May 28, 2018

ConvivEVA: the crew of Convivia is going sailing on EVA

You may have seen this hint of a story, this boatyard photo of Tucker and I, Ruby, and Miles in front of EVA, everyone’s dreamboat. We have spent much of the last year and a half with Claude and Jules and their three kids, Noah, Lilo, and Finn. We met the kids the moment we […]

The Indian Ocean is not my favorite ocean!

Perhaps there has been another blog post of the same name; this is not a fun blog post; or a feelings story. This is just a tally; an acknowledgment that our exhaustion after a year and a half of travel is well earned, and a shoutout to the folks who live that cruiser adage “it’s just what we do [for each other].” We’re not entirely done with the Indian Ocean, but we have certainly crossed it. These nine months on this ocean between Indonesia and South Africa were hard on Convivia and challenging for the crew but as my friend Diane told me a year ago, “The Indian is rewarding.”

The damage:

Thing that Broke	Cause	Solution
Strap toggle	Fatigue	broken, jury rigged, replaced (thanks Trevor & Gustaf)
Monitor control line	Chafe	respliced/replaced
Lazy jacks	UV	broken, repaired, broken, repaired
North Sails Sail cover	poor design/UV	planning replacement
Standard Horizon VHF	totally dead	replaced in Durban
Shakespeare VHF antenna	poor reception	waiting for replacement
Dinghy thwart for mast on Fatty	snapped under pressure	waiting for replacement
Full River Batteries	1/2 totally dead, removed from system,	replaced in Richard’s Bay
Raymarine Anemometer	pretty broken	rewired and epoxied back together (for the second time), reads wind direction
Honda generator	dead	but not removed from the lazarette (Tucker!?!)
Toilet	one totally broken	replaced in Durban
Toilet reduction fitting	broke during maintenance	Gustaf, you are my freaking hero for welding us a new one
Harken Profurl M3 Furler	top of cage broken	replaced with homemade substitute (also cage dropped into the sea and retrieved after an extensive SCUBA search, thanks again Gustaf you legend)
Aeropress	broken, second Aeropress overboard, third Aeropress broken	ordered two new ones (of course)
Glasses, lime squeezer, muffin pan	broken, corroded and rusted through
Drawer handle on one drawer	smashed to pieces, massive bruise on my ass
Hela Fans	broken or pretty well worn out (god damn these fans)	replaced with Caframo
Flip flops	approximately 10 pairs walked through or broken
Favorite Keen sneakers	worn through	tossed in the trash at the end of a hike
Clothing	outgrown, stained, ripped and patched (100% of Miles’, less so for the rest of us)
Engine overheating problem	Kinked hose, & heat exchanger cleaning, also overhauled the impeller pump	fixed (Gustaf again, seriously, this guy’s hands are in that picture because his hands are in EVERYTHING)
Weather cloth	ripped, ripped again	patched and reinstalled
Engine off switch (morse cable)	seized	repaired (thanks Gustaf for your help!)
Monitor hinge	broken	welded and spare made in Phuket
Lewmar Windlass	broken and repaired electrical problem	(Trevor, you climbed into my anchor locker and called it “spacious”)
Windlass	fire in Imtra solenoid	replaced with spare
International “Perfection” (I beg to differ) Paint	scratched like crazy in a couple spots
Slug on mainsail	ripped out	resewn
Baja filter	overboard (oops)
Kitchen scissors	overboard (MILES!!!)	replaced
Ruby’s favorite Adidas skirt	overboard (78 knot gust, after she handwashed her own laundry)	will be replaced
A couple of jerry cans	cracked, taped together	trashed
Raymarine Autopilot	totally dead, hand steering now if we have to motor (what is it with this company?)	awaiting replacement
Snubbers	broken, broken, broken, broken	replaced
Pillow	overboard (possibly sabotage)	replaced
iPad chargers	Dead	replaced
REI backpack	zipper corroded, cut the flashlight out (lifetime warranty means nothing out here)	T9
Outdoor Research rain coat	that I LOVE, side zips corroded, front zip barely works	T9
The book Hatchet	Survival story, didn’t survive the wetness in Miles’ berth (Sorry Gwynn but I promise no less than four people read it on two boats and two book reports were based on it)
Three insulated water bottles (2 Hydroflask, 1 Swell)	rusted	trashed
Teeth	one grown up tooth broken (Miles, due to Ruby), one baby tooth broken (Ruby, due to Ruby)
Engine	dry exhaust rusted through again, black soot everywhere	replaced in Mossel Bay
Engine starter	failed	replaced, but in the meantime I learned how to hot wire a boat 😉
iNavX	All the things; from not being able to delete a waypoint from a route, to the NMEA disconnecting every 5 minutes (This program went from rock solid to a buggy pain in the ass in the span of 4 months. I’ve got words…)	Looking at other options

