Preparing for a passage

Practical: Bluewater Sailing

Thinking of heading off on a bluewater passage? There's much more to do than simply loading food, water and the necessary charts, writes John Champion.

Sooner or later it comes time to pull up sticks and sail to other places. If those places are near and well supplied with marine services, things may well go on as normal, but if the destination is distant and separated from you by long stretches of watery wilderness, then preparation becomes a little more important.

Preparation is, of course, a relative term. Some vessels will require far less effort to get them up to the task. Newer boats may require less maintenance but need a heap of equipment that the older cruiser already has. Your circumstances will be your own, but there are a few issues you will probably all have to address.

The list — help or hindrance?

The list generally starts out with such generics as “service engine”, “install depthsounder”, or “slip boat”. Nice and easy this stage — a few seconds to write down — but a heap of effort and expense to finally cross off. However, invariably the list does help with ordering the process and will expand many times before completion.

Let’s look at the first topic as an example and see how we service the engine for a journey. The easy way out here is to call the mechanic and say “Give her a thorough goin’ over. We’re headin’ offshore”.

Pay the money and relax in the confident knowledge that the motor will run having just been looked over by an expert. Considering we are venturing beyond the realm of ready experts, we should probably become more acquainted with the workings of our own engine. Doing your own servicing is the best way of achieving this and puts you in a far better position to fix or maintain something in that distant and remote location you worked so hard to get to, so change the engine oil, oil filter, belts, air filter, gearbox oil, raw water impellor, fuel filters, check the fuel tank for contamination, flush the fresh-water system if fitted, closely inspect all hoses or even better replace the lot and benefit from a complete set of spares you now will not need for years. Tighten and clean everything, examine hose clamps with a condemning eye and while you are at it remove the exhaust elbow and chip the gunk out of it. Scrape rust if present and touch up with paint, check the engine alignment, disassemble and grease the coupling and shaft if you have one just to make sure it will come apart if needed.

When was the last time you inspected the engine exhaust vented loop or lubricated the throttle/gear controls? Add all the complexities of a charging system, and there is plenty of work required on a not new engine just to cross one little point from our list.  

The next point, “install depthsounder”, is definitely a subset of “slip boat” and should be considered in the light of an efficient process of jobs when the vessel is out of the water. No point, for example, of antifouling first and then cutting another hole in the hull for the transducer.

Administration, the real hard part

If venturing off for an extended or indefinite time, there will be nasty details of a bureaucratic nature to be considered. In many instances living on a boat does not fit neatly into the pigeon holes of an ordered society. You will have to deal with the issues of tax, mail, bills, insurances etc in the best way for your circumstances. Add visas, permits, Australian Ship registration if you haven’t yet got it and god only knows what else to this mix and all of a sudden servicing the engine becomes a looked-forward-to diversion.

Passage planning could be part of this section in theory and may be good therapy when the other admin tasks tend to be supporting the swear jar. Order the charts required well in advance and have a good look at them. If electronic charts are required, get ‘em, also along with any cruising guides you want. Reading through this stuff is good preparation and motivating. If exiting Australia, you can claim duty-free status on equipment bought up to 30 days prior to departure on goods over the value of $300. Careful here because if that new autopilot/chartplotter/radar/sonar you just spent 29 days installing plays up there may not be time to get it sorted out.

Back to basics

Floating, moving and accommodating is what our boats are meant to provide us with. The floating part is arguably the most important, so pay attention to through-hull fittings. Stern glands and all seacocks should be operational, which means you can shut them off if necessary and close the hole. Ball valves are preferable here over gate valves because they are less prone to internal failure and you can see at a glance if open or closed. It is uncommon to see gate valves on more modern boats but older vessels may still have them. Another point on the “slipway” list if so.

Bilge pumps are also good, but are you certain they work? Lift the float switches and trip the override switches respectively. Manual back-up bilge pumps are fitted in many boats and if you ever needed one it would be impossible to resent the expense; on a dry boat it can be hard to ascertain if this is going to work or not. It could be worth sticking a hose in the bilge to make sure. I got on a vessel once and the water was over knee-height in the saloon and because the batteries were dead from pumping who knows how long there were no electric pumps. Off to the manual bilge pump and work like mad, to discover the pump was discharging into a locker and not over the side. Bailed that one out with a bucket!

Moving

Moving is the part of boating that many people are hooked on. Assuming we are on a yacht, we have two modes of locomotion: sailing and motoring. We have already serviced the engine and all the drive train gear so now we pay attention to the forward alternative, sailing.

Sails, of course, are pretty central to this theme; if we have the right sail for the conditions, are familiar with its use and limitations we have a much better chance of reducing our diesel and sail repair bills. Sails and sail configuration are personal things. Each vessel and sailor will have preferences and you rig the vessel to complement these preferences. If you hate leaving the cockpit underway, then run all reefing lines aft and consider getting some type of furling gennaker for light airs and be prepared to gybe a bit. If twin headsails are your downwind thing, consider investing in a dual pole set-up.

Running rigging tangles are annoying at best and frequently decidedly unpleasant; flaking the mainsheet and main halyard about 20 times per watch seems to be what it takes to keep them in order. This is reduced significantly in the early stages of a passage if they have been washed in detergent and well rinsed. Furling lines and jib sheets also benefit a lot from this treatment.

Check the rig

No point in having great sails if the rig falls down. To this end it should be inspected by a professional and if the standing rigging is over 10 years old or age unknown then it is up for replacement. Some people will say less than this, others more, but losing the stick will be one part of the trip that is not required for pleasant memories. Many people sail offshore uninsured due to the high cost of premiums. New standing rigging and new anchor chain (if required) will go a long way towards your self insure policy not being subject to a claim.

Moving also requires we end up at our chosen destinations and this requires control of our vessel; we must be able to steer it. More importantly we must have a machine that can steer it. Rancho Relaxo, our vessel, has two autopilots and yet again, the primary has failed on a passage and left us with only the undersized (for this boat) wheelpilot to steer. This time around, a new weld failed (I had this done no longer trusting the original weld which had performed for 10,000 miles!) on the rudderpost-mounted tiller arm. This is disconcerting because I dearly like to have two machines between me and a dozen six-hour shifts at the helm but at least the back-up was present and worked fine. The limitation here is boat speed; the smaller pilot can lose control when sailing fast, so we are forced to keep down around five knots, which it can handle. This means some pretty small sail areas, but this is easy to live with and nothing gets broken. So you can clearly see that all preparation is not necessarily good.

Accommodation

The accommodating task underway is a big variable because some boats are going to be more comfortable than others.

Space is not a variable. You have as much as the boat has and nothing to be done about it, but you can use it as effectively as possible. Motion is going to be according to the weather, which you may be able to choose for the first couple of days and sail plan which you can influence all the time within vessel parameters.

Eating and sleeping are primary occupations underway and the better you can do both the happier the trip. A well gimballed stove and secure pot holders are a great help. Plenty of pre-cooked food is also a very sensible option.

The other side of the food coin means the head; it is pretty important that this piece of equipment keep working, which also goes a long way to keeping us aboard the boat if you can follow the logic. At sea is not the time to be unblocking dunnies, so put that service kit in and check the hoses for calcification prior to departure. Speaking of staying aboard, harnesses, tethers and jack lines all double as sleeping pills; if you are certain your crew or partner is clipped on all the time while on watch or in the cockpit, sleep comes much easier.

Running a tight ship

This is not quite as it might indicate but as our vessels are required to keep water out things need to be tight. Hatches, ports and the like if left open will eventually be found open at the wrong time with all possible consequences, none of which is probably required. Many yachts are built as a hull and deck then joined at some latter stage of production (this explains how all the big stuff got inside) and sometimes this join may leak. These are usually sneaky leaks and may not even be leaking in the affected area. When was the last time you thought about nipping up the fasteners? Over the years sealant may shrink a little and water might get in. Essentially every screw, bolt or nut accessible on the boat should be tensioned.

One thing is certain — no matter how well prepared or planned a journey, something will be left undone to provide a little spice.