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| [KensOtherBlog] Getting ready for the typhoons |
01/29/2010 |
Greetings!
I just received a photo of my new Rocna anchor which ships today from Seattle to Japan.
This thing is a monster!
The last part of our cruising in SE Asia will be during typhoon season, and I'm not sure how easy it will be to find typhoon-safe ports as we get into the islands around Okinawa. This is my 330 pound insurance policy against dragging anchor.
-Ken Williams
N6805, Sans Souci
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| Posted by Ken Williams on Feb 11, 2010, 09:05 AM EST |
Chris:
The N68 comes standard with 1/2" chain. It seems more than adequate to the task, and is plenty heavy.
-Ken W
PS This is possibly my last post on the "kensotherblog" board. My goal is to move all of these blog entries to the kensblog.com website, and start posting there again. I should do that in about a week, and send out my first "GSSR 2010" posts sometime next week. The "fun" begins again April 4th! That date is starting to get here very fast now... |
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| Posted by Chris Hallock on Feb 10, 2010, 08:13 PM EST |
Ken,
Out of curiosity what size and type of chain do you have?
Thanks,
Chris |
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| Posted by Nav on Feb 02, 2010, 08:01 AM EST |
Wow! Wish you all the luck on this voyage Ken! My friends are in Japan as we speak playing a show. So nice up there.
nav
ccwfilms.com |
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| Posted by Ruaan Reinke on Jan 31, 2010, 06:48 PM EST |
Ken,
We sadly did not charter a Menorquin, but those two charters were our first and second charters, and we only just got our Dayskipper and VHF Radio Qualifications the winter before. The Dayskipper is the first rank of UK qualifications for private captains and is from the RYA. (Royal Yachting Association.)
Our charter companies were happy to let us do both charters bare boat as we had the qualification (I did get near as make no difference 100%) and experience because we have a boat, but which up till then was kept only on the upper Thames. Thus actually no time at sea. So I expect that if you contact and explain to them that you are the famous Mr. Ken Williams and have lots of experience then I am sure they will let you charter a bare boat. Better still, send them a free copy of your latest book as proof of experience.
I always knew someone would publish my story! Thanks!!
Ruaan |
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| Posted by Ken Williams on Jan 31, 2010, 06:25 PM EST |
Ruaan:
I posted the pictures here on the website. Very entertaining!
I checked out chartering with Menorquin Yachts. Do they allow bareboat charters? It wouldn't be any fun if they force us to have a skipper along. I have both a USCG and Yachtmasters certification. We've talked about heading to Europe if we finish this year's GSSR early enough...
http://www.kensotherblog.com/aspx/m/639631
-Ken W |
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| Posted by Ruaan Reinke on Jan 31, 2010, 05:52 PM EST |
Ken,
Thanks, but what is a boat otherwise for, but than to wake up anchored in the perfect cala and going for a snorkel before breakfast?
I can't believe you sped past Menorca. Firstly, the South Coast has some of the best calas you will find anywhere in the world. Almost every month someone writes in to one of the UK boating magazines with a picture of their secret perfect Menorcan cala that they will not reveal the name of, not saying where it is, and I'm just like, oh that's Cala Macarella.
Secondly, one of my favourite places in the whole world is on Menorca. It is called Ciudadella and is the perfect place to moor for the night and sit down in the very localy populated yacht club and look at the ferry come into this very long, narrow and stunning harbour to unload its flock from Barcelona. Great old town too. And they even build their own boats on the island. They are called Menorquin yachts, obviously, and are modern versions of the traditional, Menorquin yacht. Do google them. They are lovely boats, and we thought seriously about buying one, the company just did not think that the boats needed stabilizers. Which they do. As friends of our who has one can attest to.
