S/V Rutea Sails Around the World: At Sea Again

Friday, May 6, 2011

At Sea Again

After spending a very busy three days In Taiohae Bay preparing to leave the Marquesas for the Tuamotus, we are once again under way! You wouldn't think that you would need three days to 1.Get fuel, 2.Get fresh fruit and vegies, 3.Go to the store and 4.Do the laundry (or more accurately- have it done!) but we hustled the entire time and almost ended up eating our first "at sea" dinner while we were still at anchor! Corie said it would have been easier to eat while anchored but you know, I made that meal ahead of time to eat under way! Like we have tried to describe before, everything takes much longer to accomplish by dinghy while living anchored out! For example! The fuel dock in Taiohae Bay is a long, concrete wharf with very large fenders intermittently attached where they might fend off a very large ship (much larger than ours...). As the surge is fierce along the dock, we decided not to pull up to the wharf for fuel, but to instead carry fuel via the dinghy, out to the boat in jerry jugs (six jugs at a time). Some people are able to do this single-handedly but it definitely takes all three of us to accomplish the project- one person to stay in the dinghy to hold it off of the concrete and two people to climb up and down the ladder on the concrete wharf (avoiding the crabs on the wall and whatever else may be clinging to it!) with the jerry jugs and then carrying the jugs back and forth from the gas pumps (across a dirt lot FULL of mud puddles) back to the ladder. Since the tide has dropped three feet by the time we have all the jugs filled with diesel the descent down the ladder into the dinghy with the full jugs is treacherous! Neal rigged up a rope to lower the jugs, Corie caught the jugs and stowed them (while bobbing up and down in the surge) and I held the dinghy off of the concrete wall (while bobbing up and down in the surge) trying not to touch any crabs or other creepy crawly things! Back out to Rutea to transfer the fuel to the fuel tanks and then back to the fuel wharf to repeat the whole procedure one more time! Total time... about four hours! We started early in the morning because... EVERYTHING closes down in the middle of the day for two hours... even the gas stations!

Anyway, I could go on and on.... we barely got our laundry back before we wanted to leave because the laundry service does not have dryers.... everything air dries and the air is very humid! Takes forever and the towels are crunchy! No problem though, while we were hanging out at the dinghy dock, waiting for laundry to dry we were able to eat another crepe from the truck/crepery and watch the sharks in the water battle over tuna scraps the fishermen were throwing into the water (right by the dinghies!) as they cleaned their fish! Yes, that would be six foot black tipped and white tipped reef sharks. Corie taped some awesome video of it and posted some photos somewhere.... We were very careful NOT to rinse our feet off in the water before stepping into the dinghy this time!

Time to weigh anchor for the Tuomotus! Bow anchor- no problem! Stern anchor- a huge pain in the... well.... stern! Because the breeze often comes in perpendicular to the swell in the bay, a stern anchor is needed to hold the boat into the swell so you don't roll gunnel to gunnel while anchored. The challenge is that the stern anchor is 45 pounds at the end of fifty feet of chain which is at the end of a hundred feet of rope! Did I say that the anchor is well set in mud and that there is NO windlass to help pull it up or protection to keep it off the side of the hull????? Did I say there is a ten knot breeze on the beam while we are trying to get the anchor up? Neal and Corie pulled in the line with heroic effort. Once they got to the chain, however, they needed to get creative. Neal rigged up a rolling hitch to the chain (to hold it up to the boat) and attached the mizzen running back shackle to the chain while Corie tightened up the running back to haul in the chain. Neal was sprawled on the deck with his head under the life lines of the stern pulpit and Corie was standing on a pile of line to give her some height. They pulled in that chain about two feet at time, repositioned the rolling hitch and the mizzen shackle and pulled it in another two feet, until forty feet were up and they could tell the anchor was off the bottom. Hand over hand, they hauled in the last of that chain and anchor together, lifting it over the life line until it was safely on the deck! I couldn't believe the strength and tenacity they both had to get that anchor on board- it was amazing! Oh yes, I had an important part too! I hosed the mud off of the anchor just before they pulled it on deck!

The Marquesas were spectacular! As we left the bay a ten foot Manta Ray glided by the boat. Waves crashed against the dark sentry rocks at the bay entrance and white, billowy clouds loomed up against a brilliant blue horizon. In a mere 503 miles we will enter Arikitamiro Pass on Makemo Atoll in the Tuomotus. We will be introduced to a completely new South Pacific habitat and way of life- even more remote than the Marquesas. Once again, everything will be new and different and we will be on a new learning curve. What I do know is that we will still be on "island time" and we will just take it slow and one wave at a time!

