June 20, 2018

Portland to Grenada

Some might say that it is the very definition of madness to winter over in Maine and leave for the tropics as summer begins to burst onto the scene. Those people would be absolutely correct. Nevertheless, that is just what we have done. The trip from Portland to Grenada took us within shouting distance of […]

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 […]

June 21, 2016

Indian Ocean: Not That Much Fun

Imagine you are sitting down, enjoying dinner. It’s Taco Tuesday® (but on Thursday, because you have no sense of time). Suddenly the salsa jar becomes a projectile, it jumps straight up, then banks hard to the left and hurls itself at you, missing by inches. The jar (which you forgot to put the lid on […]

November 12, 2015

Nets, and Squalls, and Waterspouts

The last 72 hours have been some of the most surreal, exhausting, and exciting of my life. I wrote about some of the first two days’ highs and lows here. The following night and day were just as full on. Things started out calm enough that I thought I might just watch a movie on my first […]

on Cruising, s/v Convivia, Sailing, Uncategorized
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October 20, 2014

dolphins on the bow

September 13, 2014

GBR 2014 In Photos

I was going to hold these for an epic post about our trip but time seems to have gotten away from us. In lieu of a narrative, here is a little photo essay!

on Cruising, Living Aboard, Photos, Sailing, Travel, Uncategorized
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July 4, 2014

What Sailing Feels Like

Most of the time when I’m sailing I feel like a 14 year old boy, getting into some harmless but possibly significant mischief. I stand looking over the dodger, just soaking it all in as if, at any moment some authority figure is going to send me home.

June 22, 2014

Best Day Ever

I have a hard time assigning superlatives. I tend to experience life in an abstract way that doesn’t depend heavily on specific, quantifiable metrics. So when I say that this was the best day ever, take that with a grain of salt. There were other best days. They might have been better, who knows. Not […]

on Cruising, Featured, s/v Convivia, Sailing, Social
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April 19, 2014

Sundowners

Is this even a term that non-cruisers know? If so, does it even mean the same thing? We went for sundowners on Condessa del Mar tonight. The last time we did that we were in a deserted island with 6 other boats, all of whom were sharing this quintessential cruiser experience.

on Cruising, s/v Convivia, Sailing, Social
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