We did two charters in the Balearics. One from Mahon, where we based ourselves mostly in Ciudadella, and another one from Palma, where we promptly made a crossing to spend a night in Ciudadella and to savor the wonderful calas. Another great anchorage in the area, where I hope you spent a night was Isla de Cabrera's natural harbour. (Small island just off the bottom right hand side of Mallorca.) I counted a hundred fish around me before breakfast and then as we climbed the hill to the old Castle, the richest man from Mexico's yacht, Princess Mariana turned up. She is big and is based in the nearby principality. It turned out she wanted to use the harbour to enable her helicopter to land on her deck. This turned out to be the most perfect timing of my life, as I witnessed a super yacht captain not doing his job. The yacht came into the harbour, and kept moving in the direction of the very concrete pier at a snails pace. Kept moving until it was 1 meter from it, upon which the boat tied up at the pier moved violently and it put on reverse with WOT and quickly reversed around the corner, probably to go and weep. I got all of this on camera. I will email you a picture or two.
Ruaan |
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| Posted by Ken Williams on Jan 31, 2010, 09:37 AM EST |
Ruaan:
You are my kind of guy! Chartering in Menorca.. Definitely my kind of cruising. We've gone by there a couple of times in our 62, but always seemed to be in a hurry and went into Mallorca.
Ken W |
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| Posted by Ken Williams on Jan 31, 2010, 09:33 AM EST |
Bobby:
Thank you for the tip on the Johnson Bar. I have never heard of the Johnsar Bar, but did some googling, and found them. A week ago I could have sent one over with the container we are shipping. Now, I'm not sure I can get one to Japan. I've been using the boat hook, and it has been somewhat useless.
I've already figure out the trick with higher rpms. My throttles have three idle settings, and I always choose the highest for retrieving the anchor.
Thank you - Ken W |
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| Posted by Bobby on Jan 30, 2010, 07:03 PM EST |
Ken,
Two things that will make your life easier getting the anchor up and into the pulpit. First raise the rpm on your engine driving hydraulics. The higher the rpm the more power you have for hydraulics. Second is get a Johnson bar sized to fit into your chain. When the anchor is about to come into the pulpit you can use the Johnson bar to rotate the chain for the correct entry of the anchor into the roller. In the past I have used the bar to manually set the anchor back in its stay when I lost the roller on the pulpit.
Bobby
P.S. A Johnson bar is a type of crow bar that is straight. They were developed for the railed train industry but have a wide range of uses. |
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| Posted by Ruaan Reinke on Jan 30, 2010, 04:36 PM EST |
Hi Ken, this is a fascinating response.
I got a fortress anchor last season in addition to the Bruce on the 40' President Semi Displacement Trawler I crew on and am having similar fun thoughts and experiments on how to use this anchor as a backup or a lunch hook or as a stern mounted unit. The captain is not interested in this black art and looks very cinically at me when I go up to the bow and undo the anchor and try and mount the fortress or measure up the existing chain or want to deconstruct the front cabin to make friends with the anchor locker.
But after our charter in Menorca a few years back when we almost dragged another boat right onto the the beach after we both fell asleep sunbathing I started then and their to experiment by promptly throwing a second hook in the water after resetting the boat.
As far as your anchor is concerned if you cannot raise the anchor, I would attach a long rope and fender to the chain and come back another day to retrieve the anchor.
Let me tell you a little secret though. The large hadron collidor in Scern was not built to find the god particle. It was built to smash atoms of the art of anchoring into atoms of the science of weighing anchor to see what is really going on in there.
More regards, Ruaan |
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| Posted by Ken Williams on Jan 30, 2010, 12:51 PM EST |
Ed:
That probably is Fisheries. Jeff picked up the anchor and was moving it to the container going to Japan. I wish I had a picture of him loading it into his truck. My guess is that it took an army of people to lift the thing.
-Ken W |
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| Posted by Ken Williams on Jan 30, 2010, 12:49 PM EST |
Jay:
You never said what caused your wive's near drowning. Bad air? Running out of air? Actually, my confusion is that I was thinking she was diving with tanks, but now I think you meant she was free diving in 30' of water. It's amazing she could do it!
I'll remember the locktite!
-Ken W |
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| Posted by Ken Williams on Jan 30, 2010, 12:46 PM EST |
Rod:
You've asked a very good question.
The hydraulic system on Sans Souci is the system I understand the least. I understand it conceptually, but have never made other than very minor repairs.
Below is the plumbing diagram for Sans Souci's hydraulic system:
http://www.kensotherblog.com/uploads/42227/blog/hydraulics.pdf
It does show seperate lines going to each windlass, but whether or not I can easily close off a failed line I do not know. I'm not on the boat now, and can't look at the physical connections to see if there are valves.
