Not all plain sailing!!

                                                    13.10.2013

Problem children......Balmar and Lucas

As we finished posting our Suwarrow update, I looked back at previous blogs, and reflected on quite how much we have done this year!  I also realised that that they paint a somewhat misleading picture of our lives seen through rose tinted spectacles!

There is as often as not, a snake in the grass of “Paradise”, so this quick blog covering our last 10 days, seeks to balance out that perspective!

No sooner had we changed our course from Tonga to Samoa due to the weather, and boated the tuna, than our woes began!  Firstly, the Balmar high output alternator died. A big problem, as we need to run the engine for 1-2 hours per day to keep the batteries charged to feed the Raymarine Autopilot, and the freezer! With overcast skies, even the big solar panels do not do enough.

Our only alternative was to run the Honda genset in the cockpit, and to use the Mastervolt battery charger, which has also been on a “go slow” for the past year!  Every test says it is 100%, and the Mastervolt technical advisers keep pointing fingers at the Honda’s output, or the various Marina’s power supplies! Whatever, it only produces 15-25amps instead of 70-90amps, and we had to run the genset for 5 hours per night to keep us going.

Doing night watches on pitch black, overcast, starless, moonless nights, is never much fun!  Night watches spent hugging a smelly, noisy and vibrating genset just makes it worse! Add in 35 knot rain squalls, and rough seas, while trying to keep the genset secure and dry, just makes it plain ghastly!

American Samoa, we thought would offer us a sanctuary of peace and quiet, in which to address our problems. Not so!!! After spending our first night alongside a coastal supply vessel on the customs dock, we were required to anchor in the designated yacht anchorage area, where the holding is notoriously bad, and the bottom is littered with all manner of junk after a recent Tsunami.

Given that we had no alternator, the windlass becomes pretty non- functional for lifting and resetting the anchor. I decided up front, to lay out a full 60mts of chain, and to attach a retrieval line to the Rocna anchor, kept afloat with a marking buoy.

Having done that, I set about tackling the alternator problem, by removing the Balmar, and trying to re fit the Lucas, the original alternator that came with the engine. That day however, was literally the lull before the storm, and the yachts were drifting around and swinging all over the place. The first sign of our drama, was the bumping of the anchor ball against the hull. Investigation revealed that the anchor chain had wrapped itself around, and caught on our trip line! Instead of having 60mts of rode, we now had 8mts… straight down.  Just then, a nasty weather front arrived, and in our efforts to untangle the chain and trip line, we started to drag! I managed to separate the two, but the ball only moved off about 30 mts, indicating that the chain was either in a big loop in the mud, or stuck on some other obstruction.

Meanwhile, a local mechanical expert, who was assisting me, continued trying to fit the Lucas, so that we could at least use the windlass, but we met with no success.

As dusk fell, the front hit with a vengeance, and we started to slide back again. We immediately started the engine, and were on full alert! In the teaming rain, and with the aid of our million cp spotlight, I could see that the ball was now a full 60 mts away, meaning our chain was now straight!  PLEASE, SIR ROCNA…set yourself!!

With only 30 mts between our stern, and the bowsprit of the single handing lady on “Inspiration at Sea”, we seemed to stop. I marked a way point, and set the anchor alarm at 20mts. Our worried lady behind us was on the radio to tell us we were dragging down on her, and that she too had no engine or windlass! We assured her we were watching the situation, and had the engine running, and she relaxed….. far sooner than we did!

Meanwhile, there was chaos in the anchorage, as about 8 or 9 other boats were dragging, including “Clara”, a French boat, whose crew were still ashore! Crew members from other cruising yachts were rushing around in dinghies, in 30+knots, doing whatever they could to help, laying secondary anchors etc. One of the crews had just dived on, and marked with a buoy, an old anchor lying buried in the mud. They invoked the help of another cruisers dinghy crew to secure a rope between Clara and the old anchor, and hauled her into a safe position by hand, with 4 young men providing the muscle. No sooner was this done, than a RSA catamaran “African Star”, reported that they were dragging, and had broken their steering. The teams were off to help them drop a second anchor by dinghy.  Almost immediately thereafter, they had to rush off to aid somebody else. We dubbed them "the primary response unit"!

While all this was going on, we were beginning to paint a very nice moustache over the waypoint, indicating that for the moment, we were holding well. At about 9.00pm, another big Yacht, Miluna, was dragging back fast towards the rocks, and requested help, as he could not start his engine. I had no option but to launch the dinghy, and go over to offer what help I could. With his stern only 20mts from the rocks, his anchor fortunately got stuck on some rocks, just as I got there. It gave him time to sort out his wiring problem, and jump start the engine. Then just as I was about to help him lift the anchor, two more dinghies arrived, and we were able to get him up and away. I went back to a relieved wife, and Miluna got permission to moor alongside a freighter on the docks for the night.

Mary and I stayed on anchor watch until 3.00am, by which time the wind was down to 25knots, and we had a good solid moustache!

During the night, our buddies on Scott Free had also dragged about 70 mts, before the anchor re set. In the morning, they wanted to lift the anchor, as they felt they were too close to a neighbour. They asked me to help flake the chain, so they could haul in the chain without stopping. Just as the anchor was reaching the surface, we saw that the chain and anchor were completely wrapped up in a white cloth.  Then their engine stopped! The other end of the white cloth, which turned out to be an old spinnaker, had fouled the prop! We had to immediately cut through the cloth, and drop the anchor, laying out another 60 mts of chain.

Two more dinghies arrived offering to help, and with the aid of my 12v diving compressor, two fellow cruisers spent about 2 hours diving under Scott Free, in zero visibility, chocolate brown water, cutting off mountains of spinnaker fabric wrapped around the prop. By mid morning, it was back to Sheer Tenacity, and the alternator problem!

This time, with the help of yet another cruiser, Michael from “Cherokee Rose”, a super helpful and knowledgeable guy, we ascertained that the Lucas had  been connected incorrectly, and was now “cooked”! We set about installing my 3^rd and last resort little 50amp spare alternator which I had bought in RSA, before we left, and which I had tried unsuccessfully to sell in Trinidad, when I fitted the Balmar! At last, we got that right, and had some charging power…… nowhere near enough, but better than zilch!

By 5.00am the next morning, I had gone on line to the US mail order suppliers, Defender, and had ordered a new Balmar smart charger, AND 60 amp Xantrex battery charger, for delivery next week.

 Once again, the problem  will get fixed by lashing out “wads of wonga”, helped by the fact that American Samoa is considered an “internal” delivery, and enjoys a quick and inexpensive Priority US Postal Service !!!    

The really wonderful side to all this drama, is the number of super, amazingly talented, helpful, and courageous cruising folk who are only too willing jump in to help when things go wrong  for fellow cruisers!