Cruising Stats 2015

We’ve been home for 5 days now and I have just managed to dig a path through the mountain of laundry and sailing gear to my computer.  With a well-deserved rest period at hand, I started looking at our cruising data in the log book and piecing together some statistics, highlights and lowlights of our 2015 maiden voyage on Mareda.

Mareda in Derrible Bay, Sark.

Nautical miles covered: 1430

Number of days at sea: 149

Number of those days actually sailing: 67

Number of hours motoring: 162

Number of different ports or moorings visited: 51

Number of friends sailing with us at various times: 9

Highlights: 

• Friends who joined us, ranging from 2 days to 2.5 weeks. (ALL are welcomed back !)
• Our first intentional beaching and full dry-out (Batz island). 
• The Channel Islands, especially Sark, which was new to us. 
• Brittany north coast: Ploumanac’h, Tregastel, Batz island, Brehat island.
• Learning to filet mackerel for sushi
• Discovering Mareda – stable, secure, fast, comfortable, and the lifting keel is priceless !
• No surprise storms for the first time in 2 years !!  Either we’re getting smarter, or luckier, or it’s simply that having a bigger heavier boat dampens out a lot of the rough stuff we experienced with Spray.

Lowlights:

• Emergency return home for Patrick to have a strange carcinoma-like growth removed from his leg.  All is well but he has to have check-ups every 6 months for the next 5 years.  Not easy for vagabonds...
• Family health problems that made us feel like we were marooned on the dark side of the moon.
• Bad weather in northern France and our subsequent decision to abandon the Cornish coast and the Scilly Islands. 
• Very poor internet in most ports. I think this is owing to the fact that more people are accessing the wireless internet from their boats and the signal strength can't keep up with demand.

Sunrise on the mud, Batz island.

Things that broke / needed adjustment

Genoa furler: impossible to furl by hand in rough winds.  We eliminated one of the guides for the furler line leading back to the cockpit, which reduced the angle of the line and makes it possible to furl easily by hand in calm winds.  When the wind is rough, we still have to use the winch, though.  Other SO 379 owners tell us they do the same.

One of the genoa sheet travelers had to be replaced after a mysterious thumb-sized pit developed.

The mainsail developed several small rips and tears around the battens, which weren’t tightened down appropriately by the shipyard. 

The mainsheet downhaul was located too far aft on the boom and rubbed a hole in the cockpit dodger when we were close-hauled. We re-positioned the traveler sheet and used black Gorilla tape to cover the worn spot.

The spinnaker pole end fittings froze up (corrosion).

One of the latches on the swim platform broke.  Now that it’s fixed, the swim platform in the up-and-locked position pushes too tightly on the cover to the life raft compartment and has rubbed some nasty streaks in the gel coat.

The wireless internet antenna brackets rusted.

The steering wheel pinion system was misaligned (made “clunk” noises in two places). 

One of the solar panels stopped working after a soldered connection broke free.

We have a mystery leak in the refrigerator.  When we defrost, the water ends up under the sink floorboards instead of being led away to the bilges. 

One of the saloon cushions developed a tear on the underside because the Velcro pads are badly aligned.

Patrick has almost perfected his gel coat repair techniques after patching a very embarrassing and deep scratch along the hull.

Having dove under the boat to check things out from time to time, I know there is a golf-ball sized chunk missing from the leading edge of the keel from where we banged into the sill leaving the port of Guernsey.  The lights were green indicating 2 meters of water. “No problem” I thought.  It was only after the bang that I remembered that our draft is 2.25 meters with the keel fully down.  The keel did its job:  it lifted and we slid on by, but not without leaving a chunk behind.  The keel is some sort of composite material and we’ll have the boatyard fix this once Mareda is pulled out of the water this winter.  

We’re waiting for a sunny windless day to remove the sails, but as such days are few and far between, we’ll have to tackle the job come –what-may in the next week or two.  I’ll be happy for it to be done but I still am having a hard time accepting that we’re really done for the season !

  

Dangling Dinghy.