South of France, Menorca, Majorca - Nics diary part 5

Nics Diary – Part 5 – 16.9.12

Places visited:

South of France – St. Tropez, Isles de Poquerolles, Cassis

South of Spain – Roses, Cala de sa Riera, Palamos, Blanes, Llorret de Mar

Menorca – Fornells, Mahon, Cala Granalda

Majorca – Alcudia, Pollensa, Soller, Santa Ponsa, Magaluf

Well, to begin with I (we) must hang our heads in shame and apologize to Mar Menor for cursing the town for robbing us (Nics Diary – Part 2). We had a thunder storm a few days ago, and decided to hide all of our electrical items (laptop etc) in the microwave for protection, and you’ll never guess what was in there – Duh - the 2 cameras, our hand held radio, and a chart plotter that we thought was stolen from our deck in Mar Menor!! Yes, as mentioned before, we were very drunk that night!! (shame the dinghy that was stolen in Corsica wasn’t in there too).

So moving on swiftly, as usual, the last month has flown in. One of the last places we visited in the South of France was some beautiful Islands called Isles de Poquerolles. These islands had real character. It looked like a wee village from back in time. It had palm trees, crystal clear waters, everyone cycled, and a lot of the young children came out in the night to set up wee street stalls to sell all sorts, like jewellery.

Isles de Poquerolles with palm  trees!

The South West coast of France had fascinating cliffs and rock formations. We managed to find an anchorage between 2 cliff faces – certainly different from the normal views!

Stunning anchorage!

Breath Taking Rock Formations!

Our travels then became all about getting to Blanes (near Gerona airport) to collect my mum, who has now been traveling with us for 3 weeks. I was really worried about her coming as she has a big fear of deep water, and the last thing she would ever imagine doing was traveling, full time, on a yacht – that was until I decided to travel the world for 3 years, on a yacht!! She couldn’t resist the ‘once in a life time opportunity’, but I have to admit, she has been coping really well, and has shown no fear, even though we have seen some of the worst Mediterranean  seas since she arrived.

Mum enjoying being a tourist of the sea!

 It turns out that the Gulf of Lyon area (where the South of France meets the south of Spain, and also dips down to Menorca), is notorious for big storms and heavy seas – so we have recently learned, and fast!! We have basically become’ storm dodgers’ (instead of ‘storm chasers’!). 

Being on a deadline to collect my mum meant that we had to keep a close eye on the weather. Crossing the Gulf of Lyon had to be well timed, and still we hit some really thick fog at 3am. Stevie was on watch, and wakened me at 7am as his fingers and toes were all wrinkled up (like when you have had a long bath), and he needed a well-earned break. I was worried when he left me alone, as I have mentioned before, I hate the thick fog, as I always picture a massive boat emerging and not having much time to do anything about it! However, I was lucky, and the fog cleared quickly. I was just left to steer around approximately 20 fishing boats that charged towards me, as they must have been waiting for the fog to clear.

Layer of thick black fog under the sunrise!

When we finally arrived at Blanes we tied up (illegally) to a harbor wall for the night. As it was Saturday night, no one was around to move us on. A young boy in a boat further along said it was ok to use his water hose, so we waited until dark, then spent most of the night twin tubbing all of my clothes, taking showers, scrubbing the deck, then filling the water tanks – all ready for mum coming. Oh how I miss a never ending supply of water (we are still trying to get the water maker fixed). We taped some money to his hose to say thanks for the water!

Twin tub day on the boat!

When my mum arrived (on Monday 27^th August) we moved on to Menorca immediately, as the weather was due to turn again, introducing her to a 26hr sail on her first day with us!

Menorca is very different to Majorca, with far less British tourists, much quieter, and not much in the way of beaches. We assumed that Menorca is less popular due to the storms coming from the Gulf of Lyon. Our first stop was Fornells, which was nice and protected from the sea as it was situated in almost an inland sea, with only a small gap out to the real sea. This proved to be great for protecting us from the nasty sea outside, but also meant we were stuck there for a week, as once you get the boat in, it is really difficult to get it back out. We tried to leave one day, and had to turn around as there were rather large breaking waves (our rudder still hasn’t been repaired, so we have to take it easy). 

