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Crossing the Equator with an escort - June 1997
The Voyage
Previously printed in the Blue Water Cruising Association
Newsletter
Previously printed in the Blue Water Cruising Association
Newsletter
Departure was May 21st, 1997 (my 59th birthday) from RVYC Coal harbour with departure from Canadian waters (Port Renfrew) on June 4th. RENEWAL TIME had undergone about 10 years of refitting and an intensive 3 months of preparation for her offshore trip. It was initially planned as a two and one half year voyage--Vancouver to New Zealand, lay over and then South Pacific gunkholing with a return the following spring in 1999.
The first leg to Honolulu lasted 29 days and was not text book. It was a head on beat for the first 10 days and took nearly that long to get even with Portland, Oregon!
The first leg to Honolulu lasted 29 days and was not text book. It was a head on beat for the first 10 days and took nearly that long to get even with Portland, Oregon!
Where were the nor'westers and where were the trades? The beat continued except for 2 days of absolute calm all the way to 30 degrees North.
At one point the course was more towards Japan then Hawaii to avoid getting too close to the US coast. Winds on one night read 45 knots with gusts to 52. The trades never did really fill in at all. As on all boats there were lots of gear failures and little breakage's to contribute to the excitement. For all of the problems RENEWAL TIME covered 2651 miles at an average speed of 3.92 knots and arrived at the fuel dock in Honolulu at 1100 hours on June 26th. Honolulu is not boat friendly. The docks for visitors are awkward, dirty and poorly located in general. Anchorage is the same without the convenience.
In the actual Honolulu area I think I lucked out with the best of a bad lot by getting into a commercial facility called the Keehi Marine Center which lies just to the east of the main State docks on Sand Island Road. The docks were very good although the shore power had a unique plug with no adapters available ( the wind blew hard enough the whole stay that the wind generator kept power up anyway), it was a few blocks from West Marine for needed spares, the staff were friendly and it was reasonable--$8.50 per day. Still it was on the flight path of the airport for noise and dirt, far from downtown, far from any good provisioning stores or restaurants and dirt blew all the time from the sand island. After 10 days of fixing and washing, on July 4th, RENEWAL TIME started out again for Tahiti.
Was it El Ninio or just bad luck? But for three days of calms and three days of beam reaching, the entire trip would be a beat again. Ironically this turned out to be good fortune due to a mid voyage event.
At 00-39.3N, about 1100 miles from Tahiti the self steering gear broke at the hub of the steering quadrant - an impossible to fix fracture. Frustration and despondency was the first reaction and I sat on the side of the coach roof with my head in my hands considering the prospect of steering the boat by hand 24 hours a day for the rest of the trip. Fact IS stranger than fiction for at that very moment the largest school of dolphin I have ever seen, at least fifty, came out of the ten foot waves on the stern. The cavalry coming over the hill to the rescue. No twenty minute play time for these fellows; they cavorted, spun, raced and jumped about for nearly 4 hours determined to tell me I was not really alone, should cheer up and get on with it. Inspired, now I set up lines to the stay sail running through blocks with shock cord to the tiller and created a very effective self steering system that worked beautifully all the way to Tahiti with only the very occasional need for attention. The fact that it was a beat assisted greatly in keeping RENEWAL TIME balanced.
RENEWAL TIME arrived in Papeete at dawn on August 1st. 2707 miles at an average speed of 4.01 knots. Not too bad for a 1976 29 footer in adverse winds.
RENEWAL TIME spent a month around Tahiti before setting out for Moorea to carry on the trip to New Zealand but at Moorea the alternator regulator failed necessitating a return to Papeete. That resulted in a rethinking of the entire venture and its eventual conclusion. I had done the real thing I had dreamed of and set out to do - a long offshore single handed passage to the South Pacific; I was late in the season now and only had passages (with pauses for more repairs) to look forward to all the way to New Zealand; the weather reports over the SSB were not text book again with clocking winds on each of the passages ahead. It was time to go home happy so RENEWAL TIME was sold in Papeete to a young policeman at a very good price and Air New Zealand finished the transport back to Vancouver.
There are many more tales of course but other BCA members report similar adventures more than adequately.
At one point the course was more towards Japan then Hawaii to avoid getting too close to the US coast. Winds on one night read 45 knots with gusts to 52. The trades never did really fill in at all. As on all boats there were lots of gear failures and little breakage's to contribute to the excitement. For all of the problems RENEWAL TIME covered 2651 miles at an average speed of 3.92 knots and arrived at the fuel dock in Honolulu at 1100 hours on June 26th. Honolulu is not boat friendly. The docks for visitors are awkward, dirty and poorly located in general. Anchorage is the same without the convenience.
In the actual Honolulu area I think I lucked out with the best of a bad lot by getting into a commercial facility called the Keehi Marine Center which lies just to the east of the main State docks on Sand Island Road. The docks were very good although the shore power had a unique plug with no adapters available ( the wind blew hard enough the whole stay that the wind generator kept power up anyway), it was a few blocks from West Marine for needed spares, the staff were friendly and it was reasonable--$8.50 per day. Still it was on the flight path of the airport for noise and dirt, far from downtown, far from any good provisioning stores or restaurants and dirt blew all the time from the sand island. After 10 days of fixing and washing, on July 4th, RENEWAL TIME started out again for Tahiti.
Was it El Ninio or just bad luck? But for three days of calms and three days of beam reaching, the entire trip would be a beat again. Ironically this turned out to be good fortune due to a mid voyage event.
At 00-39.3N, about 1100 miles from Tahiti the self steering gear broke at the hub of the steering quadrant - an impossible to fix fracture. Frustration and despondency was the first reaction and I sat on the side of the coach roof with my head in my hands considering the prospect of steering the boat by hand 24 hours a day for the rest of the trip. Fact IS stranger than fiction for at that very moment the largest school of dolphin I have ever seen, at least fifty, came out of the ten foot waves on the stern. The cavalry coming over the hill to the rescue. No twenty minute play time for these fellows; they cavorted, spun, raced and jumped about for nearly 4 hours determined to tell me I was not really alone, should cheer up and get on with it. Inspired, now I set up lines to the stay sail running through blocks with shock cord to the tiller and created a very effective self steering system that worked beautifully all the way to Tahiti with only the very occasional need for attention. The fact that it was a beat assisted greatly in keeping RENEWAL TIME balanced.
RENEWAL TIME arrived in Papeete at dawn on August 1st. 2707 miles at an average speed of 4.01 knots. Not too bad for a 1976 29 footer in adverse winds.
RENEWAL TIME spent a month around Tahiti before setting out for Moorea to carry on the trip to New Zealand but at Moorea the alternator regulator failed necessitating a return to Papeete. That resulted in a rethinking of the entire venture and its eventual conclusion. I had done the real thing I had dreamed of and set out to do - a long offshore single handed passage to the South Pacific; I was late in the season now and only had passages (with pauses for more repairs) to look forward to all the way to New Zealand; the weather reports over the SSB were not text book again with clocking winds on each of the passages ahead. It was time to go home happy so RENEWAL TIME was sold in Papeete to a young policeman at a very good price and Air New Zealand finished the transport back to Vancouver.
There are many more tales of course but other BCA members report similar adventures more than adequately.
What I feel might be of assistance would be some analysis of the gear and how it worked, or didn't, since RENEWAL TIME had some new or not so common items on board.
To review go to Gear Tab
To review go to Gear Tab