpoints. I would like to explore the ideological differences as well as similarities between people living on the American West Coast with those living in the Heartland. I grew up in Missouri and have a little insight into the mindset of the hard-working, no-nonsense, generous and sometimes skeptical attitudes of the local population.

The other reason for the blog will be to write about the lighter topics of what Malou and I are up to, and anything we think might be of interest.

On another note: some answers to the question of Most Valuable Boat Equipment.

I think Steen and I would both agree that in addition to the obvious necessary equipment onboard, like working sails and sturdy rigging, our most valued piece of equipment on board is...

1. Wanda, our self-steering wind vane. It is an Aries, purchased used, our second one actually; the first one was stolen along with our old Toyota Camry station wagon which happened to be full of boat parts.
We also used an electric AutoHelm 4000 coming down the U.S. west coast when we were motoring, but had trouble finding a replacement belt after our belt broke somewhere in...? I don't remember where.

The next few items are listed in no specific order of importance.

2. Watermaker: definitely glad we bought it. We used it all the way across our first passage from Mexico to The Marquesas. We tried to only consume the watermaker water as we made it, saving our 90 gallon main water tank for when we were either low on power or when we arrived in an inner harbour near other boats and didn't think the water was clear enough to use the watermaker. We continued to use that system and it worked very well for us. Every time we made a little passage of a couple days or more, we tried to use the watermaker, which did two things: 1. Saved Steen from having to pickle the watermaker, (which you need to do if you're not going to use it for awhile (ask Steen for definition of 'awhile'), and 2. Gave us more freedom as to how long we could stay at anchor in one place without having to worry too much about water. I think Steen also occasionally poured the watermaker water into the main tank to top it up. Otherwise, we just kept it in jugs in the fridge.

We bought our watermaker supposedly 'new in the box' at the Fisheries Swap Meet in Seattle. It was sold as a Power Survivor 40 , but is actually a Power Survivor 35. ( I notice there is one currently for sale on Craig's List Seattle). We functioned well with the 35, but Steen might want to shed more light on what he thinks is sufficient watermaker capacity.

Note: for us it was great using the watermaker when we were sailing because we had an effective tow generator that trailed behind the boat, wired to the batteries, that powered the watermaker and anything else we needed. That tow generator converted into a wind generator but wasn't as effective, partly because of the design and partly because it wasn't always windy enough in the inner harbours or bays to be effective.

3. Speaking of water: something we did not have, unfortunately, was a proper water catchment system; meaning durable fabric specifically sewn and designed for catching rain water and diverting it into a water tank. We tried using lightweight sail fabric from our old torn drifter sail, but it was way too light and would either rip or blow around in a breeze. For those times when we were in a crowded bay or in not so clear water and couldn't use the watermaker, or were low on power... and were in a torrential downpour, we would have LOVED to have a good rain catchment system. We would recommend putting some thought into this if you're planning on being at sea or at anchor somewhere.. anywhere for a long period of time.

4. Think Power: Wind and Tow Generator and Solar Panels
I have to end this posting now, but will get back to it later.

Back with a few more things we thought were necessary:

5. Mosquito coils. We must have used 100 mosquito coils by the time we got to New Zealand. I think we bought most of them in Mexico. Can you buy them in the islands? I can't remember but I think so - (I know we bought some in Fiji). I'd recommend stocking up just in case.)

6. Tamanu Oil helped keep the horrible no-no sand flies from biting. This is a seriously annoying and uncomfortable problem in parts of Mexico and in parts of the Pacific Islands, including New Zealand. I bought some freshly made tamanu oil in The Marquesas, because of a tip I received from a local in Nuku Hiva, Marquesas who saw the horrible state of my sand-fly bitten legs. I see that you can buy it online too. I don't know the quality of the stuff online, but I'd say it's definitely worth the seventeen bucks to find out. Also, when you get to the Marquesas, buy some freshly made. I paid about fifteen dollars for a bottle that is still half full. It doesn't take much oil to work. A fellow cruising friend used Avon Skin So Soft lotion to help keep biting bugs away. It might be worth having onboard also. And general mosquito and bug repellant is recommended too. And the lightest weight sunscreen you can find. You'll probably sweat it off, or else be so hot, you won't want anything on your face, but try anyway.

7. LED bulbs: We love our Sensi-bulbs that Steen ordered on-line. They give a warm light and use virtually no power. Steen will have more info on those.

Ok. That's my list.
8. Add a sunshade of somekind. We used our torn drifter and it worked well for that unless it was windy.
9. Also some kind of awning for the port lights would have been great. Sounds dumb, but when you're boiling up inside and it's pouring down rain, it would have been heaven to be able to open the ports.
10. A fan: how could I forget that? We had the Mexican bus driver's version. We could have used something quieter.

You get the idea? It's about comfort, and I'm not talking luxury; I'm talking livability without going crazy.

And don't forget a good digital camera and laptop.. and a backup laptop.
Oh! I forgot
11. our Icom SSB with Pactor Modem. Definitely worth the money. It's a lot of money, actually, but we never regretted it, not one minute. Weather forcasts and Email communication onboard is invaluable.

Ok that's really all for now.
No it isn't.

SAFETY:
All of the above is in addition to the safety equipment we have on board, like an Epirb and a 6-man life raft (wish we had gone with the canister instead of the bag), and what else? a Preventer for the Mail sail, SOSpenders PFDs, good tethers.

GPS and backup GPS. We actually miss our ancient Magellan. It was huge and easy to read from the helm and we liked it's features. Steen will know the model number. If any still exist, they could probably be picked up for cheap.

Steen? you can take over before I ramble on too much. But I know you're busy working on the boat, so we won't be too hard on you if you don't answer right away.

OK. Take care.

Comments [3]

Steen
07/22/2008, Brisbane, Australia

The photo above is from Manihi Atoll.

This may sound a little strange, but I have never read our entire blog from start to end. Tonight I read a little here and there. And I have to say, we have had one heck of a trip so fare. Those of you that checks our blog on a regular basis know, that something drastic must happen for me to write. Well, something drastic just happened. The little crew on Radiance has been split up, after 20-month under the same deck. Angela and Malou left for the united states a few days ago. For the next 90 days Radiance and I are going to be in Brisbane by ourselves. I would like to write something for the blog, but I am not sure what to write about. I could write about:
- Why did I see a Coke bottle float around 2000 miles off-shore, but could not catch a fish
- The most difficult job in the world, Boat designer. The same cruising boat that has to sail safely straight through a storm must be also serve as a comfortable home at anchor. Sometimes you have to keep the outside out, and sometime you need as much of the outside inside.
- What does it take mentally take to live and travel in 37 feet of Fiberglas.
- A good friend of ours said about all the cruising friends that we say good bye to "I wish I could live on the same street, with the kids and see them grow up, with the 20'something and see them select a mate and settle down, with the adventure and think up a new adventure every day.
- The simple complexity of a sailboat.
- Why 3-year olds make good sailors.
- Our favourite place in the world. Manihi atoll. And why it is so difficult to write about.
- What equipment do you really need onboard.

But I would really like you to bring some topics to write about. So let me know, and I may give it a try.

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07/10/2008

The Brisbane Powerhouse

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07/04/2008

An American in Australia

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from 'America' by Katherine Lee Bates 1913
07/04/2008, Brisbane, Australia

This Fourth of July message is dedicated to the memory of

Jim Cabay
1943 - 2008

a member of our extended family in Chicago, Illinois, and a kind and generous host of many a Fourth of July family gathering.

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Angela
06/27/2008

In our earlier posting about Brisbane we forgot to say that we have also explored some of the city parks which are much more than just parks. - think interactive water elements, palm trees, ponds, gardens, a sandy city beach, weekend markets, buskers (street performers), well-designed playgrounds, and interesting birds and one big reptile.

We have to catch up on our photos. For the past week we have been 'doing' things rather than looking through a lens. Now we need someone to follow us around with a camera.

Short posting, but we wanted to say that sometimes we are asked how we learned to sail. We always reply that we learned from our neighbor Fred. Fearless, he went out with us newbies and taught us how to manuever a 22,000 lb. full-keel boat, what to look for in sail shape, when to let out the sheets, how to work the throttle. Also to not worry - there was plenty of time to tack; we wouldn't suddenly hit shore while still a hundred yards away with twenty feet of water under the keel. The reason why I'm so comfortable at the helm is initially thanks to Fred. Your words of advice still run through our minds.
Thanks Fred.

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06/24/2008, Brisbane, Australia

We have had a good first week and have been very busy.

(Our wireless internet connection is currently unreliable, so I lost the posting I just tried to make.
It wasn't very long and basically said the following:)

-We have been busy orienting ourselves to our new surroundings.
-We've been carrying Malou, or coaxing her, all over town.
-Been looking for and acquiring bikes, with a child carrier
-Making travel arrangements.
-Researching local job opportunities. (We hope to stay in Brisbane for a little while... a year or two, not sure)
-Brisbane city planners have been making good decisions.
-and that there are no photos this time. Our camera memory chip was affected by electro-static charge and we lost some photos and movies. it should be ok again now, but we are a bit camera-shy. We Will take some more photos soon. There is a lot to see here.

More next time. We will continue to be pretty task-oriented for the next few weeks so our blog postings may be few, but we will try to get some city photos posted as soon as we can. Take care and thank you for the comments.

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06/17/2008, Brisbane, Australia

Steen made an excellent dinner and we ate in our candlelit cockpit... the Story Bridge, the city lights, the reflection off the water, people and ferries coming and going. Like sailing under the Golden Gate, or playing with stingrays in Moorea, we agreed that the journey up the Brisbane River at sunset, arriving in the city as the lights came on was one of the most unexpectedly wonderful and amazing things we had done during our journey so far.

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06/17/2008, Brisbane, Australia

The city sparkles and we agree this is one of the coolest things we've ever done.

Staying out of the way of the little night ferries, we anchor just down from the bridge, in the light of the tall buildings right across from us.

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06/17/2008

Story bridge.

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06/17/2008

taking photos while steering.

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06/17/2008, Brisbane, Aust.

As the sky becomes pink and the southeastern shore gets bathed in warm light, we start to see skyscrapers in the background, around the many bends.
We start keeping a heads-up for the City Cat Ferries, (catamarans), who run up and down and across the river taking people home from work or out to dinner at riverside restaurants...

We round one of the last bends and there is The Story Bridge, outlined with picturesque lights.

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