We have now storm dodged, our way back to Magaluf, Majorca, where my friend, Amanda, and her boyfriend, Steven, will be coming for a holiday tomorrow. Stevie’s mum, Lorraine, and her boyfriend, Kevin, will also be coming in a few days. It will be great to see them all. They both have accommodation on land, but I am sure they will be spending much time on the yacht. (Brace myself for yacht chaos as 2 on the boat can be cosy – never mind 7!!!).

Shreaded Scotland Flag from all of the storms

As so many visitors are expected, Stevie was anxious to buy a new rib that is a little bigger and more stable, than the wee soft deck dinghy we have been using since our last rib was stolen (Nics Diary – Part 4). We had a nice wee day out together, wandering in industrial estate trying to find a new rib, and success! We have a beautiful, smooth planing, extremely sparkly new rib called Snow White, and she is all ready to safely transport our guests (the 7 dwarfs!), and, of course, for Stevie to spend many hours playing on!!

Plans (time wise) are still coming along nicely for heading to Tenerife, to cross the Atlantic in November. When our guests leave, we plan to head to Gibraltar for some work to be done to the boat (including the rudder bearings getting fixed) and also so I can spend many days stocking up shopping at Morrisons!!

The new rib Ab VS9 well made and spacious (snow white!!)

We decided to buy (for a trial) a dried and cured full leg of ham to experiment using it in several meals for the Altantic crossing! (long life meat). We pigged (he he) out on it the first day, and sickened ourselves without trying it out for cooking. We then left it for a week, or so, in a sealed plastic bag, and when we went to get it, it was all mouldy. Lesson learned - as it must sweat! It was tasty though, so we will probably get one for our crossing.

I am a little worried about how much Stevie enjoyed carving it up!

Tastes really yummy - but you have to try not to think about what it is that you are actually eating!

My home baking has been coming along nicely. My soft dinner rolls turned our really tasty, as did my home made pizza. I just need to buy 100 bags of flour from Morrisons and we will be fine! (It will be handy to be able to read the writing in English and to know what type of flour I am using, as just now it’s a bit of a guess).

Anyway, I better get back to my final preparations for our guests arriving. It will be great to see some more familiar faces. I just wish everyone could be here too for a catch up. Luv to all, miss you millions, nic xxx

Stevie, me & mum

Some photos from our ‘stolen’ camera that match up with Nics Diary – Part 2 (Gibraltar & Mar Menor)

The Rock of Gibraltar - Cars and people crossing the runway!!

We took the cable car up the rock - scary!

Barbary Apes - the local residents of  'the rock'

Morrisons has a bar that you can smoke in - don't mind shopping here on a regular basis!

My wee tuna that I caught - was a bit yucky to eat though!

And extremely bloody to gut!

Draw Bridge opening to let yachts through - Mar Menor

LED Lights

Saving power is of a high importance to most cruisers and with the much cheapness of led lights, it is one of the first steps to reducing power consumption. You can buy fancy overpriced ones or cheap n cheerful, I opted for cheap n cheerful ones, from fleabay and am glad I did.

Most of them cost under one UK pound, I tried to order a few different colour spectrums to see how kind they were to the eyes, the 5000k ones are just too blue and very harsh, the warm whites have a green tinge but are soft to the eye, the daylight ones (around 4000k) are good all rounders though a little harsh.

For the nav lights, do not use white ones in coloured lenses, use green for green and red for red, with the nav lights its a tad more complex. make sure you get good quality waterproof lights.

I had about 30 G4 lights to replace inside and the 1 pounds much cheapness units from fleabay are fine, don't glitch with engine or charger or anything else, some are 6 months old so far and still fine. The only issue with them is the pins are a bit flimsy and i broke one of them trying to get them into the tighter fittings (ie more corroded sockets).

The nav lights I fitted just recently and are good looking units, plenty bright and save heaps of power down from 60w to 5 w, the anchor light I used a cheaper one sold for cars, figuring it is not going to get the same abuse as the nav lights which are low down on my boat and prone to salt water.

On a side note, while out playing with the new dinghy we some some mikie whales, when one surfaced and jumped out of the water less than a 100 foot away discretion took the better part and we put the throttle down to make some distance ;)

 

10 foot dinghy vs large whale... no contest, stay back!

Bimini vs arch for solar.

The offending stays!

Well I had hoped this would be an easy decision, but to be honest I think the boat has decided for me. After careful examination of the  transom and much head scratching, I will have to go down the bimini route.

The boom on our boat is longer than most, stretching right back to the sugar scoop on the transom, the back stays chain plates are low down on the sugar scoop. there is no way I can get an arch on without having the mast stepped (ie removed), this would be a fairly expensive option. The only other ways would be to have the arch welded around the stays , the welding would need to be done on the boat, or have the arch made in two sections then assemble on board, neither of which I fancy.

I have checked for access and I believe I can deal with the sail cover and reefs with the bimini up ,as if I go ahead with the bimini install it is going to be permanently erected.  I am trying to figure out if I can do a part permanent bimini , ie reinforce the rear section while still allowing the forward section to be folded back somewhat, which allows far better access to the boom, why is everything on a boat so complicated?

I think I will take her out with the bimini up and try to uncover the sail and reef it without dropping the bimini before I go ahead a buy any gear for the bimini mounting frame, time is ticking away , we are still hoping to drop those dock lines for the last time late April

The chain plates on the sugar scoop

 

The backstays going right through the middle of where an arch would be!

For the non boaties, a Bimini is a kind of folding sun shade with metal poles and canvas which folds out over the back of the back , Stays are normally metal rope which attaches to various parts of the boat holding the mast up. Chain plates are the metal plates which are attached to the boat - front middle and rear and the wires that support the mast are attached to them.

Wind instruments

Now the boat being an ex charter was a bit bare on the wind instrument department, having a simple wind vane and not much else!

This I could almost live with, but since the most likely install of the solar panels will be on the bimini , it is going to blot out any direct view to the wind vane. To resolve this issue I bought an electronic wind instrument, a nasa marine clipper wind gauge and anemometer with digital display.

The nasa is a lower end wind instrument system, though works just fine, the problem came when trying to fit it, could we get the cable down the mast without it fouling on something?  I have no idea how the experts do this task, but I am getting to the stage where I may just buy a wireless system, It is looking more and more likely that the mast will have to be removed to fit the cable, this is one big expense.

The negative part is I jumped the gun and cut in the display on the table side, normally this would not be much of a problem, most manufacturers make roughly the same size square displays, but not the nasa clipper , theirs is rectangular, this is going to leave me with a rather odd sized  hole to fill.

So heed my lesson and I should have known better, don't go cutting holes till you have an up n working tested system. I was conned by the small inspection plate at the bottom of the mast, which allows me to see inside the mast which looked as if it had plenty of room, at the top of the mast however it was a different story, no access at all and after drilling a couple of holes and getting no where feeding the cable down, I did not want to pin cushion an important structural part of the boat.

The last option we have is to use the mast head anchor light cable , pull it out trailing a messenger line up the mast, then use the messenger line to pull the wind instrument cable and original anchor light cable back up, it is a kind of risky tactic as being as tight as it is, I might end up being unable to get the anchor light cable back up.

Update, I ended up fitting a tack tick mn30 wireless unit, luckily it filled the hole I made ok!

Wind attempt number 1

Powered up and running!

Wireless tack tick unit  finally fitted and working!

 Need to replace that 12v socket and redo the gelcoat around it!

Generators

Many boats have a built in generator, ours does not, and I for one, have no intentions of buying an insanely overpriced marine unit. I have 400watts of solar panels which when fitted should provide about 90 percent of our energy needs.

Solar panels are much cheaper than they used to be and are ideal for boats sailing in tropical regions, up here in Scotland they are useless for much of the year and wind is a far superior proposition, but since we are heading south, Solar it is!

Now for the times when the sun doesn't shine, you have the option of running the engine to charge the batteries, but running a large diesel engine to turn a small alternator does not make much sense to me, wasting a lot of fuel (money), engine hours and wear, no thank you!

So after my research I bought a small Honda EU20i generator, this came highly recommended from other cruisers, I did look at the kipour /hyundai and other cheaper makes of generators, being the cheapskate that I am , I always try and buy the no name brands of things or cheap named brands.

Google and the like are wonderful things, after much searching and talking to other owners of the bargain priced generators , I came to the conclusion that they are fine for the odd camping trip or a small amount of use here and there, but don't stand up to regular use and in the end would cost more than buying the known to be bulletproof but expensive unit, one place not to penny pinch!

If you are buying a generator solely for battery charging then a lower power unit would make more sense, should consume less fuel and less space, but a slightly larger unit offers you the chance to use it for more than just battery charging. I bought a small portable aircon unit, which can run on the generator. The aircon unit is for emergency use only, the days where you get invaded by insects or it rains all day and you are stuck in 100 percent humidity sweat box.

The honda Eu20i can also be linked to another unit to boost the power and has an amp 12v outlet as well, which could come in handy.

Lets see how bulletproof they really are!

Batteries!

Yesterday the batteries arrived, the fun part begins, 60kg each and in a small confined space is not fun!

Batteries are almost as hot a subject as anchors and guns are in the boating world. I opted for Elecsol 250AH AGMS x 2, the company Elecsol doesn't have the best name in the world when it comes to warranties or after sales service, yet why did I buy from them?

Well to be honest they were the greatest Amp Hours I could fit without modifying the original battery holders, secondly, they are fancy carbon fiber agms supposedly good for 1400 discharge cycle or so they claim.

AGM batteries differ from normal lead acids in that there is no liquid in them, the acid is impregnated into the fibers, they can be stored on their sides, they don't leak and should a capsize take place or lots of heeling they wont gas us!

Another advantage of agm batteries is that they have a lower internal resistance, this means they waste less energy as heat when charging or discharging, normal batteries waste about ten percent of the energy going in or coming out. I have 400watts of solar panels to fit, if I used normal lead acids then it would be the equivalent of having 360watts of panels, I'd have lost ten percent of my power . I'm hoping these batteries live up to the companies claim , they offer a seven year warranty, which to be honest is not of much use to me, I will be very far from the UK and wont be able to return them , imagine the shipping cost to send 120kg half way around the world!

The main negative about AGM batteries is the cost, they are more than double for cheap lead acids, so unless the 10 percent performance thing means a lot to you, I'd suggest sicking to normal cheap as you can get lead acids and not the sealed ones , which will be useless after one overcharge boils away all the liquid, get open tops ones you can fill should they get overcharged.


The batteries are now fitted, this was a very simple job given the reasonable access , the only difficult part was manhandling them up and down the marina and of course by the time we had them fitted the tide was at its lowest, meaning the ramp off the marina was very steep.......

New batteries sitting in their home.

The delivery

With the boat bought it was time to take her to her somewhere closer to home where I could do my fit out, add all the stuff that I really don't need but would like and makes life more comfortable and a bit safer.

I was still a bit nervous about taking a new unfamiliar boat with god knows what gremlins hidden away on a long journey on rough seas.

It was late September 2011, the destination was 55 degrees north, a rough passage was pretty much guaranteed and yes we did have a rough passage. Considering the time of year and weather experienced in Scotland/England at this time of year, volunteers for crew were not forth coming, the short notice didn't help much either. I only had ten days to get her moving or start to pay very expensive short term marina fees.

I called my first tutor, Mr Brian Woodruff, he was my tutor on my very first sailing course the RYA competent crew course, I enjoyed his relaxed teaching manner. I asked if he was free to do a delivery , extra training trip, fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge and skill (that's what I'd like to call em, others may differ in their expression of my abilities).