This is just my top of my head list, there must be more. My recommendation to future sailors: buy everything you need to get around the world and return back home in just under three years. Everything will be within warranty and you will have arrived in the nick of time before it all wears out. Alternately we can remember what Robin Lee Graham said, “At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much.”

Stay tuned for the follow-up, “What Survived”

Editorial note: This list was (of course) complied by Vick. The ultimate keeper of lists. The little parentheticals are mine (Tucker) ultimate keeper of snide and compliments!

January 19, 2017

All Is Well

I’m tucked into the corner of the settee, wedged in with seven pillows so I don’t move and I don’t have to support my own body. The bucket is next to me but I’ve taken my seasick pill and I hope to sleep instead of vomit. The dorade vent that goes under water only drains […]

July 1, 2016

Days to Remember

A few days ago I was told that my dorades were dusty. The next day another person mentioned how dirty my decks were. And yet another person asked me why I had so much crap in my cockpit. All of these criticisms hit me deeply and personally and brought back every single boat insult ever […]

on aesthetics, Family, Living Aboard, Maintenance, s/v Convivia, Social
0
Like this post2

January 6, 2016

Thaispusam in Penang

We had an Uber driver recently that asked us if we would be in Penang for Thaipusam. He was part way through forty days of preparation, fasting, celibacy and not shaving in advance of this important Tamil Hindu holiday commentating the God Murugan, representing goodness over evil. Because our stay in Penang was much longer […]

October 8, 2015

I Want to See Dragons for My Birthday

We take birthday wishes seriously in Convivia. We keep presents small and homemade, as the real celebration is in the cake. Cakes are dreamed up layer by layer, often years in advance. Miles wishes for his eighth birthday were a stuffed mouse, a watch, pizza for dinner, and a caramel, chocolate, marshmallow and chocolate ganache […]

on Family, Featured, Photos, Ports, Travel
2
Like this post0

September 18, 2015

Can’t Get Home Without Leaving

We are sailing off the beaten path a bit in Indonesia. We skipped joining a rally and are making it up as we go along. Our pursuit is for language and connection, fresh food, day to day life, green coffee beans, handmade fabric, some snorkeling, and volcanoes. I don’t remember when I first saw a […]

September 12, 2015

Kupang Traditional Market

“Where are you from?” they ask us. “Where is your home in America?” “How long was your flight?” It is difficult to answer and it is hard to explain in our few basic phrases. Our home has been only the boat for more than five years and San Francisco, California is written on the transom, […]

October 30, 2013

BOS -> AKL -> PPT -> BNE -> PPT -> BNE -> PPT -> VAV -> TBU -> NAN -> BNE

We were all excited to get to Tahiti of course. The excitement was partially because it was Tahiti and partly because it was one of the few places in the South Pacific that we were pretty certain we could receive birthday presents for Tucker and Ruby. We anchored by Marina Tahina for a bit and […]

August 7, 2013

A Laundry Tour of the South Pacific

A reader on a women’s sailing group I’m part of asked if it was possible to sail the South Pacific without washing laundry in a bucket. Laundry was much harder for me than being on a boat for 24 days straight, cooking underway, or seasickness, and something I stressed out about far more than the […]

on Cruising, Family, Living Aboard, Ports, Sailing
9
Like this post0

Victoria Bradford

The damage: