S/V Rutea Sails Around the World: Another Defining Moment

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Another Defining Moment

So we spent the last three days doing what cruisers do best! Hah! You thought I was going to say "eating and drinking"! We do that very well too, but what we actually do best is: rapidly make good friends, swap (unexaggerated) sea stories and share dreams and schemes for the future. The venue for this three day intensive was the Tahiti-Moorea Cruiser's Rendezvous where people from all over the world converged to celebrate canal passages, ocean crossings, and a spirit of adventure on the water. For the crew of Rutea it was also a celebration of our completion of our first six months at sea, of one of the longest ocean passages one can make and of 4,600 miles under our keel since leaving San Diego!

True to the Polynesian culture our gathering began in Papeete with flowers and blessings. At any gathering, beautiful young people stand at the entry and hand out flowers, usually a sweet smelling Tiare Tahiti gardenia, to place behind your ear (the ear you place it behind indicates whether you are "taken" or "available")! Looking beautiful and smelling sweet one's confidence is bolstered for mingling, learning new crafts and trying new foods. Of course the hypnotic dancing and music deepens one's Polynesian connection and readies you for love OR going to war!

Moving the party Polynesian style by boat onward to Moorea (remember South Pacific?), the tribe continued two more days of festivities with more flowers (leis and crowns), more ukuleles and dancing and typical sporting competitions- outrigger canoe races, coconut husking races, banana stalk hauling races and a race to the line-up for the traditional Polynesian feast! Slipping back out to our boats at night, away from the mosquitoes and no-nos on the beach, informal happy hours, potlucks and dinners were formed and reformed. It was as if we couldn't get enough of each other before we once again set sail to go our different ways.

Hard as it is to imagine, I think the next half of our trip is going to be even more exotic than the first half! We are headed off of the beaten path and are going to step into a world where communities are still ruled by Chiefs and trading is the major form of commerce. I have only been able to fathom our trip one leg at a time because each new stretch only felt doable to me after successfully accomplishing the previous stretch, which helped build muscle and confidence for the next. Excitement and courage for what is to come also is contagious, and caught from sharing stories with other cruisers! Comparing experiences, routes, local knowledge and knowing you might cross wakes with someone again draws me forward to the next island adventure!

Feeling very well celebrated and feeling like we celebrated others very well, we have ten (or so) days to complete our tour of the Society Islands. We have made and revised plans many times because even the best laid plans can't accommodate for how hard it is to leave a place that you are really enjoying! We are provisioned with food, water, fuel and gifts for the Chiefs and ready to leave when we "have to". In the meantime we will continue to do what we do best: make new friends, rendezvous with old friends, share stories and plan for all of those ports out there just waiting for discovery!
R of Rutea
6/30/11
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At 6/30/2011 6:07 PM (utc) Rutea's position was 16°50.67'S 151°21.73'W
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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.