So the crew consisted of Brian, Nic and myself, we set off down on the Sunday night, my good friend William agreed to drive us down, a long drive, a 1000 miles up n back, with a car full of crap (sorry useful stuff). We made it down to the south of England in good time, the boat was lying in Kent, which is the south east of England and was going up to Scotland through the Irish sea. The forecasts were not good, but unlike when cruising you can wait it out, this was a delivery, everything had to be arranged, time off work taken, we had 2 spare days, the journey was approximately 700NM so 5 days and we had seven, not a great window but we went for it.

The first day was not too bad spent heading along the English channel, staying away from the traffic separation zones where the big ships trundle along. Nic , who had not been on the sea for a while became sea sick, Steven who in a rush, forgot the 4 different packs of sea sickness tablets he had bought, left at home on the table next to the door , left right at the door so he would not forget them... doooh.

The first night picked up to F6-7 South easterly, ie right on the nose, on came the iron sail and we bashed and slammed through it, pretty much all the way to lands end, shortly after which it was sail or sail, ie 1/5 fuel tank left, it would have been nice to have tacked all the way along and probably a smoother ride, but hey it was a delivery we bash through it, time scale to keep and all that. The front v berth was uninhabitable, it was like a shotgun going off every twenty seconds or so, Nic was very sea sick but managed to make dinner and a nice one at that, it was difficult enough to stand up never mind anything else, she was a miracle worker!

We managed to sail the remainder to Milford Haven in the South west of Wales, Nic awoke just after we surfed the last waves on entry to Milford haven, hoping the swell would not set us on the mid channel rocks.

She came up dosey from sleeping saying her stomach was iffy, but she was rested, brian and myself laughed, knowing what we had just been through and she had slept through the lot of it, F8 left overs of some hurricane, the gps recorded 20.8 knots while surfing on some rather large breaking waves, welcome to sailing! I'm glad i had worked on the fishing boats in my youth, I had seen very large seas and a skipper with a full hold waits for no storm. It was strange feeling the helm go light as the waves lifted the aft of the boat out of the water and the rudder began to loose grip.

The boat handled it all in its stride nothing broke, it had the proverbial S**t kicked out of it non stop for 5 days in total, 3 to wales the other 2 to Scotland. I had explained to Nic that the trip would more than likely be rough and the chances are that she would not experience anything worse than this on a trade winds downhill sail.around the world.

Entering Milford Haven

Nic being sea sick, she has got better!

A wee celebratory drink for our arrival

The calm after the storm lol still 15-20ft

Milford haven, lots of steps...

Cheers, happy people

Buying a Yacht.

So I had finally sold up enough to buy a yacht, now this one I put a lot more thought into, but still ended up buying on a kind of impulse, granted the impulse had taken a couple of years to get me.

Boat shopping becomes far more complicated, when you are going to take it to places far from help , where you have to be very self reliant, it also has to be a home as well, so has to have comfort and some space.

I had set my sights on 40-50 foot, for many reasons, space and safety being the two biggest factors, the bigger the boat the safer and more comfortable it will be (generalizing that is), you also normally get a bit of extra speed as well. Granted speed in yachts is a funny thing, I would never have though at any point in my life I could get excited about an extra mile per hour.

I would have liked a catamaran, yeah they are ugly, you cant get over this fact, but they don't heel much, mostly they are unsinkable, the have lots of space on deck and a nice upstairs saloon with a view, not coffin like as most monos, you have two engines/rudders, lots of redundancy. The downsides are they cost soo much more, even for smaller ones, you have so much more to clean , antifoul, two engines to maintain, cost far more to berth, they won't self right if knocked over. Overall they are probably a little safer than monos.

People argue a 40ft cat has the space of a 50ft mono, I'm not so sure on this, do the math, yes a 40 ft cat does have more room than a 40ft mono,but as much room as a 50ft mono? Maybe close!  When it comes to second hand prices you can pick up plenty of 50ft monos for far less than 40ft cats. If I was buying from new, then yes I think a catamaran will hold its money far better than a similar priced mono. Realistically, in the second hand market you can get far more boat per buck buying a second hand mono than a second hand cat. There are simply thousands of ex charter monos versus hundreds of ex charter chats, simply supply and demand, this may change in the future as more cats are built, diluting the demand.

