When I first flighted the trip from San Diego to NZ, several points of view were expressed by other forumites and I was unable to speak with any authority because I was asking the question. Now that I have done it and can speak with some experience let me revisit some of the things that we shared from my new persective.
Firstly the over-riding view expressed is that two weeks is insufficient to prepare a new-to-owner boat for a voyage like the one I contemplated. Of considerable interest is that of all of the system/equipment failures we experienced, all were with elements of the vessel that we thought were sound and "would be OK".
We lost our fridge three days out. Simply stopped working. We could not have done anything to avoid it because it was working perfectly for the whole 2 weeks we were on the dock. We lost one alternator a week out. Some would say that it should have been overhauled before the trip but that sentiment could see one rebuiling engines, gearboxes and all kinds of other major components. About two weeks from the end of the voyage, the second alternator gave trouble for a totally different reason. Go figure. Obviously this is justification for an alternate power source (wind genny, genset). So in short, we could've stayed in San Diego for months and still had those failures. Most of our other problems mechanical stemmed from these two failures. One other thing that broke was the raw-water impeller on the Yanmar but we had a spare on oard so it was fixed in a jiffy.
Another view expressed was that "if you're preparing a boat like this, the most affordable place in the world to do it is San Diego". Rubbish. It was probably the most expensive I have encountered in twenty years of boat ownership. Some examples:
- To install an SSB, not including the cost of the radio or the antenna tuner - 1st quote $4800, second $3900!! Despite Sailing Dog's advice to have a professional job done, I did it myself, took four hours and worked perfectly all the way home.
- Three panels of clear plastic around the cockpit - US$2300. Outrageous but that was the best price we could get.
- A new wind instrument cost $560. To install it? How about $900?
- To cut the foot of a second-hand sail up 4 feet (luff was too long) - $480. The sail only cost us $230!
- And then the least expected cost - we spent over $400 on taxis in 2 weeks.
All in all, we spent abot US$10 000 in two weeks! San Diego is a beautiful city with wonderful people but, man, it's expensive to do business there.
There was a lot of discussion about a clip-on backstay antenna made by Gam Electronics and a range of other "easy fix" antenna solutions that would not require cutting the backstay. We bought and installed a Gam antenna. It took twenty minutes including soldered connections to the radio and it works like a million bucks. I would recommend it to anyone.
In terms of sailing equipment, we had a reef line failed, one side of the stack pack got frayed and parted, in some very strong weather our jib got some minor splits in it but luckily all in the area of the UV band so they never went too far. Everything else is still good.
The weather and the timing of the season were also discussed at some length. Our weather was simple. We left San Diego on a westerly and we headed south west on a starboard tack. We held that tack for 150 miles then we hit the north easterlies of the North Pacific high and went onto a port tack. From there all the way to the entrance to the Nuku Hiva harbour, a distance of 2700 miles, we never tacked again!! The weather was amazing and stayed that way all the way to Raratonga with a total of about 2 days of calm in the northern part of the Pacific and 3 in the ITCZ and a few hours of rain squalls along the way. The trip from Raratonga to NZ was a totally different story but I'll elaborate on that later.
The one thing that everyone mentioned was that 75 gallons of diesel was not going to be enough and that was right. We limped into Nuku Hiva with about two gallons of fuel left in the tanks and that only because we had rationed our usage for a week before. I have already resolved to use one of the water tanks (of which we have too much capacity) and converting it to a third diesel tank.
Fuel in Nuku Hiva was extortionately expensive but with only one source, we had no choice. I bought 265 litres of desel and an automotive battery and the charge was 432 euros (NZ$822)!! These thieves are French, remember? Fuel in Bora Bora was about US1.35 a liter and we paid NZ$2.00 alitre in Rarotonga.
Water in Nuku Hiva was undrinkable so we never loaded any. In Bora Bora the water was free and very nice. Rain water from a moiuntain stream, really refreshing and tasty. We never loaded water in Rarotonga.