R of Rutea
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At 5/6/2011 7:28 PM (utc) Rutea's position was 10°50.61'S 140°57.11'W

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1 comment:

maryMay 7, 2011 at 6:52 PM
I'm exhausted just reading about your day. So much for picturing you being all lazy there in paradise. I wish you smooth sailing for these next 500 miles.
Maybe while you're out there with less to do, I'll get an email out of you!
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About Rutea

Rutea was built in 1984 by Conyplex in Mendemblik, Holland. A small brass plaque says that she's hull Number 9 but on the Conyplex website www.contestyachts.com there's no mention of them building that many. She's designed by Dick Zaal, who designed most of Conyplex's earlier boats. The brochure says that she's 48' overall with a 14'6" beam and she draws 6'. Her cast iron bolted-on fin keel weighs 12,000 pounds and she is supposed to displace slightly over 37,000 pounds but she's never been one to watch her weight and, ahem, she's gained more than a few pounds since we bought her in 1996. Her ketch rig sports Profurl furlers for the jib/genoa and the staysail. The main has a very tall aspect as does the mizzen. All of her winches are made by Enkes although I did add a Harken self-tailing for the main halyard. She uses an unusual reel winch that's equipped with Spectra rope for furling the genoa. There's a running backstay on the mizzen mast and there are no forward lowers on the main mast. The head stay is Dyform.

I replaced the original Volvo MD40A six-cylinder diesel with a Beta Marine 90 and I've been very happy with it although it puts out nowhere near 90 HP - probably 70 is more like it. Regardless, it's adequate and very economical on fuel. I also replaced the original Westerbeke 6kw genset with a single-cylinder Kubota diesel that drives a 150-amp alternator. Since we switched over to 12-volt refrigeration, we no longer have any 110-volt appliances on board, other than the water heater. Since the new Beta Marine engine has two big alternators (one is 100 amps and the other 175), we have our Victron inverter/charger power the water heater when we're under power (we don't have engine coolant circulate through the water heater).

Rutea's layout down below is different from many boats of her size. Aft of her water-tight forward bulkhead is a 'wet' head, complete with two sinks. Aft of that are two cabins, both with bunk beds on either side of the boat and each has a door to the forward head. This was perfect when we cruised with our family as our 3 children had their own quarters. The main saloon occupies the area aft of the forward cabins and her dinette and settees are large enough to seat 10 people (we've had many a memorable meal here!). Under the cabin sole are two 90-gallon stainless steel fuel tanks. Under the settee seats on either side is a 120-gallon water tank, also made of stainless steel. On the starboard side, aft of the dinette is the foward-facing nav station and on the port side is the galley where we have a 7 cubic foot refrigerator and a 5 cubic foot freezer. Aft of the nav station, on the starboard side is my work shop. This was originally designed to be another stateroom but the original owner had Conyplex convert it into a work shop, complete with a heavy-duty work bench and a massive 6" vise. I sometimes spend days at a time in there. Many a visiting cruiser has eyed with envy, drooled with desire and blatantly coveted my work shop! I have access to the engines from there. On the port side, aft of the galley, is another 'wet' head. Aft of that is the aft cabin, which has a settee as well as a full double-size berth. Aft of the aft cabin or 'owner's stateroom' as it's called on many boats, is her spacious lazarette, which is where the water heater and diesel-fired boiler are located. Bolted to the back of the aft deck and overhanging the transom are her Simpson davits (I sometimes tell people that the boat was built around those davits - they're very substantial with a capacity of 250 Kgs). Resting on top of the davits are Ruthie's roto-molded kayak and above that are two 215-watt solar panels. Hanging off the davits is our Aqua Pro dinghy and it's 15-horsepower Honda outboard.

On deck, starting at the bow, is Rutea's primary anchor, a Bruce 30 kilogram that's connected to the 350' of 3/8" Hi-Test chain with a Wasi Powerball. The anchor and chain are deployed and retrieved by a Lofrans Progress II windlass. In the anchor locker lives another Bruce 20kg anchor that's connected to 50' of 3/8" Hi-Test chain and 150' of 1" MegaBraid rope. Also in the anchor locker, amongst many other things, is the 18' Para-Tech sea anchor with it's dedicated 100' of 1" single-braid rope. Moving aft is Rutea's main mast, which has double spreaders, four Enkes winches and one Harken self-tailing winch. The mast is made by Selden as are the two heavy spinnaker poles. The tracks for the staysail and the genoa are stainless steel. In the cockpit are five more Enke winches and a Harken mechanical backstay adjuster. The mizzen mast is also quite substantial and has three Enkes winches on it. The turning blocks are stainless steel. The steering system on Rutea is the Whitlock Mamba system using a torque tube and a push-pull rod. The compass in the binnacle is made by Sestrel.

Even though we try to keep up on Rutea's appearance, she's still starting to show her age. I replaced her portlights (all twelve of them) and Ruthie has taken over the job of varnishing her brightwork. In 2000 we removed her teak decks and replaced it with painted fiberglass. Much less maintenance! She's what I call a 200-foot boat: She looks great from 200 feet!

Regardless, the best part of Rutea is the way she handles. While she's not the fastest filly in the fleet, she can cover a respectable amount of distance in a day. Her sail plan allows her to be easily balanced to the point where the autopilot has very little correcting to do. Her sails are all made by North except her spinnakers are Dutch-made.

Rutea’s electronics package includes radar, chartplotter, AIS, sounder and sailing instruments - all made by Garmin. Her radios are all old but they work well. Her Icom M802 SSB has been modified to use ham frequencies.