In between times, I thought it prudent I should learn to sail, you know it would help a bit! I did know the basics from sailing in the past and had built up a bit of knowledge stomping around in the motor boats. the biggest barrier I found in learning to sail was learning the language, once you could understand the "sail language" sailing was actually very simple. Understanding something like "use the port winch to sheet in the main to stop it luffing", translated into normal - take the rope with the red spots into the winch on your left side turn it a few times so that the inner part of the big rear sail stops wobbling about. I went on a few RYA courses, with hit n mixed results, one skipper was such an A-HOLE I almost left the boat on the first day, within ten minutes of sitting on the boat , not even left the dock he told me I had failed.

I will try an explain the RYA system, you have theory and practical courses, the theory ones you don't have to do in order to do the practical ones (up to a certain level), this particular boat school was in it for the money in a big way, I had read up well on the theory and knew it to a good level, yeah I did make a couple  of silly mistakes, but only a couple. At the end of the course they told me they would pass me on the practical if I attended a theory course with them ie spend another 400 pounds and we will pass you. I should have wrote to the RYA and complained, but just went to another school instead who were fine and passed with them without doing the theory.

So back to boat shopping, there are so many dilemmas when buying a boat that is going to be your home as well. Money is a big subject, newer= less problems and maintenance but more depreciation, bigger = more costs. Small and old is the cheapest way, but do you really want to spend time in a very cramped space?

Keeping a boat simple save times and money, people can become slaves to luxuries, eg Aircon/generators etc I would have loved these and yes i have them, just not boat ones, A second hand honda eu20I generator (apparently legendary with cruisers) and a cheap portable aircon unit, under a thousand pounds, the boat equivalents would easily be teen times as much, if my 130 pounds aircon unit breaks, just buy another one, if you have a four thousand pound unit youll be a slave to fixing it or rich enough to pay someone else to do it.

The boat I ended up with is 43 foot, just a nice size, enough room not to be claustrophobic, big enough to handle rough seas, enough storage for an extended journey. All boats are compromises, unless you are a billionaire. My compromise was boat cost vs spending money, less boat more to spend, more boat less to spend. I would say get the smallest boat that you feel is safe and has enough room for your needs.

The boat I bought , I had to buy, it was just too good a deal to let pass by, it certainly was not what I expected myself to buy, it is no racer, but is not an old school slow and steady job, a kind of compromise somewhere in the middle. It had been in charter in the British Virgin Islands then in private ownership for a short period.

The good thing about this boat is me, I can fix anything and believe me, you need to be able to fix anything on a boat or have very deep pockets as the guys you pay to fix things don't come cheap. There is also the satisfaction of solving the problems or the frustration and wanting to smash things! Lastly you know the job is done right or know what botch you used ;) Paying someone, you don't know what sort of job they have done and your life may hang on their workmanship.

People  keep on saying when you find the right boat you know it is the one, I thought this was a bunch of nonsense, but they are right! A bit like girls, maybe not...........I reserve judgement on the girls part.

She is a Gib'Sea 43, they were made for mostly for the charter market, she is 10,400kg  heavy for a modern 43 footer, light by older standards. She has kevlar reinforcements in the places that matter, she has a no frills but pleasant interior and is actually thought out fairly well and she was at a price I could not say no to.

If your ever go through this process, Just think of your budget and needs, try not to have preconceptions, try not to set your heart on just one thing and have an open mind to anything that may suit, don't write off things listening to some old salt, remember skodas used to be terrible but now they are volkswagons.

You don't need a full length keel and skeg hung rudder, yes keels can fall off, but rarely if you do maintenance, rudders can get bent , but how often does it happen? and yes a skeg hung rudder can jam. Yes a full length keel boat will sail straighter , narrow beam boat may be better in a storm, but that full length keel and all that weight will slow you down that you may end up being caught in that storm that the fin keel boat has outran and wait till you try and berth that full length keel boat  ;)

The average cruiser spend 80 percent of their time at anchor, they can wait for weather windows and are rarely caught out in big storms, maybe why so many cruisers have catamarans, they are great at anchor!