March 2008, Anse d'Arlet

Note: the below was written towards the end of first “seabbatical” 2007/2008 reflecting our experiences from the Mediterranean abd the Eastern Caribbean. We’d probably adjust and amend some of this based on our experience in the Pacific 2012-20214 - when we get to it… ;-)

ANCHOR EQUIPMENT

We have a 20kg (44 lbs) Rocna anchor on 35m (115 ft.) of 10 mm stainless steel chain. The chain came with the boat, otherwise we would have traded greater length (>= 50m) for non stainless (galvanized) steel. For the few occasions when we have had to anchor in water deeper than 7m, we have augmented the chain by 40m of 14mm nylon rope which we shackle onto our chain (making 12m our max. anchoring depth). I have looked at the mechanics and it seems that beyond the first 25m or so the additional weight of chain over rope does not increase holding power significantly in depths up to 12m (or conversely, the additional length required for a mixed chain-rope rode to have the same holding power as all chain rode is pretty negligible). So unless some other boat cuts through our rope with its propeller, we enjoy the very smooth dampening of a mixed nylon/chain rode and apply the money we saved by foregoing 50m of new chain to Namani’s wine cellar.

The Rocna anchor itself has worked very well for us – it reliably sets quickly even in mediocre bottoms. We anchored in a few locations with sustained winds around 30 knots over the past weeks and never experienced any problems with anchor drag. Since the Rocna is bigger than our old 35 lbs CQR we cannot do a 1-1 comparison between the two. In any case, we’re happy to have spent the money on the new anchor given our experience so far.

Perhaps we should also list our dinghy and outboard under this section. The Loadstar dinghy that came with Namani finally gave up its life (or more precisely: the air inside it) on Antigua and we got a “new used” Zodiac there (courtesy of Bafia – thank you!). The Zodiac is slightly shorter than the old Loadstar which has the tremendous advantage that we can it store it on our foredeck while underway without having to deflate it. Our old 2-stroke 4 HP Mercury outboard still does its job and with only one person you can even get the dinghy to plane with it (a rare thrill…). While at anchor, the dinghy is our SUV (shore utility vehicle) to go to the beach, go shopping ashore, get fuel and/or fresh water, etc. We lock it and the engine with 6mm steel chain and a couple of padlocks whenever we leave it unattended (Carib, one of the major dinghy manufacturers apparently was on strike for three months last year, and there is said to be a severe shortage of dinghies in the Caribbean).

FOOD

We have learned a lot from provisioning for the Atlantic crossing (4 weeks worth of food and drinking water for 3 adults and one child) in terms of what foods keep well on board and how to mix fresh and canned ingredients to still have a decent meal. Our main restriction is that we cannot not rely on having refrigeration under way (unless we run the engine for a few hours each day at anchor which we don’t like to do). Here’s a glimpse of our pantry:

  • Dry stuff (pasta, rice, couscous): we buy these in bulk whenever we have access to a bigger supermarket, no problems with storage and/or keeping.

  • Dairy products and eggs: On Martinique we found 500 ml UHT milk in re-sealable bottles – just the right amount for us to consume in a 24-hr period before the milk goes bad after opening without refrigeration. We pretty much cleared the shelves of that supermarket about 8 weeks ago and still have enough left to last us another two weeks. Yoghurt (and sometimes cheese) we buy in smaller batches on the islands along the way. Unfortunately, we cannot get the plain UHT yoghurt we found in Spain anywhere here. Eggs we buy occasionally and then use them quickly for baking, omelets or French toast. Laura supplied us with a bunch of baking mixes that only require water, thus reducing our need for eggs considerably.

  • Fresh fruit and veggies: In many anchorages around the Windward Islands we really appreciated the boat boys’ service, being able to get fresh fruit and veggies at least every 2nd day or so. With a few exceptions, we were able to start each day with a fresh fruit salad featuring mango, orange, passion fruit, and banana. On the veggie side, we provision with onions, garlic and potatoes about once every 2-3 weeks and get things like tomatoes, squash, carrots along the way on the islands or from the boat boys.

  • Meaty stuff: Whenever we do some food-shopping on one of the islands we try to get some fresh meat/chicken/fish for dinner that day plus some frozen stuff for consumption the next day. This enables us to have fresh/frozen meat on average every second day with canned tuna, meatballs, sausages plus some vegetarian dinners (our favorite: pasta sauce with chick peas and garlic – courtesy of Jo from Sea Bright) making up the balance. For lunch, we mostly rely on canned paté and or tuna with bread. Unfortunately, we have had little luck with catching fish around here but we are still hopeful…

  • Bread: Laura’s stay aboard Namani was a real breakthrough in this department. She introduced us to the art of on-board bread baking and over the past weeks we have enjoyed very tasty boat-baked fresh bread almost every day. Or favorites are “no knead bread” (takes only long life ingredients and just rises unattended overnight) and “beer bread” (substituting a baking agent more readily found on boats for yeast).

  • Beer & wine (should have been top of this list…): Sailing under a German flag, beer is obviously one of the basic food ingredients aboard Namani. For someone used to German lagers/pilseners, St. Lucia’s “Piton” beer is by far the best among the Eastern Caribbean brews we have tasted so far. When we do not have sufficient power to run the fridge, we wrap a few bottles in a wet towel, put this in an old onion mesh-bag and hang it up in the rigging. After 1–2 hours, evaporation will cool this down to a quite pleasant drinking temperature. In the wine department, Catherine and Chris introduced us to the table wines sold in bulk in 1.5 or 5 liter plastic bottles in Greece. While perhaps not quite at “Grand Cru” level, we found decent, robust red table wines of this kind in Greece, Spain and France (Martinique) which has kept our expenditure for wine to a minimum. Given boat motion and temperature fluctuations, keeping anything more valuable on board would probably be considered criminal in the French waters we are currently in, anyway… For medicinal purposes we also keep a couple of bottles of rum in store.