I do have a full repair kit for the hydraulic system, with extra fittings, hoses and even "rescue tape" which might do the job for a small leak.
When I get back to the boat I'll look at the system and try to think about what I'd do.
I don't really think the new anchor is going to be much different to lift. The majority of the weight is in the chain. Fifty feet of chain probably weighs as much as the anchor. It's only the final 2 feet of pulling up the anchor that is a struggle. When the anchor pivots over the bowsprit, it sticks. I have to raise and lower it until I get lucky and it falls into place. This anchor will be tougher...
-Ken W |
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| Posted by Rod Sumner on Jan 30, 2010, 12:13 PM EST |
Ken:
Given the experience of Grey Pearl's hydraulic line failure (in an in-accessible region(?) for windlass power does Sans Souci have separate hydraulic lines to each of your anchor windlasses? Have you any back up plans for such a failure? For instance isolation of bad windlass if you lose hyraulic pressure because of a windlass failure itself? |
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| Posted by Jay Sprague on Jan 30, 2010, 11:06 AM EST |
| ...reminds me of a time I was anchored in Nassau Harbor on a quiet, calm Sunday morning..reposing in the cockpit reading...my wife says, "are we moving?"...I look around and sure enough we were very slowly drifting...dropped a backup anchor...snorkle trip shows chain nicely laid out with the end of the chain about thirty feet from the anchor...very small pin had released from swivel...(NO LOCKTITE...MY BAD) my wife scuba'd down to attach a line to the anchor...she comes up on the swim platform, blue and gasping, I haul her on board...MAYDAY...zoom for Nassau Harbor Club...ambulance...three days later she's released...OK....doctor says worst near drowning he's ever seen...I scurry around Nassau to find oxygen tanks...diver recovers anchor AND SMALL PIN...we continue a few months of delightful Bahamas cruising with no further incidents...did I mention NO LOCKTITE...anchor holding in high wind is the easy part...chain attachment to anchor-now that's the hard part...good luck |
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| Posted by Ed on Jan 29, 2010, 11:19 PM EST |
| Looks like Fisheries loading dock. When you get it place it would be interesting to see a before and after picture. |
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| Posted by Ken Williams on Jan 29, 2010, 07:20 PM EST |
Chris and Ruaan:
Yes. You are raising a real issue. My current windlass struggles with my existing 110kg anchor. I'm worried about if it can handle this 150kg model.
I'm taking a little comfort in knowing that David Sidbury, with the second N68, has already made the change. In my case, the anchor comes up until it is at the bow pulpit, and then I usually have to help it to get it onto the pulpit (kick, cuss, twist and pull, usually a combination of all of the above).
If the windlass ever fails, the anchor isn't coming up. I have a second anchor (a 110 pound fortress) I keep as a backup, complete with its own chain and windlass. That said, both windlasses are hydraulic, so if one fails, the odds are the other won't work.
My windlasses are Maxwell 4500. We checked with the manufacturer. The 3500 is the largest they make that has an option for a hand crank. On the larger units Maxwell believes that hand cranking is impossible. If the anchor won't come up, and swapping to the other anchor won't work. I'm stuck. I can try the davit, two feet at a time, or a come-along - but, it is going to be a painful process.
Jeff is going to Japan in a few weeks, and taking over an electrically powered hydraulic pump that he thinks he can make run my windlass. We'll see...
Thus far, I've always gotten the anchor back, so I'm optimistic.
-Ken W |
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| Posted by Ruaan Reinke on Jan 29, 2010, 06:52 PM EST |
Hi Ken,
I agree you won't drag, but how on earth are you going to power your windlass? Do you have another sub deck that stretches all 68' of your boat and that's full of batteries?
Regards,
Ruaan |
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| Posted by Chris Hallock on Jan 29, 2010, 06:34 PM EST |
Wow! I bet that would be hard if the hydraulic windless failed? Didn't one of the other boats have to manually raise an anchor while on the trip last summer? How would you accomplish that if something happened? Between the anchor dug in and the weight of both it and the chain, that's about equal to a Smart car! :)
Thanks,
Chris |
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