OK, enough for now. If these posts are too long and boring, someone will tell me and I'll cut them down but I hope this stuff is of interest to the forum.
Cheers
Andre
Firstly the over-riding view expressed is that two weeks is insufficient to prepare a new-to-owner boat for a voyage like the one I contemplated. Of considerable interest is that of all of the system/equipment failures we experienced, all were with elements of the vessel that we thought were sound and "would be OK".
We lost our fridge three days out. Simply stopped working. We could not have done anything to avoid it because it was working perfectly for the whole 2 weeks we were on the dock. We lost one alternator a week out. Some would say that it should have been overhauled before the trip but that sentiment could see one rebuiling engines, gearboxes and all kinds of other major components. About two weeks from the end of the voyage, the second alternator gave trouble for a totally different reason. Go figure. Obviously this is justification for an alternate power source (wind genny, genset). So in short, we could've stayed in San Diego for months and still had those failures. Most of our other problems mechanical stemmed from these two failures. One other thing that broke was the raw-water impeller on the Yanmar but we had a spare on oard so it was fixed in a jiffy.
Another view expressed was that "if you're preparing a boat like this, the most affordable place in the world to do it is San Diego". Rubbish. It was probably the most expensive I have encountered in twenty years of boat ownership. Some examples:
- To install an SSB, not including the cost of the radio or the antenna tuner - 1st quote $4800, second $3900!! Despite Sailing Dog's advice to have a professional job done, I did it myself, took four hours and worked perfectly all the way home.
- Three panels of clear plastic around the cockpit - US$2300. Outrageous but that was the best price we could get.
- A new wind instrument cost $560. To install it? How about $900?
- To cut the foot of a second-hand sail up 4 feet (luff was too long) - $480. The sail only cost us $230!
- And then the least expected cost - we spent over $400 on taxis in 2 weeks.
All in all, we spent abot US$10 000 in two weeks! San Diego is a beautiful city with wonderful people but, man, it's expensive to do business there.
There was a lot of discussion about a clip-on backstay antenna made by Gam Electronics and a range of other "easy fix" antenna solutions that would not require cutting the backstay. We bought and installed a Gam antenna. It took twenty minutes including soldered connections to the radio and it works like a million bucks. I would recommend it to anyone.
In terms of sailing equipment, we had a reef line failed, one side of the stack pack got frayed and parted, in some very strong weather our jib got some minor splits in it but luckily all in the area of the UV band so they never went too far. Everything else is still good.
The weather and the timing of the season were also discussed at some length. Our weather was simple. We left San Diego on a westerly and we headed south west on a starboard tack. We held that tack for 150 miles then we hit the north easterlies of the North Pacific high and went onto a port tack. From there all the way to the entrance to the Nuku Hiva harbour, a distance of 2700 miles, we never tacked again!! The weather was amazing and stayed that way all the way to Raratonga with a total of about 2 days of calm in the northern part of the Pacific and 3 in the ITCZ and a few hours of rain squalls along the way. The trip from Raratonga to NZ was a totally different story but I'll elaborate on that later.
The one thing that everyone mentioned was that 75 gallons of diesel was not going to be enough and that was right. We limped into Nuku Hiva with about two gallons of fuel left in the tanks and that only because we had rationed our usage for a week before. I have already resolved to use one of the water tanks (of which we have too much capacity) and converting it to a third diesel tank.
Fuel in Nuku Hiva was extortionately expensive but with only one source, we had no choice. I bought 265 litres of desel and an automotive battery and the charge was 432 euros (NZ$822)!! These thieves are French, remember? Fuel in Bora Bora was about US1.35 a liter and we paid NZ$2.00 alitre in Rarotonga.
Water in Nuku Hiva was undrinkable so we never loaded any. In Bora Bora the water was free and very nice. Rain water from a moiuntain stream, really refreshing and tasty. We never loaded water in Rarotonga.
OK, enough for now. If these posts are too long and boring, someone will tell me and I'll cut them down but I hope this stuff is of interest to the forum.
Cheers
Andre