  • Other food stuffs: Irene found us very tasty dry soups/stews that can be augmented with chicken, beef and/or fresh veggies (apparently a fresh supply is underway via Bafia to Puerto Rico). Laura got us some very nice packaged seasonings (e.g. Cajun, curry, teriyaki) that spice up our otherwise somewhat monotonous pasta and rice dishes.

When we bought Namani, the galley came with a full set of sturdy “real” (i.e. non-plastic) plates and glasses. While we were at first concerned about breakages, we have come to really appreciate the little luxury of eating and drinking all of the above from “real” plates and glasses rather than from the plastic variety. Luckily, breakages have been minimal to date…

WATER

We have two fresh water tanks on board Namani, each with a capacity of about 120 liters. We use the water in these tanks (disinfected with a small amount of bleach) for washing and cooking only, keeping bottled water as drinking water. While we used to go through both tanks in about two weeks between the three of us, the two tanks (plus a reserve of approx. 80 liters in other containers) have just lasted us five weeks with 3 adults plus Nicky on board. The main difference is in washing dishes and showering and – to a lesser extent – our ability to catch rain water.

We now use salt water for washing dishes, only using a small amount of fresh water for rinsing off. We fetch the salt water in a bucket off the boat and keep a 5 liter bottle filled in the kitchen. For showers, we now do the soaping and shampooing in salt water, just jumping off the boat, and then rinse off with less than 500 ml of fresh water. Nana has devised a clever system to collect some rain water during the frequent squalls in this area which enables us to do some minor laundry without depleting our fresh water stores. So far, we have not noticed any deterioration in the air quality aboard Namani … While we can replenish fresh water to some extent by shuttling it from land via the dinghy, it is really the need to do some more comprehensive laundry and boat cleaning that drives us into a marina for one or two nights after 5-6 weeks or so.

One change we would probably make under this heading if we stayed on Namani for a longer time is to replace the two water taps that are pressurized via an electric pump by foot pump operated taps (less waste, less power consumption, less systems to fail).

ELECTRICITY

We reckon that we now use about 20 – 25 AmpHours over a 24 hr period without running the fridge. At 12 Volts that is about 0.3 kWh - less than the typical shore-side household uses by keeping devices like TVs, stereos, computers, etc. on “stand-by”. In the Caribbean, we can keep up with this demand by setting up and running our Aquair tow-generator in “wind mode”, together with our “mobile solar panel”. In fact, with the sustained wind speed at many of our anchorages exceeding 20 knots, we were even treated to the ultimate luxury and could run our fridge for 2-3 hours during the night.

Our tow/wind generator is an old model from Ampair, a small family-owned company in the UK. While it is a bit bulky and cumbersome to set up (it needs to be hoisted into the rigging), it does its job for us and delivers up to 6 Amps depending on wind speed (on average probably around 1 - 2 Amps). I have to say that the sturdiness and reliability of the unit (running essentially maintenance free for 20 years in a saltwater environment) is quite amazing (as is the responsiveness and helpfulness of Ampair with any questions – end of commercial break).

We bought a single, flat solar panel in Gibraltar and build a light wooden frame for it while in Lanzarote. We have rigged the frame such that we can move and set-up the panel around the boat relatively easily to optimize its orientation to the sun. We figure that by doing so we get as much “juice” from one mobile panel as we would from two fixed panels (in the Caribbean, 1-1.5 Amps over 8-9 hours per day). Also, the wooden frame allows some air circulation and cooling along the underside of the panel, thus keeping it at a more efficient operating temperature.

On the consumption side, the single biggest saving probably came from using a little solar powered LED garden lamp instead of our masthead mounted 10W anchor light. The garden light charges during the day by means of a small built-in solar cell and then lasts just about 11 hours during the night.

To have some light in the cockpit after sunset, we bought two little solar powered LED lamps that can be mounted on any smooth surface via suction cups (most of the time we actually hang them down from a line over the cockpit table). We use them together with a small oil powered storm lamp that compensates for the somewhat “cold” light emitted by the LEDs. During the day we then set up our little “solar farm” for re-charge.

If we would live on Namani longer term, we would probably invest in 2-4 permanently fixed solar panes plus a permanently mounted wind generator. But for the limited duration of our one year “sailing sabbatical” we are quite happy to put up with a little inconvenience and save the money.\

FUEL

Steady trade winds help in this department – engine use is pretty much restricted to get in and out of anchorages plus the occasional shortening of the last tacks on upwind passages. Our main diesel tank has a capacity of about 90 liters and we can carry about 125 additional liters in jerry cans. With our engine burning about 2 … 2.5 liters per hour at cruising rpm that fuel goes a long way in the eastern Caribbean. Once we have transferred the diesel from the jerry cans to the tank we just dinghy the jerry cans to a gas station to replenish our fuel stores.

Under this heading we should also mention the butane gas that powers our two-burner gas stove and oven in the galley. One of the standard LPG containers lasts us about one month (less with frequent bread baking though) and we have a total of five LPG bottles on board. So far, we have always been able to replenish these with at least two full containers left.