S/V Rutea Sails Around the World: The Next Big Leap of Rutea

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The Next Big Leap of Rutea

Querida Familia-

We just received the thumbs up from our ace weather router, Bob McDavitt (a NZ character) to jump off from Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu to Bundaberg, Australia this Saturday (the 27th of October)! This is a big deal because not only is it our last blue water passage for 2012 but we will no longer be sailing in the Pacific Ocean! After 11,505 miles of sailing through the north and south Pacific Ocean, we will jump off and head across the Coral Sea which is bordered by Vanuatu, Northern Australia, Soloman Islands and Papua New Guinea! The Coral Sea contains the Great Barrier Reef and is the spawning grounds of the cyclones that terrorize the tiny island nations of the south pacific. The sea temp (at least where we are now) is 85 degrees but nobody swims in the western Coral Sea north of the Great Barrier Reef because its inhabitants include LOTS of great white sharks, Box Jelly Fish, Salt Water Crocodiles and Sea Snakes! Queensland, where we are headed, and south to the Gold Coast, boasts some of the best surfing, snorkeling and diving in the world and we are excited about exploring this new-to-us part of the world! We plan to stop along the way at Chesterfield Reef, a teeny, tiny reef/atoll about half way from where we are to Oz (as they call it) for a rest, diving and snorkeling. We will be traveling with three other boats: Merkava (Canadian), Geramar (Dutch) and Dilligaf (American).

Vanuatu has been a fascinating, National Geographic experience. To see people living the way their ancestors did has been such an eye opener- and lots of people here live that way. Almost everyone who does not live in the capital, Port Vila, or the former capital, Luganville lives very, very simply. The national dish, Lap-lap, is taro with coconut milk poured over it, wrapped in banana leaves and cooked under dirt and hot stones in the ground. Giant bamboo is still used for cooking over wood fires or for dishes or for clothes pins. Coconut Palms provide thatch for roofs, water for refreshment, milk for essential recipes, and shells for kava. Kava. That is a whole story in and of itself. I'm sure we have told you of kava in bits and pieces, but suffice it to be described as chugging muddy water, without breathing, feeling your tongue and teeth go numb as you try not to throw up, and then trying to relax into a state of indepth star gazing. Villages are known for special talents. Some villages perform traditional dance and singing. Some villages host the island school. Some villages specialize in magic (black magic and white magic). All villages have a church and most people are dressed in raggedy, missionary provided hand me downs. All kids have runny noses which their moms wipe off with their fingers. Most kids have a cough. The poverty is staggering. BUT, everyone has been more than kind, friendly, eager to share what they have and CURIOUS! I have had more than one kid rub my arm up and down to see if the white comes off and our hair has been a source of hours of entertainment! Of course people are very interested in Neal's hair because it looks like theirs does! They love it when he tells them that he is part Ni-Van!

Yesterday we endured one of the hardest parts of the cruising experience. We had to say good-bye to our dearest friends on Sarah Jean II as we parted ways. We have sailed with SJ2 since we left Mexico in 2011 and shared anchorages, dinners, hikes, boat problems, boat projects, snorkels and new countries for the past year and a half. We have encouraged each other onward in hard times, analyzed weather patterns, traded boat parts, felt safety in our numbers, talked about kids and parents and made memories to last a lifetime. SJ2 headed south for New Zealand for this cyclone season and will head back to Canada via Hawaii next cruising season, as we head west to Oz, Indonesia and Thailand. Making new and dear friends is one of the best parts of cruising, but saying good-bye to them is one of the hardest. That would be true of course, anywhere. You never want to let a kindred spirit go!

Back to Passage Preparation! The list is long but Neal has climbed the mast and checked the rigging. Jack lines are run. Genoa is patched. Tri-light is rewired. Nav lights are tested. Hand-held radios are charged. Bilge pumps are tested. Tri Sail is bent to the mast. Ditch Bag is updated. Boat bottom and prop are clean. Water and fuel tanks are full. Visas for Oz have been printed out. Steering is inspected. We have frozen bananas, banana cookies and banana muffins! Passage meals are being prepared and frozen. Our course has been plotted and we are studying our weather grib files. Just a couple more provisions to buy, a visit to Immigration and Customs to check out of the country, a visit to the duty free liquor store and we will be ready!

We will miss a couple of BIG dates while we are en route! The first is Ian's 30th Birthday on November 3rd! OMG! Please wish him well on his next decade! The second is the election.... YES, we have voted but we are still on pins and needles.... And of course, we miss YOU! Hopefully cell phone calls to the US won't be as expensive in Australia as they have been in Vanuatu! Airline tickets are also reasonable and we will be there for quite a while, so if you want to come visit, book your cabin now!

As always, we wish you Fair Winds and Calm Seas wherever you may be and whatever you may be doing.

R of Rutea and Crew
15.34.37 South
167.12.30 East
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At 10/24/2012 8:37 AM (utc) Rutea's position was 15°31.37'S 167°09.90'E

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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.